The Nano remains our Editors' Choice for budget desktops due to its low price, super-compact design, I/O port offerings, and expansion options.
Matthew earned a degree in Mass Communications/Journalism and interned for a college semester at Kotaku, writing about gaming before turning it into part of his career. You may not necessarily need much more than what either system offers, but there is space for a few more video output options on the 300s, and it and the Nano are almost identical. Where the extra size does help is storage: The 300s features a 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive, while the Nano only includes a 32GB solid-state drive. Both the Aspire and the Revo have open bays for additional storage, which is especially noteworthy for the latter given its size. For more standard towers, the small-form-factor Revo is arguably better for less money, and the Aspire is a superior desktop, though you'll have to pay for that improvement. These are all better results than the Nano's (7:06 Handbrake, 10:04 Photoshop, 118 CineBench) and slightly ahead of the Revo overall (3:11 Handbrake, 5:08 Photoshop, 248 CineBench), while the more expensive Apsire was much faster (1:47 Handbrake, 3:45 Photoshop, 428 CineBench). It was also way behind on the 3DMark Cloud Gate and Fire Strike Extreme tests. Good selection of I/O ports. For wireless connectivty, the 300s supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Even the tiny Nano has a free 2.5-inch internal storage bay, making a lack of upgrade options for a system with relatively low storage already a real mark against the 300s. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. When not gaming or writing, the rest of his time is spent on the emotional rollercoasters known as Chelsea FC and the NY Rangers.The Lenovo IdeaCentre 300s ($329.99) is a basic budget While the Lenovo IdeaCentre 300s may not be the size of the tiny Shuttle XPC Nano, it's still a very small desktop, measuring 11.3 by 3.5 by 12.75 inches (HWD). You're getting a small, but not tiny, form factor that would better justify slower performance or less impressive specs, as is the case with the Shuttle XPC Nano. The Aspire is $600, so the added storage makes sense, but since the Revo is even cheaper and smaller than the 300s, 500GB is less excusable.Accessing the internals is simple—just undo two screws on the rear to free the right side panel. The HP 20-c010 was well behind these desktops on all three tests.No, 3D and gaming performance are not a budget desktop's strong suit.
The Nano is 1.14-inch-tall box, so it definitely has the 300s beat for space-saving ability, but it's not a traditional desktop tower. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant.Matthew Buzzi is a Hardware Analyst at PCMag, focusing on laptops and desktops with a specialty in gaming systems and games.
But even given the inherent limitations, the 300s was still disappointing.
Small tower design.
The Aspire ATC-605-UB11 and HP 20-c010 include 1TB hard drives, as does the the Revo (in addition to some integrated network storage options).
Lenovo supports the desktop with a limited one-year warranty.The 300s is equipped with a 3.3GHz Intel Pentium G3260 processor, 4GB of memory, and integrated Intel HD Graphics. It's less powerful all around than the competition. The desktop couldn't crack 10 frames per second (fps) on Heaven and Valley at 720p with medium settings enabled while the Aspire was just under 20fps. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. The Lenovo IdeaCentre 300s is a basic budget desktop that offers a simple set of features and specs at a reasonable price, but doesn't excel in any particular area.The Lenovo IdeaCentre 300s is a basic budget desktop that offers a simple set of features and specs at a reasonable price, but doesn't excel in any particular area.PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. The front panel holds a USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack, a mic jack, an SD card slot, and a DVD±RW drive. There's not much room in our unit as configured, with one free RAM slot representing more or less the entirety of expansion options.
It couldn't run the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test due to an unknown conflict with the software, but that doesn't necessarily imply anything about its speed, and it was generally a moderately quick performer. Though we don't recommend any of these desktops for gaming, the Aspire (and, to a lesser degree, the Revo) are more capable of running some low-end titles with the graphics options dialed down.The Lenovo IdeaCentre 300s may be inexpensive, but it doesn't represent one of the better values out there. On the back, there are two more USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, and both a VGA-out port and VGA-in port, should you need to connect to older monitors. Considering the size difference with the Nano, you'd perhaps hope for more ports: The miniature box manages two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI, an SD card slot, and a Mini DisplayPort connector.