Lenovo's IdeaCentre 3 makes our current Editors' Choice-winning budget desktop look like a mid-tier PC, both in terms of capability and price. That economy titleholder is the Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 (currently around $650), which features an Intel Core i5 desktop processor, 12GB of RAM, and a 512GB solid-state drive. By contrast, the IdeaCentre 3 carries a low list price of $319.99 and is currently selling for even less—you can get it for $290 on Amazon as of this writing. For that starter-priced sum, it offers an underpowered AMD Athlon Silver mobile-grade CPU, a meager 4GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD inside an impressively compact tower. As long as it won't be pressed into duty as your primary, day-to-day PC, the IdeaCentre 3 works as a rock-bottom-budget PC for performing the most basic of tasks, and you can get it with a DVD drive for playing back those music and movie discs that you can't bear to ditch.
A Laptop-Level CPU in a Desktop
The entry-level model we tested, equipped with an Athlon Silver 3050U processor, isn't the only IdeaCentre 3 configuration available. Lenovo sells two models based on AMD's Ryzen 3 3250U, another dual-core mobile CPU that operates at a slightly higher frequency and supports multithreading, so you get four virtual processing threads to help with multitasking and compatible applications. One Ryzen 3 system costs $340 and features 4GB of RAM, while the other has 8GB and adds only another $10 to the bill, making the decision between the two a no-brainer. AMD also makes desktop-grade Athlon and, of course, Ryzen 3 chips (like the superb-value Ryzen 3 3100), but that's not what's on offer here.
The drawback to both Ryzen 3 models is that they feature a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive. While this traditional spinning hard drive offers four times the capacity, it's much slower than the 256GB solid-state drive in our test system. Lenovo also sells a lone Intel-based model, the IdeaCentre 3i, that costs $540 with a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive.
No matter the model you choose, you'll end up with a compact desktop tower with a two-tone front panel, two-thirds silver and one-third black, with the smaller stripe housing the front-panel ports. The silver portion offers a bit of texture in the form of a ribbed pattern and also holds the DVD drive. The black portion is recessed from the silver block to give the system a hint of visual flair.
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More so than its modest looks, the IdeaCentre 3's chief design attraction is its compact size. Without an internal power supply or a PCI Express slot for a graphics card upgrade, the system is small, measuring an easy-to-stash 11.8 by 3.9 by 10.6 inches (HWD). By comparison, the Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 is much chunkier, at 13.4 by 6.4 by 13.8 inches, and the HP Pavilion TP01-0014 is 10.9 by 6.7 by 13.3 inches. In the Pavilion's defense, it's the best-looking of the bunch to this reviewer's eyes, and it can accommodate a modest PCIe x16 graphics card should you tire of its integrated graphics.
No USB Type-C Ports or PCI Express Slots
Up front and in back, the IdeaCentre 3 offers a large number of ports for a PC its size—with one glaring omission: no USB-C port. The front panel holds two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a seven-format flash card reader, and headphone and microphone jacks. There's also the DVD±RW drive, which is a vertically mounted tray-loader, should you have any old DVDs or CDs you'd like to dust off and take for a spin.
Around back, you’ll find four more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA outputs, and an Ethernet jack. Having two video ports is appreciated because it allows you to connect to both modern and legacy displays. It's disappointing that you don't get the same degree of variety with the USB offerings, since you'll need to use a dongle for any USB-C peripherals.
Remove a single screw and you gain access to the interior of the IdeaCentre 3. The inside is—in a word—sparse.
As noted, you get no PCI Express slots for adding an expansion card, graphics or otherwise. The case has two backplane mounting slots for cards, but no motherboard real estate next to them. (All that dead space you see inside makes it clear that this chassis was designed to accept larger motherboards.) Along with the mobile CPU, the lack of PCIe expansion reinforces the feeling that the IdeaCentre 3 is more laptop at heart than desktop. In any case, the just-enough external power supply would preclude adding much more power draw to this system.
The custom motherboard has two DIMM slots, using laptop-style SO-DIMMs, not full-size DDR4 modules. One slot is free in our test system, which makes memory expansion easy. The first thing I'd do with the IdeaCentre 3, if I couldn't get it with more RAM outright, is add a second 4GB stick of RAM to it.
The 256GB SSD, a short M.2 module made by Western Digital, takes up the motherboard's lone M.2 slot (visible below, with the orange rectangle at the end), but the chassis does have an open drive bay for adding a second storage drive, with a SATA cable positioned nearby.
Below you can see the bay. A second SATA connection from the motherboard is used for the system's optical drive.
In addition to its limited expansion options, the IdeaCentre 3's power supply gives off laptop vibes. As noted earlier, the system doesn't use an internal power supply, but instead a 90-watt external power brick such as you'd see on a notebook.
Lenovo includes a wired keyboard and mouse with the IdeaCentre 3. You could pine for a wireless pair, but such niceties seldom accompany an entry-level PC. Both are serviceable; the keyboard features flat, laptop-like keys with shallow travel, and the mouse features an optical sensor and ambidextrous design.
Many low-end PCs come littered with bloatware, but that's not the case with the IdeaCentre 3. It features a relatively clean install of Windows 10 Home that includes Spotify, a couple of Lenovo utilities, and a trial for McAfee LiveSafe. Cyberlink's PowerDVD and Power2Go are on board to handle your disc-viewing and -burning needs. Lenovo backs the system with a one-year mail-in warranty.
Testing the IdeaCentre 3: Hi-Ho, Athlon Silver?
With its weak 2.3GHz Athlon Silver mobile CPU (a two-core chip that doesn't support multi-threading), integrated graphics, and meager 4GB allotment of RAM, the Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 is an entry-level desktop with limited capacity. It struggles with multitasking and running intensive graphics apps. It is able, however, to juggle a dozen Chrome browser tabs, smoothly stream HD video, and run Word, Excel, and other everyday office apps.
Just don't try that all at once, or much of it in combination. I experienced lag when running more than a handful of lightweight apps at one time, and I found myself waiting to merely switch among tabs when I had more than about a dozen open at one time. (A meager 4GB dollop of RAM will do that to you, every time.)
The PC was also unable to complete some of our benchmark tests, lacking the RAM to run Adobe Photoshop and balking at our 1080p Superposition graphics test. (See more about how we test desktops.) To gauge how it runs, we assembled results from the following budget systems...
At less than $300, the IdeaCentre 3 costs hundreds less than some other budget PCs we've reviewed recently. The Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A features an AMD Ryzen 3 CPU and 8GB of RAM, while the HP Pavilion TP01-0014 combines an Intel Core i3 with 8GB of RAM. The Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 is more powerful and pricier with an Intel Core i5 processor and 12GB of memory. Rounding out the group is the Azulle Access4, a Windows 10 mini PC in the form of a streaming-video stick that's close to the IdeaCentre 3 in price ($270) and specs (Intel Celeron CPU and 4GB of RAM).
Productivity, Storage, and Media Tests
PCMark 10 and 8 are holistic performance suites developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL. The PCMark 10 test we run simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet work, web browsing, and videoconferencing. PCMark 8, meanwhile, has a storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the system's boot drive. Both tests generate a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better.
The IdeaCentre 3 posted a reasonable PCMark 10 productivity score that was within shouting distance of the IdeaCentre 510A and its dual-core, multithreaded Ryzen 3 CPU. The two Intel desktops with the unthreaded but quad-core Core i3 and six-core Core i5 led the way while the Celeron-powered Azulle brought up the rear. The four desktops' SSDs all performed well in PCMark 8's storage exercise. (The Access4's 64GB of eMMC flash storage wasn't up to completing that test.)
Next is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads.
The IdeaCentre 3 finished dead last in Cinebench. Even the Access4 topped it, in large part because its unthreaded quad-core Celeron has twice as many physical cores as the Athlon Silver chip.
Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video-editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that's highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In it, we put a stopwatch on test systems as they transcode a standard 12-minute clip of 4K video (the open-source Blender demo movie Tears of Steel) to a 1080p MP4 file. It's a timed test, and lower results are better.
The IdeaCentre 3 managed to edge out the Access4 here, but it still took an eternity to complete the test.
Graphics Tests
Onward to testing the light-hitting AMD Radeon Graphics that are part of the Athlon Silver chip. 3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. We run two different 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike. Both are DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs with integrated graphics, while Fire Strike is more demanding and lets high-end PCs and gaming rigs strut their stuff. The results are proprietary scores.
Other than the tiny Access4, the IdeaCentre 3 is about as far away from a gaming desktop as you can get. And with no path for a graphics upgrade, that'll never change.
Next up is another synthetic graphics test, this time from Unigine Corp. Like 3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene and measures how the system copes. In this case, it's rendered in the company's eponymous Unigine engine, offering a different 3D workload scenario for a second opinion on the machine's graphical prowess.
The IdeaCentre 3 managed only 13fps at the lower resolution and was unable to complete the 1080p version of the test we usually run. (Thus, we charted only the 720p results.) That heaps on more evidence that this system makes no pretense of being able to run 3D games.
Verdict: Backup-PC Aspirations Only
For most economy desktop buyers, we recommend the Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 for its superior components and decent performance. For a narrow subset of budget buyers, however, the Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 makes sense.
If, say, you have an old monitor that was orphaned during a previous display upgrade and would like to bring it back online to browse the web, check email, and watch Netflix or YouTube, you can do it for less than $300. Just be aware that the IdeaCentre 3 is capable of handling these minimal tasks—and little else. If you harbor greater aspirations or are looking for a primary, everyday computer, you'll want to spend $100 to $200 more for a much more capable and expandable budget PC.
Lenovo IdeaCentre 3
Pros
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View MoreThe Bottom Line
Inexpensive and compact, the Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 makes sense as a second or third system for web browsing but no heavy—or even moderate—lifting.
Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 Specs
| Processor | AMD Athlon Silver 3050U |
| Processor Speed | 2.3 GHz |
| RAM (as Tested) | 4 GB |
| Boot Drive Type | SSD |
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 256 GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD Writer |
| Graphics Card | AMD Radeon Graphics |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
February 18, 2021 at 08:57PM
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Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 Review - PCMag
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