Lenovo H330-77801HU

The Lenovo H330-77801HU ($899 direct and $1,118 with monitor), a small form factor desktop PC, is decked out with a Blu-ray player, fast Core i5 processor, and a huge 1TB hard drive. It bundles in a monitor, making it a reasonably-priced starter PC for those that want more kick than something like the HP Pavilion p7-1167cb ($899.99 list, 4 stars). However, the lack of integrated Wi-Fi edges this system out for users that don't have their router located in the same room as their PC.

Design and Features
The H330-77801HU is a thin and tall small form factor PC, measuring 11.5 by 9.9 by 15.75 inches (HWD). We've seen smaller from Apple's Mac mini (Thunderbolt) ($799 list, 4.5 stars). The front of the chassis has a tray-loading Blu-ray player/ DVD+-RW, audio and mic jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and a couple of media card readers that support CF I/CF II/ MD and SD/ SDHC/ MMC/ MS/ MSPro formats. The back has more audio jacks, two PS/2 ports (one of which will be occupied by the included keyboard), Ethernet jack, and four USB 2.0 port (one of which will be occupied by the included mouse). One major feature missing from the Lenovo H330-77801HU is Wi-Fi. Because it has been left out, users will have to utilize the wired Ethernet jack to connect to the Internet, which may be a problem for consumers that don't have their router setup in a convenient position nearby for a PC.

The 23.6-inch widescreen LS2421p Wide ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) monitor displays in 1,920-by-1,080. It comes with VGA and HDMI video inputs, corresponding to the included HDMI and VGA outputs on the Lenovo H330-77801HU. The system also comes bundled with VGA and HDMI cables, so you can just plug and play without having to worry about ordering cables ahead of time. Generally, you don't buy a small form factor PC if you're thinking about upgrading; the H330-77801HU is no different. It will require a good chunk of effort, time, and patience to unscrew every screw and separate the entire exterior casing from the internal components by sliding it off?I wouldn't recommend it. Mid-tower chassis, like the Acer AM3470-UC30P ($599.99 list, 4 stars), are easier to tinker with, as all you need to do is unscrew the screws on one of the side panels and slide it off.

The H330-77801HU has a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive, much bigger than the Mac mini's 500GB one. There's a little preinstalled software on the system; most of it being Lenovo's proprietary applications.

Performance
The H330-77801HU is outfitted with a 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 6450 (512MB) discrete graphics. These components beat allowed it to beat out the Apple Mac mini (1,936) and Acer AM3470 (2,081) by a significant margin in PCMark 7 (2,606)?a test measuring day-to-day performance. In more media-oriented tests, the Lenovo H330-77801HU was able to quickly encode a video in Handbrake in 1 minute 12 seconds. While the Mac mini (1:42) and Acer AM3470 (2:33) fell behind again.

The H330-77801HU does come with a discrete graphics processor, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's ready for the gaming grid. In Crysis (DirectX 10), it wasn't able to average a playable frame rate (29.2fps) during its play-through (30fps is considered playable) on Medium quality settings and 1,280-by-720 resolution. Similar results were seen in Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11), averaging 12.4fps on the same settings. The H330-77801HU's AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics will be able to get you through Azeroth if you're an avid World of Warcraft player, but anything more complex and the system will stutter. If you want more gaming performance without sacrificing the small form factor, the Apple Mac mini comes with a much more powerful AMD Radeon HD 6630M (256MB) that could easily play Crysis on Medium settings (48 frames per second), but not Lost Planet 2. If a monitor/ PC bundle is more what you're looking for, and you don't mind sacrificing some space, the Acer AM3470's AMD Radeon HD 6550D graphics was able to garner playable frame rates in Crysis (40fps).

The Lenovo H330-77801HU is a powerful small form factor PC and well-priced monitor/PC bundle unit. However, it comes with a major feature missing?Wi-Fi. For just $20 more Lenovo could have installed a wireless card, and it's beyond me why they omitted it. If you're looking for a great budget PC/monitor bundle, the Editors' Choice Acer AM3470-UC30P is a great option. If you're more concerned about saving space, the Editors' Choice Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) is a powerful small form factor PC, but it doesn't come with a monitor.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
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