Lenovo Ideacentre 510a Desktop - Intel Core I3 Review

Economy PCs accept their identify, as plenty of consumers just want a unproblematic, affordable home estimator for basic needs. The Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A ($499 as tested) fits the bill, an unassuming upkeep desktop with pocket-sized components at a low toll. There are no major flaws, but relative to similarly priced contest, the IdeaCentre doesn't accept annihilation special going for it from a build-quality signal of view, and its AMD-powered performance, in certain measures, lags backside Intel-alternative chips in some comparable upkeep systems. (The modestly meliorate graphics performance, though, does bear some lite appeal.) The Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92, which we're reviewing aslope it, is just $50 more with a superior CPU, more RAM, and more storage, making it our current top recommendation in this category.

Simple Styling

The Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A is very plain, a gray rectangular tower with unadorned sides and an almost as simple front console. There, a line runs vertically to split the panel unevenly, though it's more than only aesthetic.

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Y'all can pull open this department of the forepart panel to reveal a prepare of ports, including two USB 2.0 ports, ii USB 3.0 Type-A ports, an SD card slot, and microphone and headset jacks. On the other side of the front end panel is a DVD+RW optical drive, but other than that, this case is about equally simple as they come up.

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Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A-18

Information technology is, however, nice and meaty. Upkeep desktops take no reason to be especially big, but all the same, it'south a plus that this system has a small size and tiny footprint. It measures 14.iv by 5.7 by 11.2 inches (HWD), not too alpine or wide and definitely less deep than average. This makes it a good fit for a tight workspace, including fitting on a crowded desk, a desk shelf cutout, or on the floor.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A-02

With a system so inexpensive and a design so uncomplicated, information technology'south difficult to take many complaints. An as simple keyboard and a basic mouse, both wired, are likewise included. Interior admission isn't toolless, which could be a complaint if I was existence picky, just information technology'due south not a large deal. Two uncomplicated rear screws allow you to remove the left-side panel, revealing the interior. Too in the rear are two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a VGA connexion, and an Ethernet jack.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A-10

The system's interior is about as simple equally its outside, though at that place are a few things to hash out. A arrangement at this price has no glitz or glam, including simply the necessary components. In that location is a plate blocking most of your view, and admission, when you lot first have off the outer panel.

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It's more irritating to get this out of the manner than it should be, requiring you lot to clasp some clips and pull the forepart console away for the plate to swing out. It took a few minutes to effigy this out, and I found it finicky to open and shut. Fortunately, there's a strong chance you'll never demand to open a desktop like this up, or at least non often, but you may want to add or bandy memory or storage some 24-hour interval. To that end, in that location are 2 memory slots for a maximum of 16GB of RAM, while there is just i Chiliad.2 slot, but room to add a hard drive.

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What components lurk inside across the metallic plate? Non surprisingly, they are quite modest, including AMD's quad-core Ryzen three 3200G processor with Radeon Vega eight integrated graphics, 8GB of memory, and a 256GB solid-state bulldoze. Depending on your needs, this could be perfectly acceptable, and indeed, this is mostly the caliber of components you'll notice in this price range. There are some differences amid competitors, though, then read on to the next section to see how they perform.

Performance Testing: So-And so Speed

For our benchmark comparisons, I've gathered a batch of similarly cheap desktops. They all fall inside the aforementioned low price range, merely utilize a variety of components to go there. Below is a cheat canvas for their names and core components:

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

The ThinkCentre is our lone AMD representative, while the others all pack dissimilar Intel processors. There are a variety of flake types and generations among the grouping, including ane Core i3 among mostly Core i5 CPUs, and one Core i5 flake that's newer than the rest. The Acer is carrying both the latest i5 and the most memory (not to mention twice the storage of the Lenovo), so it'due south the system to trounce here.

Productivity and Storage Tests

PCMark 10 and 8 are holistic functioning suites developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). The PCMark 10 test we run simulates different real-globe productivity and content creation workflows. We apply it to appraise overall system operation for office-axial tasks such as give-and-take processing, spreadsheet piece of work, web browsing, and videoconferencing. PCMark viii, meanwhile, has a storage subtest that nosotros use to assess the speed of the system'south kicking drive. Both yield proprietary numeric scores; college numbers are ameliorate.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

The Lenovo lags behind the rest in everyday productivity, the AMD APU unable to continue upwards. It'due south adequate for simple home and office tasks, merely not much more than than that, and is slow plenty compared to the ameliorate performers here that you may notice the difference in real-world use. Fortunately, its SSD is as snappy as the others, leading to quick boot times and reducing look fourth dimension as you navigate your files.

Media Processing and Content Creation Tests

Side by side is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make apply of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to return a complex image. The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC'southward suitability for processor-intensive workloads.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

Cinebench is frequently a good predictor of our Handbrake video editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that'south highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In it, we put a stopwatch on examination systems equally they transcode a standard 12-infinitesimal clip of 4K video (the open source Blender demo picture Tears of Steel) to a 1080p MP4 file. Lower elapsed times are ameliorate.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

We as well run a custom Adobe Photoshop image editing benchmark. Using an early 2018 release of the Creative Deject version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test prototype, timing each operation and adding up the total. The Photoshop test stresses the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, merely it can also have advantage of well-nigh GPUs to speed upwards the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a boost.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

Every bit on PCMark x, the Lenovo is the slowest on average across these tests. To be sure, none of these desktops is a professional-grade production car by any means, but fifty-fifty in context, the 510A is slower than its counterparts.

Synthetic Graphics Tests

UL's 3DMark suite measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-mode 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. Nosotros run two unlike 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike. Both are DirectX xi benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and made for high-cease PCs to strut their stuff. The results are proprietary scores.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

Next up is another synthetic graphics examination, this fourth dimension from Unigine Corp. Like 3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene and measures how the arrangement copes. In this case, it's rendered in the company'southward eponymous Unigine engine for a second stance on the car's graphical prowess.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A

Every bit y'all can see, the trends from the CPU-centric tests don't continue here. The AMD APU'southward integrated graphics meridian their Intel rivals (at to the lowest degree the generations on display hither). This can help greatly with some casual gaming (and, in a existent pinch, some 3D apps).

A Decent Option for Shoestring Budgets

The Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A is about as straightforward a desktop every bit it looks on the outside, unassuming in design and modest in performance. The price is very depression, so you tin't complain too much about its shortcomings or speed. And the onboard Vega graphics do give it an intriguing boost for (very) casual gamers who might want to practice some light play without shelling out for a video card.

Yet, it doesn't expect particularly expert compared to machines that perform improve or offer more for similar prices. This is especially truthful of the Acer Aspire, our recent Editors' Selection for the category. The IdeaCentre may be the most budget of the budget options, simply it's probably non the best value—consider the as inexpensive HP Envy Desktop (TE01-014) if you don't desire to pay a bit more for the Aspire.