Lenovo M700 Intel i3 128GB SSD Tiny Desktop

$160: perhaps another $10 for a bluetooth dongle. https://www.amazon.com/ECS-Elitegroup-LIVA-X-2GB-32GB/dp/B00SAYE162

two words: usb drive

I have been using these at work for a couple years and so far they have been solid ! Out of maybe 600 units we have only had to replace 5. Would make a great home media server

128 as main SSD is just too small; I’d replace that with a 1TB and add an M.2 SSD. With M.2, the form factor would matter - my T460p only takes 42mm M.2, which limits size to 512G… :frowning:

So I just did a bunch of Internet research trying to decide if I should get this or one of the many NUC devices on the market.

First:

That machine has a really terrible Intel Bay Trail Atom CPU, the Z3735G. What makes it so terrible is all about RAM. The Z3735G can only use a maximum of a single gig of RAM, and the memory bandwidth available is laughably low - 5.3GBps. By comparison, the Skylake Core i series of CPUs offer high RAM limits (the i3-6100T in this Woot model is limited to 64GB), and the RAM bandwidth is plenty fast at 34.1GBps.

And, even if, somehow, that ECS machine really does have 2GB RAM, the Z3735G chipset only supports single-channel memory.

All of that means that the Z3735G is a total piece of crap. It’s not even reasonably useable with a little sloweness. It’s doggedly slow, to the point that there’s no reason to even try to do any daily computing with one.

Second:

FWIW, unless you plan on gaming, 128GB is surprisingly usable on Windows 10. Windows is going to eat about 20GB, but even with the full Office 2016 suite, Visual Studio 2015, and both Photoshop and Illustrator CS6 installed on the 128GB SSD in my Surface Pro 3, I have a decent amount of space for files and stuff.

For regular computing, the 128GB SSD will be more than enough, and it will be considerably faster than a 2.5" drive if it’s M.2.

(I don’t think the SSD is M.2 - Lenovo’s online store only offers a 2.5" SSD option at the moment.)

Third:

I think the most important distinction over anything else between this model and similar products from other OEMs (like the Gigabyte Brix, ASUS VivoMini, and Intel NUC) is that the CPU is socketed. Every NUC-based model uses a soldered CPU. Socketed means you can upgrade to an i5 or even an i7 (with adequate cooling) later down the line, if the i3 doesn’t meet your needs.

Lenovo also has a pretty good lineup of accessories - there’s a VESA mount, a VESA sandwich mount (so you can put a VESA monitor arm on the back of the mount), and a really slick “Tiny-in-One” 22" 1080p display that the M700 Tiny is designed to slide behind.

Oh, and the standard three-year warranty is pretty sweet, too.

And for those reasons, I ended up getting one of these to replace my HP Mini Stream 200-010, which is super cute but just too slow for me. I’m stoked.

Has anyone checked to see how this compares with a Latte Panda?

I like that this comes in a case, but I can figure that out if the panda is better.

So to be clear this is new not refurbished?

Yep. New.

Two words: too slow.

Have you looked up any information yourself?

Intel has a super awesome tool for comparing all the features of different CPUs.

A CPU comparison between the M700 i3 and the LattePanda is below:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/90734,87383

The biggest things you want to pay attention to when comparing processors on Intel’s site are clock speed, cores, threads, cache, and memory specs.

The CPU in the LattePanda is no better than the Bay Trail 3735 series. It’s got horribly crippled memory capabilities, with only one RAM channel and a maximum memory bandwidth of only 12.8GB/s.

The i3-6100T in the M700 outperforms the Lattepanda’s Atom x5-8300 in every possible way.

Plus the M700 is upgradeable. You can’t really compare the Lattepanda to what this is, which essentially an full desktop (that is, desktop-grade components) in a tiny package.