After acquiring IBM's personal computing division, Lenovo decided to not fix what wasn't broken. Lenovo desktop computers are geared toward small business users who want sleek and stable PCs that fit nicely into an office or a home office environment.

Take, for example, their Lenovo 3000 J110 series. These compact and powerful systems have everything a business user might want--including a budget price. At its least expensive configuration, the J110 gives you a fairly streamlined system, although one that still ships with a core and components to match most business needs.

The baseline J110 desktop computer features a 3.0GHz Intel Pentium D 925 processor and 512MB of 533MHz DDR2 memory. You also get a fairly spacious 160GB 7,200rpm hard drive and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive that burns audio and data CDs and can play DVDs. This configuration ships with Windows Vista Home Basic edition, so it is not the best option for small business users, but might be just fine for home office users.

If you need more power, Lenovo offers an upgrade to Windows Vista Business 32-bit, double the memory up to 1GB of RAM, and upgrade the optical drive to a DVD writer for a total price increase of $130. It's a respectable upgrade package as the RAM upgrade itself will give you a nice bump in performance.

But if you are stepping up to Vista, you definitely want to beef up the RAM and most likely the processor as well. Lenovo offers another upgrade package with Vista Business, 1GB of RAM, the DVD writer instead of the combo optical drive, and an expanded 250GB 7,200rpm hard drive. That, or upgrade to Intel's swift Core 2 Duo processors, the E4300 with twin processing cores each running at 1.8GHz on a single chip. If you're looking for a powerful small business machine, that version of the J110 delivers.

If you are ordering direct from Lenovo, you have a lot of configurations to choose from in the J110 family, so consider what your business needs are and then you can find the right system to match them.

Regardless of the core configuration, the rest of the desktop computer is the same. This includes a gigabit Ethernet adapter which lets you connect the J110 to a high-speed home or office network without worrying about it being a bottleneck.

And it includes the LenovoCare tools which are preinstalled on each system. These tools can help you recover from a system crash, troubleshoot common problems, and manage your passwords securely.

Another standard option is the Intel integrated graphics. For most business users, these graphics will work fine. But if you'll be doing any CAD or other graphically intensive tasks with your J110, you might consider an upgrade to a dedicated graphics card. Luckily, there's an open PCI Express graphics slot on the motherboard, so you can always add a cutting-edge card down the road.

The front of the gray minitower features audio input/output ports for connecting a headset as well as two USB 2.0 ports for easily connecting peripherals or thumb drives. The standard input devices are comfortable to use, although Lenovo features some more advanced options such as a wireless mouse and keyboard combo available for around $60 over the baseline price.

There is no display bundled with the J110 desktop computer at the starting price, although you can add a Lenovo L171 17-inch LCD for just over $200. If you're shopping at a brick-and-mortar retailer, you can often find this or an even larger monitor paired with the system at a better price, so check your local office supply stores.

Lenovo offers a basic one-year warranty on the J110 desktop computers, although extensions to the coverage are quite reasonable. You can beef it up to two years of on-site service for around $40 and three years of coverage for around $80.

Whether you are a home office user or have your own small business, the Lenovo J110 series of desktop computers can be configured to meet you needs for a very reasonable price.


Pro: Lots of configurations available, good support
Con: No monitor included

Warranty
1-year limited