Lenovo IdeaCentre K330: Lots of Speed, Little Expandability

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Blu-ray support
Bully Mary Leontyne Pric to performance ratio
Push-button CPU speed adjustments

Cons

Lacks much internal room for upgrades

Our Verdict

You can do a lot with the super-fast speeds on Lenovo's low-cost PC: You good can't frame that much more than into this system.

We will we could throw a fewer of our favorite $1000-or-less Performance Desktop PCs into a plenty and create a stew that combines the best features of each–instantly that would be a desktop system! Lenovo's IdeaCentre K330 brings some of the bestspeeds we've seen for a system priced at around its level ($999 as of October 11, 2011), but information technology's non quite a equally able in other areas that might cause helped this system shine brighter in a rest home office operating room gaming den.

Old readers may recall the Lenovo IdeaCentre K220–a budget background Microcomputer from about two years ago. The K330 is so much faster that information technology doesn't consist in the same category with the K220. An Intel Core i5-2500 processor, clocked at a invigorating 3.3GHz, enabled the K330 to scream through our WorldBench 6 test suite. The system's score of 164 doesn't Pb the family, merely IT reflects an superior monetary value-to-performance ratio for this machine. We also appreciate that the K330 throws 8GB of DDR3 remembering into the mix, but we're a little surprised that Lenovo opted for RAM rated at a speed of 667MHz instead of the faster (and more unrefined) DDR3-1333.

The K330 is definitely fitter proper for general-purpose use than for gambling. Its single Nvidia GeForce GT 440 graphics card delivered lustreless systema skeletale rates connected our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmark: 33.2 frames per second at 2560 by 2100 resolution and a high quality stage setting. Along the plus side, you wear't have got to telephone dial the system's result too far down to achieve stronger results. We obtained 59 fps on runs conducted at a 1920 by 1080 settlement and high quality–and that's only a hair away from the refresh rank of a distinctive LCD admonisher.

Unique to the K330 is a switch on the scheme's front that allows the user to alter the system's speeds dynamically by flipping from one to another of three settings–Turbo, Auto, and Cool–which turns part of the system's front panel reddish, blue, surgery green, respectively. Don't acquire that this feature is some kind of automatic overclocking mechanism that volition kick the K330 into high gear. IT just changes some settings in Windows' Power Options menu, most notably the minimum and maximum processor states. Good, it lets you set the K330's CPU to run at full blast 100 pct of the time, modulate the speed continuously to cope with system demands, or run at a consistent reduced speed to conserve king.

Lenovo's inclusion body of a Blu-ray jazz group drive connected the scheme's front is the most exciting matter about that part of the PC. Two USB ports and a multiformat card proofreader don't deliver much connectivity or diversity on the front panel, but the K330's plunk for panel compensates with six USB ports–though no USB 3.0, regrettably–plus a single eSATA interface and a gigabit ethernet larboard on the motherboard itself, and DVI, VGA, and HDMI ports on the graphics card. The system's integration of 7.1 surround sound is a treat, but we wish Lenovo had enclosed FireWire, an supererogatory eSATA port, some USB 3.0 ports, or DisplayPort.

The wiring inside the system is a smidge messy, but it won't prevent you from instalmen a new device in the single free 5.25-column inch bay or the bingle free 3.5-inch hard drive Laurus nobilis (a 1TB hard drive occupies the second bay). That's not a lot of free space to form with, even for a midsize tower desktop, but we commend Lenovo for making its upgrading options completely screwless. Nonpareil free PCI Expressed x16 port and ii free PCI Express x1 ports set aside room for a couple of add-on cards; they, too, are screwless upgrades.

A generic connected sneak out and generic bound keyboard accompany the K330. The rest of the bundle consists of the organization's Windows 7 driver CD, hardware replacement guide, and user guide. We had expected a somewhat enthusiast mouse operating theatre keyboard with a system that puts processor management front and center on the case.

In general, Lenovo's IdeaCentre K330 feels a bit like a compact PC in a midsize tower case. We love its speeds and its simple add-ons, but we're defeated that we can't do some internal upgrading (or external device conjunctive) before running out of room (or ports). The K330 International Relations and Security Network't a bad computer away any means; it's just not as comfortably-rounded in its features as a killer $1000 system could be.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/477270/lenovo_ideacentre_k330_lots_of_speed_little_expandability.html

Posted by: rodriguezquakfank.blogspot.com