HP ProDesk 600G4 Black Review

The HP ProDesk 600G4 is a refurbished office tower with an incredible social proof score and a price that can dip to $295, but its ancient CPU and puny 250GB SSD hold it back. The best thing going for it is that it's cheap—as long as you're okay with a bargain-basement Wi-Fi dongle or no wireless at all. Only grab this if you need the absolute lowest-cost Windows 11 Pro box for mundane tasks.

This is a refurbished business desktop trying to stay relevant in a world that's moved on. The HP ProDesk 600G4 earned a 4.1-star average from over 2,000 buyers, so it's clearly doing something right. But the glowing social proof masks a spec sheet that's showing its age. If you just need a basic Windows 11 Pro machine for spreadsheets and email, the low end of its wild $295-$8799 price range makes it tempting. Just don't expect modern speed or thoughtful connectivity. In fact, the Wi-Fi situation is a mess: some units ship with a pokey USB 2.0 dongle that's limited to 2.4GHz, and others apparently forget the adapter entirely. For an office PC in 2025, that's a forehead-slapper.

That Intel Core i5-8th gen six-core chip sits at the 20th percentile in our database—well below average and decidedly sleepy by today's standards. It'll handle a browser and a few Office docs, but heavy multitasking will have you tapping your fingers. The integrated graphics are surprisingly high-ranked in our numbers, but don't let that fool you; they're still integrated, so gaming performance is a miserable 19.1 out of 100. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM gets you by, but the real kick in the teeth is the 250GB SSD—one of the tiniest we've seen, landing in the 9th percentile. You'll be managing disk space from day one.

The pricing here is a rollercoaster. We've seen this model listed between $295 and an absurd $8,799 across vendors. Stick to the bottom of that range. At around $300, it's a functional if compromised office PC for a tight budget. Bump up to $400, and you're better off with a new mini PC like the Minisforum UM760 Slim, which stomps this thing in every performance category. The golden spot is Amazon's renewed listing when it dips under $320; anything more is a hard sell given the outdated innards.

Stacked against the competition, the ProDesk 600G4 feels like bringing a flip phone to a smartphone fight. The Apple Mac mini M4 runs circles around it but costs more. Lenovo's IdeaCentre 91CX0002US offers newer internals for similar money. Even other business refurbs like the Dell Optiplex series often pack 8th-gen or newer CPUs with larger SSDs. And those mini PCs from GMKtec and Minisforum? They deliver current-gen Ryzen chips and real storage in a package the size of a sandwich. The ProDesk only makes sense if you absolutely need a tower with tons of USB-A ports and can't stomach a small form factor.

Skip this if you need anything beyond basic office tasks, plan to install large applications, or rely on wireless connectivity. Gamers should pretend it doesn't exist. If your budget nudges above $350, a current-gen mini PC or a newer refurbished Dell Optiplex will treat you far better.

Buy this only if you need a basic, cheap Windows 11 PC for light office work and can get it for under $350. It's a fine stopgap for a reception desk or a student who lives in Google Docs. The mountain of positive reviews is reassuring, but that trust doesn't magically upgrade the hardware. Pay attention to the Wi-Fi warning if you're not planning to ethernet it.