HP Computers Tower PC for Home and Business

A seriously capable office PC with a 14-core i5-13500 and 32GB of RAM that's a steal near $540. The integrated graphics are its only real weakness, making it useless for gaming. If you need a pure productivity workhorse and find it at a good price, buy it.

HP's ProDesk tower is the office workhorse that doesn't try to be anything else. You get a genuine 14-core i5-13500, a generous 32GB of RAM, and a fast 1TB NVMe SSD, all wrapped in a plain black box that'll sit quietly under your desk for years. It's built for spreadsheets, Zoom calls, and multitasking mayhem, not for gaming or creative work.

The port situation is solid with eight USB-A slots, HDMI, VGA, and even Wi-Fi 6. But that integrated Intel UHD 770 graphics and a tiny 180W power supply mean you can forget about dropping in a real GPU later. This is a get-it, set-it-up, and leave-it-alone kind of machine.

The 14-core i5-13500 is the star here, landing in the 69th percentile for CPUs and chewing through office tasks without breaking a sweat. The 32GB of DDR4 RAM is well above average and keeps dozens of browser tabs and apps running smoothly. Storage is a strong point too, with that 1TB NVMe drive hitting the 80th percentile and feeling snappy for booting and loading files. The weak spot is the integrated Intel UHD 770 graphics, which sits in the 32nd percentile and makes this a total non-starter for gaming or any GPU-heavy work. It's a one-trick office pony, and it does that trick well.

Pricing on this model is all over the map, with a spread from $540 to $880 across vendors. At the low end, this is a steal for a 14-core office PC with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. At the high end, you're getting into territory where you could build or buy something with a dedicated GPU. If you can snag it closer to that $540 mark, it's a fantastic deal for a no-nonsense business machine. Just don't pay a premium for integrated graphics.

Stacked against the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i or ASUS ROG G700, this HP looks like it's from another planet, because it is. Those are gaming rigs with dedicated GPUs that'll run circles around the UHD 770. The Dell Tower Plus is a more direct competitor in the office space, but often skimps on RAM and storage at similar prices. The Apple Mac mini MU9D3LL/A is the real wildcard here, it'll crush this HP in single-core speed and efficiency, but you're locked into Apple's ecosystem and paying more for equivalent RAM and storage. For pure Windows-based office work, this HP is a better value than the Mac if you find it at the right price.

Gamers and content creators should run, not walk, away from this machine. The integrated graphics score a 14 out of 100 for gaming, and the 180W power supply kills any hope of a GPU upgrade. If you need to edit video, render 3D models, or play anything beyond Solitaire, look at a tower with a dedicated graphics card.

This HP ProDesk is for the person who needs a reliable, fast desktop for work and absolutely nothing else. It's perfect for a home office, a small business front desk, or anyone who lives in Excel and Outlook all day. The 14-core CPU and 32GB of RAM will keep it feeling quick for years, and the port selection handles any old monitor or peripheral you throw at it. Just don't expect to play games or edit video, and you'll be happy.