HP EliteDesk G4 Desktop Tower Review

This is a RAM monster with a 2018 brain. Only buy it if you absolutely need 64GB of memory for under $650 and don't care about gaming or modern CPU performance. For everyone else, it's a confusing and outdated deal.

Look, this HP G4 desktop is a weird one. It's a refurbished office PC dressed up with an absolutely bonkers amount of RAM and a decent SSD, but it's still running on a six-year-old processor and integrated graphics. The one thing to know? This isn't a gaming PC or a creative workstation. It's a hyper-specialized workhorse for one very specific person: someone who needs to run a ton of browser tabs, spreadsheets, and business apps simultaneously, and who values a massive amount of RAM over raw processing speed. For $615, you're paying for 64GB of DDR4 and a 1TB SSD, and you're accepting that everything else is from 2018.

The performance story here is all about the RAM. With 64GB, this thing lands in the 94th percentile for memory, which is frankly hilarious for a PC at this price. It'll never, ever run out of memory for office work. The CPU, however, is a different story. Our database puts it in the 14th percentile, which means it's slower than most modern desktop chips. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics? That's a hard no for anything beyond basic video playback, sitting in the 24th percentile. So, it's fast at juggling a hundred Chrome tabs, but slow at actually processing complex tasks within them.

At $615, the value is a paradox. For a general user, it's terrible value because of the old CPU. For someone whose workflow is purely RAM-bound—think massive datasets in Excel, virtual machines, or running a dozen business applications at once—the sheer amount of memory for this price is almost unbeatable. You just have to be that specific person.

Don't even look at the gaming desktops like the HP Omen or Alienware Aurora as competitors; they're in a different league for graphics. A more relevant comparison is a modern budget PC with a newer CPU but less RAM, like an entry-level Lenovo tower. You'll get a faster processor for similar money, but you'll be stuck with 8GB or 16GB of RAM. It's a trade-off: do you want a faster brain, or a bigger short-term memory? For most people, the faster CPU is the better choice.

If you're looking for a balanced, modern desktop for general use, gaming, or creative work, this isn't it. Go get a newer pre-built from Dell or Lenovo with a current-gen Core i5 or Ryzen 5. You'll get a much faster overall experience, even if it starts with less RAM.

We can only recommend this to a very niche buyer. If your work involves running an insane number of programs or browser tabs at once and you're on a tight budget, this HP G4's 64GB of RAM is a lifesaver. For literally anyone else—gamers, video editors, casual users, people who want a fast computer—this is a hard pass. Go buy a modern PC with a better CPU and add more RAM later if you need it.