HP EliteDesk 600G4 2024

The HP EliteDesk 600G4 is a renewed office tower with an aging i5-8500 and entry-level RX 550. It gets light esports and everyday work done, and the bundled 24" monitor makes it a complete setup. Just don't pay more than $400, and be ready for a finicky USB WiFi dongle.

The HP EliteDesk 600G4 is a renewed office tower that's been rebadged as a budget gaming PC, complete with a 24" monitor, keyboard, and mouse. At its core, it's a corporate workhorse from a few years back, sporting a 6-core i5-8500, 16GB of DDR4, and an RX 550 4GB graphics card. It's not a powerhouse by any stretch, but it's a ready-to-go package for someone who needs a basic setup without hunting down peripherals.\n\nThe big selling point here is convenience. You unbox it, plug in the included monitor and USB WiFi dongle, and you're up and running with Windows 11 Pro. But that convenience comes with a few headaches, like the WiFi being a single-band 2.4GHz USB stick and some units arriving without any wireless adapter at all. For the right price, it's a decent starter PC. For the wrong price, you're getting ripped off.

Let's be real: the i5-8500 is a 2018 chip, and it shows in our benchmarks. It's fine for Office, browser tabs, and streaming, but it lands well below average for CPU-heavy work like video editing or compiling code. The RX 550 is an entry-level card that handles esports titles at 1080p low-medium settings, but don't expect AAA games to run smoothly, newer integrated graphics have caught up to it. 16GB of RAM is serviceable, though 32GB would be nicer for heavy multitasking. The 500GB SSD is snappy but fills up fast, and its speed isn't leading the pack. For a family PC or homework station, it does the job. For anything demanding, it's a letdown.

Value depends entirely on what you pay. We've seen this exact config listed anywhere from $295 to a laughable $8,799. If you snag it near the low end, including the monitor and peripherals, it's a fair deal for a basic home or office PC. But as the price climbs past $500, you're better off building a far more capable machine or buying a modern mini PC that will run circles around the i5-8500. Shop around and check that the WiFi dongle is actually in the box before you commit.

Stacked against competitors, the EliteDesk looks its age. Apple's Mac mini M4 offers orders of magnitude more CPU and GPU power in a tiny, efficient package, though you'll need to supply your own display. The ASUS NUC 14 Pro and GMKtec K12 are compact and modern, with far better processors and integrated graphics that outpace the RX 550. Even an older Dell OptiPlex SFF can match the CPU but lacks the discrete GPU and bundled monitor. The HP's one clear advantage is its included 24" screen and massive port selection, which sits in the 87th percentile of all towers we've tested. If you need an all-in-one-box solution and find it dirt cheap, it fills a niche that newer, pricier systems don't.

Skip this if you need a PC for demanding work or modern gaming. The CPU and GPU are too old for video editing, 3D modeling, or playing recent AAA titles. Also, if reliable built-in WiFi matters to you, the USB dongle setup and missing-adapter horror stories should steer you toward something with a proper internal wireless card.

Buy this if you need an ultra-cheap, complete PC setup for light gaming, homework, or home office and you find it under $400. The included monitor and peripherals make setup painless, and the CPU/GPU combo is adequate for basic tasks. Power users, serious gamers, and anyone who needs modern performance should look elsewhere, as this rig is already on its last legs for 2025.