Buyers of the different generations of used and new HP Mini Desktop PCs tend to be unaware of the differences between the HP Elitedesk 800 and the HP Prodesk 600 or 400. After all, the key characteristics such as the CPU, RAM or SSD tend to be the same for all 3 Minis. However buyers seem to be aware that price wise, the HP Elitedesk 800 tend to command a slightly higher premium than the Prodesk 600 or 400.
Let’s take the HP Elitedesk 800 G3 Mini and the HP Prodesk 400 G3 Mini as examples for the comparison. For a start, the HP Elitedesk 800 G3 Mini comes with more options in that there are 2 versions to choose from, the 35W and the 65W versions. On the other hand, the HP Prodesk 600 and 400 G3 Mini only comes with the 35W version. If you have an Intel 7th generation CPU with a suffix t eg i5-7500t, it can be installed in either the HP Elitedesk 800 G3 Mini or the HP Prodesk 600 or 400 G3 Mini. However CPUs without the suffix t eg i5-7500 cannot be installed on the HP Prodesk 600 or 400 G3 Mini. You can install the i5-7500 into the 65W version of the HP Elitedesk 800 G3 Mini. Hence the 65W version of the HP Elitedesk 800 G3 Mini comes with a 90W power adapter compared with the 65W power adapter for the others.
A visible difference between the HP Elitedesk 800 G3 Mini is the additional USB-C port 3.1 Gen 1 port on its front panel which is missing in the HP Prodesk 400 G3 Mini. The intermediate model HP Prodesk 600 G3 Mini comes with this USB-C port on the front panel as well. Inside the PC, generally speaking, the components of the motherboard of HP Elitedesk 800 Mini tend to be superior to that of HP Prodesk 600 or 400 Mini. This may include components like chipsets which control the flow of data between the CPU, RAM, graphics, and storage. There may be other superior components on the motherboard of the HP Elitedesk 800 Mini that are not so obvious but add to the additional features and performance of the PC.
The HP Elitedesk 800 Mini has also undergone more substantive testing and checks to make it more reliable and durable. This makes the HP Elitedesk 800 Mini the choice of corporations which require PCs with a higher level of reliability and dependency.
To the layman, the slight premium of a used HP Elitedesk 800 Mini commands makes it a tiny price to pay for the extra reliability and features. The intermediate model, the HP Prodesk 600 may have some additional features that the HP Elitedesk 800 Mini possesses. In the case of the G3, its the extra USB-C port. Hence since used HP Prodesk 600 Mini is usually priced not much different from the 400, the PC is a slightly better buy than the 400 if one can find it. Last but not least, if offered the HP Prodesk 400 Mini, remember that it is a basic model for that generation of Intel CPUs. The saving grace is that the HP Prodesk 400 Mini is usually priced at the low end for that particular Intel CPU generation. In other words, it is often the cheapest. It will get the job done without the extra bells and whistles of the better models. In that respect, it will be a good buy.
This writeup is by beetlek who offers a wide range of mostly used small desktop PCs and occasional laptops for sale in Carousell Singapore. You can see his offering at this link https://www.carousell.sg/u/beetlek/ or search for user beetlek at Carousell Singapore.