Head-To-Head: Lenovo ThinkStation P410 Vs. Dell Precision Tower 3620

Power Players

At the CRN Test Center, we've recently been focusing a lot on productivity-focused laptops -- especially the most portable ones. But we know there are still plenty of workers out there who have no need to trade horsepower in exchange for portability -- the power is what they're after.

For those users -- such as graphic designers, video editors and other high-power multitaskers -- we wanted to look at two of the latest tower workstations.

And we're focusing on towers that particularly target the budget-conscious -- the Lenovo ThinkStation P410 Workstation, rolled out Tuesday, and the Dell Precision Tower 3620 (Mini Tower), which debuted near the end of 2015. Which is a better fit? Here is the CRN Test Center's breakdown of how the towers from Lenovo and Dell compare on specs and price.

CPU And Graphics

Naturally, we should start with processing power. For CPU on the ThinkStation P410, Lenovo has included the Intel Xeon E5-1600 v4 processor (with Intel Turbo Max 3.0 technology), which comes with up to eight cores and has a clock speed of 3.7GHz. For Dell's Precision Tower 3620, a different Intel processor is standard -- the sixth-gen Core i5, which is quad-core and has a clock speed of 3.3GHz. However, it's worth noting that the Tower 3620 is configurable with other processors as well -- including the Xeon E3 and the more powerful Core i7.

On graphics, the ThinkStation P410 comes with the Nvidia Quadro card (up to the M5000) while the Tower 3620 has Intel's HD Graphics 530 integrated with the Core i5 processor (but can have the Nvidia Quadro and other graphics cards added).

Memory And Storage

Both towers start with 8 GB of memory but are configurable to include more. On storage, the two computers are also comparable -- both come with two internal storage bays and can support a total of four hard drives.

Ports

Both towers support a large number of ports. Along with microphone and headphone ports, the Precision Tower 3620 features six USB 2.0 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI port and two DisplayPorts. The ThinkStation P410 meanwhile includes six USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one Thunderbolt 3 port and a 9-in-1 Media Card Reader (along with microphone and headphone ports).

Size

The towers are similar in size, with the ThinkStation P410 just a bit taller but not quite as deep as the Precision Tower 3620.

-- The ThinkStation P410 comes in at 14.8 inches high, 16.8 inches deep and 6.9 inches wide

-- The Precision Tower 3620 measures 14.7 inches high, 17.12 inches deep and 6.89 inches wide

Price

While both Lenovo and Dell tout the affordability of their new towers, the ThinkStation P410 is a tad more premium, with a starting price of $1,050. It hasn't hit the market just yet, but will available for purchase by the end of this month, Lenovo said. Meanwhile, the Precision Tower 3620 mini-tower that we described in this slideshow (with the Intel Core i5, quad-core processor) has a starting price a bit below that, at $879.