HP EliteDesk 805 2023, Ryzen 5 8500G, 32GB, 1TB SSD, Black

Great specs for the money, but the sleep/wake display bug is a dealbreaker for some. Buy it for the ports and RAM, just hope you don't get a lemon.

The Ryzen 5 8500G is a solid mid-pack CPU, nothing that'll set records, but it handles spreadsheets, browser tabs, and video calls without breaking a sweat. The 32GB of DDR5 is the real star here, it's well above average for this class and means you can run a stupid number of Chrome tabs and still have headroom. The Radeon 740M integrated graphics are fine for dual 4K monitors and light photo work, but don't expect to game on this thing. Gaming is its weakest area by a mile, and that's okay, it's not what this machine is for. Boot times are fast thanks to the PCIe SSD, and the whole thing runs quiet, which is a nice touch for an office desk.

The EliteDesk 805 sits in a weird spot. The Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra is in a completely different league, way more powerful and way more expensive, so that's not really a fair fight. The Lenovo Legion 90YA003GUS is a gaming machine, so if you want any gaming capability, that's the direction to go. The Dell Desktop ECT1250 is probably the closest real competitor, similar business focus, but the HP wins on port selection and RAM. The MSI Aegis and CLX SET are both gaming towers, so they're not really in the same conversation. For pure office productivity, the HP holds its own against the Dell, but the reliability concerns give me pause.

At $970 USD, this is a solid deal for a business desktop with 32GB of DDR5 and a 1TB SSD. You're getting a lot of ports and decent performance for under a grand. But the sleep/wake issues reported by multiple owners are a real risk. If you get a good unit, it's a steal. If you get a bad one, you're stuck dealing with HP support, which sounds like a headache. For a business machine, that reliability question mark matters.

The HP EliteDesk 805 G9 is a business workhorse that punches above its weight for the price. You're getting a Ryzen 5 8500G with 32GB of DDR5 and a 1TB SSD in a compact SFF chassis, and for office work, it's genuinely snappy. The port selection is ridiculous in the best way, 11 USB-A ports plus USB-C and dual DisplayPort. But there's a catch. A chunk of owners report sleep/wake issues where the display just stays black, and HP support hasn't been much help. That's the kind of thing that turns a great value into a daily annoyance.

If you need a machine that never gives you trouble, this isn't it. The sleep/wake issues are too common to ignore. Go grab a Dell OptiPlex or a Lenovo ThinkCentre instead, they're boring but they just work. And if you want to game at all, this is absolutely not the machine for you, the integrated graphics are a dead end for anything beyond Solitaire.

The HP EliteDesk 805 G9 is a capable business desktop with great specs for the price, but the sleep/wake issues reported by multiple owners are a red flag. If you're willing to roll the dice and maybe troubleshoot a bit, the hardware is solid. But if you need a machine that just works without drama, the reliability concerns here are hard to ignore. For most office users, I'd say it's worth a look, but keep the return window in mind.