Lenovo ThinkCentre M90q Gen 6

It suits an office or a desk where space is short. At 179 x 182.9 x 36.5 mm it sits beside a monitor, and the VESA mount lets you hang it behind one. Both builds come with Windows 11 Pro, which fits business desks. Developers who start at 16 GB and want to add memory later also get an easy path, because the DDR5 sits in 2 removable SODIMM slots.

Skip it if you want to play games or run language models locally, since both are a poor fit for integrated Intel Graphics. Skip it too if you need fast wired networking or several network ports, because it has 1 port at 1GbE.

Everyday work is well suited: office apps, browsing and video calls run on either Core Ultra 5 with 16 GB of DDR5.

Coding is workable. The 16 GB installed is a starting point, and the 2 slots take up to 64 GB when your projects grow.

Gaming is a poor fit, because both builds rely on integrated Intel Graphics.

Homelab use is workable. The 3 M.2 slots give room for storage, but the single network port at 1GbE limits it as a router or a busy file server.

Local AI is a poor fit. Memory bandwidth governs how fast a language model writes text and capacity governs which sizes fit; Lenovo does not state the bandwidth, and the 16 GB installed leaves little room once the operating system keeps its share.

Workstation work is well suited. The PCIe card slot is physically x8, though Lenovo does not state how many lanes it carries, so check a card's requirements first. The Core Ultra 5 235 with 14 cores and 14 threads is the better pick for compiling or rendering.

The retail builds differ only in the processor. One has the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with 10 cores and 10 threads; the other has the Core Ultra 5 235 with 14 cores and 14 threads. Both come new with 16 GB of DDR5, a 512 GB NVMe drive, integrated Intel Graphics and Windows 11 Pro. Choose the Core Ultra 5 225 if the machine will mostly handle office and everyday work. Choose the Core Ultra 5 235 for coding and workstation jobs that use many cores.

Memory is not soldered: 2 SODIMM slots take DDR5 at 6400 MT/s up to 64 GB, against the 16 GB installed. Depending on how the 16 GB is fitted, reaching the maximum may mean replacing a module rather than adding one.

Storage has more room: there are 3 M.2 slots of the 2280 length, so you can add drives beside the 512 GB NVMe drive. The first slot is PCIe 4.0, so a faster drive there runs at PCIe 4.0 speed. Lenovo does not state the second slot's generation, and the slots do not take SATA drives, so every addition is an M.2 drive.

You can run up to 2 screens, using the HDMI output and the DisplayPort 1.4 output. Lenovo does not state the HDMI version, and 4K above 60 Hz over HDMI needs HDMI 2.1 on the computer, the cable and the display, so the DisplayPort output is the known quantity.

For peripherals there are 6 USB-A ports and 1 USB-C port. Networking is 1 port at 1GbE, and a wireless module is included. There is no USB4, Thunderbolt or OCuLink port. Power comes from a 65W external supply.

The network is the plainest limit: 1 port at 1GbE. Graphics are integrated in both builds, which rules out serious gaming. There are no SATA bays. Lenovo does not state the Wi-Fi standard, Bluetooth, the HDMI version, the second M.2 slot's generation, the PCIe slot's lane count, ECC support, an SD card reader, the TDP, the memory bandwidth, or the graphics memory size and type.

When you compare other compact desktops, start with the facts that limit this one: the network ports, where this machine has 1 port at 1GbE, and the graphics, which are integrated. Then weigh its strengths against theirs: the PCIe x8 card slot, 3 M.2 slots, and a memory ceiling of 64 GB in 2 removable SODIMM slots.