Brian - thanks for your reply!  I've taken your advice and changed my order to the 1BU from Amazon.  Should arrive on Monday.  I've found the one page specs in the Lenovo psref webpage.  Would love to get more info.  Did anything ship with the box?  Looks like if we're going to get any info, we'll have to find it among ourselves.

Good move.  My Amazon 1BU was well equipped,  with a decent graphics board with VGA, HDMI and DVI out, a tuner card, Windows Media Center, including  remote and USB RF receiver, and a wifi card with antenna.   I wonder  if the 1EU's will have the tuner/mediacenter/remote?  You can get a pretty good idea of what is included from this K300 video from last year:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7GrPe-X8oQ

 

The reviewed machine is almost identical to the 1BU except that it has Core Quad processor and a different graphics card.  Otherwise the connections and goodies are identical.  One minor  mistake in the review, he  says that the "Turbo" switch just controls the fan, but that's not true.  Yes,  it doesn't overclock the CPU, but in the middle and lower settings it really does slow the processor and the disk drive down and save some energy. 

 

I hope to post a full review soon, but too busy doing actual work with the new machine!

 

Brian

 

p.s.  When you start hooking up,  be sure and connect your monitor to the graphics card and not to the VGA port higher on the back.  The upper VGA port is disabled when the graphics card is installed!

I got my 1AU in January and am very pleased with it.  Why so suddenly did they add the 1DU/1EU/1FU?

Did we luck out, with more RAM and larger hard drives, that cost less?

 

Bottom line as long as it supported with any (IF) any software, BIOS, hardware drivers I'd be happy.

Ben

It has been about six months since we last looked at K320 models, and it has only gotten stranger.   You can still happily buy K320 1BU's (the i5) machine at Amazon.  That's what I bought and I'm very happy with it.  OTOH,  the Lenovo website cheerfully sells only 1DU's and 1FU's (i3 and i7).  To review in short:

 

1AU & 1DU - i3 with integrated graphics

1BU & 1EU - i5 with GF310

1CU & 1FU - i7 with HD4650/GF320

 

That's a bit of a simplification, for more detailed specs see:

 

http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/icbook.pdf

 

Now if you were  paying attention earlier, you may remember that the A/B/C models were released to outside vendors, including Amazon, although we never saw a 1CU in stock anywhere.   The D/E/F models are sold only on the Lenovo webpage, although they tend to come in and out of stock and with different shipping dates.

 

And of course, there is also  the K305 series, with AMD chips.  but it always says "shipping in more than four weeks".  Can't imagine why Lenovo offers both chip options, but you never know.

 

Now  hang on, because here comes the K320 1LU and 1MU!

 

These mysterious desktops are not referenced anywhere in the Lenovo website or on their official product line PDF (see above), but they are starting to appear on various reseller  pages, including Amazon.  In a reversal of the normal order, the 1LU is the i7 model, and the 1MU is the the i5 version.  The 1LU is referenced as "coming soon" by Amazon, but a company called newegg.com claims  to have them in stock and even has a short buyer review of the product!

 

Is there a new i3 model as well?  Google finds no 3019-1KU or 1NU, so I guess not.  But hang on, because in the wild world of Lenovo marketing, anything is possible.

 

In the meantime, many resellers still have plenty of 1BU models.  It is better equipped and slightly cheaper than the 1EU on the Lenovo page.    Details on the K320 review topic in a related topic.   I keep hoping someone from Lenovo will read this and clear up the model muddle.   Good solid machines, very strange marketing!

 

 

I purchased the K320 1LU in November from Frys. It was already being phased out.

 

SPECS :  Intel® Core Processor i7-860, 8GB, 1TB 7200RPM S-ATA HDD, no diskette drive, PCI/PCIe Tower, NVIDIA GeForce 320 1GB PCIe, DVD Recordable, 802.11n wireless, 10/100 Ethernet, Memory card reader, Windows 7 Home Premium 64

 

Specs never appeared on Lenovo webpage. Had to track them down to buy. They are  now there but there is no support. 

 

NO Support.  Have already had 3 problems. The first (iastoricon.exe error) was diagnosed by Lenovo as Virus they could fix for $129. After a week working with a MBAM tech, determined there was no virus, but most likely bugs in program. program is Intel software installed by Lenovo. 

 

Windows troubleshooter does not work. Contacted Lenovo for instructions on restoring to default, assuming it was installed correctly. For only $59, they can repair in 15 minutes. 

 

Can not communicate with HP wireless printer I bought this week. Printer works fine runs great test sheets. Passes all tests. Need above trouble shooter to diagnose connection problem. Error code 0x80070005. Problem is in software blocking troubleshooter again. Not firewall blocked. But for only another $59 they can connect it remotely.

 

The alternative answer is clean install, do not want to go to that stage.  

 

Great specs on machine, good power. Not for anyone afraid to spend time and resolve their own problems. Lenovo website is no help. Microsoft says since Lenovo installed, ask Lenovo for help.  

 

30 day return policy so I am stuck. I will make this machine work but I will not recommend nor buy another product from them, And I am not paying Lenovo to repair and support a machine that they built with problems. 

Welcome to the tiny K320 community, MystFaith!  I think we could hold our user group meetings in a McDonalds.

 

Sorry to hear about the initial problems with your 1LU, hope it is working for you now.  After a shaky start (but not as bad as yours) I am very happy with my 1BU.   With the I5 processor and NV310 graphics, it is plenty fast enough for what I do, although it still bogs down when I hit it with a large video reformat job.  My only problem (which is undoubtedly my fault) is that about every four months the system gets so bloated with software that it starts crashing all the time.  I save off the files and software I really need, restore the system to initial settings, and reinstall.  Seems to work.

 

I'm not going to be in the market for a while, but I see that they are coming out with a K330 line on the same chassis.  It probably doesn't take much engineering or management time to plug in some new components and change the model number, but I wish they'd also spend a little money on actual marketing and maybe a customer support person or two.

 

It sure is telling that Amazon (who normally lists every product in the known universe) has exactly one Lenovo K series desktop, a K305 resold by Circuit City, with one review.   They don't even list my K320 review as a discontinued product!  I'm sure Dell and HP quake in their boots every time Lenovo introduces a new machine.

 

Anyway, welcome again, and happy computing!

I just got the K320 3019PU off of the Lenovo website. This is the one with the i7-870, 8GB ram, Radeon HD5570 for $1,099.00 currently on the website.

I love this computer! It looks sexy. It feels like it was built nice and firm, the carrying handle built into the case is awesome as well. 

It is super fast for me so far. I make videos and have to compile them (lots a day) and it literally cuts the time in half on what it would take on my 2 year old laptop. The 8GB ram is awesome. I switch between multiple programs on the fly, no lag. I'm a web design student so I use lots of horse power hogging programs at once like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Notepad++, FTP Clients, web browsers, iTunes, instant messenger clients and more, all at once. No problem!

I like to game too and this rig runs games flawlessly as well. Played all these games on super high maxed out settings:

+Call of duty: Modern Warfare 2

+Sniper Ghost Warrior

+Battlefield Bad Company 2

+Aion

+Far Cry 2

Awesome rig, awesome price, love it

Hi Friends....

 

I have my Lenovo K320 now for almost 2 months and wanted to give you my 2 cents.

 

Well here in Germany they are selling these machines a bit differently.

 

I have a VCV3BGE = 3019 - 3BG

 

It comes with following specs

 

Lenovo IdeaCentre K320 W7HP64

* Core i5, 2x 3.2 GHz
* 6 GB RAM
* 1.0 TB HDD
* ATI Radeon HD5750, 1.0 GB, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA
* DVD+/-RW
* Multi Cardreader
* 8x USB 2.0
* GB-LAN,
* WLAN b/g/n
* Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

 

I had some problems at the beginning with my external WD 2TB drive which has a hidden partition, somehow the K320 tried to boot from that every time I turned the machine on.

To prevent from that I tried several BIOS settings, which didn't work out.

 

Solution was to install a USB-3 card into one of the PCIe x1 slots.

Bad was that I had to take the WLAN card out, because the Graphics card is blocking one PCIe x1 slot already.

 

The layouter for this Mainboard should think of such a thing, and have some space between the full-length PCIe x16 and the next PCIe x1 slot, so it won't be covered by the Graphics card.

 

Does anybody have a clue what kind of Mainboard is used in these machines? It just says LENOVO on the mainboard but nothing else.

Normally on ASUS or any other "brand" boards, you find extra info like P7P55D-E, to find specs for it.

Or does anybody have "real" specs for that Mainboard?

 

Thanks for any reply

    Mike

 

(reposting with IE9 compatibility view)

 

Welcome, MikeMuc and cluongo to our tiny club!

 

I'm glad to hear your K320's are working out, despite some early problems. A year later, I'm still very happy with mine.

 

Mike, I'm afraid I don't have any motherboard info, and as you've discovered, there is almost no Lenovo tech support, either in writing, on the web, or by phone. I've had several chats with the tech people. The new support folks are useless, and the former IBM'ers are intelligent and caring, but they don't get any more info on the K3 series than we do. It is an ongoing amusement that Lenovo keeps selling these decent and well designed machines with no marketing or back end support whatsoever.

 

cluongo, I'm jealous of your I7 and HD5570 video cards. My I5 is a very solid machine, but of course I'd like to be a bit faster. Maybe I'll find an excuse to upgrade to the new K330's if they ever come out.

 

Keep us updated on any good/bad experiences you have!

 

Brian

 

Lenovo K3 Series User Group President-For-Life