A long time ago, laptop manufacturers used desktop components to keep costs down. Taiwanese manufacturer ECS, for example, shoved a desktop processor into a laptop form factor without the battery and called it a desknote (desktop and notebook).Now Lenovo has gone the other way, using laptop components in a desktop computer ? and it, kind of, makes sense due to economies of scale. Using the same components across different parts of your product portfolio means that you can theoretically bring down the bill of materials and have more flexibility in your supply chain.

Meet the Lenovo ThinkStation E50 (90BX0018UK), which is also known as the ThinkCenter E50. It uses an external power supply unit, a 65W model, just like a laptop, to power the base unit, rather than an integrated one. If something goes wrong with it, you only need to send the PSU back rather than the whole thing, plus this method saves up to a third compared to a traditional desktop power supply.