Acer Veriton M6650g vs. HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower
Comparison and Differences
Differences between Acer Veriton M6650g and HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower
If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Acer Veriton M6650g which was released in 2018. The HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower is older and entered production in 2013.
Both models have the same form factor, meaning reoughtly they have the same phiysical size and form.
Processor
Usually the newer the generation of the CPU, the better the performance and efficiency is. If your budget allows it, you should go with the Acer Veriton M6650g as it is running a newer generation CPU. This is not to say that HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower is bad - it can still run some powerful CPUs, albeit being an older generation.
Memory
Both models have have equal amount of ram slots (4 RAM). Usually two RAM slots are more than enough for most cases. However, the count should be taken into account when planning how much and what combination of RAM you are going to need for your system.
The Acer Veriton M6650g is using the faster 2400 MT/s RAM. The HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 1600 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Acer Veriton M6650g as it has the ability to run 64 GB of RAM. The HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower can do a bit less at max 32 GB. Most of the times, this should be sufficient for the majority of users.
Ports
Both models have the same amount of USB ports for total count of 10. If this is not enough, using a USB hub is always a viable option. What is nice about the Acer Veriton M6650g, is that it has 2 USB 3.1 port(s) which allows transfer of up to 10Gb/s. Unfortunately, the HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower has no such port, thus restricting your transfer speeds significantly. For people who want to use external drives on regular basis, this might be an issue.
Unfortunately, only the Acer Veriton M6650g has a DisplayPort. The HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower does not have one? Don't worry though, nowadays video adapters are cheap and you can get almost any combination of conversion types.
The Acer Veriton M6650g comes with an HDMI port, while the HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower does not support the interface. Of course missing HDMI port is something that can be easily fixed with a good adapter (e.g. DisplayPort to HDMI).
SATA ports are placed on the system board and it is where you connect your HDD, SSD and Optical Disk Drives. More SATA slots will allow you to have more drives running at the same time. In this regard the Acer Veriton M6650g is better equipped as it comes with 5 SATA slot(s), while the HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower has 4 slot(s).
M.2 SSD interface allows you to transfer data with higher speeds compared to the old SATA interface. Unfortunately, neither the HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower, nor the Acer Veriton M6650g has one. However, you can still use a SATA SSD drive which should give you satisfactory performance.
Make sure that the available M.2 slot supports the PCIe (also called NVMe) interface. This is important as there are M.2 slots which support only the inferior SATA III interface. For comparison, the SATA III interface has max speeds of 6Gb/s, while the PCIe 3.0 x4 will support speeds up to 32Gb/s!
Power Supply
Having a Power Supply Unit with high power rating is important, if you are going to use components which require extra power. The HP ProDesk 490 G1 Microtower comes with a decent 300 Watt PSU, but the Acer Veriton M6650g has a more powerful one rated at 500 Watts. Choosing either one depends on your specific requirements and use case. Also don't forget that some models might have more than one PSU option - try to always get the most powerful one, especially if you plan to upgrade to a powerful GPU.
Motherboard
