A Review of the Top Selling HP Pavilion S3430F Slimline Desktop PC

While not quite as space saving as an all in one, it does come at a fraction of the price and size while being just as power as some of the top of the line full sized desktops. The S3430F is one of HP's Slimline Pavilions. It is a mid range PC and is quite small, usually it comes at the cost of some connectivity and some expandability, but we'll see and those are a few things that I'll address in this review. First I'm going to start with a few of the basics.

Hardware:

Processor: AMD Phenom 9100E Quad Core Processor

Storage Space: 500GB (7200 RPM SATA hard drive)

RAM: 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM

Optical Drive: Blu Ray / HD DVD player with integrated CD R RW DVD +/- burner

Also in the box: Mouse, Keyboard, IR remote, IR remote receiver

This little desktop comes with a great processor. The AMD runs strong and I've had no trouble running fairly graphically intensive games. I also really like that it comes with a blu-ray (as well as HD DVD) player it really gives it a lot of options away from just being a PC and opening up the possibility of moving this to the living room. The HP S3430F really does hold its own as an entertainment center edition. It has the necessary connectivity, hard drive space, and while running windows Vista it has a lot of the desirable software preinstalled.

Connectivity:

Integrated WiFi

Ethernet port

1 Modem port

15 in 1 card reader (to directly insert the solid state memory you use in your portable devices)

6 2.0 USB ports (to connect to any number of peripherals like digital cameras and printers)

2 PS/2 ports (for old school mouse and keyboard connections)

VGA output (to connect to a standard monitor)

DVI output

HDMI output (to connect to a high definition television)

I love the HDMI and DVI outputs especially with the high definition optical drives. The 15 in 1 will pretty much please anyone with any sort of handheld device.

In the end this is a great little desktop. It will please students with its great multimedia abilities, game playing possibilities and small footprint. It would also do well in the living room as an entertainment PC with its high definition video playing. In fact it would probably be best used as an entertainment PC, it would be a waste in some sort of office situation. Although at $1000 about anyone can afford to put this desktop in any sort of situation they'd like. I think it is a great deal and unfortunately I don't expect to see any substantial drops the in price anytime soon