HP Media Center PC: HP Pavilion M7750N

HP has recently released a line of desktops they're calling the Elite series. This series of desktops has integrated many of the popular features of the media center series and likely as a result we've seen prices of the media center PC's drop recently. This is good news for the consumer because these are still excellent desktops and thanks to just a little bit of marketing they can be bought at a nice discount. Because of this I've decided to try out the HP Pavilion M7750N, a media center desktop. I'm going to give it a brief review but let's get started first with some of the basics.

Hardware:

Tuner: ATSC / NTSC TV tuner

Processor: a 2.6 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ dual-core

Storage Space: a 400GB hard drive

RAM: 2GB of RAM (which can be upgraded to a 4GB maximum)

Optical Drive: a CD R/RW burner with integrated DVD +/- drive

True to its name no media center desktop would be complete without a little media. So we see that it has a TV tuner which is a great feature especially for those looking to save a little space. This means that not only is your desktop / monitor set up a computer it is also a television, an entertainment center, and a DVR (thanks to windows Vista) all in one. The performance is better than average thanks to the nice AMD power plant. The 2GB of RAM is an adequate amount to run Vista smoothly however it is what I consider the minimum. The storage space is also nice with the 40GB drive but then again it has to be to live up to its media center billing.

Connectivity:

6 2.0 USB ports (which are used to connect a wide range of peripherals ranging from digital cameras, to iPods to printers)

2 FireWire ports (these are typically used for high speed data transfer between digital camcroders as well as some compatible PCs)

1 Composite video input

1 S-Video input

1 audio output / 1 microphone input

2 PS/2 ports (an old school input device connection used with mice and keyboards)

15 in 1 memory card reader (this is allows the desktop owner to directly insert the memory from their mobile devices into the desktop)

The connectivity on this PC is nice and I find that I most of the ports are laid out well including some easy access USB ports on the front of the case. While I'm not terribly impressed with the lack of HD output it is still a great PC. This desktop can be found at some online retailers for as low as $500 which to me is a steal. I doubt this price will last long, so if you happen to come across it this low, don't hesitate to snag one of these bad boys up.