HP Pavilion Elite M9280F Product Review

In the last year or so HP has released its Elite line of desktop computers. This line is loaded up with top of the line hardware, and they often come with a top of the line price. Despite this they have represented one of the most successful lines of desktops currently on the market. Representing one of the best of the best I've decided to get my hands on the HP Pavilion Elite M9280F and give it a review. First lets get started by looking at a few of the essentials.

Hardware:

Processor: a 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9300 Penryn

Tuner: ATSC / NTSC TV tuner

Optical Drive: Blu-ray/HD DVD ROM drives with integrated 16x dual-layer LightScribe DVD drive / CD R/RW burner

Storage Space: (2) 500 GB hard drives (accounting for an amazing 1 TB total)

RAM: 4 GB RAM (which is upgradable to an 8 GB maximum)

Graphics Accelerator: an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT card (utilizing up to 512MB of GDDR3 dedicated video memory as well as possibly allocating additional system resources)

I love that this desktop comes complete with a television tuner. When combined with the huge dual hard drives that make up a TB of total storage space it allows for this desktop to move into the living room and replace your DVR. Along with that the graphics card is remarkable allowing users to play all of the most recent gaming releases and most of them at their highest settings. The quad core Penryn is an excellent powerhouse for this Elite desktop. I experienced very little lag when performing typical responsibilities and it had very quick boot times.

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 S-Video output (this is used for connecting to projectors or some compatible televisions)

1 DVI output (this is a monitor / compatible television connection)

1 HDMI output (this is a high definition video connection used for HD televisions)

1 VGA output (this is a typical monitor connection)

1 audio output / 1 microphone input

Digital SPDIF digital audio input and output supported

3 standard surround sound speakers supported

2 PS/2 ports (these are old school input device ports to be 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)

1 Ethernet port (this allows the desktop to connect to a wired network)

1 56K modem port (so that this desktop can dial up an internet connection)

The connectivity is wonderful on this desktop. It has everything I would expect for a PC that is on the higher end of the spectrum. This Elite HP is really what computing is all about right now. Coming in at about $1700 online, HP isn't shy about getting every penny this PC deserves. While we're approaching the high season around the first of August, I wouldn't expect to see much in the way of discounts as far as this bad boy is concerned so don't hesitate to go ahead and pull the trigger on this one.