I Review the HP Dx2250 RT949UT AMD Micro-Tower Computer

HP has recently released a large series of space saving desktops designed for the office or in some cases the living room. These are becoming more and more popular as integrated entertainment center PC's. This HP dx2250 RT949UT won't quite make it to your living room, but that's what reviews like this are for. I'm going to let you know what you can expect from this AMD powered HP and who will get the most for their money. Let me start with some of the basics.

Hardware:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2.0GHz

RAM: 2GB (DDR2)

Storage Space: 80GB (SATA hard drive)

Optical Drive: CD R / RW with integrated DVD ROM

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (mine came with a vista upgrade)

In the box: 1 keyboard and 1 mouse

First thing I notice is that for the price this AMD is a great value. It is a decently strong 64Bit processor. I would like to see a little bit more in the way of RAM to complement the processor (it takes a minimum of 2GB just to see Vista run at its full potential). XP comes preinstalled from some retailers, I would make sure you either request vista come installed or request free upgrade CD's, for the money that you're having to pay these days on a desktop you really ought to have at least the option for the newest operating system. Lastly the hard drive space is ridiculously lacking. It may be attributable to some of the manufacturer's partitioning but it needs to be expanded.

Connectivity:

Flash card reader (to directly insert solid state memory to the computer)

6 2.0 USB ports (to be used to connect to a number of different peripherals like digital cameras, printers, and mp3 players)

1 serial port

1 parallel port

2 PS/2 inputs (old school periphrial inputs for things like mice and keyboards)

1 Ethernet input

1 VGA output (to connect to monitors)

2 audio in

2 audio out

1 microphone in

As far as the connectivity goes in the HP dx2250 RT949UT AMD Micro-tower Computer it is very standard. I see just about everything I would expect, and little more. This desktop in my opinion isn't the best option for today's consumer. Everything about it is a little antiquated and for a price tag of around $500-600 I believe just about anyone could find something to meet their needs a little better at that price point. I wouldn't even recommend this as an office only PC because you could such a better deal out there even with one of the HP's newer slimlines for example.