Awesome Power
Pros:
Great power for the money
Cons:
A bit of bloatware
The Bottom Line:
Great power for the money
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
My wife was getting frustrated with her “old” dual core system because it was too slow for some of the modern applications. (Wow, back in the day we would be happy for two cores; we walked uphill to school both ways back in the old days).
Anyway, as I was driving a new Quad core system I thought she should enjoy the latest technology also. I couldn’t believe that you could get a 6700 Quad core with 6 gigs of RAM (running Vista x64 so she could address the full 6 gig) with an OK video card. WOW.
I know people have talked about how computing power will eventually get “free” but man that is a lot of horsepower for not a lot of money.
This system is not a bottom feeder though. It runs about $1000; but for that you get the Quad core processor, 6 gig RAM, 750 Gig HD, Nvidia 9500 GS video card, media card reader, TV/FM tuner, wireless network card, DVD +/- lightscribe drive, keyboard, mouse. Basically everything you need to kick butt and take names. Now this baby won’t compete with some of the super gaming machines but for the money I’m not sure you can do better. This has a neat media bay that will hold one of HP's external USB hard drives as a removable drive option but they are a bit expensive for the capacity.
The system comes in a really cool box with pull out tabs that unlock the outer cover. Then the lid slides up and the box folds out to reveal the keyboard and accessories box. There is a poster that guides you through the startup sequence. Very cool out of box experience.
Once we started up the system it searched for updates and began to start a neat intro program to get the user acquainted with Vista and HP. I have installed a few programs (iTunes, Quicken 2008, etc.) and things are working out fine. Since this is running Vista 64bit (which allows the operating system to address the full 6 gig of RAM) there were a few bumps during the setup. We had to install the 64 bit iTunes software, fortunately iTunes was smart enough to know that it had to change the install so everything worked out fine.
The experience has been great. This thing really screams with everyday applications. Of course the fresh install and 6 gigs of RAM probably helps. After we install Photoshop Elements I will update the review about the performance.
Overall we are very happy and can’t wait to see how things work out.
Bradman
