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HP Touchsmart 520-1130ea review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £749
inc VAT

Not the most exciting all-in-one, but it’s a well-made and reasonably priced living room PC

Specifications

3.3GHz Intel Core i3-2120, 4GB RAM, 23in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.hp.co.uk

HP’s all-in-one PCs typically occupy a competent middle ground – powerful enough to ensure that running multiple programs and keeping several browser tabs open at once won’t be a problem, while still being sufficiently quiet and attractive not to look out of place in your sitting room. With unassuming looks and a respectable overall score of 62 in our benchmark tests, the TouchSmart 520-1130ea fits comfortably within this vision of a family PC.

The size and brightness of the 23in touchscreen display are immediately appealing. There’s plenty of room on the 1,920×1,080 screen to work with images or spreadsheets, and the intense colours are pleasing, although they can seem a little harsh in combination with the reflectiveness of the glossy display. Unlike some all-in-ones, you can’t connect a second display. Neither can you use the TouchSmart’s screen as a standalone display for other devices, such as games consoles.

HP Touchsmart 520-1130ea
The display has intense colours, but it’s a shame it can’t be used for external devices.

The PC has an Intel Core i3-2120 processor and 4GB of RAM. As well as putting in a decent performance in our software tests, the processor includes an Intel HD Graphics 2000 on-chip GPU. This isn’t powerful enough for modern 3D games (the TouchSmart even failed even our 720p Dirt 3 tests), but it’s great for movies, casual games and even some older 3D titles, such as Valve’s Portal.

The 1080p display is great for watching HD movies, although you’ll have to get them from online services or use an external Blu-ray reader because the PC only has a DVD drive. For added entertainment value, a DVB-T tuner lets you connect an aerial and watch Freeview TV.

HP TouchSmart 520-1030uk back panel ports
An integrated TV tuner means you can use Windows Media Center to record and view your favourite TV shows.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor Intel Core i3-2120
Processor external bus 100MHz (DMI)
Processor multiplier x33
Processor clock speed 3.3GHz
Processor socket LGA1155
Memory 4
Memory type PC3-10666
Maximum memory 8GB
Motherboard Pegatron Corporation 2AC3
Motherboard chipset Intel H61

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/4
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/0
eSATA ports (front/rear) 0/0
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11n

Internal Expansion

Case all-in-one
PCI-E x1 slots (free) N/A
PCI-E x16 slots (free) N/A
Free memory slots 1
Free 3.5in drive bays 0

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Hitachi DeskStar (HDS721010CLA)
Interface N/A
Total storage capacity 1,000GB

Graphics

Graphics card(s) Intel HD Graphics 2000
Graphics/video ports none

Sound

Sound Intel HD Audio
Sound outputs 3.5mm stereo line out, 3.5mm mic in, 1x Beats headphone/mic port, 1x Beats subwoofer out
Speakers integrated

Removable Drives

Supported memory cards SD, SDHC, SDXC, Memory Stick Pro, MMC, xD
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 23 in
Screen model integrated
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Screen inputs none

Other Hardware

Keyboard HP HPK-KG-1061
Mouse HP MG-0982

Software

Software included HP TouchSmart software suite, Microsoft Office 2010 Starter
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition

Buying Information

Warranty one year collect and return
Price £749
Supplier http://www.hp.co.uk
Details www.hp.co.uk

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