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HP Pavilion p6-2022uk Desktop PC Bundle review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £500
inc VAT

An attractive-looking PC, but its port selection and upgrade potential hold it back

Specifications

3.3GHz Intel Core i3-2120, 4GB RAM, 21.5in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

HP’s Pavilion p6-2022uk is usually sold as a stand-alone base unit, but PC World has bundled it with an LED-backlit Samsung monitor. Big brand PCs rarely compete with smaller vendors for value, but the Pavilion matches or exceeds the specifications of some custom-built PCs. Its Intel Core i3-2120 processor is par for the course: an overall score of 64 means it’s capable of most running Windows applications smoothly, and there’s also 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard disk.

HP Pavilion p6-2022uk Desktop PC Bundle

There’s no dedicated graphics card and the Core i3-2120’s integrated Intel HD Graphics chip isn’t up to playing games, as shown by its score of under 13fps in our DiRT 3 benchmark. You might be able to play older games but you won’t be able to play Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 3, for example.

As well as two free SATA headers, there are three free PCI-E x1 slots and one free PCI-E x16 slot. If you tidy the wiring away, there’s enough room to fit a large dedicated graphics card. The problem is the 300W power supply, which won’t be able to power some cards and doesn’t have any free Molex or PCI-E power plugs. Another problem is the lack of drive bays – despite having two free SATA headers, there are no extra drive bays.

HP Pavilion p6-2022uk Desktop PC Bundle

External expansion is limited as well. There are only six USB ports in total, and none of these supports the faster USB3 standard. Audio is limited to three 3.5mm outputs and, although there are VGA and DVI outputs, the Samsung monitor has only a VGA input.

HP Pavilion p6-2022uk Desktop PC Bundle

Strangely it doesn’t have any controls beyond a power button. However, by holding this down you can get the monitor to auto-adjust, so you’ll get a stable picture on the VGA-only monitor. It can also be adjusted using Samsung’s MagicTune software via the PC.

That’s a shame, as the Samsung S22A100N is a good-looking monitor, with a thin profile and a textured rear casing, and its image quality was otherwise good, with strong colours. The bright backlight was even, but there was a bit of backlight bleed at the edges that spoiled the image. Vertical viewing angles were also fussy, with no discernible sweet spot where contrast was uniformly even. The HP keyboard and mouse are decent budget models.

HP Pavilion p6-2022uk Desktop PC Bundle

The Pavilion p6-2022uk bundle isn’t designed with upgrades or playing games in mind; but it is a great-looking and compact PC with a large hard disk and reasonable Windows performance. However, the Palicomp Hyper Flame is better value if size isn’t an issue as it gives you a 1TB hard disk, a Blu-ray drive and a much better monitor. Plus, it has more room for expansion too.

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 DDR3
Maximum memory 16GB
Motherboard Foxconn 2ABF
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
Wireless networking support 802.11n

Internal Expansion

Case tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 3 (3)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 1 (1)
Free Serial ATA ports 2
Free memory slots 1
Free 3.5in drive bays 0

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Hitachi DeskStar 7K1000.C (HDS721010CLA632)
Interface SATA3
Total storage capacity 1,000GB

Graphics

Graphics card(s) Intel HD Graphics 2000
Graphics/video ports VGA, DVI

Sound

Sound Realtek HD Audio
Sound outputs 5.1 line out
Speakers none

Removable Drives

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

Display

Viewable size 21.5 in
Screen model Samsung SA100
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Screen inputs VGA

Other Hardware

Keyboard HP PR1101U wired keyboard
Mouse HP M-U0009-HP1 wired optical mouse

Software

Software included Microsoft Office 2010 Starter
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £500
Details www.pcworld.co.uk

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