HP Pavilion p7-1126s

The HP Pavilion p7-1126s's ($559.99 list at Staples) AMD A8 Llano APU may not be as fast as Intel's Core i3 processors in media manipulation and day-to-day performance tests, but in-game, this desktop has the oomph the Core i3's integrated graphics just can't offer. If you want that fast CPU and some gaming prowess, and you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty, you could purchase a cheap, bare-bones unit, like the Dell Inspiron i620-228NBK ($479.99 list, 4 stars) and outfit it with a budget GPU later on. Otherwise, you'll have to start considering systems over $700 if you want more power beyond these options.

Design and Features
The p7-1126s has the same black aluminum chassis and glossy plastic front panel as most other towers in the Pavilion line, like the HP Pavilion p7-1154 ($519.99 list, 2.5 stars). A light at the top of the face panel glows blue-white when the system is on, adding some flair to an otherwise utilitarian design (glows orange when asleep). There's a sliding door on the front panel that conceals an audio and mic jack, and two USB 2.0 ports. At the top of the face plate are a series of media card slots (xD/SmartMedia, CompactFlash, SD/MMC, and Memory Stick), and finishing off the feature selection in the front of the chassis is a DVD+-RW (with LightScribe). The back has four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, audio-in and ?out, a mic jack, Ethernet, and two DVI-D video outputs. The system also comes with integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi.

Cracking the system open requires only a Phillips screwdriver. After sliding open one of the side panels, you'll be able to see the two of the four memory slots are filled with 6GB of DDR3 RAM, and the three PCIe x1 slots and one PCIe x16 slot are open for upgrades. You will have to consider the 300W power supply, especially if you're thinking of adding in a discrete graphics card. There's one hard drive bay and one optical drive bay (in case you want to upgrade to a Blu-ray player), and two SATA ports available. However, upgrading the hard drive shouldn't be an issue, as the Pavilion p7-1126s comes with a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive, which should be sufficient even for heavy downloaders.

The hard drive is loaded with extraneous software: Zya Music, an eBay link, and Blio ereader litter the desktop sceen, while Bing Bar (a web browser app), two more ereaders (Zinio and Kobo), and Roxio media player reside in your list of programs. One of the more useful apps HP loaded onto its hard drive is Beats Audio, by Dr. Dre. This software will help improve the bass quality in your music and movies, especially if you have a pair of Beats headphones.

Customers who buy this system from Staples can avail themselves of several services the retailer offers. This includes setting the new system up, data transfer from your old PC to your new one, software installation, and tech support and protection plans that range in price from $14.99 to $169.99.

Performance
The Pavilion p7-1126s's AMD Llano APU is unique to other chipsets, as it has its CPU (A8 3800) and discrete graphics (Radeon HD 6550D) on the same die. This means that it can pack more punch on the gaming grid, more so than Intel's integrated graphics. In Crysis (DirectX 10), the p7-1126s garnered 46 frames per second (fps) on medium quality settings at 1,280-by-720 resolution. In Lost Planet 2, our DirectX 11 test, it had a bit more trouble, scoring an unplayable 22fps (30fps is the minimum frame rate required to deem it playable). You'll be able to play DirectX 9 and 10 games easily enough, so long as you adjust your settings accordingly.

When it came to the day-to-day CPU-intensive tasks, the Pavilion p7-1126s's A8 3800 processor was slow to react compared with the Intel Core i3s in the Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU ($599.99 list, 4 stars) and Inspiron i620-228NBK. The Pavilion p7-1126s required 2 minutes 33 seconds to finish encoding a video in Handbrake, while the Dell i620-228NBK only took 1:42. In Photoshop CS5 the p7-1126s (6:33) continued to fall behind the Dell i620-228NBK (3:55) and Lenovo K330-11691AU (3:49) by a significant margin. Just to be clear, the Pavilion p7-1126s will work well in the day-to-day (i.e. Web browsing and office tasks), but anything outside of that (i.e. video editing and heavy Photoshop work) will yield slower results than the Intel-brand of processors.

If your intended purpose for the Pavilion p7-1126s is Web browsing, office tasks, and gaming on the side, then this is the desktop for you. But if you want a computer with a more advanced processor to last you through the years, then you're better off going with the Editors' Choice Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU. And if you're a user who's looking for a true gaming machine, you shouldn't be browsing in the sub-$600 section.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the HP Pavilion p7-1126s with several other desktops side by side.

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