HP RP5700 Long Lifecycle Desktop

We tested HP's rp5700 Long Lifecycle Desktop ($1368 as of 9/12/07) as part of "Green PCs: A First Step," a story on energy-efficient computing. This business desktop is Energy Star 4.0-rated, and it meets the stringent EPEAT Gold environmental impact standard. (EPEAT is a program funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.) It is not terribly high-powered--but that helps limit its electricity consumption.

HP intends this PC for businesses, such as those in health care or education. The company says that the rp5700 has a five-year life cycle, which means within that period HP won't change the internal chassis, and you can upgrade or replace components and be assured that they'll work. The price of our rp5700 test unit also includes a long five-year warranty.

Our test system's case was easy to slide open and was very neatly organized. It was fully packed and had no free full-sized PCI Express slots or open external or internal drive bays. It did have one free memory slot, though. The case was basic, but ports were well labeled. The two front USB ports can be hidden under a flap, which I liked. I also liked the way text and graphics looked on the 20-inch LP2065 LCD that came with our test unit.

Typical of a business system, the rp5700 lacked extras such as FireWire ports and media-card slots. The system's Start menu has links to Microsoft's Learning Center Web site, where you can find articles such as "Five Easy Steps to Create a Marketing Plan."

Our test unit, which had a 1.8-GHz Pentium Dual-Core E2160 processor and 1GB of RAM, scored a 67 in our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 tests. That's just below average in our value desktop category but still speedy enough for the mainstream tasks it's designed for. Its integrated Intel graphics produced low frame rates--6.90 frames per second and 8.74 fps in our Doom 3 and Far Cry graphics tests, respectively--so the kids in the computer lab will be sorely disappointed.

HP markets this PC as eco-friendly, and with 90 percent of its materials and packaging recyclable and reusable, it seems to be. It's certified as Energy Star 4.0-compliant, but, as shown by test results listed in our "Green PCs" article, it proved less energy-efficient than Dell's OptiPlex 755 Mini-Tower and Enano's EX7200--both of which also had better WorldBench 6 Beta 2 performance.

Still, if you need a general office PC and want a system that has a five-year warranty, the HP's rp5700 Long Lifecycle Desktop is attractive.

Narasu Rebbapragada