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HP HP Pavilion Slimline S3200t

77

Good

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Pros
Compact Size
Reasonably priced
Cons
Slow performance
Limited expansion

Performance: Fair: 65
Features: Good: 71
Design: Very Good: 83

Find out how these scores, and their relative weights, combine to produce the PC World Rating.

Performance
Adobe Photoshop CS2	446
Autodesk 3ds max 8.0 SP-3 DirectX	400
Autodesk 3ds max 8.0 SP-3 Rendering	741
Firefox 2	299
Microsoft Office 2003 with SP-1	368
Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9.0	253
Nero 7 Ultra Edition	513
Overall Graphics Score	Poor
Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator 1.5	237
Winzip Computing WinZip 10.0	292
WorldBench 6 Score	88
WorldBench 6 Word Score	Fair

WorldBench 6 Tests
Multitasking	379

What You Should Know about the HP Pavilion Slimline S3200t

Good Amount of RAM for Running Multiple Apps at Once

This computer includes between 1GB and 3GB of RAM, our recommended level for a new PC. This much memory lets you run any modern operating system and comfortably work with quite a few applications open. The more installed memory your PC has, the more programs you can run smoothly at once, and the better the system will perform. Upgrading memory in a desktop after you purchase the PC is a breeze, but usually it's worthwhile to buy the amount of memory you want preinstalled with the system.

To use more than 4GB of memory on your PC, you need the 64-bit version of Windows XP or Windows Vista. The PCs that you see equipped with 3GB of memory (instead of 4GB) tend to use the 32-bit versions of Windows that are limited to 4GB of addressable memory, the top portion of which is addressed by the various hardware devices on the system.

Reviewed by: Skshrews

Duration of ownership: 2 Months

Strengths: Small size, multiple card reader ports, HP support is very good, relatively quiet, cheap

Weaknesses: High end gaming performance, difficult to expand, difficult to access case

Overall Evaluation: I agree with PC World's review, noting the price they paid (~$1600) was nearly double what I paid (~$850, monitored included, no modem, Intel Duo Core 1.8mhz,2GB memory, TV card installed). The size is very nice, and it comes with a Windows Media Center Remote. It fits into a media area reasonably well. Relatively quiet, though the fan will kick in intermittently and create more noise. I run "low end" games (Civ IV) on it without difficulty. I don't doubt that this is not a high end gaming machine. HP support has been good. For someone looking for a cheap, small desktop for simple activities email, web browsing, simple games) this is a good choice.