Mick Lockey

HP Pavilion 792

With the Pavilion 792's colossal hard drive, DVD+RW/+R/CD-RW drive, and 32X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, storage options abound for everything from archiving data to burning MP3s to saving vacation videos. (Note that although the DVD+RW drive can handle CD-RW writes as quickly as the separate CD-RW drive, it writes to CD-R at a slower 12X.) A front-mounted FireWire port, located behind a hinged door, makes transferring video from digital camcorders to the PC easy. Part of the system's high $3528 price can be attributed to the HP Pavilion F70 17-inch LCD monitor, which by itself has a price tag of $720. The panel has a large, 12-inch oval base that's equipped with headphone and audio jacks, as well as integrated speakers (though our review unit came with a separate three-piece sound system). In image quality tests using the display's 1280 by 1024 optimum resolution, text looked crisp and desktop icons appeared sharp. Displaying our test photo, its color quality was a tad muted compared with that of the best LCDs we've seen, but still quite good overall. In DVD-movie playback the panel rendered bright, smooth images without noticeable color streaking or image ghosting. The Pavilion 792 earned high marks for image quality on our Quake III and Unreal Tournament tests--particularly on the latter, which had slightly smoother textures and lighting than we saw from the Alienware Aurora DDR we tested at the same time. In 32-bit color mode, game images looked good at both the native resolution of 1280 by 1024 and at lower resolutions. Based on a GeForce4 MX 440 graphics chip set, the game setup is adequate for occasional frag sessions.
A minitower case makes this system less upgrade-friendly than most other PCs, even less so than the Pavilion 752 we reviewed earlier this year, which included more options. After loosening two thumbscrews and slipping off the side panel, we found a cramped interior with twisted cables that would hinder smooth upgrades. Given this system's robust set of features, it's unlikely to require many additions. That's fortunate, because its compact design offers few options: It has no open bays for removable-media drives and only one available hard-drive bay and one PCI slot for expansion. You might use that remaining slot for a high-end sound card, as our review unit came with only integrated circuitry that could not support a four- or five-speaker surround-sound set--a conspicuous shortcoming on an otherwise decked-out entertainment system. However, the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 two-speaker and subwoofer combo still produced clear trebles and enough deep bass to satisfy most home users.
Equipped with a 2.53-GHz Pentium 4 CPU and 1GB of DDR SDRAM, our review machine earned a PC WorldBench 4 score of 119, putting it a few points lower than comparable systems but still within respectable range--and a significant 11 points (10 percent) higher than a 2.2-GHz Pentium 4-based Pavilion sibling we tested in March. The keyboard provides both word descriptors and icons for its hot-keys, which are grouped by categories for accessing the Web and controlling CD and DVD functions. Typing was smooth and quiet. The software bundle includes basic titles such as Microsoft's Money 2002, ArcSoft's ShowBiz video editing program, and several games. Although an encyclopedia is a handy inclusion, we were surprised to see a somewhat-dated 2000 version of Microsoft's excellent Encarta.
The pricey Pavilion 792 suits home users looking for a quick, video-capable machine with a big LCD screen. You can, however, save significant money by going with a CRT or a smaller LCD, as well as a slightly slower Pentium processor.

Buying Information

HP Pavilion 792 PC WorldBench 4 score of 119, 2.53-GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 1GB of 266-MHz DDR SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 120GB hard drive, DVD+RW/+R/CD-RW drive, 32X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, GeForce4 MX 440 graphics card with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, 17-inch HP Pavilion F70 LCD monitor, integrated sound, Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers, network adapter, V.90 modem, minitower case, USB 2.0 and FireWire ports; Microsoft Works Suite 6, ArcSoft ShowBiz. Three-year parts and labor warranty; free unlimited 24-hour daily toll-free support for the length of the warranty. $ 3528 PC WorldBench 4 score of 119, 2.53-GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 1GB of 266-MHz DDR SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 120GB hard drive, DVD+RW/+R/CD-RW drive, 32X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, GeForce4 MX 440 graphics card with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, 17-inch HP Pavilion F70 LCD monitor, integrated sound, Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers, network adapter, V.90 modem, minitower case, USB 2.0 and FireWire ports; Microsoft Works Suite 6, ArcSoft ShowBiz. Three-year parts and labor warranty; free unlimited 24-hour daily toll-free support for the length of the warranty. http://www.hp.com 800/999-4747