HP Pavilion p7-1154

The HP Pavilion p7-1154 ($519.99 list at Best Buy) is an affordable, entry-level desktop with room to grow. However, its quad-core AMD Llano chipset, containing the CPU and GPU on the same die, was underwhelming on our benchmark tests, even against a machine equipped with the lowest-powered processor in Intel's Core i-series, the HP Pavilion p7-1030 ($580 street, 4 stars). If Web browsing and basic home use is all you want to do, the p7-1154 should fit the bill. But even tinkerers should be warned; you may enjoy many of the upgrade options available, but without investing some time and money, this desktop will leave most users underwhelmed.

Design & Features
On the whole, the p7-1154 is nearly identical in design to the Pavilion p7-1030, an Intel-based variant of the same Pavilion line: It's a standard mid-tower PC, with the usual black boxy design. The front features a stylized glossy black panel, surrounded by a silver-grey trim, and accented with a white-blue LED light at the top, indicating that the PC is powered on. The front panel is actually made up of several covers that slide aside and flip open to reveal the drives and ports behind. There are two USB 2.0 ports, jacks for headphones and microphone, and an array of card readers that can handle a wide variety of memory formats (including SD, xD, MMC, MS, and Compact Flash).

On the back of the tower, you'll find two additional USB 2.0 ports (which will be occupied by the wired USB keyboard and mouse that HP provides), two USB 3.0 ports, two DVI-D display outputs, a wired LAN connection, and a selection of inputs and outputs for audio.

The p7-1154 comes bundled with a wired USB keyboard and wired optical mouse. While the overall quality of the keyboard and mouse are passable, the fact that they are wired?and subsequently occupy two USB ports?is a bit of a drag.

The Pavilion p7-1154's tower measures 15.3 by 6.9 by 16.1 inches (HWD), small enough to slip under a desk, but nowhere near as compact as a small-form factor (SFF) desktop. The right panel is held in place with a single Phillip's head screw, providing easy internal access for repairs and upgrades. There are four DIMM slots; two of them are taken up by 6GB of memory in total, so you can upgrade the system to about 16GB. The 300W power supply should still provide enough power for most basic upgrades, but nothing more than an entry-level graphics card to fill the open PCIe x16 slot, and a selection of open PCI slots (three PCI Express x1). There are three open expansion bays for an optical drive and two hard drives (two 3.5-inch hard drive bays and one 5.25-inch optical drive bay), however, there are only two SATA ports open to connect them.

It's equipped already equipped with a dual-layer DVD+-RW optical drive, letting you read and burn CDs and DVDs, as well as a sizable 1TB (7200rpm) hard drive. There is also an 802.11n wireless PCIe Mini-card, meaning that you can wirelessly connect to your router, so there's no need to set the desktop up in the same room or snake troublesome cables throughout your house.

The HP Pavilion p7-1154 comes with a selection of software pre-installed on the system, (a.k.a., bloatware), like Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security, a 30-day trial of Norton Online Backup, and a collection of sample games from Wild Tangent. The Pavilion p7-1154 also comes with HP LinkUp, a program that lets you access other Windows 7 computers on the same local network. Even computers from other manufacturers can download the LinkUp software to share files. It's like having your own local cloud.

Best Buy also has an extended warranty program, which offers customers an extra year of protection beyond the one-year warranty of most system manufacturers. There are two plans in this extended warranty program. The standard plan ($119.99) covers the system against normal wear and tear, power surge damage, and includes a "No Lemon" guarantee in which Best Buy will simply replace the computer if it requires more than 4 repairs during the coverage period. Best Buy's advanced plan ($219.99) offers all this, and also covers the system against accidental damage from drops and spills. Other special offers can be found online or in stores, like discounts on printers, software, and tech support plans which are available with any new consumer PC purchased through Best Buy.

Performance
The p7-1154 comes equipped with a quad-core 2.1GHz AMD A6 3600 APU and 6GB of RAM; the combination puts reasonable computing capability into a budget-friendly price range. In benchmark tests, the processor offered middle-of-the-road performance. It's PCMark 7 score of 1,986 points outperformed the Asus Essentio CM1730-05 ($569.99, 3 stars) (1,911 points), which uses a 2.6GHz AMD Phenom II X6 1065T processor, and isn't terribly far behind the dual-core Intel Core i3-2100-equipped HP p7-1030 (2,536 points). In Cinebench R11.5, it fell flat, scoring 2.61 points, compared with the Dell Inspiron i620-3708NBK ($649.99 list, 3.5 stars) (4.78 points) and Asus CM1730-05 (5.19 points).

In multimedia tests, the desktop's AMD processor failed to match the performance offered by either Intel Core i3 and i5 processors or the AMD Phenom II X6 found in the Asus CM1730-05. The p7-1154 completed Handbrake in 2 minutes 49 seconds, well behind the Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU ($599.99 list, 4 stars) (2:12) and the Dell i620-3708NBK (1:22). It fell even further behind in our Photoshop CS5 test, completing the test in 7 minutes 13 seconds, which is almost twice the processing time of the Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU (3:49) and more than two minutes behind the Asus CM1730-05 (4:47). That's a significant difference between similarly-priced systems.

AMD's Vision APU means that in addition to the A6 processor, the p7-1154 also packs an AMD Radeon HD 6530D graphics processor. In 3DMark 11, it put up moderate scores of 1,211 points at medium resolution and detail settings, but only 231 points when cranked up to native resolution and higher detail. Though the numbers are low, these are still top scores because comparable systems were unable to run the new graphics test. On the whole, graphics performance is on the low-end, and gaming is out of the question. It couldn't run our Crysis gaming test, and in Lost Planet 2, on the least demanding settings, it produced an unplayable 18.1 frames per second.

When all is said and done, the HP Pavilion p7-1154 stacks up as an affordable?if underwhelming?desktop that provides all the basics without breaking the bank. For buyers looking for a bare-bones desktop for casual use or as a cheap starting point for customized upgrades, the p7-1154 fits the bill. If you want a system that's ready to go and provides the most bang for the buck, look instead to the Editors' Choice Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU or Dell Inspiron i620-3708NBK.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the HP Pavilion p7-1154 with several other desktops side by side.

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