HP Pavilion HPE h9-1120t Phoenix: High-End Features at a Great Price - holguindortmationat

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Great features for the price: USB3 Blu-ray, 2TB
Good graphics performance

Cons

No SSD flush repel
Metal scaffolding inside makes tinkering difficult

Our Finding of fact

This budget machine is a little on the pricey side, but it packs heaps of high end features including quaternity USB 3.0 ports and a large 2TB hard driveway.

At $1689 (as configured), the HP Marquee HPE h9-1120t pushes the "budget" part of the Budget PC category, but that doesn't mean IT's not an superior deal. This desktop has tons of of import higher-end features–including multiple USB 3.0 ports and a 2TB disc drive, advantageous a fast graphics card with 2GB of anatomy buffer–all at a decent, if not dirt-cheap, terms.

Our followup simulate sports a third-generation "Ivy Bridge" Intel Kernel i7 processor (the i7-3770K, to embody exact), 12GB of RAM, and a 2TB, 7200-revolutions per minute hard drive. This budget desktop too has an AMD Radeon HD 7950 discrete graphics card, a Blu-electron beam disc player/DVD-writer opthalmic drive, and an 802.11n dual-pullulate tune card. The h9-1120t runs a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Performance

The HP h9-1120t performs well for a budget PC. In PCWorld's WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, the h9-1120t scores 121 out of 100, which means it's 21 percent faster than our base testing model. This International Relations and Security Network't a big surprise, since our testing model exclusively has a second-contemporaries Intel Core i5-2500K processor and 8GB of RAM. Compared with other budget desktops, such as the MicroExpress MicroFlex 37B, the h9-1120t doesn't look so good–the MicroFlex 37B scores 172 on WorldBench 7, merely it also has a quick solid-state boot drive, which drastically improves its WB7 score.

Chassis: Plan and Interior

The h9-1120t is housed in a medium-sized, exemplary-looking tower. The case has a shiny melanise plastic front with matte silver plastic accents and flat contraband metal sides. The exact side (if you're facing the machine) has a midget angular plastic window through which shines scarlet LEDs, while the left side is stamped with a tremendous H.P. logo.

Happening the breast of the tower you'll find the Blu-beam drive, an elaboration bay slot, and a 15-in-1 card reader bay with four USB 2.0 ports. The card reader bay is located under a sliding plastic door, which feels a pocket-sized flimsy. The power push is located on the overstep of the tower, along with two USB 3.0 ports and phone and microphone jacks.

The rest of the ports are located connected the hind of the h9. Here you'll find two additional USB 3.0 ports (for a total of four) and four additional USB 2.0 ports (for a tot up of eight). Thither's too a gigabit ethernet port, an receptor audio frequency-verboten, and support for 7.1 environment sound. The AMD graphics card holds the art ports: unmatchable DVI, one HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPorts.

The inside of the h9-1120t is a little messy. Colorful wires are held together with Edward D. White zip-ties–non neatly bundled into melanize mesh, but not a lowlife's nest either. There's one abandon 5.25-inch bay, two empty 3.5-inch bays, and nonpareil PCIe x1 time slot that's both empty and accessible. HP does brand tinkering a little more difficult than it has to be past adding alloy scaffolding inside the tower–figure rails that must embody removed exploitation a screwdriver before you can start working inside the machine.

Peripherals

Our reexamine poser, as priced, comes with basic, USB-bugged peripherals, though you can upgrade to wireless peripherals or a Beatniks Sound-increased backlit keyboard for an extra $10 along HP's web site.

The included keyboard is black with silver accents and flat, regular-style keys. It's cozy to type on, and the large keys give good physical feedback. It's also smooth. There are hardly a frills on the keyboard–basic audio control buttons, as well as an Fn-operated Beats Audio key for toggling HP's Beats Audio software off and on.

The sneak out is your typical sensory receptor affair, with two buttons and a scroll wheel. IT feels a itty-bitty small in my hand, which is significant–I have small hands–and the buttons are a little stiff. The scroll wheel works well, though, and the mouse is immediate and responsive on-screen.

The Bottom Line

The H.P. Pavilion HPE h9-1120t may not exist the prettiest or most reigning PC around, but IT's a mass for the price. Non only do you come decent graphics and gaming performance, you also get iv USB 3.0 ports, built-in Wisconsin-Fi, a Blu-ray record player/DVD-author (for an additive $80 you behind snag a Blu-ray disc writer), and 2TB of hard-drive space.

The h9-1120 performs well for its class, and is a good pick for budget-apt gamers. If you don't need the extra graphics power, you can buoy also order the h9-1120t with a little graphics card: The dishonorable model comes with an AMD Radeon HD 7670, which will save you $429.