Specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.66GHz .
Memory: 6GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066 MHz .
Hard drive: 750GB SATA @ 7200RPM .
Optical drive: Blu-ray readable / DVD+/-RW .
Sound: Integrated 7.1 audio .
Video card: ATI Radeon HD4850 1GB .
Networking: Gigabit Ethernet .
Wireless networking: 802.11n .
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit .
Power supply: Delta Electronics 460W .
Warranty: 1 year limited warranty.
One thing that’s set HP apart in recent years is the quality of their desktop cases, and the Pavilion Elite m9600t is no exception. The sides, top, bottom and back are all constructed out of metal with the front a plastic façade over top of a metal skeleton. Dell and HP have both taken a different tack than Apple with respect to handling inputs and the front styling of their bigger machines. Apple has largely removed these connections from the front of their computers and forced necessary ones, like the optical drive, to blend in very well.
Dell, and more to the point HP, have hidden as much as they can behind little doors and panels. On the plus side, this computer camouflage does a pretty good job of smoothing out the front and dimming down the high-tech look. Unfortunately, it’s applied somewhat haphazardly here, with some items covered and others not. Personally, I’d rather leave all of these panels and doors off entirely, as they often get in the way and if you want to plug in headphones or a USB device into the front, you’ll need to leave them open anyway.
One very cool feature of the m9600t that I’ve never seen on any other computer is a charging station built into the top of the desktop. Instead of being completely flat on top, the machine has a shallow indentation where you can store portable devices such as cell phones or MP3 players. The bottom and sides of the indentation are covered in a thick rubber mat that keeps all of your devices from getting scratched up; this is a really clever feature.
At the back of the mat is a flat clip that swivels up and down, hiding channels built into the top of the computer. Wires from charging devices are funneled through these grooves to USB ports on the rear of the computer. Once you have your gadgets set up, the clip snaps down and secures the cords in place, preventing a tangled mess. After the initial setup, you don’t need to reach around to the back of the computer to plug your iPod in, or leave USB cables dangling from the front of your machine.
Inputs and Expansion:
The m9600t is almost bursting at the seams with expandability, although not all of it is as useful as it might be. The front of the machine offers users a Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive as well as a 15-in-1 card reader in two of the expansion bays. There’s also an IR receiver in the middle of the card reader. Underneath those two is an open 5.25” expansion bay for whatever you might need to install.
It’s at this point where things get a little murky. In the middle of the front of the m9600t, HP put in a slot designed to fit its “pocket media drive” accessory. These are small portable hard drives that run off of USB. In the back of the of pocket drive bay is a full-sized USB plug; all you do is slot the drive into the bay and the built-in plug plugs into the drive. An eject button nearby ejects the drive when you’re finished with it. Further down the front of the chassis is another specialized drive bay that fits HP’s media drives, which are full-sized external drives. Inside this slot is another USB plug like you’d find on the end of a full-sized USB cable as well as a DC jack designed to fit into the back of the (traditionally) external media drive.
While both of these slots can be handy features, I’m not sure how useful they really are. Taking advantage of them requires you to buy HP’s external hard drives and no one else’s. Furthermore, these proprietary drive bays take up extra room in the case, and I’m not sure it’s worth it, since I’m willing to bet 90% of the people who buy these computers won’t buy the hard drives. Given HP’s really elegant solution for charging portable devices, I’d rather be able to add in more hard drives or drive bays and put external storage devices on the rubber mat on top.
Performance:
We’ve tested desktops based around Intel’s Core i7 platform before and they are, in a word, fast. The Pavilion Elite m9600t is no exception, ranking high in essentially all of our tests. It’s worth noting here that while Intel’s Core i7 920 processor has a standard multiplier of 20x, giving a clock speed of 2.66GHz, it can vary based on load. If Intel’s Turbo Mode is turned on in the BIOS, then when CPU load rises, the multiplier will increase to 21x, which ups the CPU to 2.79GHz. If you set Windows to its highest performance settings, then the CPU will stay clocked at the higher speed regardless of load on the processor.
SOURCE: desktopreview.com
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.66GHz .
Memory: 6GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066 MHz .
Hard drive: 750GB SATA @ 7200RPM .
Optical drive: Blu-ray readable / DVD+/-RW .
Sound: Integrated 7.1 audio .
Video card: ATI Radeon HD4850 1GB .
Networking: Gigabit Ethernet .
Wireless networking: 802.11n .
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit .
Power supply: Delta Electronics 460W .
Warranty: 1 year limited warranty.
One thing that’s set HP apart in recent years is the quality of their desktop cases, and the Pavilion Elite m9600t is no exception. The sides, top, bottom and back are all constructed out of metal with the front a plastic façade over top of a metal skeleton. Dell and HP have both taken a different tack than Apple with respect to handling inputs and the front styling of their bigger machines. Apple has largely removed these connections from the front of their computers and forced necessary ones, like the optical drive, to blend in very well.
Dell, and more to the point HP, have hidden as much as they can behind little doors and panels. On the plus side, this computer camouflage does a pretty good job of smoothing out the front and dimming down the high-tech look. Unfortunately, it’s applied somewhat haphazardly here, with some items covered and others not. Personally, I’d rather leave all of these panels and doors off entirely, as they often get in the way and if you want to plug in headphones or a USB device into the front, you’ll need to leave them open anyway.
One very cool feature of the m9600t that I’ve never seen on any other computer is a charging station built into the top of the desktop. Instead of being completely flat on top, the machine has a shallow indentation where you can store portable devices such as cell phones or MP3 players. The bottom and sides of the indentation are covered in a thick rubber mat that keeps all of your devices from getting scratched up; this is a really clever feature.
At the back of the mat is a flat clip that swivels up and down, hiding channels built into the top of the computer. Wires from charging devices are funneled through these grooves to USB ports on the rear of the computer. Once you have your gadgets set up, the clip snaps down and secures the cords in place, preventing a tangled mess. After the initial setup, you don’t need to reach around to the back of the computer to plug your iPod in, or leave USB cables dangling from the front of your machine.
Inputs and Expansion:
The m9600t is almost bursting at the seams with expandability, although not all of it is as useful as it might be. The front of the machine offers users a Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive as well as a 15-in-1 card reader in two of the expansion bays. There’s also an IR receiver in the middle of the card reader. Underneath those two is an open 5.25” expansion bay for whatever you might need to install.
It’s at this point where things get a little murky. In the middle of the front of the m9600t, HP put in a slot designed to fit its “pocket media drive” accessory. These are small portable hard drives that run off of USB. In the back of the of pocket drive bay is a full-sized USB plug; all you do is slot the drive into the bay and the built-in plug plugs into the drive. An eject button nearby ejects the drive when you’re finished with it. Further down the front of the chassis is another specialized drive bay that fits HP’s media drives, which are full-sized external drives. Inside this slot is another USB plug like you’d find on the end of a full-sized USB cable as well as a DC jack designed to fit into the back of the (traditionally) external media drive.
While both of these slots can be handy features, I’m not sure how useful they really are. Taking advantage of them requires you to buy HP’s external hard drives and no one else’s. Furthermore, these proprietary drive bays take up extra room in the case, and I’m not sure it’s worth it, since I’m willing to bet 90% of the people who buy these computers won’t buy the hard drives. Given HP’s really elegant solution for charging portable devices, I’d rather be able to add in more hard drives or drive bays and put external storage devices on the rubber mat on top.
Performance:
We’ve tested desktops based around Intel’s Core i7 platform before and they are, in a word, fast. The Pavilion Elite m9600t is no exception, ranking high in essentially all of our tests. It’s worth noting here that while Intel’s Core i7 920 processor has a standard multiplier of 20x, giving a clock speed of 2.66GHz, it can vary based on load. If Intel’s Turbo Mode is turned on in the BIOS, then when CPU load rises, the multiplier will increase to 21x, which ups the CPU to 2.79GHz. If you set Windows to its highest performance settings, then the CPU will stay clocked at the higher speed regardless of load on the processor.
SOURCE: desktopreview.com
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