- Lots of Hard Drive Space
- HDTV Compatible TV Tuner
- Wireless Networking
- Limited Performance 3D Graphics
- Form Factor Not Conduciving to Using With a Home Theater Setup
- Would Be Nice To Also Support Blu-ray Format
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Desktop Processor
- 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
- Two 360GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drives
- HD-DVD ROM and 16x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner with LightScribe
- NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT Graphics Card with 256MB Memory
- Digital and Analog TV Tuner
- HDA Audio
- v.92 56Kbps Modem, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless
- Six USB 2.0, Two FireWire, 15-in-1 Card Reader
- Vista Home Premium, MS Works, Norton Internet Security, HP Photosmart Essentials, Cyberlink DVD Suite
2/6/08 – HP's Pavilion Elite m9150f is a system that can really fit into a home theater environment. The system is designed with a number of features including a HDTV compatible TV tuner, HD-DVD ROM drive, graphics card with HDMI output and wireless networking. All of these are items one would expect from the home theater PC, but the design lacks the refine to really fit in such an environment.
The Pavilion Elite m9150f is powered by the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 quad core processor. This provides the system with very strong multithreaded and multitasking performance. This is really key for systems dealing with multiple media applications at the same time. The 3GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory lets it run smoothly even with the Vista operating system.
Storage space is critical for systems used as media centers due to the large file sizes. HP addresses this by giving the m9150f two 360GB hard drives for a large amount of space. It would have been nice to see them include this all in a single larger drive for better overall performance. They do have a pocket and media drive bays for easy storage expansion. The HD-DVD ROM drive is a nice addition to playback HD-DVD videos, but with the recent gains from Blu-ray it would be nice to see a multiformat drive to support both formats instead.
Graphics are key for home theater systems particularly for hooking up to a big screen TV. The GeForce 8500 GT card includes an HDMI output to connect to the latest HDTV units or LCD monitors. The 3D graphics performance from the card is a bit disappointing though and will likely need upgrading for those looking to use the system also for PC gaming.
