- Strong 3D Graphics
- Digital/Analog TV Tuner
- Wireless Networking
- AMD Quad Core Offering Not As Strong as Intel Models
- Would Be Nice to See Inclusion of Blu-ray Player Drive
- Case Not Well Suite to Home Theater Environment
- AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad Core Processor
- 6GB PC2-6400 DDR2 memory
- 750GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 16x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner with LightScribe
- NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Graphics Card with 512MB Memory
- Digital/Analog TV Tuner with Media Center Remote
- 7.1 Audio
- Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless
- Six USB 2.0, Two FireWire, 15-in-1 Card Reader
- Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Works, CyberLink DVD Suite, muvee AutoProducer, Norton Internet Security 2008
8/8/08 - HP has chosen to use the AMD Phenom X4 9850 quad core processor in the HP Pavilion Elite m9350f over the Intel Core 2 Quad models. While this does bring some significant cost savings, the Phenom X4 does lag behind many of the Core 2 Quad models in terms of overall performance. They have increased the memory up to 6GB of PC2-6400 DDR2 that prevents any slowdowns from insufficient memory. Memory performance isn't much different than 4GB but it can make a bit of a different when heavily multitasking.
Since the Pavilion Elite m9350f is oriented towards being a media center, a number of features are quite important. A digital compatible HDTV tuner allows the desktop to be used as an over the air TV tuner. The 750GB hard drive provides lots of space for digital media files for playback. The one real feature that the m9350f still lacks is a Blu-ray compatible drive for playback of high definition movies. At least the 802.11b/g/n wireless adapter allows the system to be installed just about anywhere without worrying about the network connections.
One of the big flaws in the previous generation of Pavilion Elites was the lackluster 3D graphics. The m9350f has greatly upgraded this to a GeForce 9800 GT graphics card with 512MB of memory that lets it perform very well with 3D applications such as games, something the previous models did not really have.
Overall, the Pavilion Elite m9350f is a set of trade offs. It is strong as a media center but lacks certain items to make it really work in a theater environment. What it does do better at is as a general performance desktop computer system for things like desktop video or gaming.
