HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Slim Desktop PC

Sep 30 2010 - HP's Pavilion Slimline s5560f is an update to their previous high end slim desktop system. It retains the same features that make this a great home theater PC including Blu-ray compatible drive, HDTV tuner, wireless keyboard and mouse and Wi-Fi networking. The price remains roughly the same at $800 which is very affordable for these features but if the system won't be used in a home theater, there are more affordable options that offer similar or better performance.

Sep 30 2010 - For the most part, the HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f sticks to the same basic overall design as past models of the slim desktop. They have gone and upgraded a number of the parts but it still looks the same with the same level of features. It still uses the AMD Phenom II X4 processor that helps with multitasking and mutlithreaded applications such as desktop video. The speed bump is fairly minor and it does fall behind the Core i3 processor in single application tasks because of its higher clock speeds. The 6GB of memory help mitigate any slowdowns that would be caused from heavy multitasking or memory intensive applications.

Storage remains the same as in previous models with a sizable 1TB hard drive that provides plenty of space for applications, data and especially digital media. The stand out feature though is the Blu-ray Combo drive that helps make this a superb home theater PC. Not only can it playback or record CDs and DVDs but also playback high definition Blu-ray movies. This combined with an over the air HDTV tuner and the MediaSmart application with Netflix allows the system to handle just about any type of 1080p high definition video source.

One of the other big upgrades was the graphics card. Most slim desktop rely on integrated graphics but HP includes a dedicated graphics card to help deal with the high definition media streaming. The s5560f upgrades the graphics card to use the AMD Radeon HD 5450 with 512MB of memory. This gives this version a bit of a speed boost and support for Direct X 11 graphics. This isn't a very high end graphics card but it should be suitable for casual 3D gaming at modest resolutions. More demanding games will still need to be at lower resolutions and lower detail levels though.

The s5560f continues to include a wide range of wireless connectivity. This includes an 802.11a/g/n wireless networking adapter that allows it to connect into a home wireless network and be placed into an environment such as a home theater without the need for network cabling. The wireless keyboard and mouse also help keep the wiring to a minimum. The downside is that this reduces the overall usable USB ports because the keyboard and mouse require a USB receiver be plugged into the desktop.

The best use for the Pavilion Slimline s5560f still remains as a compact home theater PC that doubles as a high definition media station. The $800 price tag is very reasonable if this is the intended use. Those looking to use it primarily as a desktop would be better served by some more affordable options with similar or even better general purpose performance.