HP Pavilion Elite m9000 series (m9065.uk-a) review

HP Pavilion Elite m9000 series (m9065.uk-a) Review

Reviewed by: Rory Reid

Reviewed on: 15 November 2007

Whatever the case, both machines are compatible with HP's Media Drives. These USB-powered backup disks come in two flavours -- a small 120GB model for £70 or a larger 320GB model for £109. These slide into dedicated ports at the front of the PC but can be connected to non-HP machines via a USB cable. Happily, HP supplies a 320GB Personal Media Drive in the box.

The m9000 series is designed to be good for any task, but it fares particularly well as a Media Center. If you can figure out some way to connect it to your living room TV without it looking out of place, you'll love the Freeview TV tuner, infrared remote control and wireless keyboard and mouse. The PC's numerous audio ports, including a couple of coaxial outputs at the rear, make it easy to connect to a set of surround sound speakers, and make the most of the enhanced sound in HD DVD movies.

Software includes Microsoft Works 8, Norton Internet Security 2007 (with 60 days of live updates) PhotoSmart Essential, Roxio Creator Basic, MyDVD Basic, Muvee AutoProducer, and of course Windows Vista Home Premium Edition. A one-year pickup and return parts and labour warranty is included.

Performance
The m9065.uk-a has a quad-core CPU, so it's no slouch, but it's not as quick as you might imagine. It scored 6,619 in PC Mark 2005, which is significantly lower than the 7,329 achieved by the Sony Vaio RM1N, and the Dell XPS 710 H2C, which scored 9,251. Don't let this put you off too much though, the HP is still faster than the vast majority of PCs on the market.

Its 3D performance was also average. It scored 3,105 in 3D Mark 2006, so gaming really isn't its forte. It'll run most games at modest resolution, but the minute you crank it up to resolutions higher than, say, 1,280x1,024 pixels, gaming frame rates fall dramatically.

Conclusion
The HP is a good-looking, well-designed and fairly quick PC. It doesn't excel in any particular area but it's a good all-round machine that should suit the needs of most of the family.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday