HP dx5150 Small Form Factor review

For your money you also get an 80GB hard drive and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive. This isn't an ideal pair for multimedia file hoarders, but it's fine if your data collection consists mainly of a few thousand pictures and the odd Word document. Don't expect to make large backups though -- the CD-rewriter can only burn around 700MB of data at a time. High-speed network backups are possible, however, thanks to the integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller, which can transmit data at up to ten times faster than PCs with standard 10/100 LAN network ports.

Software's pretty thin on the ground, as you'd expect from such an inexpensive PC. You get a copy of Windows XP Home Edition and Norton AntiVirus 2005. There's also a two-year guarantee, the first year of which entitles you to on-site repairs, while the second gives you next business day parts and labour.

Performance
The HP dx5150's Athlon 64 3200+ and 512MB of RAM would have made an ideal foundation for a high-end PC just two years ago. But even today it doesn't fare too badly against PCs with more modern components. It clocked up a respectable PCMark 2005 total of 2,525, which indicates it's perfectly adequate for running everyday applications such as a Web browser, word processor, desktop publisher and even image- and video-editing applications. We'd recommend upgrading the PC with an extra 512MB of memory, but it's perfectly fine for the average user in its current state.

The dx5150's graphics performance isn't particularly inspiring. It's not a games machine by any stretch of the imagination, so if you fancy a spot of Doom 3, Far Cry or Half-Life 2 without jerky frame rates you should upgrade with a half-height PCI Express graphics card.

One of our favourite things about the dx5150 is its quiet operation. You won't find hoards of fans littering its vents, so if you like peace and quiet while you trawl the Web, you'll like this PC.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Kate Macefield