HP has put plenty of thought into the internal design of the PC. In order to keep the machine cool, quiet and compact, it uses several parts normally found inside laptop computers. The main players are the 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 TL-52 processor, and a couple of 1GB SO-DIMM laptop memory modules.
Graphics duties are handled by an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip, which again, was originally designed for a laptop. It has 256MB of its own dedicated video memory, but can draw a further 256MB from system memory should you require a bit of extra oomph. It won't be rubbing shoulders with any Alienware or Dell XPS systems, but it'll let you indulge in the odd bout of Half-Life 2.
Performance
The TouchSmart IQ770's performance is
average. It felt occasionally sluggish in everyday use, but this never
becomes intolerable. Its laptop-oriented components helped it achieve a
PCMark 2005 score of 3,765 -- about what we'd expect from a mid-range
laptop.
Graphics performance was slightly more impressive: the Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 clocked up 2,294 in 3DMark 2006, and 19 frames per second in F.E.A.R -- although we had every single graphics enhancement on the maximum setting, plus anti-aliasing at 4x and anisotropic filtering on 8x. It won't shy away from most games, provided you do without the fancy effects.
On the whole, we find the PC's performance acceptable, but this is definitely not the sort of PC you'd want to edit hi-def video on. And don't even think about upgrading it with faster components unless you're extremely confident with PC hardware.
Conclusion
You can easily get a better-specced normal PC
for the same money, but that misses the point. The IQ770 is simply one
cool piece of kit. Having a Media Center machine in your kitchen is
probably the height of decadence, but if you've got the money to burn
and don't want to play the latest games at the highest quality
settings, you won't be disappointed.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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User reviews2
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Pranay Manocha 4 January 2008
Good: The form factor, performance, ease of use
Bad: No FM Radio, Wireless keyboard, inbuilt webcam
Comment: I've had the touchsmart for over 2 months now. This is one incredible PC. I have no idea why HP market this as a kitchen PC coz its way too cool for that.
The performance, for me, is pretty good. I play some 3D video games, and there are usually 2 users logged on to the machine with 5-10 windows open in each. I use SPSS, Office 2007, Office 2003 and use Visual Studio 2007 to write my own programs.
Some of you geeks might think - jeez! this guy uses a kitchen computer to write C# programs! - but for me, this is a cool machine to work on. Its sort of like a new pen you buy that makes you just want to write and write...
I saw this PC in the store and at that time I didnt event know this was a touch screen. But I played around on it and fell in love with it and thought this is sth I need to buy! Only when I got home and checked the specs in detail did I realize this had a touchscreen! That was a supercool factor and I had to rush back to the store to try it out.
The screen moves up and down and can tilt as well. Its contrast ratio is pretty good and TV and DVDs are good to watch even lying down at some distance.
The few quirks in this machine are the wireless keyboard, which needs a line of sight access to the comp to work properly. The inbuilt webcam as well, has its own mood and works or not depending on what time of day it is. Still, I dont care about the webcam much and have since bought a proper full size keyboard so doesn't really matter.
But even if this computer was £1500, it would be worth it.
varun arora 27 July 2007
Good: Looks! And it is fully equipped as well.
Bad: Lacks flexibility! Many new stuff wont belong to HP, and for a machine like this, you wont risk stuff from another maker!
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