HP Pavilion P6510F
- Category: Desktop Computers
June 28, 2010
Editor's Rating
- Quad-core AMD CPU w/ 4GB of RAM
- Large 750GB hard drive
- Tons of room for expansion
- Solid performance
- Too much bloatware from HP
- Integrated graphics
The HP Pavilion P6510F is a mid-line desktop PC that offers some solid hardware to go with it, some of which includes a quad-core AMD Athlon 2.8GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a huge hard drive. At an average cost of around $600, it gets you a good computer without spending too much money, but it does lack a discrete graphics card, so 3D gaming is limited.
The glossy black case with silver accents that HP uses with all of its current desktops is the exact same as the one on their Pavilion P6510F. It doesn't come with any LCD display, so you'll need to use an existing monitor or buy a new one. The desktop chassis will coordination with almost any modern-looking monitor or other PC peripherals, so you shouldn't have any worries there.
Some of the hardware specs on the HP Pavilion P6510F include an AMD Athlon II X4 quad-core 2.8GHz CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM memory and a huge 750GB hard drive. As mentioned in the introduction, the lack of a discrete graphics card on this system is a disappointment, so don't expect to play any newer 3D games on this machine without adding a graphics card (one PCIe x16 slot is available). The integrated ATi Radeon HD 4200 is decent enough for older 3D games and certainly enough for productivity and everyday computing tasks. There are many inputs and outputs on the P6510F, including six USB 2.0 ports (2 of those are in the front), a front 15-in-1 media card reader, a FireWire port, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, and audio in/out ports (7.1 HD audio supported). In a rather strange addition, there's also an older USB 1.1 port at the bottom front of the PC, but HP says this can be used to connect a peripheral that wouldn't take advantage of 2.0 speeds without wasting a 2.0 port. There's also an integrated 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi card inside, but it doesn't support the newer 5GHz spectrum. The optical drive on this model is a LightScribe dual-layer DVD-RW multiformat disc drive. The pre-loaded operating system is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).
In terms of expansion, this system offers a ton of room. Inside there are three vacant PCIe x1 slots for expansion cards and the one x16 slot as mentioned earlier for a graphics card (if desired). There's also two free RAM slots, so you can add even more RAM, to maximum of 16GB, if the included 4GB isn't enough (and it certainly will be enough for most people). There are two free hard drive bays and one empty optical disc drive bay too. Without a doubt, this system is definitely expansion-friendly and will allow for plenty of upgrades as newer tech comes to market.
One thing that is a major peeve of ours when it comes to HP is all the bloatware that they pre-install onto their desktops and laptops and unfortunately, the Pavilion P6510F is no exception. HP has "conveniently" installed a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security 2010, CyberLink DVD Deluxe, Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 (60-day trial), Microsoft Works 9.0, and offers from Rhapsody, HP Games, and Netflix just to name a few. You'll definitely want to spend a little time in the Programs section of the Control Panel to remove a lot of this software because it really does cause a negative performance impact on the PC.
When all that bloatware is removed, the performance of the HP Pavilion P6510F is excellent, even when running video encoding or processing large image files with Adobe Photoshop CS5. Having the AMD dual-core X4 processor really helps the system multitask and in the end, boosts performance. It performs wonderfully at everyday tasks for home, work, or school and is definitely a desktop PC to look at for the consumer user.
