Here at TechReviewSource we have always been fond of HP's Pavilion Media Center PC's because of their reliability and superb performance and design that is unmatched by any other PC maker out there. The new HP Pavilion Elite m9040n is certainly no exception. It packs performance and style into one PC that blows away many other PCs.
First off, the design of HP's Pavilion PCs are always on the cutting-edge. The glossy black case and silver bezel make it really stand out from the rest. In addition to that, on the front there are two CD/DVD drive bays, a memory card reader, two HP External Pocket Drives, and a front connectivity center with tons of ports for various external devices. Included in the front connectivity center are two USB ports, a Firewire port, headphone port, microphone port, S-Video port, and component inputs. On the interior, the case is a little cramped with all the cables and devices inside.
The various system specs include 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with the Intel G33 chipset running 3GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, two 320GB SATA drives, a 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS video card, and a 16x HP SuperDrive dual-layer DVD burner with LightScribe. The HP Pavilion Elite m9040n also runs Windows Vista Home Premium, which we think is a little disappointing for such a high-end system. We would have liked to see Windows Vista Ultimate Edition instead. The video card is "DirectX 10" ready, but we don't recommend buying it just for that. If you intent on playing the latest and greatest DirectX 10 games, you will want to buy a new video card once DirectX 10 is released and made fully public. You also get a HDMI port on the back in addition to a DVI monitor output, which is really nice on a desktop PC. There is also an ATSC/NTSC TV tuner installed in the HP Pavilion Elite m9040n. The system comes with a DVD DL/CD Burner with Lightscribe. However, it does not come with an HD DVD or Blu-Ray drive, but you can always buy one and put it in the open optical drive bay.
The HP Pavilion Elite m9040n comes with a remote control for controlling the PC when you use Vista's Windows Media Center for watching and recording TV. We liked that the IR receiver for the remote is no longer external, but rather built right into the desktop, which eliminates one more thing plugged into a USB port. It also has built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. Despite the built-in remote receiver, the wireless keyboard and mouse still use an external receiver. HP does include two bays for its HP Personal Media/Pocket Drives, which we think having two is totally unnecessary due to its 640GB of hard drive space as it is.
One new feature added to this computer is the HP Backup button on the front of the case under the HP logo. When you press it, all it does is load a HP-branded wizard to help walk you through Vista's own backup software. It's certainly nothing impressive especially due to the fact that Vista's backup software is worthless because of its lack of features, including the inability to selectively choose which folders you want to backup instead of the whole drive.
As with most new computers these days, HP has included a ton of "bloatware" on this system, which is free and trial software that come pre-installed on the system. Some of the software includes Wild Tangent games, AOL, EarthLink, a trial of Office 2007, and Rhapsody. HP also includes a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security, which is useless compared to other PC maker's own lengthier security software trials.
Overall, the HP Pavilion Elite m9040n is another great addition to the HP Media Center desktop line of computers. It isn't the best system out there, however, but it will please anyone who is looking to spend under $1,200 for a great PC with tons of multimedia features and awesome performance.
