HP Pavilion p6210y – A Good Entry Level Computer

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Good performance for the price it is offered, plenty of options for upgrade.

Thumbs Down:

Not so attractive looking.

Inside the Trunk:

HP Pavilion p6210y cabinet, mouse and keyboard.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HP Pavilion p6210y has an AMD Athlon II X4 620 / 2.6 GHz Quad-Core 64-bit processor, L2 cache of 2 MB, the chipset used is NVIDIA GeForce 9100 which has data bus speed of 4000 MHz

RAM is 6 GB expandable to 16 GB DDR2 SDRAM frequency is 800 MHz, Hard disk drive is 640 GB SATA interface of 7200 rpm.

The computer comes with a DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM – Serial ATA
CD / DVD read speed is 40x (CD) / 16x (DVD), CD / DVD write speed is 40x (CD) / 16x (DVD±R) / 12x (DVD±R DL) and CD / DVD rewrite speed is 32x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 12x (DVD-RAM)

The graphic card is NVIDIA GeForce 9100 Shared video memory (UMA) 256 MB / 2943 MB (max). For audio, sound output mode is 7.1 channel surround high definition audio

Expansion Slots Total – 4 Memory – DIMM 240-pin, 1 x Processor, 1 x PCI Express x16, 3 ( 2 ) x PCI Express x1. Connection interface are – 6 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A ( 2 in front ), 2 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm ( 1 front, 1 rear ), 1 x Keyboard – Generic – 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style), 1 x Audio – Line-in – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), 1 x Audio – Line-out (rear) – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire), 1 x Audio – SPDIF output, 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm ( 1 in front ), 1 x Mouse – Generic – 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style), 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX – RJ-45, 1 x Audio – Line-out – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Audio – Line-out (side surround) – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Audio – Line-out (center/subwoofer) – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Display / video – DVI-Analog/Digital (dual link) – 29 pin combined DVI

Operating system is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition. HP also gives soft ware like Microsoft Works 9.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Norton Internet Security 2009 (60 days subscription), CyberLink DVD Suite 6, Microsoft Windows DVD Maker, Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (Trial)

15 in 1 card reader RS-MMC, Microdrive, MultiMediaCard, SmartMedia Card, Memory Stick Duo, MultiMediaCardplus, MultiMediaCardmobile, miniSD, Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick PRO Duo, CompactFlash Card Type I & II

Razzle Dazzle:

The look of the p6210y hasn’t changed much from the P6230y, the cabinet isn’t slim and there is nothing much attractive about the computer. But that doesn’t mean it is ugly, it just that attractiveness is important and this one has plain jane looks.

Inside Dope:

HP is out with another computer, this time it is HP Pavilion p6210y and it has got plenty of good hardware but it doesn’t beat the Gateway SX2800-01 which is standing hard at number one position in our tests till now.

The front of the cabinet has a glossy finish of black color so it is sure to attract a lot of finger prints. There is a panel in the front for plugging in headphones so that you don’t have to go running behind the computer every time. Aside from that there is a media card reader.

Comparing this desktop when it comes to price, the HP Pavilion P6210y costs the same as Dell Inspiron 545s-3055NBK. The specs are the same of the two computers but HP gets the edge because of the quad core AMD processor.

Gateway SX2800-01 is still the better computer than this product by HP, it has an edge when it comes to performance and it also costs less. When it comes to expansion cards, HP Pavilion P6210y has a single empty 16x PCI Express slot to put in your graphic card. If you intend to do heavy animation or graphics work, or if you want to turn this machine in to a mid range gamming rig then you will have to splash money on the graphic card. Other expansion possibilities are an extra hard disk drive and a memory stick.

The HP Pavilion P6210y is powered by AMD Athlon II X4 620 / 2.6 GHz quad core processor with L2 cache of 2 MB. There is DDR2 SD RAM of 6 GB installed and the mother board can take up to 16 GB of RAM. We were disappointed to see DDR2 sticks used instead of DDR3. Also there is only a single slot for putting in RAM so you will have to remove some sticks and put in high capacity ones if you want to expand it to the limit of 16 GB.

To store your files the HP Pavilion P6210y comes up with a 640 GB hard disk at 7200 RPM. We expected a 500 GB drive on such a computer but we were delighted to find more room for our files. You can put on more drive with the empty slot that is available on the motherboard.

For graphics the mother board comes with integrated graphics card of NVIDIA GeForce 9100 make which has video memory of 256 MB. This memory is good for basic movie viewing and even entry level gamming but you will have to put a discrete graphic card for high end gamming or graphics related work. If you play high end games on this computer will all the settings turned to max and without the graphic card, the machine will start howling.

The machine comes bundled with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition. There are a few trial softwares like Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition and Norton Internet Security 2009 (60 day trial). Other soft wares include Microsoft Windows DVD Maker, CyberLink DVD Suite 6, Microsoft Works 9.0, etc.

HP Pavilion P6210y has a 15 in 1 card reader with support for various cards. The machine comes in with a limited one year warranty.

Nitty Gritty:

HP Pavilion P6210y is just one-of-those computers by HP. Nothing extraordinary has been done and you get similar performance computers in the market which also cost more or less the same. If you want better performance we will advice you to go with aforementioned Gateway’s computer.

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