HP Pavilion Elite M9550F Desktop PC is powered by the 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300. With four cores in a single processor, the Core 2 Quad and the 8 GB of RAM (maximum capacity) deliver excellent multitasking and multimedia performance, and it’s a perfect match for the pre-installed 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium. You can also go wireless and clutter-free with wireless keyboard, mouse, and remote control, and it includes the next step in Wi-Fi networking with a Draft-N wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n).
A recessed landing pad on top of the chassis offers a convenient place for connecting USB and FireWire devices. One touch of the HP Easy Backup button lets you back up your files instantly, helping to protect irreplaceable photos and files. It comes with a combo optical drive with Blu-ray Disc playback for watching your favorite films in crystal-clear resolution and SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe technology that lets you etch custom, silkscreen-quality labels and artwork directly onto LightScribe-enabled CDs and DVDs.
This Pavilion Elite offers a built-in drive bay to fit an optional HP Pocket Media Drive, for up to 160 GB of additional storage that you can carry away with you when you go (media drive not included). Other features include a ginormous 1 TB hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics with up to 3579 MB of total available graphics memory, HDMI and DVI video outputs, 15-in-1 memory card reader, up to 8 channels of surround sound output, and Gigabit Ethernet wired networking. It comes with a wired keyboard and mouse.
The pre-installed 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (Service Pack 1) includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center. In addition to easily playing your DVD movies and managing your digital audio library, you’ll be able to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV). Vista also integrates new search tools throughout the operating system, includes new parental control features, and offers new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures.
Video is powered by the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card, which provides 512 MB dedicated graphics memory and up to 3579 MB as allocated by the Windows Vista operating system. ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPUs bring the power of graphics “supercomputing” to gamers, setting a new standard for visual computing. With up to 1.2 teraFLOPS on tap, the TeraScale graphics engine delivers an immersive, cinematic gaming experience. Enhanced anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering create striking graphics with unparalleled realism so you can max out the settings of the most demanding next-generation games or revitalize your favorite titles. You’ll also be able to watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity and take your experience to another level with new multimedia capabilities. Sophisticated new features within ATI Avivo HD technology give you the freedom and flexibility to edit videos quickly and convert them to H.264 and MPEG-2 formats 1.8x faster than real-time.
The video card includes VGA and DVI video out as well as HDMI audio/video out options. This PC also offers an integrated audio card that can produce high definition surround sound configurable to 8 speakers.
Helpful consumer’s review
I just bought this computer from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. It arrived on time in good shape. Set up was easy with no issues. I researched various computers and found this HP was the best priced for what is offered. I was especially interested in the HDMI out and the built in wireless card. I running it direct through a cable modem now but I may move it to the bed room and run it from my home network linked to a HDTV at some point in the future. I was primarily interested in a Media Center PC configuration that offers the flexibility to go wireless. I was not interested in a TV tuner. Other HP models offer this option for a few hundred dollars more. This one has plenty of power and speed. It runs quite and cool. The quad core processor should handle my needs for years to come. I am very satisfied so far.
