If the HP Pavilion p6510f in our laboratories came, it came in the same big box as HP Pavilion p6540f. Both systems have a lot in common, including the same pre-installed software, and chassis design, although the sport is an uncharacteristic p6540f gray faceplate instead of the typical black Pavilion. In fact, this PC case sports the same design that HP has been for its Pavilion line with for years, with only minor fluctuations over time. The components inside are different, with the Pavilion’s p6510f array of parts that are a bit more conservative than the p6540f’s. But as we shall see, the performance difference between these two PCs is minimal. Factoring in the $ 180 price difference, the less spendy p6510f wind up in a much better value.
The p6510f is by a 2.8 GHz AMD Athlon X4 630 II powered processor, 4GB of 1,066 MHz DDR3 RAM, a 750GB hard drive (7,200 rpm with a spin rate), and integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics. The only major differences between the configuration and p6510f p6540f is that the latter is a high-end (although the same clock speed) AMD Phenom X4 uses 830 CPU, has 8 GB of RAM, and comes with a 1 TB hard drive. For the CPU geeks out there, the Phenom X4 630 and Phenom X4 830 are almost identical processors, differentiated by the fact that the 830 has 6 MB L3 cache, while the 640 has no L3 cache at all. In our hodgepodge of tests, the extra cache (as well as the additional 4 GB of RAM) do not increase the speed of the more expensive p6540f by much, though it added significantly to the price.
But first, let’s talk aesthetics. As we have noted in many previous reviews of the pavilions, which uses p6510f the standard (and, frankly, stale) Pavilion chassis, wrapped in shiny black plastic with silver highlights. At the top of its front panel is a 15-format flash card reader, in which two optical drives. The top bay is a 16x DVD RW drive, while the lower bay, empty. The entire lower half of the front panel below a little more than an inch, access to two USB 2.0 ports and microphone and headphone jacks allow.
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Around the back of the case are six more USB 2.0 ports (eight), a FireWire port, a Gigabit Ethernet port and DVI-D and VGA video-out ports. You’ll also find a series of six analog audio jacks and an optical digital audio output, both 7.1-channel audio support. Also on the back of the PC is a small jack for plugging in the included external WiFi antenna. Wi-Fi typically has a luxury function for tower PCs in this price class, but as we do with the latest HP and Gateway systems have seen (for example, the Gateway SX2311-03), it is becoming more common.
Inside the chassis, a thin black wire leads on the back of the wireless antenna to 802.11b/g/n WiFi card that sits in a mini-PCI Express (PCIe) slot on the motherboard socket. Remains free p6510f’s a PCIe x16 slot and three PCIe x1 slots. so there is plenty of room for expansion card. Two internal 3.5-inch drive bays and one 5.25-inch bay can also be empty, and two of the four DIMM slots.
All in all, this PC has loads of internal upgrade potential. The 250-watt power supply unit (PSU) should be able to juice a few extra drives or PCIe x1 card with ease. Putting a video card in the PCIe x16 slot, however, is another story entirely. If you beefing on the system gaming capabilities with a dedicated graphics card plan, you will be limited by the power supply to low-end or mid-range cards, the best. Anything more power-hungry will probably need to replace the power supply with higher wattage model. Still, if you are a player, you may want to install a graphics card in p6510f as the integrated graphics will not just cut it with the latest 3D games and even some older, for that matter. Our tests bore out.
For example, could afford the best of the p6510f our DirectX 9 Company of Heroes test at 1,280 x1, 024 was 14.8 frames per second (fps). (The p6550f did not do better, cranking only 14.4fps.) But this power is concerned par for the course of machines in this price range, the integrated graphics. You’ll get by playing World of Warcraft on low or medium settings, but for something more sophisticated, you will need a special card or an expensive PC (unless, of course, rebuild the PC itself).
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Gaming might not be the p6510f strength, but it should power through productivity apps fine, at least in PCMark Vantage, a system-wide series of tests we use it to measure overall system performance is. The p6510f score of 5938 on this test shows that the p6510f chops in abundance, the fight has most productivity programs without breaking a sweat. Not only is his performance not far behind that of the p6540f (which produced a score of 6375), but this PC is in line with the level of performance we’ve seen from other similarly priced systems. The aforementioned Gateway SX2311-03, for example, has a similar 5858 on the same test.
The p6510f the performance of our CPU-centric Windows Media Encoder and iTunes encoding tests show that this system has decent media crunching capabilities, as well. It took the p6510f 3 minutes and 30 seconds to convert our standard Windows Media Video file, the result was only 11 seconds longer than it took the p6540f. And the p6510f shone even brighter when converting our 11 standard MP3 tracks to AAC to test in our iTunes. Coming in 3 minutes and 31 seconds, the p6510f only 6 seconds slower than the p6540f.
Unless you plan on using the p6510f for serious gaming, it’s really only disappointed in one area: the abundant bloatware and subsidized Links throw the machine desktop and Start menu. The useful HP Dock (a desktop quick-start application) is populated with pre-installed redundant icons. You can customize the HP docking station to your liking, and we would recommend uninstalling some of the unnecessary software, and to clean up things before one’s own PC. The dispersal of digital litter is often in today’s mainstream desktop, but at least it must be rectified to remove only a little time.
Also common is the guarantee that comes with this machine. HP Pavilion covers it with a one-year parts and labor warranty, which is pretty much the industry standard in those days. On the other hand, HP also 24/7 toll-free technical support that is not quite so universal.
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In the short term is that we were there, the pavilion p6150f through its paces, we saw its price fall from $ 579.99 to $ 539.99, and then back to $ 519.99 at online store of HP. Even better, was published at the time of this review was to Staples sale of the system for $ 488.98, with an in-store promotion only to reduce the price even more.
The ephemeral is in-store promotion probably will not be available when you read this, but it shows that more price cuts could soon be on its way to this machine. Shop around before buying, and you can manage to pick up this PC for even less. Ceteris paribus, a lower price is always better, but even at $ 519.99, the p6510f an excellent performer for those who value multimedia performance, productivity and expansion room in a desktop PC via out-of-the-box gaming chops.
