Why You Can Trust CNET HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y review: HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y
HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y
Editors' note: This review is part of our
HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
HP typically orients its Pavilion Elite desktops as higher-priced, do-it-all systems with a few extra features beyond what's typical in standard midtower systems. We've found previous models in the Elite line disappointing, but the $900 Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y is a pleasantly surprising value. By wrapping a Blu-ray drive, a discrete budget graphics card, and wireless networking around a reasonably fast, AMD-based quad-core foundation, HP covers most of the performance and entertainment bases we expect for this price. Midtower PCs aren't the best living room accessories, but we can recommend the Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y as a versatile desktop for a dorm room or some other informal space.
On the outside, the Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y and its glossy black plastic chassis looks like most of the other retail desktops out there. However, we're glad to report that the inside has improved from that of the older models in the Elite series. Previous Elites had a clunky metal sleeve jammed inside to accommodate one of HP's proprietary removable hard drives, which the company sold as optional extras. The new model has no such sleeve, but the interior cage for the fixed hard drives is still an inconvenient remnant from that old design. You need to remove the entire assembly to add a drive or remove the current one. At least that and other upgrades should be easier with the up-sell drive sleeve removed.
| HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y | Dell Inspiron i580-5108NBC | |
| Price | $900 | $830 |
| CPU | 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X4 925 | 3.2GHz Intel Core i5 560 |
| Memory | 8GB 1,333MHz DDR2 SDRAM | 8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM |
| Graphics | 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card | 1GB Nvidia GeForce 220GT graphics card |
| Hard drives | 1TB, 7,200 rpm | 1TB, 7,200 rpm |
| Optical drive | dual-layer DVD burner; Blu-ray drive | dual-layer DVD burner |
| Networking | 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless | 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) | Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) |
As a $900 desktop, the Pavilion Elite HPE-122Y trends toward the pricier-end of the retail PC shelf. Dell's $830 Inspiron i580-5108NBC is a decent competitor, and though the Dell has a faster graphics card and better performance on most of our benchmark tests than the HP, the Dell has only a standard definition DVD burner. The HP has both a DVD burner and a Blu-ray drive. And while the HP trails on every performance test, it's only by 10-percent or so at worst. We expect most consumers shopping for a computer would favor the Dell's performance and lower price, but for the niche crowd in search of a midtower desktop with a Blu-ray drive, $70 and a 10-percent performance sacrifice against a competing model isn't an exorbitant asking price.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | Rendering Multiple CPUs | | Rendering Single CPU |
Our benchmark charts paint a clear picture of the HP's performance drop-off next to the Dell. The differences on our time-based tests (all but Cinebench) come down to seconds, rather than minutes, which makes it hard to get too upset at the HP's slower times. If we were shopping for a media-converting desktop, or a PC for some other processing-intensive workload, a win is a win, and we'd pick the Dell at this price. But we're glad to see a media-oriented desktop like this HP striking that apparently hard-to-find balance between features and performance, without asking you for too many sacrifices along the way.
As always, we don't love the idea of using a midtower PC in the living room. Still, we assume you wouldn't be interested in this system if you weren't also interested in the Blu-ray drive, which suggests that you intend to connect it to a decent-size display for watching movies. Whether you do that in your living room or at a desk, the HP's ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card is ready thanks to its VGA, DVI, and HDMI video outputs. For audio, you can use up to a 7.1 analog PC speaker set up, or route the sound through the built-in S/PDIF digital output port.
The Pavilion Elite HPE-112y is less flexible in its data connections, giving you only an assortment of USB 2.0 ports. FireWire and eSATA drive owners will need to look elsewhere or add an expansion card to one of the two free 1x PCI Express slots, the only options for card expansion. The memory slots are also all occupied, and though you have room for a second hard drive, as mentioned previously, the drive cage design is cumbersome, requiring you to remove the entire drive cage to add extra internal storage. On balance, this HP isn't the best upgrading platform, but at least you get some flexibility.
 Juice box | |
| HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y | |
| Off (watts) | 0.47 |
| Sleep (watts) | 1.73 |
| Idle (watts) | 80.1 |
| Load (watts) | 151.17 |
| Raw (annual kWh) | 314.82126 |
| Energy Star compliant | Yes |
| Annual power consumption cost | $35.73 |
We were pleasantly surprised by the HP's power efficiency, as we found AMD-based systems like the Gateway DX4300-15e and HP's own Pavilion p6320y consumed more power than their competition. The higher-end AMD chip in the Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y doesn't seem to contribute to an inordinate level of power consumption next to its Intel-based competition from Dell and Asus, however. Even the Pavilion p6320y will cost you only $3 month next to just less than $2 a month for the Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y, so we're not talking about a backbreaking energy bill in either case. Still, kudos to the Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y for keeping its power consumption in check.
HP's service and support policies are in keeping with those from other mainstream -desktop vendors. You get one year of parts-and-labor warranty coverage, as well as 24-7 toll-free phone support. The system has a few information utilities that can help with diagnosing problems yourself, and HP's Web site also has the usual assortment of driver downloads, system FAQs, and support chat, among other help resources.
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
Asus Essentio CG5275-AR003
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 3.2GHz Intel Core i5 650; 8GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 32MB(shared) Intel GMA HD integrated graphics chip; 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive
Dell Inspiron i580-5108NBC
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 3.2GHz Intel Core i5 650; 8GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT220 graphics card; 1TB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive
Gateway DX4300-15e
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.6GHz AMD Phenom II X4 810; 8GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chip; 1TB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive
HP Pavilion p6320y
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X4 820; 8GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) NVIDIA GeForce 9100 integrated graphics chip; 1TB, 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive
HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112Y
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X4 925; 8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card; 1TB, 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive