HP Pavilion p7 1070t review: HP Pavilion p7 1070t

We mentioned in our review of a recent HP Slimline computer that the mainstream desktop market seems more competitive and commoditized this year. The workaday HP Pavilion P7 1070 helps us illustrate that point yet again. We like this $729 no-frills configuration well enough, but next to competing systems from Acer and its Gateway subsidiary this Pavilion feels either underequipped or too expensive. Heavy Photoshop CS5 users should consider this PC, otherwise, you can get more for your money elsewhere.

5.7

HP Pavilion p7 1070t

The Good

The <b>HP Pavilion P7 1070T </b>offers faster Photoshop CS5 performance than competing systems in its price range

The Bad

Increased competition from Acer and its Gateway subsidiary make this HP seem too expensive.

The Bottom Line

In a competitive vacuum we would find the HP Pavilion P7 1070T a fine mainstream desktop computer, but except for Photoshop CS5-users, you can get more PC for your money from other vendors.

HP updated the design of all of its desktops this quarter, and while the new standard Pavilion chassis isn't a major departure from the earlier look, the new offset, glossy black front panel is a bit more stylish and less monolithic. Its circular power button also seems more inviting than the older version's nubby alternative.

Going entirely by list price, the Pavilion P71070T makes a decent comparison against the $749 Gateway DX4850-45u. The HP costs $20 less and has a faster CPU clock speed, more RAM, and a full-fledged 7,200 rpm hard drive to the Gateway's 5,400 rpm drive. The Gateway's main edge comes from its Blu-ray drive, although its Core i5 CPU is a true quad-core chip, to the dual-core Core i3 that can only simulate four-core performance through Intel's HyperThreading technology.

Though we don't normally like to consider price drops in our comparisons, we feel obligated to note that despite its $749 list price, as of this writing the Gateway is on sale at NewEgg for $499. At that price, the HP can't compete. Even if that deal goes away, we must also point out the Acer Aspire AM3970-U5022, which costs $549, and varies from the HP's configuration only in its hard-drive rotational speed and the fact that it has 6GB of RAM to the HP's 8GB.

Cinebench test
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering Multiple CPUs

Rendering Single CPU

HP Pavilion Slimline S5 1060 (Core i5 2130, Summer 2011)

4.8 

1.28 

Gateway DX4850-45 (Core i5 2300, Spring 2011)

4.63 

1.24 

Acer Aspire AM3970-U5022 (Core i3 2100, Summer 2011)

2.97 

1.23 

HP Pavilion P7 1070T (Core i3 2100, Summer 2011)

2.97 

1.23 

Lenovo H320 (Core i5 650, Spring 2011)

2.78 

1.12 

As our performance tests demonstrate, that extra RAM and faster hard drive separates the HP from the Acer and the Gateway systems on our Photoshop CS5 test, and nowhere else. The Acer and the HP are tied on every other test, and the Gateway and its true quad-core chip are otherwise faster than the Pavilion P7. That added Photoshop performance may be enough to sway some of you in the HP's favor, but in general, the HP's comparative speed doesn't justify its cost.

We've criticized Acer recently for skimping out on expansion and connectivity in its budget systems, but unfortunately for HP, the Aspire AM3970 is stronger in this regard than the more expensive Pavilion P7 1070T. HP and Acer both give you plenty of room to add expansion cards, with a PCI Express 16x slot for a discrete 3D card, as well as three 1x PCI slots. HP skimps on the memory slots, though, providing you with only two, next to four in the Acer system.

You also get eight external USB 2.0 jacks on each system, and only 5.1 analog audio support, but where the HP has VGA and DVI outputs, the Acer provides VGA and HDMI. You can always add a DVI-to-HDMI adapter to the HP, and a VGA-to-DVI adapter to the Acer.

Juice box
HP Pavilion P7 1070T
Off (watts)	0.74
Sleep (watts)	1.65
Idle (watts)	36
Load (watts)	66.16
Raw (annual kWh)	143.6421
EnergyStar compliant	Yes
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$16.30

HP has never done that well on our power efficiency tests, and its scores this round are no exception. In the past we've placed the blame on configurations that used power-hogging AMD chips, but with Intel across-the-board in this case, we have to look to the HP's faster spinning hard drive and its greater quantity of RAM. Although the Acer's sub-$12 finish is admirable, we expect most of you can handle the extra $5 a year for the HP.

HP includes a standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the Pavilion p6720f. You also get 24-7 toll-free phone support and a variety of support resources available on HP's Web site, as well as on the system itself.

Conclusion

Unlike its competition, HP isn't cutting corners by using slower hard drives. That and its Photoshop CS5 performance redeem this system, at least for photo enthusiasts. Otherwise, Acer is putting too much pressure on HP on both sides of the price spectrum, which makes it hard for us to recommend this desktop for value shoppers.

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations: Acer Aspire AM3970-U5022
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 3,1GHz Intel Core i3 2100; 6GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 64MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 2000 embedded graphics; 1TB 5,400 rpm Western Digital hard drive

Gateway DX4850-45
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 230; 6GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 64MB Intel HD 2000 embedded graphics; 1TB, 5,400rpm hard drive

HP Pavilion P7 1070T
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 3,1GHz Intel Core i3 2100; 8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 64MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 2000 embedded graphics; 1TB 7,200 rpm Hitachi hard drive

HP Pavilion Slimline S5 1060
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.9GHz Intel Core i5 2130; 6GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 512MB AMD Radeon HD 6450; 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive

Lenovo H320
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 3.2GHz Intel Core i5 650; 6GB 1,066MHZ DDR3 SDRAM; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 310; 640GB, 7,200rpm hard drive