HP hits the bulleye with low cost system
Written: Apr 05 '01
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Pros: Compact
Cons: Only upgrade options are the processor, memory and hard-disk drives
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended and you can upgrade your processor, memory and hard-disk drives.
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| ozgamer's Full Review: Hewlett Packard e-PC S10 (P2762T#ABA) PC Desktop |
Although the prices of desktop computers for business and corporate use have dropped to some of their lowest levels on record, there always is a push to drop the running costs. Like it or not, the term "total cost of ownership" is more about the cost of owning a PC over its lifespan than just the purchase price. PC vendors are responding by producing cheaper, smaller "legacy-free" PCs.
These boxes are essentially "barebones" PCs, with no upgradeable slots and no serial or parallel ports. Outside connectivity is through the USB (universal serial bus) ports and the only upgrade options are the processor, memory and hard-disk drives. Vendors know they are treading a fine line between a cost-effective design and a box that just does not do enough.
HP's new e-pc range looks to be one of the former. With a price tag of $699 (depending on components) without monitor, the e-pc S10 is competitively priced and closely matches similar offerings from Compaq. The S10 model tested included a 700Mhz Celeron processor, supported by 64Mb of memory. To keep costs down, these systems use Intel's integrated graphics controller and steals 1Mb of main system memory to handle the graphics. Opened up, the e-pc is as small as it's possible to get and there's virtually no spare room inside. One reason is the lack of integrated power supply - the e-pc requires an external AC power supply "brick" similar to that on many notebook computers.
The hard disk drive on the test unit was a 10Gb Seagate ST310211A UltraATA-66 model suitable for most office-based applications. CD-ROM support comes in the form of TEAC's 24x-speed CD-224E notebook CD-ROM drive. All the features of this system are integrated on to the motherboard and, while that does limit the features available, it makes it far more cost-efective to service and operate.
However, HP still offers both serial and parallel ports on the e-pc - an unusual find but it does give a link to older peripherals. The key connectivity feature is the integrated switchable 10/100 Fast Ethernet network interface, which can be connected to in minutes. One unfortunate result of the box shrinkage is the provision of just one memory slot. That still gives a maximum of 256Mb of memory, but greatly reduces options - again treading the line between cost-effectiveness and versatility.
Test showed problems with the graphics drivers on 3-D games. Now systems of this type are not high-octane game-playing machines, but the fact that the graphics drivers were at least questionable was an issue. Installing the latest version (6.1) of the Intel 810E graphics driver fixed the problem. As for the performance, a 700Mhz Celeron chip is certainly good enough for basic Web-browsing and spreadsheets. That said, this is the fastest 700Mhz Celeron PC seen to date.
Its 2-D graphics performance is par-for-the-course while the 10Gb drive, with its 3.06Mb/second data transfer rate is more than adequate for office uses. However, this machine would struggle to handle video or high-end CAD tasks. An interesting feature was HP's e-modem, basically a modem module hanging off the end of a USB cable with an RJ11 socket on the other end. This cute idea makes it easier to implement direct Internet access without the disasters that often befall internal modems and the set-up time of serial-based external units.
The e-pc design has plenty of merit. However for high-demand applications, look more towards some of the faster Pentium III-based e-pc options. Overall, the e-pc is one of the most compact desktops on the market but, with competition from Compaq and Gateway, there is certainly good choice available. Still, the e-pc pushes all the right buttons in a competent, no-nonsense manner.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 699
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: 701-800
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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ozgamer
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Member: Setzer
Reviews written: 60
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