HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk Review
The HP Pavilion Slimline s3000 series has desktops which are attractive and space saving at a very affordable cost. The Slimline desktops give you the power of a desktop in a compact and ultra stylish package that decor any room in the house. Some of the highlight features of the desktops in this package include genuine Windows Vista Home Basic or Premium, plenty of memory, fast processor, large hard drive space, the 15 in 1 digital media reader and the disc labeling technology.
The s3000 series:
The HP Pavilion Slimline s3000 has been split up into two lines: one is using Intel CPUs and chipsets and the other uses the AMD CPUs and nVidia chipsets. With each of the ranges, you get a cheaper single core version for around 350 pounds and also a more expensive dual core version which also features more RAM, a larger hard drive and even better graphics. Choosing between Intel and AMD is up to you, but we would strongly recommend you to fork out a little more for the dual core version of them as with the extra core, the system exhibits a huge performance improvement even for the basic day to day tasks that most of us perform. In the following review, we will see in detail about the HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk Home use Desktop PC, which belongs to the same series.
Is this PC right for you?
Before we go into the detailed discussion, we will say you what kind of PC this is, so that you can make an early decision on if the PC falls into the category that you are looking for. The Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk Desktop PC is basically for the casual users who just do some browsing, send mails and listen to some music. So, are you looking for the same, then continue reading, or if you are looking for a ultra-powered machine, we have a lot of other options in desktoppcs.org.uk, to be specific, try out some of the gaming models.
Design:
Really Slimline:
The s3040.uk desktop PC is a brilliant piece of design work with glossy black and silver finish. It well compliments its name tag “Slimline”, as it is one of the sleekest we have ever seen for a full featured PC measuring just (H x W x D) 27.5 x 11 x 33.5 cm and is one of the best looking as well. There is a subtle tilt that extends from the facia lifting from the front of the PC is one of the design elements that you will not notice in the beginning, but you will realise latter that it lends a lot to the overall appeal of the system. The gap underneath the system is actually to enable air circulation under it and into the ventilation mesh on the underside. In the entire system, you will find a lot of the doubling up of the form and functionality like this, in particular, the front facia.
Clever attractive designing:
The optical drive itself is jack of all trades with feature of writing to all kinds of CD and DVD, including the DVD RAM at decent speeds. An LED is embedded in a thin strip of clear plastic that runs alongside the door that hides in the CD/DVD drive, which flashes on and off with the activity of the hard disk. Though this might sound to you as standard, here comes the interesting and clever part from HP, the way the strip has been positioned. It has been setup just above the CD / DVD drive activity light, which in turn allows the light from the LED to shine through the front of the case without interrupting the front panel. Though it is a very minor detail, it adds up to a better whole. The same kind of technique has been applied to the power button, placed on the top edge of the facia, lighting up a pleasant shade of turquoise when the PC is switched on and turns orange when put into the standby mode. With another strip of transparent plastic on the facia, the light from the power button shines through and so, you can easily see if the system is on or off irrespective of whether it is on the top of the desk or the bottom.
Minor flaws:
If there is anything that we could point out as a flaw in the design, then it is multi-format card reader that is integrated into the top of the PC. It is not only the different shaped holes that are a bit of a mess, even the writing indicating the type of card each slot can take totally interrupts the minimalistic look of the PC. On the positive side, it is rather very essential, as it is very hard to know which card is for which slot. A wiser solution is that, they could have been hidden behind a small flap along with the USB and headphone ports. HP must have been restricted from that option because of the space limitations.
Built:
Coming to the built, the s3040.uk Desktop Computer is not made out of any special material, whole of the front panel is made out of plastic and the other parts of the body is made out of steel. Said that, the case is nowhere near in terms of looks and built quality when compared with the sleek, brushed aluminium of Lian-li and Silverstone. But considering the fact that the HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk is a budget PC, we have to appreciate the designers of HP.
The peripherals:
The HP s3040.uk PC ships with a PS2 keyboard and mouse that are perfect for general use. It would have been much better if they had USB interface. The keyboard might not look very familiar to you as it has a number of shortcut keys around its edge that allows you to perform various tasks with ease. The shortcuts include system volume, send the PC to sleep mode, control media player, open the browser, etc. The keys are of semi-low profile like the ones in notebook, so it will take a while to get use to them; with just two hours of usage, you can go at full phase. The optical mouse id good in the budget system as some of the systems still come with the infernal ball mouse. It has the standard three buttons and a scroll wheel, which is sufficient for most people. It feels comfortable in hand, but is not very smooth while moving it across the surfaces.
Ports and connectivity:
As hinted earlier, the front of the PC houses only a single USB port and a headphone port, but does not include a microphone port or FireWire. It is almost common now that PCs have two USB ports, a FireWire and microphone inputs in the front of the PC case. We would say that HP lacks in this department. However, if you are in need for more USB ports, you will find them in the rear side of the device, which has four USB ports on the back panel, a FireWire socket, two PS2 ports for the keyboard and mouse, a fast Ethernet port, an S/PDIF digital audio socket and six sockets for analog audio line in and out and a 7.1 surround sound. All of these ports and sockets have been clearly labelled and colour coded so even a complete novice user will not have any “understanding” issues with these.
For graphics, HP has equipped the system with a low profile add-in card with one DVI output and an analog S-video out socket. The DVI port is not dual link so it will not support ultra high resolution displays which usually cost more than 1000 bugs, so they really do not make a pair.
Features:
Basic Specifications:
As we had mentioned earlier, the s3000 series comes in two formats, this model, HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk features AMD’s dual core Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 2GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a nVidia GeForce 7300 LE Graphics and a multi-format CD/DVD writer drive with LightScribe technology.
Lack of upgrading options:
Indeed, upgradability is our only complaint. The internal storage of 320GB Samsung hard disk is a reasonable capacity but note that you have to resort for an external option if you run out of room as there is only a single internal drive bay. When you open up the Slimline and you will find that everything is packed in neatly, which is helped by the use of SATA optical drive and hard disk. Both the RAM sockets are already filled and while you might not considering buying more for now, it would have been nice to have the option to upgrade.
LightScribe Direct Disc Labelling Technology:
The s3040.uk is equipped with the LightScribe Direct Disc Labelling which is an optical disc labelling technology that uses a specially coated recordable CD and DVD media to produce laser-etched labels with text or graphics, as opposed to the stick-on labels and printable discs. This method makes use of laser in a similar fashion to when plain data is written to disc. With this great feature, the users can create direct to disc labels using the optical disc writer. You have to get special discs to make use of this feature and the s3040.uk has the compatible disc writer. Before or after burning data to the disc, turn the disc over and insert in with the label side down. The drive’s laser then etches into the label side in a way that image is produced.
Performance:
Average graphics:
The Slimline s3040.uk is not a gaming power horse as it was never meant to be one. The graphics card has most of the features that enable it to play most of the current games. But also note that it does not have DirectX 10 support and that you will have to have a monitor of very low resolution to play stuff. The GeForce 7300 LE will be able to perform only when the resolution is turned down to 640 x 480, with no anti-aliasing and with all the in game settings set to either medium or low. For general use, the card is fast and responsive enough. The tiny fan on the graphics card spins really fast and hence is quite noisy too. It is a poor decision by HP to use a cooler that is as poor as this one as there are plenty of decent coolers in the market, and this really affects an otherwise unobtrusive PC.
The graphics score when testing was average, but the overall score is good. The key point here is that, the combination of a dual core CPU with a decent chunk of 2GB RAM ensures that you will never have to grind to a halt.
Heat:
The heat emission from the system is quite high. This is mainly because of the cramped casing and usage of small and low capacity fans. But as long as you do not block the air intakes and the exhausts, you may not be having any issues.
The software and crapware:
We have regularly pointed out the inclusion of useless set of software that is loaded on to the PC bought from shop and here too, the issue is gleaming which does not come in as a surprise for us. In this case we would say that it is fifty-fifty as some of them like the Adobe Reader, Norton Internet Security with 60 days of updates and the Roxio Media Creator Basic are really useful. But a few other stuff are simply irritating, for instance, who on earth will be interested to have little icons in the system tray that indicated when the Num, Caps, Scroll lock buttons are pressed; we have the lights on the keyboard that clearly show the same.
Accessories:
HP has a wide range of products that are styled in the same way as the S3000. The HP w2207 22in widescreen LCD monitor is one among it and is a perfect match for the PC.
Warranty:
The HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk desktop PC comes with one year standard warranty for parts and labour.
Verdict:
Being a casual user, as we had mentioned in the very beginning, you will not want to get an expensive model for your basic needs but on the other hand, you will also not aim to be stuck with a complete melon, and god forbid, you might also be looking for something that is good looking too. Though there are a lot of systems available for the budget you are looking at, but they might mostly pull you badly with its ugly looks or might have some unnecessary extras that Slimline s3040.uk. For instance, there are cheaper deals available from Dell, Evesham, Mesh and even some other models of HP, but you will end up getting a large boring case that is mostly filled with air.
With the above review you must be clear by now that, it has enough horsepower for the normal tasks without any extra frills. Though it is certainly not the cheapest computer available in the market it more than makes up for it in style, features and performance.
Check other Hewlett Packard Desktop PC Reviews in this website.
HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk PC - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | HP |
| Model Name | HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk |
| PC type | Home Desktop PC |
| Series | S3000 |
| DIMENSIONS AND DISPLAY | |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 27.5 x 11 x 33.5 cm |
| Colour | High gloss Black and silver |
| Display | Not Included |
| Technology | AMD live |
| PROCESSOR, MEMORY, STORAGE | |
| Processor type | Athlon 64 X2 (W) 3800 |
| Clock speed | 2.0 GHz |
| Multi-Core processor technology | Dual-Core |
| Chipset | GeForce 6150 LE |
| RAM | Installed: 2GB Max: 2GB |
| RAM type | DDR2 SDRAM |
| Hard drive size | 320 GB |
| Hard Drive type | Standard - Serial ATA-3GB/s |
| Spindle speed | 7200rpm |
| Optical drive | 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive |
| GRAPHICS, VIDEO AND SOUND | |
| Graphics Processor | GeForce 7300LE |
| Video memory | 64 MB DDR memory |
| Sound output mode | 7.1 channel surround |
| Sound Card | Integrated |
| Audio Input | Headphones |
| Audio output compliant standards | High Definition 8-channel audio |
| Audio Chipset | ALC 888 chipset |
| COMMUNICATION FEATURES | |
| Ethernet | 10/100BT integrated network interface |
| Modem | 56k software modem |
| LAN | Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface |
| Memory card reader | 15-in-1 card reader |
| PERIPHERALS | |
| Keyboard | HP multimedia keyboard |
| Mouse | HP PS/2 optical mouse |
| CONNECTIVITY | 1 x 15 in one slot 5 x USB 1 x headphone 2 x PS2 1 x VGA 1 x 1394a 1 x LAN 1 x SPDIF out 1 x S-video out 1 x PCI 1 x PCI Express 16 |
| SOFTWARE | |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Media Center |
| Other software | Windows Movie Maker & Windows DVD Maker, Roxio Creator 9 Basic, Roxio MyDVD 9 Basic, Real Player, Napster, HP Photosmart Essential 2, Adobe Reader, Microsoft Works 8.0, Norton Internet Security 2007 (60-day security update subscription), HP Recovery Manager and HP Recovery Disc Creator |
| POWER | |
| Power device type | Power supply |
| Cooling technology | Small fans |
| Box contents | HP Pavilion Slimline s3040.uk Software and drivers Instruction manual |
| WARRANTY | Limited warranty - 1 year - Parts and labour |
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