Product Reviews

Glance in the window of any high-end computer shop, and you could be forgiven for thinking a PC needs to be the size of a small car, preferably with fog lamps and tinted windows.

We disagree. A PC should be something that could live in your front room without drawing horrified gasps from visitors, and shouldn't drown out conversation and passing buses with the roar of its cooling fans.

So it's lucky we have companies like Apple, Shuttle and HP to deliver tiny, sleek computers that simply work. HP's Pavilion Slimline range is a case in point. To give you some idea how small these PCs are, HP has a range of external hard disks that are exactly the same size.

Surely such a small PC offers less processing oomph? To some extent that's true. The fairly old Core 2 Duo processor won't set any speed records, but the s3150's overall score of 134% in our general 2D benchmark was still more than reasonable. It's more than adequate for everyday tasks from web browsing to editing high-resolution photos, and quite capable of more ambitious video editing. It might take longer than on some PCs, but as long as time isn't money you'll barely notice the difference.

Things are helped along by 2GB of RAM, more than enough for Windows Vista Home Premium, which comes installed on the 250GB hard disk. This is enough space to be going on with, and the drive is a full-size unit, not laptop-style, so it'll be relatively easy and cheap to upgrade. RAM isn't so well set up - there are only two sockets, both already filled - but 2GB should be plenty.

The only thing lacking is 3D graphics performance.

ADVERTISEMENT

The presence of an nVidia graphics card might raise your expectations, but the 7500 failed to give a playable result in our Call of Duty 2 game test. That's not to say it won't handle any gaming at all, but it won't do any justice to recent titles. Other leisure activities are well catered for, though, by Vista's Media Center function and the Freeview TV tuner that HP has thoughtfully included.

Just 107mm wide, the s3150 will fit in just about any nook, and it's a good neighbour for other living room equipment. It puts out surprisingly little heat, so it could live comfortably inside a cabinet, and it's extremely quiet. Occasionally, when working hard, there was enough noise to distract us, but not enough to notice in most circumstances.

Slots and ports

The DVD drive can burn to all kinds of blank disc, including DVD-RAM, though not the next-generation HD DVD or Blu-ray formats. It's hidden behind a hinged flap until you push the top of the drive bay and the tray slides open. There's a decent selection of memory card slots built in, should you want to read digital camera photos or other media off MMC, Memory Stick, Smart Media or SD cards, and there's one front-mounted USB port for devices you frequently connect and disconnect.

While there are only four more USB ports around the back, the wired keyboard and mouse don't occupy any of them. There's a FireWire port for your MiniDV camcorder, and although no speakers are supplied, there are 3.5mm audio ports for anything up to 7.1 surround sound, while coaxial S/PDIF caters for higher-end audio equipment. Unfortunately, video connections are more limited: there's no HDMI output, so connecting to a new HDTV would require a converter. There's S-Video out, but that won't give such impressive quality.

If you plan to use the Slimline with a PC monitor, none is included in the price, but you can pick up a 17-inch or even 19-inch panel for little more than £100 these days.

Overall, we were completely sold on this HP. The niggles aren't enough to outweigh its considerable charms, and although it isn't the cheapest tiny PC - or even HP's cheapest - it's one of the best all-rounders.