HP m380 Photosmart PC review

Since its US release almost a year ago, HP's Media Center PC has been the best-selling model over there. It's now available here, having been upgraded to use version 2004 of Windows Media Center Edition.

Unlike Evesham's effort above, the HP is far more of a PC than a media centre. In fact, there's little difference between it and the current flock of consumer PCs the brand exhibits. As such, it's pretty fast, using a 3GHz Pentium 4 running on a specially designed Asus micro-ATX motherboard. It's also powered by half a gigabyte of PC2700 memory. Benchmarks were therefore good, giving an overall 2D score of 1.31.

However, we would have preferred a larger hard disk; 160GB is more than enough for an office PC, but given the size of some media files and MCE TV recording functions, we would have liked a 200GB model. However, we were impressed by the inclusion of a DVD-ROM drive and a DVD re-writer, even if the latter is only single format (+RW).

To make this a bit more 'Media Center', HP has added a camera dock on the top. But shamefully, this is just a dent in the plastic that very few cameras fit into; there's no way you can hook a camera up without plugging it in via USB. On the plus side, however, the TV outs from the Hauppage PVR card are hooked up to the front and back, allowing easier access.

Looking inside, what surprised us most was the GeForce FX 5200 card. No disrespect to the chip itself, it offers excellent value, but the 7,469 3DMarks it earns is hardly stunning, and given leisure is one of the main intended uses for MCE, a faster DirectX 9 chip, or even a fast DX8 one, would have been more suitable.

The Audigy 2 card seems wasted here, not only because the supplied speakers are just stereo, but also because its performance advantages in gaming are pointless considering the graphics card supplied.

One thing you can't criticise the m380 for is its ports and plugs. To company the TV tuner ports, there are front- and back-mounted USB 2 ports, the serial, parallel and Ethernet ports offered by the motherboard round the back, as well as two FireWire ports and a 7-in-1 card reader. The remote is badged with an HP logo, but is in fact the same as the typical Windows MCE one, and therefore very easy to use.

The range of software is limited, but it still covers all the bases, offering Sonic's RecordNow CD/DVD and Works Suite 2003.

From the looks of the two PCs we've seen, it seems that PC manufacturers aren't willing to push the boat out too far by producing a completely unique and practical method of implementing Windows MCE. Instead, standard PC cases are being vaguely modified, leaving you with neither the benefits of a fully fledged PC or of a sleek stylish home entertainment system. This situation will doubtless improve, but for now, there's no clear winner between these PCs. The HP's card readers and larger chassis make it very appealing as an all rounder, while the Evesham's size, digital TV tuner and better 3D performance mean it's more suitable for the living room.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004

So there's a PC on your desk at work, there's one in your study at home, and maybe there's a system in the kids' room as well. But there are still a few places the ubiquity of Windows has failed to reach. We're not expecting a Windows Bathroom Edition anytime soon, but the lounge is clearly Redmond's next target. Leading the charge is Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), a special version of Windows XP aimed at couch potatoes. It's been on sale in the US for a year, but we're getting the second iteration, called 2004, which has a number of improvements over the original version.