Gaming desktops are becoming faster thanks to the technology of today. While processing speed does count, there are times when the integrated graphics are just not cut out for gaming. This is actually the case with the Intel Core i3 processor. The integrated graphics are totally not worth it. A better alternative is the AMD A8 Llano which is exactly what the $560 HP Pavilion p7-1126s has inside.
HP is known for having tower chassis that are all made of black aluminum and have glossy plastic front panels. The other features are also very similar to that of the HP Pavilion p7-1120. It has the very same sliding door which conceals audio jacks and USB ports. One advantage it has over the Pavilion p7-1120 is that it has two DVI-D outputs at the back. The former only had one. Sadly, it also has the same weakness as the p7-1120. It still has no HDMI output. This means that viewing videos on your HDTV are out of the question. HP should have fixed this issue by now given that people were clamoring for an HDMI port several months earlier.
There is relative ease in opening the system. A Phillips screwdriver will do the trick. Inside you will find a decent amount of memory slots. There are 4 slots in total with 2 being occupied by 2GB memory modules each. Several PCIe slots are available for use. There are also two additional SATA ports that remain unoccupied. This is good for adding a Blu-ray drive given that the built-in one is a DVD-multi reader. Take note though that the additional devices might not all be supported as the power supply only has a 300 watt capacity.
The default drive is a 7200 RPM 1TB drive. This is great for storing tremendous amounts of data. You might need to spend a little of your time cleaning up the bloatware though. Links to the internet still clutter the desktop. There are also numerous ereaders pre-installed. Despite that, there are some software that are beneficial. One of them is Dr. Dre’s Beats Audio. This helps in improving the overall bass quality and is augmented even more if you have Beats headphones.
The key feature of the HP Pavilion p7-1126s is its chipset. Despite having a slower processing speed than the i3, it makes up for it by having Radeon HD 6550D discrete graphics. Frame rate is four times than that of Intel’s integrated graphics.