Office PC Review - HP Pavilion Elite m9550f Review

Office PC Review - HP Pavilion Elite m9550f

HP is well-known for his multimedia systems and very simple prices. However, though there is nothing particularly wrong with this specific model, it did not have that particular wow factor that so many HP models used to distinguish themselves from the competition. The m9550's look is rather staid and outdated though perfectly functional. The small rubber MP3 player or other digital device holder, personal media drive and pocket media drive bays have been mainstays of the Pavilion line since 2007. I guess that HP takes the same if it's not broke don't fix it very serious, and with good reason, my little innovation would be nice even in $1000 PC. I can't say that the m9550f makes no forward strides, as the newer Intel core two Quad Q9300 CPU and 8 GB of DDR2 memory are a nice touch.They have also increased the power of the GPU by upgrading to the ATI Radeon HD 4850. The one missing factor there was included with the previous model that is sure to be missed is the now absent Blu-Ray disk drive, and ATSC TV tuner. Even with these components left out in the current model, the Elite m9550f leaves very little room for improvement. Not that it is a perfect office PC or home computing system to begin with, but that there is absolutely no room for future expansion. The only saving grace on this front was the ability to add extra data storage through the use of HP's pocket media drive and personal media drive bays. The hard drive cartridges allow you to add an extra 1 1/2 TB to 1 TB of data storage available by default.

One feature to remain consistent and comparable among all HP Pavilion models was the ever increasing amount of adware that came preinstalled on every system. Most of the usual suspects were present. Microsoft Office 2007 (60 day trial), Norton Internet security (60 day trial), eBay, AOL, NetZero, and Juno. I'm not sure whether the people of HP quite thought this through. AOL 90 and Juno, being dial-up providers, might have a hard time promoting to office PC users with the availability of broadband so prevalent, and the little fact that there is no modem on the Elite m9550f desktop PC.

While this office PC might really have nothing to complain about other than a few small irritations, its list of features that impressed us was next to zero. And to make matters worse, with the removal of blue Ray disc capability and TV tuner in exchange for more memory seemed like a step backwards rather than progress. Being the multimedia and business office machine that it was intended to be, it will do its job as instructed, but for the price, and with the knowledge that HP is capable of producing much more, I would recommend a cheaper system with the same capabilities from another company for anyone considering this year's HP Pavilion Elite.

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