At a Glance

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

Joel Strauch Artwork by: Rick Rizner, John GoddardHP Pavilion 752Though HP and Compaq have merged, their Pavilion and Presario home PC lines remain separate. HP claims to be putting an emphasis on digital media in its Pavilion line, and the 752 has some features that fit the image. The handsome blue-and-gray minitower offers some handy features, including a flip-open case on top of the tower that will hold half a dozen CDs. A door on the front of the case snaps down to reveal two front-mounted USB 2.0 ports (four more are on the rear of the system) for high-speed connections to peripherals. The spacious 120GB hard drive provides ample storage room for music, photos, and video. And the 24X/10X/40X HP CD-Writer lets users easily transfer data to disc or burn their own audio CDs.Utilizing the Intel 845GL chip set’s integrated graphics, this Pavilion didn’t fare too well in our gaming tests. Although the images earned average visual ratings, our judges gave its frame rates only a Satisfactory rating in Unreal Tournament at 1024 by 768 resolution and 32-bit color. Our judges gave Quake III Arena an Unplayable rating at the same resolution and color depth. (Both games ran smoothly at 800 by 600 resolution and lower in 32-bit color). The motherboard in this Pavilion doesn’t provide an AGP slot, so upgrading is not an option.The 17-inch HP V70s CRT monitor rendered adequately clear text in our test document and brilliant colors with lifelike flesh tones in our test photo. Full treble sound emanated from the Creative Labs Cambridge SoundWorks SW320 three-speaker set, but the subwoofer dished out rather distorted bass at any setting higher than ‘7’.

With a 2A-GHz Pentium 4 CPU and 256MB of 266-MHz DDR memory, this Pavilion earned an adequate score of 102 on our PC WorldBench 4 tests. Not slow, it still landed four points below the score for a similarly configured Pavilion 9905. It may have lost some speed due to the integrated graphics system that usurps up to 48MB of system RAM.

Documentation includes a setup poster and a Quick Start guide that contains thorough overview information about the system, including a detailed troubleshooting section. Upgraders can easily reach the PCI slots and hard drive bays, but the memory slots are difficult to access in the cramped interior. Microsoft Works Suite 6.0, including Word and Money 2002, came bundled with the system.

Features such as the large hard drive and plentiful USB 2.0 ports mark the Pavilion 752 as a multimedia hub, but the weak graphics and sound system keep it from excelling as anything more than a basic family PC.1283PC WorldBench 4 score of 102, 2A-GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 256MB of DDR266 SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 120GB hard drive, 16X DVD-ROM drive, 24X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, integrated Intel 845GL graphics, 17-inch HP V70s CRT monitor, integrated Intel 845GL sound, Creative Labs Cambridge SoundWorks SW320 speakers, network adapter, V.90 modem, minitower case, Microsoft Works 6. One-year parts and labor warranty; free, unlimited 24-hour daily toll-call support.www.hp.com800/999-4747