HP Media Center PC m7088d (Pentium 4 Processor 540J 3.2GHz, 512MB RAM)

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By Stephen Tong
Jun 07, 2005

The HP Media Center PC (MCPC) is one huge PC to behold, and when I mean huge, I'm talking about the features that come with the S$0 (US$0) price tag. While the Everex PC reviewed earlier combined as much as possible into one unit, the MCPC makes up by providing almost all the possible ports a user may need. You can record TV programs on the massive hard drive and listen to your MP3s all running on the latest Windows Media Center Edition 2005 OS. Of course, this wouldn't be complete without a remote and 19-inch LCD monitor, but do the components gel? The answer is a clear affirmative.

The HP MCPC m7088d sports a sleek silver finish.

Design
The HP MCPC sports a sleek silver finish which extends to all the parts such as the CPU and the included 19-inch LCD monitor. Also in the box are two receivers--one for the remote and the other for the wireless keyboard/mouse set. With such a system in place, we could maneuver ourselves anywhere in the room to use the PC, thanks mostly to the wireless input devices. The remote operates at up to 8 meters away which isn't so necessary for we'd have to squint to see what is on the 19-inch screen at that distance. Should you want to place this PC in your living room, which we'd definitely recommend, perhaps you could link the unit to a bigger 30-inch HD-enabled monitor for full Web browsing.

The array of ports is well spread out while the remote settles most of our needs. As for negative points, there's no Wi-Fi switch should you want to deactivate wireless networking. Also, there doesn't seem to be certain buttons on the remote such as toggling between subtitles when playing DVDs. The two receivers could have been integrated into one, especially when two USB ports are being used up for this purpose.

The optional 160GB HP Personal Media Drive can easily be slotted inside the casing without the extra wires.

Features
The MCPC is packed with the Pentium 4 processor 540J (3.2GHz), a fair 512MB DDR SDRAM and a whopping 200GB serial ATA hard drive running at 7200rpm. You can actually add the optional 160GB HP Personal Media Drive which can easily be slotted inside the casing without any extra wires. This same drive can be used with other PCs, too, though you'll need to connect the USB cable and adapters first. Graphical rendering is joyfully handled by a sufficiently powerful Nvidia GeForce 6600 with 256MB of dedicated VRAM. Most of the interior components can be changed, in case you were wondering.

Two optical drives come with the unit--one is a simple DVD-ROM drive while the other is a LightScribe multiformat DVD burner with dual-layer support (which can burn 8.5GB discs). LightScribe is actually a technology which allows customized printing on the disc though it sports a non-colored gray shade. The only drawback is you can't use normal discs for printing; you can use only the proprietary LightScribe discs which are priced rather steeply (S$2 per CD-R / S$3 per DVD+R).

The PCI-Express and three PCI slots are fully utilized.

The port selection, as mentioned, is exhaustive. Among the port highlights, you get six USB, two FireWire, S/PDIF in and out, DVI-D, 7.1CH support, loads of ports for monitor displays and a comprehensive 9-in-1 flash card reader. To emphasize how many ports there are, take a look at our specs for the full details. The PCI-Express slot is occupied by the graphics card while the three PCI slots are taken by the TV tuner, 802.11b/g wireless networking (which needs an included external antenna) and 56K modem cards.

The Windows Media Center is simply a delight to use. Combined with the HP remote, you can play DVDs, view pictures, listen to radio/MP3s, record TV and use time-shifting mode, and play games such as the addictive Otto which we had a helluva good time with. The pleasant user interface is definitely intuitive to navigate around with the remote or even the keyboard.

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