HP Pavilion SlimLine s3020n (AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2GHz processor, 1GB RAM)

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Hewlett-Packard's new Pavilion Slimline s3020n PC comes bearing HP's new glossy black vision for all of its PCs and laptops. We've long complained that HP gray was only a few boring steps removed from old-school desktop beige, and we're glad to see HP took some steps to make its PCs look more exciting. We're also impressed with this system's combination of performance, features, and value. This model dominates similar systems in its price range, and even approaches the overall value of PCs that cost more. As always with a smaller desktop, you sacrifice expandability for size, but HP even designed this system to give you a little more room to improve this system post-purchase. It's obvious that HP put a lot of thought into this system, which makes it easy to give it a CNET Editors' Choice award.

Editors' note :

This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design
The overall expandability of the Pavilion Slimline series is also why we prefer HP's small-scale model to Apple's Mac Mini. Apple had the aesthetic advantage over HP's older Slimlines, but HP's new glossy black frame catches up with Apple considerably. HP also took its peripheral components into consideration with the redesign. The new matte-black keyboard looks sharper than HP's old model, and it comes complete with the media keys lined along the keyboard's sides. That seems to be an industry-wide trend in keyboard design, and we're happy about it, since it's much easier to get to the media keys on the sides than if they're placed along the top row. HP also has new LCD monitors out on the market with a similar glossy black finish to the Slimline and the other new Pavilions. The new displays feature a stand that lets you slide the keyboard under the display for a cleaner workspace, similar to the HP TouchSmart from earlier this year.

HP design improvements aside, Apple does still have a few advantages in its Mac Mini. The Slimline is still larger (274.3mm high, 114.3mm wide, and 337.8mm deep), and the Mac Mini also offers both integrated 802.11b/g wireless networking and Bluetooth. The Slimline s3020n only comes with Wi-Fi. But for its overall value and capability, if you want to go small, HP is our pick.

Of course, choosing HP also means you get Windows Vista, in this case Home Premium. We found no problems with this system and general Windows Vista usage, but we were sad to see that HP's software desktop remains overrun with icons pushing various products and services. They're easy enough to delete, but we wish we didn't have to.

We criticized the last HP desktop we reviewed for the same icon clutter, but we're glad to report that unlike that system, HP incorporates a Pocket Media Drive slot into the Slimline s3020n without sacrificing an internal hard drive bay. This is because the Slimline's motherboard only has two serial ATA inputs on it, which are both currently occupied by the hard drive and the DVD burner cables. You don't lose anything then, if you opt to purchase one of HP's external hard drives, and it slides neatly into its dedicated bay, which you can hide with a slide up cover on the front panel.

Features
Unlike the last Slimline we reviewed (also an EC winner), the s3020n features the default retail configuration. Like the older Slimlines, you'll find systems both in retail stores and on HP's own shopping Web site, and as usual, you can tweak the online models for more memory, a faster processor, and other options. This retail-only s3020n comes with a modest configuration. A 2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ comes paired with 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 RAM, a roomy-enough 250GB 7,200 rpm hard drive, and a multiformat DVD burner, with the obligatory LightScribe capability, which lets you print your own custom black-and-white images onto the surface of a blank disc.

Performance
As our performance testing shows, that configuration places the Slimline s3020n firmly ahead of its similarly priced competition. Compared to the recent eMachines T5224 and the even smaller Shuttle XPC X200, the Slimline dominates them on all of our budget PC benchmarks. On iTunes and our CineBench tests, where pure CPU speed has the most impact, the HP also came very close to the WinBook PowerSpec T470, a midtower desktop that costs almost twice as much as this one.

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