HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC (Black) review

Here is a little overview of modest HP home computer. This HP Pavilion is not exactly a gaming desktop, but it seems to be very popular for some reason. It doesn't have a fancy computer case with led lights or an expensive high-end graphics card like most gaming desktops. HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC (Black) is a solid computer with six-core processor and lots of RAM, that can also handle some less demanding games like The Sims 3, Left 4 Dead 2 and World of Warcraft.  
Graphics card: This HP has AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card with 512MB DDR3 of video memory. HD 6450 is pretty weak, even DDR5 version of this card is more than 2 times slower than ATI HD 5670. It is sufficient for casual gamers, but too weak for people who want to play DirectX 11 games like Metro 2033. Although most games can be played with lowered details.
Processor: HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f is equipped with a 2.7GHz, six-core AMD Phenom II 1045T. It's great for multi-threaded applications and video editing, but most programs don't benefit of having 6 cores. Additionally, higher clocked Phenom II X4's are better in gaming.
Other specs: This HP Pavilion has generous amount of RAM (4x 2GB DDR3 sticks), large but slow hard drive (1.5TB 5400RPM), Wireless LAN, 15-in-1 card reader and DVD burner with LightScribe. Like most computers, HP HPE-500f PC uses Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
Conclusion: HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC is a great home computer that has things that most gaming computers don't have. But it is not suitable for serious gamer, who plays latest games.
Alternative for gamers: Titanium Gamer AMTI7007 has 7x faster video card for $12 more, but weaker processor and smaller hard drive, Titanium Gamer AMTI7009 is a good choice for $900.

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC (Black)

Pros:

 Wireless

 8GB RAM

 Six-core CPU

Cons:

 Bad graphics card
 Only 300W power supply

Specifications:

• 2.7GHz AMD Phenom II 1045T
• 8GB DDR3  RAM
• 1.5TB hard drive
• AMD Radeon HD 6450 512MB DDR3 
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Best Gaming Graphics Cards For The Money, May 2011 (under $100)

Choosing the right budget graphics card is not very easy, there are dozens of different models and variety of manufacturers. Not all video cards are worth their price, often other graphics card with same price is many times slower. Prices between manufacturers can vary a lot too, same card by other company can cost even $70 more. In this post I list best gaming graphics cards for the price from $40 to $100. Remember that availability and prices change very fast, this means that some info can be out of date.


Best graphics card for $40:

In this price range there are two graphics cards (DDR2 versions of ATI HD 4650 and Nvidia 9500GT) that should have almost identical performance. They are both OK for older games but some new and very demanding games only run at low settings/resolution. 9500GT (SPARKLE SFPX95GT512U2HP) has a silent passive cooling but HD 4650 (SAPPHIRE 100253HDMI) is a low profile (it should come with a full height bracket) card with a small fan.

Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 512MB GDDR2

• DirectX 10
• 128-bit memory interface
  
• Minimum PSU: 350W

ATI alternative:

ATI Radeon HD 4650 512MB GDDR2 

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $50:

For $50 you can get a Nvidia GeForce GT 240 which is a big step up from both HD 4650 and 9500GT. This specific card is pretty loud, according to some customer reviews.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

ATI alternative:

ATI Radeon HD 5550 DDR3 is less powerful than GeForce GT 240 DDR3, but it has DirectX 11 support. Although, it's pretty pointless for this slow graphics cards.

ATI Radeon HD 5550 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $60:

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 is also the best graphics card for under 60 dollars. There is no point to spend extra cash for ATI HD 4670 which has same performance as GT 240.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

ATI alternative:

More expensive ATI Radeon HD 4670 is not really worth the price, I highly suggest getting much faster ATI HD 5670 / HD 4830 instead, they only cost $10 more.

ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $70:

The best video card for $70 is ATI HD 5670. It's slightly faster than GT 240 DDR5, but little bit weaker than HD 4830 that has much higher power consumption and no DirectX 11 support.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB DDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Nvidia alternative:

Nvidia GT 240 512MB DDR5 is little bit more powerful than cheaper GT 240 1GB DDR3. The minimum power supply requirements is strange for this card, most GT 240's require 300W PSU.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR5

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 450W

Best graphics card for $80:

Best graphics card for under $80 is the ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB. HD 5670 is little bit weaker than GeForce 9800GT, but it's DirectX 11 compatible and it consumes much less power.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB DDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Nvidia alternative:

9800GT is a card that I really don't recommend. It's very common that Nvidia 8800/9800 series cards die after few years of use. 9800GT is little bit faster than GT 240 DDR5 and ATI HD 5670.

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3

• DirectX 10
• 256-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $90:
Same as $80, no better deals for this price.

Best graphics card for $100:

Fastest gaming graphics card under 100 dollars is the ATI Radeon HD 5750, but I strongly suggest getting much faster ATI Radeon HD 5770 instead. It doesn't cost much more.

ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 450W

Nvidia alternative:

GTS 250 is not much slower than HD 5750, but GTS 250 has significally higher power consumption and no DirectX 11 support. Even when it requires a weaker power supply.

Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3

• DirectX 10
• 256-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Comparison of 24 best gaming computers ($701 to $900), April 2011

In April's $701 to $900 gaming computer comparison chart we have 24 different desktops that are marketed as gaming computers. Most of them can easily handle modern games at decent settings, as expected for this price range. But some (brand computers) have $40 graphics cards that are almost useless for today's and future games. Not so surprisingly the fastest graphics card of all desktops is the AMD HD 6870, it is ~15% faster than HD 6850. Next best is the ~30% slower ATI HD 5770 which is 10-15% faster than Nvidia GTS 450 and ATI HD 5750. After them is ATI HD 5670 that has less than 1/2 performance of HD 6850. Anything lower should be avoided if you want to play games at highish settings. All graphics cards have ranking  next to the model number, see link below for the video card ranking list.
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html
Gaming CPU hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-2100-recommended-processor,2895-5.html

iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3 Review

Everyone likes to play newest computer games maxed out with high frames per second. But running latest titles at high settings requires something better than a $399 computer with a integrated graphics card. Thankfully, you don't have to buy a $1500-$2000 gaming computer to play high graphic games, $800-$900 gaming desktops with AMD HD 6850 or Nvidia GTX 460 will do the job fine. Obviously you can't get a brand computer (HP, Dell, Alienware) with HD 6850 or any other fast DirectX 11 card for under $900. This is why I review this iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3, which has very decent specifications for a sub-$900 gaming desktop.
Graphics card: This iBUYPOWER uses the powerful 1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6850, its performance is similar to Nvidia's 1GB GTX 460. The AMD HD 6850 is powerful enough for playing most games at max settings. Remember that HD 6850 and HD 6870 are upper mid-range video cards of the Radeon 6000 series, HD 6950 / HD 6970 / HD 6990 are the new high-end.
Processor: CPU is also an important component in a gaming computer, decent gaming PC should at least have a good quad-core processor. Lower clocked AMD six-cores are not really good for gaming. iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3 Gaming Desktop Computer - Black has one of the fastest AMD quad-core processors, the 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II X4 965. It is a great processor, but it's much slower than more expensive Intel's Sandy Bridge i5 and i7.
Other specs: The other specifications of this computer are pretty standard for this price range: 4GB of dual channel DDR3 memory, 1TB SATA III HDD and Windows 7 Home Premium.
Conclusion: iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3 is a nearly perfect gaming PC that offers great value for money, but there are couple slightly better alternatives.
Alternatives: similar desktop with same price, but with 8GB RAM - Titanium Gamer AMTI9098, minimally slower processor, better video card - Titanium Gamer AMTI7009, more future proof computer with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K - CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme GXi220.

Pros:

 Very fast graphics card

 Balanced build

 

Cons:

 None 

Specifications:

• 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II X4 965 processor
• 4GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
• 1TB SATA III hard drive
• 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6850
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium