HP Pavilion 7946 > Reviews (1)

THIS IS UNDER THIS CATEGORY UNTIL CIAO SORT OUT THE CORRECT PRODUCT HEADING!!!

Well, as promised, I have eventually managed to tear myself away from playing the Sims for a couple of hours and write another op.
Sad, but true. Every day for me has become Sim day. I am truly and honestly obsessed.

However, whilst writing my last op - which was about the Sims game, and in the time since then, I did and have failed to truly notice and appreciate the very vessel which enables me to play the Sims.

Indeed I have only been able to play the Sims at the rip roaring speed and clarity that it should be played at thanks to my latest piece of hardware.

If it were not for my new machine, I would never have been able to enjoy the wonders of Simsville and all its delights!

Ok, enough of my blethering and trademark background story telling mumbo jumbo; lets get down to business!!...

My wonderful trusty Daewoo PC was reaching breaking point. It has served me very very well (See my Daewoo PC op!) but was finally slowing up, and was not able to run all of the wonderful games that we wanted to play as well as it should.

To be honest, I really didn't want to spend lots of money adding extra memory, upgrading the sound and graphics cards etc - if I am going to spend, I want to see something new for my money. (Yes I am fickle like that folks!!)

I searched the Internet for various bargains - keeping in mind the specifications I was looking for - but was either not too pleased with the prices shown (I, as regulars will know am a complete skinflint) or didnt 100% feel comfortable with sending www.cantbetrusted.com my card details and allowing them access to debit at will!
(No, that's not a real web site - its just to make a point)

After a good two weeks of deliberation, trekking down Tottenham Court Road and back again, attending dodgy computer fairs and phoning countless adverts in Loot, I stumbled across a brochure from a work colleague for a shop called Morgan.

Morgan are based just around the corner from Tottenham Court Road, with a bright yellow shop front. They stock cheap computers for all requirements - basic PCs for word processing and emailing, right up to top spec gaming heaven machines and loaded to the brim with memory, accelerators etc!

I wanted something in between these two. Good Memory, good graphics card, good sound, reliable brand name and from a shop where the staff actually know what they are talking about.

I walked in, told the guy behind the counter what machine I currently had, what I wanted my new machine to be fully capable of, and within 10 minutes I had made my purchase and was loading it into a taxi.

The model I bought was basically last seasons stock, but refurbished with upgraded features - a brand new spec PC at last seasons prices!!
The model I hear you ask? An HP 7946.

Now as I am not really into detailing technical specifications (boooringggg!)! You can view all those here: http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/products/h​omepc/7946.html?id=6996
(This isn't a cop out - Regular Ciaoers will already know what I'm like!!!

)

What I will tell you, is how this machine caters for my needs, how it runs, and what it does in everyday language!

This computer is silver and black - the tower casing resembles an apple G4 tower and looks very futuristic and stylish. It looks so good,so sexy in fact, that I insisted that the tower stays on top of my desk for all to see next to the monitor, rather than have it underneath my desk!

It has a separate CD Re-writer and DVD Rom drive. I would recommend ensuring two separate Cd Drives to anyone wishing to get a CD Re-writer as it means you can copy CDs straight to another blank CD instead of having to save all the music onto your hard drive first, as this depletes memory pretty quickly.

This model of HP Computer comes with a super doopa keyboard which enables you to control volume, visuals, email and Internet with one touch buttons; no need to open stuff via the desktop here matey!

A laser mouse comes as standard too - this kind of mouse is much more efficient and precise, but I have found that these mice work better WITHOUT a mousemat - perhaps this is just down to the fact that my kids cover my mousemat with gunk!

A cool feature of this machine is the software pre loaded onto it. As well as Microsoft Office, it comes with Adaptec Easy CD Creator, which enables complete beginners to create their own CDs, but also comes with HP Jukebox. Now this nifty piece of software has enabled us to record our Vinyl collections onto CD simply and quickly - I have heard that a lot of people invest in further software for this purpose - It is simply not always necessary!!! HP Jukebox also lets you download and record music from the net - again if these things have seemed a bit too daunting for you, with all this talk of MP3 etc, fear not - this will guide you through the process with video to show you which places to click etc each step of the way.

The computer itself has an animated assistant on your desktop, a bit like Microsoft's Office Assistant, except I feel this one is ten times better - he's got a sense of humour for a start and tends to answer your questions more precisely. He also shows you rather than just tells you what you need to do when you are stuck on something.

This model of computer is also capable (both graphically and memory wise) of running any of the latest computer games so you dont need to worry about those specifications of the sides of computer games boxes!!!!!!

Containing a V90 56k modem provides an adequate internet connection speed, and again installing additional ISP software is guided through with the HP desktop assistant.

This computer is a great choice for the whole families needs, be it gaming, home office, music making or web design and surfing.

I dont wish to disclose the price I paid for the machine - its very reasonable. If you want further info about it, check out the HP site as detailed above or leave a message in my Guestbook.

Oh yeah, is it against Ciao rules for me to refer to my own previous ops? Didn't think it was, but if it is let me know!!!!!!!