HP Pavilion Slimline s5120y review

Given the Slimline's low price, you might also think it would be a good base from which to upgrade. We don't advocate that practice in truly low-end PCs, since you're far better off springing for the faster system now, but if reasons of finance or stubbornness propel you down the upgrade route, we still suggest you keep looking. We mentioned that the Slimline only has room for one internal hard drive, and with only two RAM slots its memory upgrade path is limited as well. Perhaps worse, while you only have rear panel brackets for the 16X and 1X PCI Express slots, the motherboard actually has an additional 1X slot, as well as a standard PCI slot, although both are blocked by the power supply. Technically speaking, then, this system actually has less room for upgrades than the smaller Gateway SX2800-01, which will at least accommodate four memory sticks.

Juice box

HP Pavilion Slimline s5120y
Off (watts)	1.46
Sleep (watts)	4.1
Idle (watts)	78.94
Load (watts)	143.69
Raw (annual kWh)	313.80072
Energy Star compliant	No
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$35.62

We're also unimpressed with the Slimline's power efficiency, especially given its relatively poor performance next to other budget PCs. The high power consumption could be because of the motherboard, the CPU and its high clock speed, an inefficient power supply, or a combination of factors, but regardless, if HP tried to obtain Energy Star certification for this system, it would fail. Poor show.

HP backs the Pavilion Slimline s5120y with a one-year warranty that covers parts and labor, alongside 24-7 toll-free phone support. The system itself comes with self-help software for troubleshooting and system maintenance, and you'll find the usual assortment of drivers, support chat, and other resources on HP's Web site.

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations:

HP Pavilion Slimline s5120y
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.7GHz AMD Athlon X2 7750 ; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB Nvidia Geforce 6150SE integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive

Asus Essentio CM5570-AP002
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300; 6GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640MB 7,200rpm hard drive

Dell Inspiron 537s-002B
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.5GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640GB 7,200rpm hard drive

Gateway SX2800-01
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640GB 7,200rpm hard drive

HP Pavilion p6110y
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300; 6GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Intel GMA 3100 integrated graphics chip; 640MB 7,200rpm hard drive