HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Desktop PC Review

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(More customer reviews)Original Review 9/20/2010:
I recently purchased the HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Desktop PC for use as my HTPC (Home Theater PC). I have been in the market for a HTPC for about a year but wanted to ensure I purchased one that met a number of specific criteria. Some of the criteria included that it have the ability to:
- Run Boxee (boxee.tv) and/or XBMC (xbmc.org)
- Record live TV (DVR)
- Function as an 10ft UI ([...])
- Transcode video
- Ample storage for digital TV and movie recordings
- Play back 1080p recordings
- Operate quietly
In my quest to meet these requirements I looked at many different HTPC's such as the new Dell Zino HD 410, Popcorn's offerings , Tivo Premier, and Acer's offerings; just to name a few. While some of these are really nice machines, none of them met all my requirements. I finally came upon the S5560F and it seemed to not only meet my requirements but in a lot of ways it exceeded them. After doing a little more research I decided to take the plunge.
I've had the S5560F for about 3 days now and so far I am very impressed. The build quality seems high and to date the only problem I've run into is trying to figure out where to plug in the RF cable (for the remote). The instructions are actually pretty lacking so I would recommend PC novices get help from someone with IT experience (I'm an IT geek so it didn't effect me too much but I could definitely see others having to call HP support). Some of my initial thoughts are:
- Very quiet. The PC has 4 fans (one over the CPU, one over the GPU, one on the side of the case and one with the power supply). I have yet to hear any of them even when the PC is under load.
- It appears designed to either stay standing upright (like in all the pictures) or lie on its side; which is very nice if, like me, you are planning on adding it to your current A/V cabinet.
- The included remote is nice but it's no Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote (not really a knock as the nicer Harmonys run well over $100 themselves)
- The computer is very fast thanks to its quad core AMD CPU and ATI GPU. Make no mistake, this is not a high end gaming system but it's not intended to be. Unless you build one yourself, this HTPC is about as brawny as they come. Really that's beside the point because the S5560F is already overkill for "vanilla" HTPC duties.
- I had to tweak Windows quite a bit to make it work for the 10ft UI. Out of the box neither my wife nor I were able to read anything on the screen from the couch. (For reference we have a nice 1080p, 120Hz 52" LCD tv about 9 to 10 ft from the couch.) Please note I am speaking about Windows 7 itself and not Windows Media Center which is easily readable out of the box. To fix the Windows 7 legibility issue, I increased the font size to 200% and the display to 150%. It eats up the screen real estate but is much better than constantly squinting at the screen.
- I removed most of HP's bloatware including their dock utility and updater utility. Some people may like them but they are pretty useless to me and just got in the way.
After three days I am still playing around with the PC and have yet to really run it through its paces. So far though, there is nothing to indicate that this was anything other than a great purchase. I will update my review as I get more actually use out of the unit and have more time to really play with all its features.
Update: 02/22/2011 - Woke up this morning to find the htpc under heavy load (fans where spinning at full speed) and the unit would not respond. Powered it down and back up and now it can't see the hard drive. Very disappointed at this point...will try to diagnose and see if the hard drive is the issue or if the motherboard is failing. Either way this is a big disappointment. Will update with my findings. Changed rating from 5 stars down to 3 stars. Depending on outcome, rating may need further adjustment.

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Let the HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Desktop PC take care of all your computing needs. Whether it's for home or office use, the HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Desktop PC is equipped with an AMD Athlon II X4 830 2.8GHz processor and 6GB of memory, providing you high-quality performance and efficient, fast speeds. A hefty 1TB hard drive allows you to store countless digital pictures, videos, documents and more. For your entertainment, the HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Desktop PC boasts a Blu-Ray Player with LightScribe Technology, perfect for watching your favorite Blu-ray movies in supreme quality. Other features include built-in I/O ports, ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB VDDR3 Video Graphics and USB keyboard and optical mouse. With the HP Pavilion Slimline s5560f Desktop PC, you'll always be one step ahead of the game.

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