HP Pavilion p6310y

HP Pavilion p6310y

The Gateway DX4831-01e is the budget midtower to beat in this spring's retail roundup, and subsequent testing on this HP Pavilion p6310y only makes that argument more persuasive. Although it's a decent multitasker, we're not surprised to see that HP suffers from the same pitfalls as its predecessor: It has an attractive design and average scores, but is outshadowed by Gateway's competitive CPU and abundance of onboard connections. If it isn't obvious already, we're sticking with recommending the Gateway DX4831-01e until a more valuable system comes along. The HP p6310y features the same aesthetic design that we continue to see in HP's p-series seasonal offerings, and the recipe is simple: take a minimal glossy black case, add a soft-blue LED-lit power button, a sliding panel on the bottom that reveals a media card reader, and two USB 2.0 ports underneath, and you have a visually attractive tower that can easily disappear into your office setup. A side-by-side comparison of the desktops shows that the HP Pavilion p6310y shares almost exactly the same configuration as the Gateway DX4831-01e. In fact, the Gateway offers a Gigabit Ethernet connection and a $50 price cut, which we assume budget-minded users will consider more valuable.