HP Pavilion p6330f

HP Pavilion p6330f

Wrapped in the stock HP chassis, the HP Pavilion p6330f ($599, as of April 20, 2010) doesn't immediately stand out from the crowd of budget PCs. But it punches things up with stellar performance, matching that of our current category favorite, the Gateway SX2840-01. Both the Pavilion p6330f and the Gateway SX2840-01 are configured with a 2.93GHz Core i3-530 processor, 6GB of RAM, a generous 1TB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). And as befits their identical load-outs, they earned identical WorldBench scores of 118, placing themselves among the top performers in the budget PC category. Gaming performance on the Pavilion p6330f is--predictably--dismal. Integrated graphics simply can't deliver playable frame rates on our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmark, but no other desktop of equal or lower price fares any better. If you're looking for gaming performance, a discrete graphics subsystem is the way to go; check out our Top 10 Mainstream PCs chart for suitable options. Though their specifications are very similar, the p6330f and the SX2840-01 do have significant differences.