Compact products can be very appealing—witness the Apple Mac mini, the BMW Mini Cooper, and the miniskirt. The HP Pavilion Slimline s3710t ($1,000 direct) is not quite as tiny as the Mac mini, but it is a lot smaller than the average mini-tower desktop. The s3710t is part of a long line of HP Slimline PCs we've seen over the past few years that marry compact form factor with full-size desktop components. The latest is no different, packing in a quad-core Intel processor, discrete Nvidia graphics, a full-size hard drive, and a Blu-ray optical drive. In fact, the s3710t is nearly identical to the Slimline s3600t ($1,119 list) I reviewed last year. The differences are modest, and not all of them are improvements. Take a look at the s3701t if you're in the market for a compact multimedia machine, but be wary of its drawback.The s3710t is housed in the same black metal and plastic, small-form-factor (SFF) case that HP has used for the Slimline series since the s3020n. There's nothing wrong with this chassis, so HP hasn't needed to change it over the past couple of years.
Some of the system's innards are different from those of the s3600t. The s3710t has only a dual-core processor (a Core 2 Duo E7300) instead of its predecessor's quad-core (Core 2 Quad Q9300). However, the new system has 4GB of RAM, up from the s3600t's 2GB. The 500GB hard-drive capacity and the 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9500GS graphics card with HDMI output remain the same. The s3710t has 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking and an ATSC digital TV tuner, both plusses for a system so small. The system also retains the Pocket Media Drive bay so that you can plug in hard-drive cartridges to expand the system's 500GB internal storage, which is a little small for this price. The HP Slimline s3710t comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty, which is fairly standard for a consumer PC.
Because so much hardware is crammed into such a small chassis, no expansion space is left inside the case. The PCIe x16 slot is taken up by the GeForce 9500GS card, the PCIe x1 slot is filled by the ATSC TV tuner card, and both DIMM slots are filled by the 4GB of memory. Truth be told, the core audience for this system (namely, multimedia enthusiasts and home-theater PC fans) likely won't need much more for the near future. The IR receiver for the included remote is an external USB box. You can view high-def movies with the built-in Blu-ray player, which can also read and burn DVDs and CDs. It can't burn Blu-ray discs (BD-R), but that's okay: At $6 per disc for 25GB single-layer BD-R and $35 for 50GB dual-layer BD-R discs, the media is still too expensive to use for day-to-day tasks. Contrast that with the 70-cent cost for an 8.5GB DVD+R DL, or under $0.15/GB for an external hard drive.
The crapware situation in the Slimline series hasn't changed much since the s3600t—there is a ton of it. This includes programs like the Microsoft Office 60-day trial, "My HP Games" by WildTangent, an HP toolbar in Internet Explorer (actually even more egregious than last year's Yahoo Toolbar, since the first button is "HP Deals"), and Snapfish Picture Mover. If you really wanted these, you could download them all from the Internet at no cost. They don't give you any extra utility by coming preinstalled, and three of the four programs will try to sell you something (more game time, digital photo prints, and Office). Ads abound on the desktop and in the Vista Welcome Center (the first screen you see after you've set up your PC and every time you turn on the PC, unless you turn the feature off), including ads for Juno and NetZero (dial-up Internet providers), eBay, and AOL.
Things have gotten worse on the Internet security beat, too. The s3710t has a 60-day subscription to Norton Internet Security, while the s3600t had 15 months. The crapware on the HP Slimline series has gotten even crappier, if that's possible. Granted, HP isn't alone in loading excessive quantities of crapware—eMachines and Sony are among the worst in this respect, with Dell not far behind—but as of now it's the worst offender.
Unsurprisingly, the dual-core s3710t lags behind the quad-core The s3710t is not a gaming rig, and its 3D benchmark numbers reflect that. The system got the same 22-frame-per-second score on both Crysis and World in Conflict at 1,280-by-1,024 resolution. It did even worse on both tests at 1,920 by 1,200 (4 fps and 5 fps, respectively). The GeForce 9500GS card in this system is strictly for helping movie playback and 3D user-interface performance, not gaming. Trying to play either of these games on the s3710t will likely lead to more frustration than fun, and you may have to choose between playing at a snail's pace or at a very low resolution. The Acer Aspire X1700 and Mac mini also returned unplayable scores with lower frame rates. The HP s3710t is a better performer than the Acer Aspire X1700-U3700 and has a Blu-ray drive, but it costs twice as much. With the money you save on the Acer, you could install a TV tuner and swap in a more expensive internal Blu-ray burner to replace the DVD burner. In a home-theater setup, you likely won't miss the HP's slightly better 3D capabilities. The Apple Mac mini is a lot smaller than the s3710t, but the Mac is quite a bit slower on programs like Photoshop. The Mac also lacks an internal Blu-ray drive and TV tuner (having both requires less elegant third-party external solutions). Like the Comedian's trademark badge in Watchmen, everything on the HP Slimline s3710t looks happy, except for the stain of crapware marring the view. HP has positioned the Pavilion Slimline s3710t as the perfect candidate for a home-theater setup or for that second or third PC in the den. However, the excessive crapware and its visible clutter on the desktop is enough to knock the s3710t's score down a few pegs. This and the $1,000 price tag combine to give the system a weak overall bang for the buck.. If you're the type who can't stand crapware, either resign yourself to hours of cleanupand reinstalling Windows Vista from scratch, or look for another PC.
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