HP Pavilion Elite m9600t Value Desktop PC

To its credit, HP packed some of the best parts it could fit into the m9600t at that sub-$1500 price. For starters, the system carries a 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 920 processor, a top-of-the-line component for a value PC. The m9600t also includes a substantial 6GB of DDR3 memory, which the preinstalled 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium operating system can use fully. Its 750GB of storage (on a single hard drive) is sizable, too, though less-expensive systems with similar performance specifications have jumped into the 1TB range.

Although the HP Pavilion Elite m9600t offers components and performance that are the envy of lesser value PCs, it can't compete against similarly configured machines. Several rivals beat it in performance; and even worse, some models crush the $1460 (as of 8/23/09) m9600t in price, to the tune of nearly $500. That's not just a one-two punch--that's an uppercut to the jaw.


The m9600t's WorldBench 6 score of 124 put it in a virtual tie with the $999 Dell XPS 435 (125), the $1300 Gateway FX6800-11 (124), the $1049 Acer Veriton M670G (124), and the $999 Velocity Micro Edge Z5 (126). As you can see, every one of those systems is cheaper than the m9600t. And the Micro Express MicroFlex 95B (closer to the m9600t's price at $1499) trounced all of them, producing a category-leading WorldBench 6 result of 148.