All-in-one PCs have come a long way in the past few years. The iMac led the way, but PCs have been catching up quickly, and in some ways surpassing. One of HPs newest All-In-One PCs is the Pavilion MS214.

Features

• 18.5″ high-def widescreen with tilt and swivel
• Internal antennas for 802.11b/g
• Integrated 6-in-1 digital media card reader
• Built-in webcam and mic
• Integrated premium stereo speakers
• ENERGY STAR® qualified, EPEAT Silver registered, and HP power-management technology

The Pavilion MS214 features an 18.5″ widescreen display. This display is big enough to see clearly, but also small enough that it could easily fit in small spaces (like on a kitchen counter). Best of all the screen features a matte finish, which means it is not glossy.

Inside the Pavilion MS214 is an internal 802.11b/g card and antenna. Wireless G technology is getting a bit old and wireless N is starting to take over, so I am surprised to see that it is not included.

With different media cards laying around all over, it is nice to have a variety of options in a computer. The MS214 has a 6-in-1 media card reader that supports Secure Digital (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC), MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC Plus), Extreme Digital media (xD), Memory Stick (MS) and Memory Stick Pro (MS-Pro). The one format that was left out is Compact Flash (CF). I know that CF is on its way out the door, but my camera uses that CF so I need it, and until I upgrade my camera I will continue to need it.

A built-in webcam and mic are becoming a standard feature on All-In-One desktops like this and the Pavilion MS214 does not forget to include these.

No All-In-One computer would be complete without audio. The MS214 includes a pair of small speakers, under the screen, just for that purpose.

If you’re concerned about the environment (and who isn’t) then you will like the fact that the Pavilion MS214 is ENERGY STAR qualified and EPEAT Silver registered. In addition, the included HP power management software will help to keep power bills as low as possible.

Design

I would argue that the most important aspect of an All-In-One PC is the design. Consumers don’t purchase All-In-One PCs because of their power, price, or portability (for power and price get a desktop, for portability get a laptop). So the only thing left is design, and space saving is probably the most important aspect of that design. With everything built into the back of the LCD panel the space saving is self evident.

The design of the Pavilion MS214 is very simple.The front has only a few points of interest and that helps to keep things looking very clean and classy. At the very top of the screen is where the webcam and microphone are, and at the bottom are the speakers. The only other thing on the front is the power button and that is in the bottom right corner.

Front

Webcam

The left side has a small panel of inputs which include a media card reader, 2 USB ports, a microphone, and headphone jack.

Left

On the right is the DVD drive, eject button, screen brightness up and down buttons, and a hard drive activity light. This is a really odd place to put the activity light because it is impossible to see from the front. In addition, it is impossible to tell what the buttons do unless you are looking right at them. I would recommend to HP that they add labels to the front of the MS214, so that you know what you are pressing when you reach around to push the button.

Right

The back has a bit more going on, including more plugs which are a DC plug, Ethernet plug, 4 more USB ports, and an audio out jack.

Rear Connectors

Also on the back are two removable panels. These panels cover the Memory and Hard Drive. These also happen to be the only two user serviceable parts in the Pavilion MS214. Both are very easy to get to. They only one I had trouble with was the hard drive, and that is because I forgot to undo the screw that holds the drive cage in place.

Memory cover	Memory
Hard Drive cover	Hard Drive

Performance

The HP Pavilion MS214 runs on some decent hardware, it is certainly not top of the line, but it should be enough to get through most tasks. The hardware includes:

• AMD Athlon X2 3250e Dual-Core Processor (1.5 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, 2000 MHz System Bus)
• 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM memory (2x1024MB ultimate performance)
• ATI RadeonTM HD 3200 Graphics with 256MB graphics memory
• 320GB (7200RPM) Serial ATA hard drive

As you can see the the hardware is not exactly smoking. So with the understanding that this is a low end machine, and not a high end gaming rig, I proceeded to run some performance tests.

Before I run any tests I always like to look at the Windows rating. This gives a break down of how the different parts of the machine compare to Microsoft’s recommendations. As you can see the lowest score is on graphics (2.9). This means using all of Windows 7′s built in graphical goodness might put a bit strain of the system. For the most part I keep those things turned off anyways because I don’t care for them and I like to free up CPU cycles for more important things. I was surprised to see the Gaming Graphics score of 4.1. This leads me to believe that you may be able to do some casual gaming. Also I would think that games would be more stressful on a system than Windows Aero, so why did it get a better score?

Windows rating

On to my first real benchmark. I tested with both 3DMark and PCMark. The results of these tests were very poor, but considering the hardware I am not overly disappointed. I was hoping that the high Gaming Graphics score we saw above would have turned into a good score here, but alas it did not. Since I trust these scores more than the built-in Windows rating, I once again thinking that gaming on the MS214 is not a good idea.

3DMark

PCMark 64

To test the video playing capabilities I downloaded a few videos, in different resolutions and watched them. I was paying particular attention to see if the video was choppy or smooth, and also how good the audio was on the speakers.

I played several different video resolutions, including 1080p and 720p. The monitor does not have the resolution to play a 1080p movie, but if I choose the “fit to screen” option the movie is made smaller. For the most part 1080p played fairly well except for fast action moments where the video would become jittery. With 720p I did not have any problems at all, even when expanded to fit the screen both the audio and video played just fine. However the CPU stayed fairly busy during the video playing. It did not affect the quality of the movie playback, but it does not leave a lot of room for running other programs.

720p movie

The second part of the video test is the audio. Since there are no external volume controls on the outside of the MS214 I was a little disappointed and I immediately thought that this is not going to be good. Speakers that rely solely on the Windows volume adjustments are usually underpowered and not very good sounding. However, I was surprised by what I heard. When cranked up the little speakers filled my office to the point that it was almost uncomfortable to have it full blast. All during the video playing there was very little distortion and the speech was fairly clear and understandable. In the end I found that 80 out of 100 was the optimal volume setting for me when watching videos.

The power usage and heat during these tests stayed very low. This can be attributed to the low end hardware and the HP Power Management Technology.

Idle Power	Load Power
Idle temps	Load temps

For the most part HP also kept this system bloatware free. However the one piece of software that they did load, Norton Internet Security, is a bit of a nag. A popup would appear each time I started the computer, telling me to enable the software. A quick uninstall took care of that once and for all.

Desktop

Support and Warranty

I don’t think that HP has ever been considered generous with their warranties, and the warranty that comes with the Pavilion MS214 is no exception. The base warranty is only 1 year for both hardware and software. With this warranty comes 24/7 technical assistance, available online or toll-free by phone, however all repairs must be done by sending the machine back to HP. If you want to add a couple more years to the base warranty, then be prepared to pay for it. HP offers a 2, 3, and 4 year extended warranties that run $159.99, $249.99, and $309.99 respectively. However, it is possible to get a 30% discount if the extended warranty if bought at the same time as the MS214. I would probably recommend at least the 2 year extended warranty because it include at home service.

If the computer needs a piece of hardware repaired there is a good chance that the MS214 will have to be shipped back to HP. Since the only to user serviceable parts are the Hard Drive and Memory, those are the only parts HP will will ship to the customer, anything else will have to be done by HP. I have never thought that shipping a computer back to the manufacturer was a good option. I would rather have a replacement machine sent first so the customer is not stuck without a computer for weeks. For this reason you should really consider an extended warranty with at home service.

Conclusion

Overall the Pavilion MS214 is a very low end computer, but if you don’t need or want to play games or watch 1080p movies, then this should be good enough.The price is also matched to the hardware. At just under $600 this seems to be a decent price. I actually found it on Amazon for $598 with free shipping and no taxes. If your in the market for a budget All-In-One then the Pavilion MS214 will certainly make a great impression.

As an after thought, if HP would add a TV tuner this would be a perfect TV replacement for a kitchen counter. I have a small TV and computer in my kitchen right now and I would love to replace it with an All-In-One like this. I did review the HP Touchsmart a few months ago, but I didn’t like it very much because it was big and had a glossy screen. The Pavilion MS214 is the perfect size and the screen is not glossy. Please HP, add an internal TV tuner, IR port, and remote, I might actually buy one if you do.