Looking sleek and a little smaller than your average midi tower, the t134a sits on top of the Pavilion series. This machine is a powerful home/office PC – not rigged purely for gaming.
Its 2.53GHz Pentium 4 and 512MB RAM, huge 120GB hard drive capacity and 128MB of video memory describe a very formidable and competitive spec. A CD-RW/DVD combo, Dolby 5.1 integrated audio, LAN, modem, USB and FireWire connectivity and cordless peripherals contribute towards making this a well-rounded PC for modern home use.
These are not the only highlights of this PC. If you pop down the moveable panel at the front of the box, you will see not only a USB and a FireWire port, but six card reader slots. This six-in-one digital media reader occupies a 3.5in drive bay and supports CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital and Memory Stick.
What's even more attractive is the huge bundle of software that accompanies the base Windows XP Home installation. HP offers some software for all fronts, ranging from MS Works 7.0, MS Money for office productivity, Encarta 2003 for education, as well as digital imaging software, Norton Antivirus 2003 and a range of recovery tools.
It is easy to connect devices externally, but after popping the hood (no tools required), expanding it on the inside will prove more difficult. Only two DIMMs are available, which are both used. Moreover, there will not be much room for expansion cards either – of the three PCI slots offered only two are free.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that for $2,999 the t134a ships with the HP PSC2110 All-in-one printer/scanner/copier, making an ideal addition to a powerful family or office computer.