HP HPE Phoenix h9 Series: Small Tower Packs a Punch - martindanythe

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

First-class performance
Petite chassis

Cons

Plain, bound peripherals

Our Verdict

Performance machines aren't ordinarily known for their slenderize, svelte towers–only the HPE Phoenix h9 packs a wad of lick in a very small case.

Performance desktop PCs come in many unusual shapes, but they usually exclusive come one size of it: really, really grand. You have to squeeze the liquid temperature reduction range and the extra fans in there somehow, right? Well, HP's HPE Phoenix h9 Serial publication is a functioning machine–with the specs to back that lay claim in the lead–in a nice smaller micro-tower designed to fit easy on your desk.

Our review mock up, priced at $2899, sports an Intel Substance i7-3960X Utmost Edition processor, a large 16GB of RAM, a 500GB hard labour (along with a 160GB solid-say drive), and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. HP is currently offering a similarly configured unit with a slenderly bigger Solidness Drive (256GB), and an AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card at the synoptic price. The HPE Phoenix h9 besides features an 802.11n Wi-Fi bill of fare, a Blu-ray magnetic disk player, many jolly chromatic inside lights, and runs a 64-scra interlingual rendition of Windows 7 Home Premium.

The slick black-and-gray HPE Phoenix h9 micro-tower measures approximately 16.2 inches long by 6.9 inches broad-brimmed by just 16.3 inches high. But don't let its diminutive size tomfool you: In PCWorld's WorldBench 6 benchmarking tests, the HPE Phoenix h9 scored an fulgurous 186. While not the champion score we've seen, it's calm down a very good mark in the highly competitive Functioning Desktop PC class.

The car also fared well on our graphics tests. On our Far Cry 2 graphics tests, the Phoenix managed a frame rate of 78 frames per second (at highest quality settings and 2560-aside-1600-pixel resolution). By comparison, the AVADirect X79 Silent Gambling PC managed 80 fps on the same test.

The HPE Phoenix h9's case combines shades of gray and black along the front and top, with dark old metal sides. The nominal head of the tower has two optical crusade bays (one filled and one empty). A shiny black plastic door slides down to reveal a multiformat lineup reader and quartet USB 2.0 ports. A moderate-sized plastic window on the rightfield side control board gives you a feel inside the chassis.

On top of the PC, you'll find basic a Beats Audio-increased headphone jack, a mike jackass, and ii USB 3.0 ports. The back of the machine houses two USB 2.0 ports (bringing the Personal computer's total to six), deuce USB 3.0 ports (for a total of four), optical audio-away, gigabit ethernet, and support for 7.1 surround sound. The Nvidia graphics carte has 2 DVI ports and an HDMI-out.

The HPE Phoenix h9's miniscule height does leave less room for upgrading. Though the interior is surprisingly roomy, a lot of excess metal–starting with a conspicuous metal bar in the middle of the PC–obstructs access. Still, you'll find few staring PCIe slots (one x1 and one x16), an visible 5.25-column inch bay laurel, and two open 3.5-inch bays. The wiring is every last fastened down, and fairly neat.

The HPE Phoenix h9 comes with a wired keyboard and a wired mouse. The keyboard has flat, normal-style keys, volume control buttons, and a unscheduled Function key (the 'b' key) for Beat generation Audio. The mouse is a standard two-button-and-scroll-wheel twist.

Its price of $2899 puts the HP HPE Genus Phoenix h9 in the same ballpark as our other top performance machines. HP couples the Phoenix's unlocked Extreme Edition processor with a liquid CPU ice chest. That combining helps keep things quiet, and it also leaves room for intrepid users to coax a bit more tabu of their car with overclocking.

The Phoenix's main drawbacks are its limited hard beat back space (just 500GB), its offering of a Blu-ray player in lieu of a Blu-ray writer, and its lack of Bluetooth. Though HP invites you to upgrade to all of those features on the HP website (at a cost of $50 for a larger hard push, $80 for the Blu-ray writer, and $20 for Blu-ray), I'd have expected these features to come standard happening a near-$3000 machine.

If you're looking for a operation auto that won't break your punt (but might cave in your bank account), the Phoenix h9 is worth a look.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/469055/hp_hpe_phoenix_h9_series_small_tower_packs_a_punch.html

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