I purchased the computer and monitor from CircuitCity.com and took advantage of several money saving offers. First, CC was offering an extra 10% off the price of computers and monitors and I paid with my Discover card through a special link they provided me and will earn an extra 6% cash back on my statement.

HP Pavilion Elite:

- Pentium Core 2 Quad 2.66Ghz processor

- 750 GB 7200rpm Hard Drive

- 6 GB RAM

- DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe

- 512MB Dedicated GeForce Graphics (shared up to 2GB)

- TV Tuner

- 15-in-1 Media Card Reader

- Wireless a/b/g/n Networking

- HP Personal Media Drive Bay

- Ports: 6 USB 2.0, 1 Firewire, HDMI, DVI

- Windows Vista Home Premium

The computer is a powerhouse and I haven’t even begun to take advantage of its full capabilities. There is a free media bay that I plan to install a Blu-Ray drive into so I can utilize the high definition monitor better as well. The media card reader and front ports are very easily accessible and the top of the computer is a “grippy” material that is used for docking ports or other electronics peripherals that you don’t want sliding around and falling on the floor.

22″ HP Monitor:

This 22″ HDMI LCD monitor is crystal clear and a big upgrade over the laptop screen I have been using. The included speakers are in the back of the monitor and I would not recommend utilizing them as the sound is good, but misdirected and poor sounding as a result.

I am utilizing the HDMI capabilities of the computer and monitor together and it makes setup a breeze. The monitor came from the factory with a lower than native resolution (1680 x 1050) so I upped the monitor to it’s limit of 1080p resolution and the picture looks great. I can easily surf two windows side-by-side or be much more efficient at multi-tasking because of the increased screen real estate.

The monitor also includes two USB ports for hooking up extra electronics directly to the display.

This computer is going to be replacing my Compaq Laptop as my primary computer, although I will be keeping the laptop around for its portability. The laptop was only a dual core processor with 1 GB of RAM and just wasn’t doing what I needed it to do anymore.