Generally speaking, a convertible tablet PC is on which can be transformed from a laptop configuration to that of a hand held tablet. The main driving force behind development of these machines is the requirement by many users for handy portability and the ability to work requiring less space.

It is worth bearing in mind that there are 2 distinct camps within the Tablet PC market. There are lightweight tablets, or slates, which do not have a keyboard and rely solely on the touch screen interface, such as the Apple iPad and there are laptops which convert into a touch screen tablet by rotating the screen and laying it flat on top of the keyboard, such as the Dell Inspiron Duo. It is the later category that this article is concerned with simply because the computing power of the iPad and its slate clones do not have a powerful enough processor to allow them to carry out the full range of tasks and run the typical business applications that a laptop can.

Tablet PC Pros

The greatest advantage of Tablet PCs is their mobility. Small and light, the tablet pc allows you to work in any situation. All tablet pc’s share one thing in common, they use touch screen technology to allow you to input data on the very screen you are working on. This is why these machines are so small; in tablet mode you dispense with the keyboard and instead type on a virtual keyboard or handwrite with a stylus.

Another advantage of Tablet pc’s is that they can be used for drawing and illustration with the aid of a stylus. This allows for a more creative and free-flowing interaction with the digital paper.

Touch screen technology has advanced greatly over the last few years with the arrival of the iPhone & iPad and this has percolated throughout the entire industry to help create a whole new generation of devices that are easier to use and boast an enhanced user experience. With the widespread adoption of this technology, the prices for convertible tablet pc’s has also dropped rapidly and for the first time ever, this technology can be acquired for the same price as a standard mid-level laptop.

Tablet PC Cons

While these machines are much more portable than their desktop & laptop ancestors, they do tend to be heavier than the slate style tablet as they require more processor, graphics and hard drive space. However, newer models such as the Dell Duo offer netbook sized computing with the benefits of touch screen tablet usability while still having the power of a mid-level laptop.

Some of the older convertible tablet pc’s have an outdated touch screen which can be sluggish or can only be used with a stylus. This will indeed make them harder to use and the inclusion of finger touch screen capability would be preferable on any convertible laptop you are considering acquiring.

The Apple iPad has the best touch screen available at present. It is unfortunate that the manufacturer’s of convertible tablet pc’s have not been able to match its performance as the computing limitations of the iPad mean that it can really only be used for internet surfing, minor tasks and games/entertainment. Over the last few months we have seen the gap close with the release of the Dell Inspiron Duo and some of the expensive high level Hewlett Packard machines coming very close indeed.

Conclusion

If you want to have a mobile, multi-purpose touch screen tablet pc, that can cope with real computing tasks and run real application based software then you will need more than an iPad or Android based tablet. Convertible Tablet PC’s offer the best of both worlds. Despite being heavier and thicker than an Apple ipad, their benefits far outweigh those of the smaller lightweight tablets as they allow for real computing power as well as for entertainment.

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Specifications:

• Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1035T (2.6GHz/3MB L2)
• Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333 (4x 2GB)
• Hard Drive: 1TB WD Caviar Green SATA 3.0Gbps (WD10EADS)
• Optical Drive: SuperMulti Blu-Ray with LightScribe (LGE-DMCH10LS20)
• Sound: Realtek High Definition Audio
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD5570 1GB
• Networking: Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet
• Wireless Networking: 1x PCI-e 802.11n
• USB Wired keyboard and optical mouse
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Power Supply: 300W
• Weight: 18.3 lbs.
• Dimensions: 16.5 x 10.5 x 7.0 inches (DxWxH)
• Warranty: One-year limited parts and labor

The sticker price weighs in at $999.99, but as of time of this writing, the HPE-235F could be found for as little as $900 online.

What’s in the box
The HPE-235F is packaged in a standard, utilitarian series of boxes. When you pop the box open, you’re presented with the system and two small boxes. Box one holds the keyboard while box two contains a mouse, the standard assortment of “READ ME FIRSTS” you’ll never read, and My First PC color coded guide to sticking round pegs in round holes and square pegs in square holes.

There are no recovery media, but there is a recovery partition on the hard drive which will come in handy if the hard drive crashes.

Build and Design
The HP Pavilion Elite HPE-235F is another in a long line of shiny black monoliths. If you have a taste for glossy black and chrome trim, this is the box for you. I found, however, that with even light usage during the review period, the front bezel became absolutely littered with fingerprints and superficial scratches.

Conversely, the matte side panels show no wear whatsoever. So, it looks nice enough as long as you don’t touch it. The keyboard has a matching gloss and chrome finish and the corresponding fingerprint malady. Unfortunately, they skimped on the bling for the mouse; it’s just a combination of matte and gloss black.

As far as construction goes, the chassis is sturdy. I wouldn’t use it as a step stool, but it serves its purpose as a computer-part-holder-togetherer. The front bezel is plastic, but it’s fairly thick and doesn’t feel chintzy. Even the plastic doors should stand up to years of dutifully opening and closing-barring an errant foot-if you keep it on the ground.

There are two doors covering the 5.25-inch drive bays and one on the front panel connectors. Any sleekness gained from their inclusion, however, is marred horribly by the large silver text labeling everything (HP seems to be afraid users might confuse  ”multimedia optical bay” with, say, a toaster). In a curious move, HP put the power button on the top front right corner of the bezel instead of someplace sensible like the front, next to the power indicator light. If you’re inclined to use the top of your tower as a repository for various doodads, manuals, and cables, mind their placement!

The included 3 button mouse is unremarkable. It’s rigid, but light, so while it should hold up to a heavy use, the weight requires some adjustment if you’re used to a heftier mouse. Left click; right click; click-scroll wheel; optical tracking. You’ve seen this all before. HP made the mouse ambidextrous, so it’s equally usable in both left and right hands.

The keyboard features a standard load out and 10-key pad. There is a Fn key like you’d find for most laptops, but it only works with five keys: four for media control and one for sleep mode. Beyond the three volume control buttons, the only other thing of note is the warning label lovingly embedded into the keyboard advising you to read the included safety documentation to “reduce the risk of SERIOUS injury”. Apparently, keyboards are not to be taken internally.

Inputs and Expansion
Aside from the 15-in-1 media card reader, the HP Pavilion Elite HPE-235F’s input options are underwhelming. The front of the box is host to three USB ports: two above the optical drive with the media reader and one toward the bottom accompanied by headphone and mic jacks behind a plastic door. The most exciting feature of the back side is the optical digital audio port.

Beyond that, it’s a fairly standard compliment of 6 3.5mm jacks, a single Gigabit Ethernet, 1 FireWire, 4 USB 2.0 ports as well as 2 blazing fast USB 1.1 ports (fast enough for, and designed to be used with, the included keyboard and mouse, but it’s still an odd decision). There are VGA and DVI ports on the board, but they are capped off due to the inclusion of the Radeon HD5570- which features 1 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 1 DisplayPort.

Since the motherboard inside of the HPE-235f falls into the microATX form factor, there aren’t a lot of upgrade options.  The board hosts one PCI-e 16x slot used by the graphics card and three PCI-e 1x slots, one of which is used by the included wireless-N card.

The chassis has two internal 3.5-inch bays (one used), one external 3.5-inch bay, and two 5.25-inch bays (one used). All four RAM slots are occupied by 2GB DIMMs, so any upgrade there (to a system max of 24GB) would require replacement.

One potential limiter in upgrading the HPE-235f is the 300w PSU. Not only is its wattage lacking for something beefier in the graphics department, but the mass of cables attached to it take up a good deal of room and make the tiny chassis a troubling experience for anyone looking to change components..

Performance
The HP Pavilion Elite HPE-235F is more than competent at day-to-day tasks as well as gaming with “recommended” settings. The six-core AMD processor paired with the ATI Radeon HD 5570 will afford you lots of eye candy or high resolutions; however, the midrange card doesn’t allow for both.

The system handles recent games well at 1080p but you have to make concessions with anti-aliasing, high quality textures, and high detail shadows. Fortunately, noticing the difference between high and medium with textures and shadows requires side-by-side comparisons while differences in resolution are glaringly obvious.

I also ran into stuttering issues that I would pin on the Western Digital 1TB green drive. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t playing 7 versus 1 in Star Craft 2 or 200 versus 1 in Left 4 Dead 2. It was playing a humble game of Bejeweled whilst listening to Pandora and uninstalling the standard assortment of bloat-ware. A minor annoyance as I could play games and listen to Pandora simultaneously without issue and it’s not like uninstalling pre-bundled software is something you’d do frequently.

Gaming
While the HP Pavilion Elite HPE-235f isn’t exactly marketed as a gaming machine, it’s as close as you can get from HP these days, since the computer giant exited the high-performance gaming arena.

Bear in mind tests were performed with all settings maxed out. If you need eye candy set to 11, you’re going to want to invest in a bit more OOMPH graphically. Playing most games at recommended or medium settings, however, provides enough flash without too much of a performance hit. Extensive “testing” with StarCraft 2 with medium settings at 1920×1080 was quite enjoyable in both performance and quality.

Power, heat and noise
Outside of playing 3D games, you’d never know the HPE-235F was running if it weren’t for the subtle blue glow of the power button. Get right on top of the system and you’ll find the CPU fan barely audible. Under load, the fans do kick up significantly, however, any fan whirring is easily drown out by whichever movie or game you’re watching. The only time I noticed the fans was when benchmarking alone with music off, but even in that scenario, you can still hear a pin drop.

When it comes to power consumption, the HPE-235F is a dainty sipper; casual desktop usage hovered at 68-74 watts. Even going full throttle, the draw was a mere 187 watts. There are GPUs that devour a good deal more than that.
Given its light power usage, heat isn’t much of a problem, which is good considering the cramped case and gnarly wire job. While expected of a 300W power supply, it’s also worth noting that the PSU does not have a 6- or 8-pin lead for graphics cards. You’d also likely have issues fitting any card that required additional power.

Conclusion
The HP Pavilion Elite HPE-235F is a good choice if you’re looking for a versatile, middle-of-the-road system. The Blu-ray drive, optical digital audio, and quiet fans make it a great choice for media enthusiasts, while the ATI HD5570 makes it an adequate game machine. It certainly wouldn’t disappoint your average PC user.

As the gaming benchmarks showed, however, if you simply can’t live without anti-aliasing and graphics sliders set to ultra, you’ll find the HPE-235F lacking. Honestly, though, if the previous statement describes you, you likely aren’t looking for a sub $1,000 system.

In short, the HPE-235F is small, black, and a solid performer. It may lack bells and whistles, but it does deliver high performance on low budgets.

Pros:

• Sturdy Case
• Optical Digital and 7.1 audio
• Low power draw (For a gaming PC)
• Quiet enough for a home theatre.
• Wireless N networking

Cons:

• Fingerprint magnet
• Poor cable management
• Poor upgrade potential

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This is something that has plagued me for years – should I leave my computer running all the time or not.

It is also a topic that has caused much debate.

Leave your PC running 24/7

Some people say that it’s better to leave your PC running around the clock than to shut it off at night and then boot it up in the morning.  The reasoning behind this side of the story, is that if you never shut down your computer you will save wear and tear on it components and, therefore, extend the life of your machine.

Shut if off and boot it up in the morning

Others say that if you care at all about energy consumption (electricity is expensive after all) and how big of a carbon footprint you are leaving – turn off your computer at night.  It takes less energy to boot your computer in the morning than to leave it running overnight.  Plus there is the fact that many operating systems, Windows included, perform various important housekeeping tasks during shutdown and startup — another very good reason for turning the system off at night.

Personally, I’ve always been the type to shut off my computer at night when I go home (obviously I pay the electric bill plus we have a total of 6 computers in our office) and then power it up in the morning.  Sure it takes a few minutes for my computer to boot up and load everything, but what the heck – I check voice mail while I’m waiting.  Not having instant access to email as soon as I sit down in my chair is not going to hurt me in any way – while the increased electric bill could certainly put a bigger dent into our checking account!

Today I was going through a bunch of old PC World magazines and found an article written by Robert Strohmeyer about this very subject.  Robert stated in his article that he had interviewed some of the top techies at HP, Seagate, and other major companies, and that nobody seemed to know how this rumor was born.  But they all agreed on one thing “leaving your PC running 24/7 was NOT a good thing” and that “the claim of leaving your computer running overnight was good for it – was totally bogus.”

An HP Techie, Ken Bosley, who has spent years researching hard-drive reliability says that “you shouldn’t waste energy to extend the life of a computer by even a very small amount” and discounts the notion that “shutting down and starting up a computer puts undue stress on the components, noting that most systems are retired because of obsolescence, not because of hardware failure.”

Where do you stand on this issue?  Do you shut your computer off at night or always leave it running… and why?

Acer Predator Aspire G a.k.a ASG7710-A41 should be loved by all gamers. Who can ignore its kind offering of a Core i7-950 running 3.06GHz CPU, 6GB of DDR3 RAM up to 12GB, an Intel X58 Express Chipset, 1TB of SATA HDD @ 7200rpm, two Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 (1GB of VRAM), a Blu-ray disc drive, as well as 11 USB 2.0 ports, 2 eSATA ports, a multi-card reader, 4 DVI-D ports and finally a two Gigabit Ethernet.

In addition, Aspire G will run on 64-bit Vista and also comes along with G9 Laser mouse and G15 gaming keyboard. There are no words on its availability, but this killer will not be that cheap with $2777 USD (£1660 / €1950) price tag.

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