HP Phoenix h9-1120t System Review: HP's Gaming Desktop Round Two with Tahiti and Ivy Bridge
by Dustin Sklavos on June 19, 2012 8:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Gaming
- AMD
- HP
- Ivy Bridge
- Radeon HD 7000
- Phoenix
- Tahiti
Conclusion: Good Idea, Tough Sell
When I reviewed the initial launch of the HP Phoenix, I felt like it was a good idea and essentially competitive. True, the Sandy Bridge-E model we reviewed was never going to be that compelling, but the chassis design is solid and the thermals are good. We needed a commodity gaming system, something that consumers could grab off the shelf without going through the hassle of configuring a system from a boutique. Unfortunately, it's not working out that way.
Despite having an opportunity to innovate in an underserved market, HP has opted to do the same old OEM thing: gouge the end consumer on "premium" hardware and price themselves right out of competition. The models available from Best Buy are online only, so there goes that convenience. There are models available at Fry's, but they're the same retail ones Best Buy wants to sell you online, and the price-performance is completely out of whack.
The old adage that there are no such things as bad products, only bad prices...it holds true here. CyberPower and iBuyPower are both making serious inroads into retail and they're not going to be the kind of cushy competition that Alienware is. HP seems to have re-entered this market with the impression that they're going to leverage their buying power to drive down costs while still charging a premium, but that's the same kind of thinking that's been slowly killing Lenovo.
Taken on its own, I like the Phoenix. I like the idea of a commodity gaming system. If HP could hit a reasonable price with it and get it on retail shelves, I think they'd have a very strong contender. The problem is that they haven't and/or won't, and so their retail "gaming machines" continue to use chintzy sub-$150 video cards while intruding boutiques offer better bang for the buck. When you take into account that you have to order online to even start to get a good deal on one of these machines, suddenly you're inhabiting a space where vendors like iBuyPower, CyberPower, AVADirect, Puget Systems, Origin, and more are all willing to compete for your gaming dollar, and they're all willing to give you more power with better customer service.
I want HP to succeed and do well in this market. The Phoenix is a fantastic idea and a solid product, and it's one of the few bright spots of real innovation that HP has demonstrated over the past six months while a revitalized Dell, a continually evolving Toshiba, and a very hungry ASUS have continued to make major inroads on all fronts. But HP needs to stop thinking like they're an old, entrenched company. Releasing a good product at a price like this, it might as well be swept under the rug. Get hungry, HP! If you can get the price on this thing lower, you'll have a killer product on your hands. As it stands, though, it's just not worth the sacrifices just to get an HP label on the front of your gaming system.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
33 Comments
View All Comments
quiksilvr - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
I think the question you should be asking is: "Why are the best functioning computer cases so fucgly?"Wolfpup - Monday, July 23, 2012 - link
Compared to what? I think this is an attractive design-far more so than most if not all boutique systems.duffman55 - Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - link
HP's website says they're doing free upgrades from 8GB of memory to 10GB of memory with 3 DIMMs. Seems kind of odd that they would use an odd number of sticks. What sort of effect does this have on performance in this day and age?RaistlinZ - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
It's because OEM's like HP don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to high end gaming rigs. 3 DIMMS is silly, obviously. And for that price there really should be at least a 60GB SSD for the OS, 1600 DDR instead of 1333, at least a moderate overclock on the CPU, and a 7970 instead of a 7950.ggathagan - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
3 DIMMS might be more than silly; it might be detrimental to performance.I don't know about the Z75 chipset, but many of the chipsets out there revert to single channel memory control when the DIMMS aren't in pairs.
Denithor - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
Nah, ever since the Nehalem days CPUs have been able to use a hybrid channel memory setup if you use odd numbers of sticks.The matched pair will run in dual channel mode, the single stick will run single channel. Still faster overall than entirely single channel mode.
But yeah, that's basically a moronic 'upgrade' from HP for a system intended as a 'performance' class computer.
ShieTar - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
My guess? It breaks Dual-Channel mode, drives up power consumption by about 5 to 10 W (not just the stick, the CPU will use more power too), and do absolutely nothing for your performance unless by chance you manage to use more than 8 but less than 10 GB of memory. Hint: Gaming won't use more than 8 GB for a long time to come.This seems very much like advertising acted on this "special offer" without consulting engineering about it.
RDO CA - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
why all the 2.0 ports and I think you meant 22nm processor--1333 memory and no ssd??Come on HP you can do better.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
The bandwidth requirements for USB 3.0 are quite steep, and the Z77 chipset only supports up to four USB 3.0 ports natively. If you want more USB ports, you either use USB 2.0 or you have to add a second USB 3.0 controller, which requires PCIe lanes that you might not have. Besides, mice, keyboards, and many other devices have no need of the bandwidth offered by USB 3.0.I'm not sure what you mean by the other comment: "I think you meant 22nm processor--1333 memory and no ssd??" If you're simply saying HP should have done better on the RAM and storage, I'd agree; maybe you're just responding to some other post?
Pennanen - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
Just built similiar system for a friend month or 2 ago, even tough it had i5 2500k but otherwise pretty much the same. Total cost ended up 1100$.Prebuilts are very overpriced but this one does it even harder.