HP's Pavilion computers have always been stalwart desktop PCs, providing good performance and excellent multimedia for the home user. Their Pavilion a850y series hits a nice middle ground in terms of price and performance. Starting at less than $600, the a850y line ships with a powerful core (including a monitor with a current rebate) that can be affordably upgraded into a well-rounded multimedia machine.

The baseline price includes a 2.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading technology. The a850y will support a range of P4's up to a 3.8GHz monster that will set you back more than the starting price of the system. For $90, you can get a nice jump up to a 3.2GHz P4 if you need more initial power.

Baseline RAM is only 256MB, so you'll probably want to spend the extra $50 to take it up to 512MB--a good amount for the average user. If you'll be handling a lot of large video files, you may want even more. Taking it up to 1GB is a respectable $200 while maxing out the system at 2GB will cost you $600.

With a 3.2GHz P4 and 512MB of memory, you'll have a great power core at the center of your a850y. As far as storage goes, HP includes a 40GB hard drive at baseline, although they'll give you a free bump up to a massive 160GB drive if you make the $30 upgrade to an 80GB drive. That'll give you plenty of room for game installs and storing huge amounts of multimedia.

HP includes a 48x CD-Rom at baseline, but a 16X DVD-ROM drive is available for $20 or a 48X CD-RW for $40, if you can choose between watching DVD movies or burning to blank CD-R media. Another entry on the continuing list of fantastic upgrade options, HP will let you step up to their LightScribe Double-Layer DVD+/-RW drive for $100. Not only will this drive burn to both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16X, it also burns to Double-Layer media, which has a capacity of 8.5GB for those extra-large files.

And, once you're done with a burn to LightScribe media, you just flip the disk over and the LightScribe drive can imprint a professional-looking label directly onto the disk. It beats the heck out of markers and stickers that peel off.

All of these components come packaged in a sleek Pavilion gray and black tower that features a sliding door at the base of the front bezel. Behind the door lie two USB 2.0 ports and a Firewire port that allow you to connect your high-speed peripherals such as digital camcorders easily.

For a $10 upgrade, you can add another USB 2.0 port and a 9-in-1 media card reader. You can then transfer photos and files to and from your system by inserting the media card from your digital camera, PDA, or MP3 player. The media card reader supports everything from CompactFlash I and II, Memory Stick, and IBM's MicroDrive to MMC, SD, and SmartMedia cards.

HP offers the 17-inch Pavilion v72c with the a850y line $50. It's a small, but adequate display that renders sharp images and bright colors. If you'd rather have a flat-panel monitor with your system, HP offers LCDs in either 15-inch or 17-inch sizes that will run you $200 or $300, respectively.

Graphics on the a850y systems are integrated and share video memory with the main system RAM. This works fine for office applications and some games, but if you're a hard-core gamer or a multimedia editor, you might consider adding a stand-alone graphics board. For $80, you can get an ATI Radeon X300SE with 128MB of dedicated video memory. More astute gamers may want to opt for the Radeon X600 with 256MB of memory and a $180 price tag.

Audio is integrated as well although it supports up to 7.1 channels of sound. There's also a reasonable $40 upgrade to the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard for users with a discerning ear. No speakers are included at the baseline price, although you can add a basic two-speaker set from Harman Kardon for $20 ($40 for the 2.1's with a subwoofer). A pumping set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1's will set you back $150 or you can opt for the surround sound 5.1-speaker Altec Lansing VS3151 for $100.

If you still rely more on floppy disks than USB flash drives, you'll have to spend an extra $20 to add a floppy drive to your a850y. On the input device front, you get HP's Internet Keyboard with myriad programmable keys for multimedia file control and Internet shortcuts. There's only a basic ball mouse; you'll have to pay $10 for an optical one. Or, you can drop $50 and get the HP Wireless Internet Keyboard and Wireless Optical Mouse set that lets you compute without cords.

HP includes a basic set of office software with the a850y line in the form of Microsoft Works 7.0. You can upgrade to the Works Suite 2005 that includes Microsoft Word for only $20 or step up to the Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003 for $150. HP includes a one-year warranty on the a850y series, with extended plans starting at $100 for two years of coverage.

You'll inevitably take your HP Pavilion a850y a bit higher than its sub-$600 starting price tag, but that's only because HP offers so many compellingly affordable upgrades on the series.

Pros: Excellently-priced upgrades, good power core
Cons: Integrated graphics

Warranty
1-year limited