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The Vectra VL420 is the first system we've seen in HP's new range of business desktop PCs. With a redesigned styling, the system is available as a mini-tower, a desktop unit or a compact tower, and a choice of specifications make it ideal for a variety of business uses.
Available with a choice of processors, our review PC was supplied with a 900MHz Intel Celeron. It uses an Intel 815 chipset with 128Mb of PC133 SDRam that occupies both of the micro ATX motherboard's two memory Dimm slots.
The desktop chassis is thinner than previous models but still has many of its predecessor's functionality. The case is tool free and the top lifts off with the release of one catch. Although there's no case lock provided, it is an option.
Components within the chassis are well laid out and easy to access, and all the drives and backing plates are tool free. The 3.5in. floppy disk drive and Maxtor Ultra ATA/100 40Gb hard disk drive sit in a caddy that's easily removed.
The Liteon 40-speed CDRom drive sits on runners and there's space for an additional 5.25in. drive. The motherboard has three PCI slots and one AGP slot. The latter is taken up by an nVidia GeForce2 MX board with 32Mb of SDRam. This is in addition to the integrated, but disabled, graphics in the Intel 815 chipset.
The graphics card has both a VGA and DVI-I connector for use with a digital LCD monitor, and it also has nVidia's TwinView technology so that two displays can be used at the same time.
Our review model came with a matching 15in. LCD monitor, which has a native resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels and offers both DVI-I and VGA connections. The Vectra vl420 is also available with a choice of CRT monitors.
HP offers a number of different operating system options, including Windows XP Professional and Linux Mandrake 8.0, but the system we tested came with Windows 2000 Professional.
The manufacturer also includes its Rapid Deployment Solution. A combination of Rembo Auto Deploy and Rembo Auto Backup, this lets network managers deploy software images on PCs simultaneously, customise operating systems, applications and end-user data as well as back up any PCs remotely and securely.
Contact: Hewlett Packard 0870 241 1485
www.hp.com/uk/desktops/vectra/vl420.htm
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