7. Conclusion

During this review, I found myself wondering who HP's target demographic for this computer had been when they were designing it. The m7580n seems to be a PC on the fringe. It's as if it doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. Is it an HTPC or is it an office desktop? Is it both? It certainly performs well enough in either capacity, but it's clearly designed to fit aesthetically into an office environment rather than a home theater; but it contains a TV tuner, runs the Windows Media Center OS and comes with a remote, which indicates that it's meant to be used as an HTPC.

It wasn't until after I discovered that it comes with a student/teacher version of Microsoft Office that it occurred to me that the m7580n is a dorm room computer. It's designed for someone who needs to write papers in the same space where they relax in front of the TV. Who would benefit more from a garden-variety computer that also happens to double as a TV and a DVR than someone with a postage stamp worth of space? The m7580n fits perfectly into a child's bedroom or a college dorm room and is a shoe-in for a feature-packed back to school computer. It's dual core 4400+ is a solid performer and all of the tests that I threw at it were handled with ease. I was also very pleased with the ADS InstantHDTV tuner card. It offers a dual tuner (HD and SD) and captures HD content smoothly and without putting an abundance of strain on the processor. If you're in the market for a great computer for school, the m7580n is an excellent choice.

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A Journey Beyond TV

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