Most pre-constructed gaming computers that we see use a acquainted formula: Intel CPU, Nvidia photos card. That’s why we have been intrigued via way of means of the danger to check the HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690, which uses AMD silicon on each ratings: a Ryzen CPU and a Radeon GPU. At $779 as examined (in HP’s particular version 690-0020), this PC configuration packs a few remarkable value. For much less coins than a unmarried Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition photos card, you are getting a compact computing device gaming PC this is able to gambling the state-of-the-art AAA titles at a mainstream 1080p decision with the visible fine settings cranked up. That’s the maximum you may ask from a price range-priced gaming PC, and simply one of the motives that this HP version is a robust choose for buying the maximum in your money. That said, the shortage of an SSD on this configuration places a damper at the deal; this PC in any other case could have scored an Editors’ Choice award.
Big Impact, Small Form Factor
The HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690 is a jazzed-up model of HP’s mainstream Pavilion compact towers. It is not big. Its 16-liter case is set 1/2 of the capability of a normal mid-tower. It measures 13.three inches long, 10.nine inches high, and 6.7 inches wide, and it weighs approximately eleven.five pounds.
Aside from the inexperienced-themed ports at the the front panel, the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690 has a sober appearance while off. When powered on, a inexperienced mild strip vertically divides the space.
To its left is the narrow tray-load DVD burner, and to its proper the strength button, an audio blend jack, an SD card reader, USB Type-A three.zero ports, and a USB Type-C three.1 port. That’s as strong a set of the front-handy ports as you may count on in a mainstream or price range PC.
The case is in general manufactured from steel. However, the development would not encourage confidence; the case substances are thin, and it feels hollow.
One Phillips-head screw holds at the left panel, which slides off without difficulty sufficient…
The low-profile CPU cooler and the rear 80mm fan are visible, at the same time as the relaxation of the indoors is shrouded in the back of the tough power mounting panel you may see right here. The panel is held in area with a few nonstandard slotted screws. They’re no question removable, however it is a trouble you must now no longer ought to face.
Removing the power panel gives get admission to to the motherboard’s DDR4-2666 DIMM slots (they aid 32GB of RAM in a -16GB DIMM configuration) and unmarried M.2 Type-2280 (80mm) slot for SSDs, right here empty. One 8GB reminiscence module is established on this check unit. (One DIMM manner no dual-channel capability, however at the plus aspect, you may improve to 16GB with out ditching the 8GB you paid for.) The most effective garage power is a sluggish three.five-inch 1TB tough power.
The Radeon RX 580 photos card takes up an excellent part of the indoors. It’s a -slot card however shorter than maximum playing cards I’ve visible primarily based totally at the RX 580 chip, selected or designed to suit within the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690’s compact chassis. (See our assessment of every other Radeon RX 580 card, from XFX, which must supply comparable overall performance.)
The indoors wiring is fairly minimal. The multi-coloured cables coming from the strength deliver appearance generic, however you will in no way see them except the computing device aspect panel is off. Rated for four hundred watts, the strength deliver in our unit contains a nod-worth eighty Plus Platinum rating.
I’m now no longer apt to whinge approximately the incomplete appearance of the case’s steel posterior at this rate. Microphone, line-in, and line-out audio jacks dot the pinnacle left. Further down are blocked-off video ports at the motherboard (this configuration has a committed photos card, so they are disabled), an Ethernet jack, USB Type-A 2.zero ports, and 4 USB Type-A three.zero ports…
The Radeon RX 580 photos card has one HDMI video-out and 3 DisplayPort video-out connectors; undergo this (and the want for an adapter) in thoughts in case you are nevertheless rocking a reveal with DVI and VGA inputs most effective. The bottom-installed strength deliver manner you may not have a strength cable dangling from the pinnacle.
Components and Cooling
Finding a pre-constructed computing device that fits the overall performance of the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690-0020 is not tough. However, locating one which does so at this rate is a piece more difficult. The Lenovo Legion Y520T mid-tower became the nearest I found. It gives a quicker Core i5-8400 six-center processor on the equal rate, however it takes a step down at the photos card with only a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. You’d want a GeForce GTX 1060 to in shape the Radeon RX 580 withinside the HP.
The AMD Ryzen five 2400G(Opens in a brand new window) is a quad-center processor this is effective sufficient for mainstream obligations. It’s an exciting chip due to the fact it is one of the few Ryzen processors that has a integrated photos solution. That capability is going unused on this Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690-0020 configuration, however; the committed Radeon RX 580 photos card in its PCI Express slot takes on the ones duties.
The unmarried-channel 8GB reminiscence setup in our check unit is ok for daily utilization. It’s the minimal you will want for state-of-the-art AAA titles; do not plan on doing a number of multitasking at the same time as you are gaming. The reminiscence may be upgraded, as I cited earlier, with doubtlessly no wastage.
That 1TB tough power, though: I failed to want benchmarks to inform me that it’s miles the overall performance weakness on this configuration. It’s painfully sluggish in comparison to a strong-nation power (SSD). Windows 10 updates took forever. Things were given quite higher once I uninstalled the McAfee anti-virus trial that got here established, however there is no escaping the reality that during 2018, a tough power is a ways from perfect for an OS power. Once you’ve got used a boot SSD, you may in no way pass returned. And in addition, the tough power extensively held returned the HP’s overall performance in sure of our benchmarks.
HP consists of a primary USB keyboard and mouse with this computing device. They’re no-frills, as is the norm for protected peripherals, however they paintings simply fine. If you need to get extreme together along with your gaming, though, you will need to spend money on higher. (See our choices for the first-class gaming keyboards, for starters.)
The energetic cooling exhaust withinside the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690 comes from an 80mm case fan, the strength deliver fan, and the blower-fashion cooler at the photos card. These 3 lovers are slightly audible, below maximum utilization conditions. In reality, the spinning whir and chatter sounds made via way of means of the 1TB tough power are greater distinguished.
The 80mm exhaust fan and the only at the CPU cooler fan come to be important while a stressful workload, like gaming, kicks in. Their collective motor noise is low-pitched and now no longer in all likelihood to draw complaints. However, it is one of these sounds this is maximum distinguished while it is gone; as quickly as you prevent gaming and the lovers spin down, you understand it is loads quieter withinside the room. This HP is not quiet at complete tilt, however it is also now no longer loud sufficient to be a deal-breaker, to my ears.
The cooling overall performance became ok on a 30-minute stint in Rise of the Tomb Raider. At their peaks, I recorded the Ryzen five 2400G processor attaining seventy seven stages C, and the Radeon RX 580 at eighty five stages C. Both are withinside the ideal variety.
To the Test: Solid Power for 1080p
PC Labs lately made over and modernized its benchmarking regimen, so our benchmark-outcomes library is not as giant for price range gaming PCs in the mean time as in years past. Therefore, numerous of the machines in those contrast charts are plenty greater effective and luxurious than the HP Pavilion Gaming 690-0020. (Then again, I continually like rooting for the underdog.)
Here’s a brief center-issue precis of the competing structures charted out below…
PCMark 10 (Productivity Test) and PCMark eight (Storage Test)
PCMark 10 and PCMark eight are holistic overall performance suites evolved via way of means of the PC benchmark experts at UL (previously Futuremark). The PCMark 10 check we run simulates special real-global productiveness and content-introduction workflows. We use it to evaluate usual device overall performance for office-centric obligations which include phrase processing, spreadsheet jockeying, Web browsing, and videoconferencing. The check generates a proprietary numeric rating.
PCMark eight, meanwhile, has a specialised Storage check that we use to evaluate the velocity of the PC’s garage subsystem. This check additionally generates a proprietary rating.
The loss of strong-nation garage harm the HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690-0020 badly in each PCMark checks, mainly withinside the PCMark eight Storage run. Even a small and cheaper SSD boot power could have made a global of distinction.
Cinebench R15
Next is Maxon’s CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 check, that’s absolutely threaded to utilize all to be had processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU as opposed to the GPU to render a complicated image. The end result is a proprietary rating indicating a PC’s suitability for processor-in depth workloads.
The HP’s AMD Ryzen five 2400G processor is predictably outclassed via way of means of the six- and eight-center Intel chips in a number of the opposition right here. In its defense, this chip and this PC are a ways much less luxurious. And a rating of 778 shows the AMD chip has greater-than-ok grunt for maximum daily utilization. Tasks like video rendering are in which you will sense the pinch.
Photoshop CC
We additionally run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-modifying benchmark. Using an early 2018 launch of the Creative Cloud model of Photoshop, we follow a chain of 10 complicated filters and results to a trendy JPEG check image. We time every operation and, on the give up, upload up the full execution time. Lower instances are higher right here. The Photoshop check stresses CPU, garage subsystem, and RAM, however it could additionally take benefit of maximum GPUs to hurry up the method of making use of filters, so structures with effective photos chips or playing cards can also additionally see a boost.
It’s pleasantly unexpected that the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690-0020 did as properly because it did given its tough power-primarily based totally garage and the plenty higher-give up Core i7 and i9 CPUs in a number of the opposite structures right here. Its AMD processor is rapid sufficient for this sort of bursty, start-prevent paintings, and the RX 580 contributed its share.
3DMark (Sky Diver and Fire Strike Tests)
The giant 3DMark check suite, additionally from UL, measures relative photos muscle via way of means of rendering sequences of extraordinarily detailed, gaming-fashion three-D photos that emphasize debris and lighting. We run special 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike, which can be desirable to special kinds of structures. Both are DirectX eleven benchmarks, however Sky Diver is desirable to laptops and midrange PCs, at the same time as Fire Strike is greater stressful and made for high-give up PCs to strut their stuff. The outcomes are proprietary ratings.
The more difficult Fire Strike benchmark highlights the exceptionally big overall performance hole among the HP’s Radeon RX 580 and the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti withinside the Lenovo Legion C530. A rating of greater than 10,000 in Fire Strike shows the HP has enough strength for 1080p gaming with out compromising on visible fine settings.
Unigine Superposition
Next up is every other artificial photos check, this time from Unigine Corp. Like 3DMark, the Superposition check renders and pans thru an in depth three-D scene and measures how the device copes. In this case, it is rendered withinside the organization’s eponymous Unigine engine, presenting a special three-D workload situation than 3DMark, for a 2d opinion at the machine’s graphical prowess. We gift Superposition outcomes, run on the 720p Low and 1080p High presets. These ratings are said in frames according to 2d (fps).
Here again, the HP and its Radeon RX 580 photos card dominate the GTX 1050 Ti-geared up Lenovo Legion C530. The distinction is near 50 percentage withinside the GPU-restricted 1080p High setting.
Real-World Gaming Tests
The artificial checks above are useful for measuring trendy three-D aptitude, however it is tough to overcome complete retail video video games for judging gaming overall performance.
Far Cry five and Rise of the Tomb Raider are each modern, high-constancy titles with integrated benchmarks that illustrate how a device handles real-global video video games at diverse settings. These are run at the most photos-fine presets (Ultra for Far Cry five, Very High for Rise of the Tomb Raider) at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions to decide the candy spot for visuals and easy overall performance for a given device. Far Cry five is DirectX eleven primarily based totally, at the same time as Rise of the Tomb Raider may be flipped to DX12, which we do for the benchmark. Bear in thoughts that the Trident X right here has a modern GeForce RTX 2080 card internal that fees approximately as plenty because the entire Pavilion PC.
It seems that the 3DMark and Superposition checks understated the real-global overall performance hole among the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690 and the Lenovo Legion C530. The Lenovo’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is driven to its limits withinside the 1080p checks, while the HP’s Radeon RX 580 would not spoil a sweat. The HP is even able to a few modest 1440p pixel-pushing.
A Value for 1080p…But That Hard Drive
The proper mixture of rate and overall performance is what sells the HP Pavilion Gaming 690-0020. The inclusion of a Radeon RX 580 photos card makes it a robust gaming contender amongst machines in its rate variety, permitting it to drum up butter-easy 1080p gaming overall performance in state-of-the-art stressful titles. That’s with the visible fine settings cranked, too; few computers on this rate variety can declare to do that.
The pitfall of the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690-0020 configuration examined right here, though, is its loss of SSD garage, depending as a substitute on that painfully poky tough power. That’s clean to treatment with an oem improve to an cheaper SSD, however we would simply as quickly see HP improve the rate a tiny bit and encompass one in each configuration.
The organization does provide a bunch of different Pavilion Gaming 590 and 690 configurations with SSDs, with Intel Optane Memory caches plus a tough power, or with SSD and tough power pairings. We did spot an AMD-centric one, the Pavilion 690-0024, with the equal Ryzen five/Radeon RX 580 blend, a 128GB SSD, and a 1TB tough power, from Best Buy at $829. (Also there: a 690-0034 version with a Ryzen 7.) We’ll placed an SSD at the desire listing for subsequent time we check this family. This time around, though, the Pavilion Gaming Desktop 690-0020 crosses out nearly the whole lot else from that listing that you may fairly need in a price range gaming PC.
