HP Omni 27 Review

Well this is the first review to hit our website and so I thought that we would start with a piece of equipment that we use on a daily basis........my computer! Now this machine gets some serious hammer to the point whereby if it would be the metaphorical guy screaming and throwing a tantrum at having to visit another clothes/shoe/homeware store with his wife/girlfriend when the first store was just perfect! It is certainly put through its paces and at times runs flat out especially with software like Adobe Photoshop. That said though this machine is a real workhorse and we are overall very happy with it. Two weeks ago we upgraded the RAM from the original 4GB to 8GB and this has certainly made a difference. So let's take a look at the machine in more detail........

The HP Omni 27 boasts a whooping 27" flat screen display at 1920 x 1080 resolution. It is a flawless display to a high standard which makes it amazing to work with. The only machine that is comparable in size is a Mac and they come with a hefty price tag. Overall the HP Omni 27 also comes out at a higher spec with much better overall reviews. It is a great computer to work with and switches between tasks with very few issues. I use ours for a lot of the stuff relating to the website and often run multiple browser windows on Firefox and Chrome at the same time alongside running editing software and word processing software and it handles it like a dream with the occasional tantrum moment that seems to have settled down now that it has got some extra RAM.

The CPU varies between models but they can support upto an i7-2600 Quad core Intel CPU. The LGA1155 socket that is associated with servers and higher end gaming machines allows for the support of both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge microarchitectures. Mine runs with a lesser i3 Dual Core processor but copes okay with what is asked of it. A higher powered processor, which is found in the higher end models would no doubt speed it up and make running once again smoother but at present it is meeting demands. With the prices of CPU chips seeming to have dropped in price of late, however now is a good time to upgrade the CPU if you find the machine is lagging behind. It is certainly something to bear in mind for us for future development of the machine.

Out of the box the machine comes with between 4GB and 6GB of DDR2 RAM. It is surprising that with the release of DDR3 in 2007 that this machine produced in 2011 stuck with DDR 2. We have just upgraded ours to 8GB of RAM and it has certainly helped with the smooth running of the machine. You cannot help thinking however, how much impact upon performance using the faster and less glitchy DDR 3 would have made to the machine. Still technology is rapidly changing and with the release of DDR 4 in 2012 just after the release of the Omni 27 and DDR 5 hot on its heels who knows what is yet to come?!