The front of the case sports a fairly paltry two USB ports--an uninteresting offering even for a budget desktop. The rear is a bit more spread out, thankfully, with a total of four USB ports, one VGA port, one DVI port, one coaxial audio output, one gigabit ethernet port (Wireless-N connectivity, as well), and integrated 7.1 surround sound. That's a good lineup, but an even better one would include a nod to some kind of advanced display connection such as HDMI or DisplayPort, as well as some sort of FireWire or eSATA connection. USB 3.0 would be a dream--maybe someday, eh?

Included with HP's p6640f is a boring wired mouse and a boring wired keyboard. Perhaps in the future we'll get some better action on the parts of the PC that a person uses most.

So, should you consider the HP Pavilion p6640f? Actually, this is one of the rare instances where we recommend that you save your pennies and jump on up to HP's slimmer desktop, the Pavilion Slimline s5660f--unless, of course, you have no interest in rocking a Blu-ray player inside your brand-new system. It won't allow you to upgrade without a hassle, but that restriction is a welcome trade-off for stronger features--and a lower price.