Amazon.com Product Description

HP's Pavilion a420n Desktop PC is an affordable and capable midlevel computer that will need some upgrading for high-end 3-D animated graphics or the hottest 3-D games but is certainly ready for most any other home, home office or business application. Great as a multimedia center too, the Pavilion a420n also features massive data storage, impressive connectivity and DVD movie support, all at a price that won't break the bank.

Driven by a fast 2.167 GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+ processor and 512 MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM memory, the Pavilion a420n will efficiently tackle virtually any environment and task. HP has enclosed an integrated Intel Extreme Graphics video chipset with 64 MB of shared (not dedicated) video memory, thus compelling anyone who works primarily with 3-D graphics to add an appropriate video card with dedicated, integrated video memory. The system's 160 GB hard drive is one of the biggest in any PC, and its dual optical drives allow you to archive your files, play and burn audio CDs, watch DVD videos and quickly copy the contents of one CD to another. In this stock configuration, DVD writing is not supported.

Other key amenities include a 7-in-1 digital card reader for accessing memory cards from devices such as PDAs and digital cameras, six high-speed USB 2.0 ports (one of the front) for exchanging information with external devices such as scanners and external drives, two FireWire ports (one on the front) for fast interaction with digital camcorders, a front-mounted microphone and headphone port, and six-speaker surround sound audio support. The package does not feature a speaker system or a monitor, thus allowing you to choose from the many alternatives currently available.

Communication facilities include a 56K modem for low-speed dial-up surfing and a 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface for high-speed e-communications. An HP Internet keyboard with hotkeys and a PS/2 optical mouse (no moving parts to get dirty) complete the hardware picture.

The bundled software package features such essentials as the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system, Microsoft's Works 7.0 productivity suite, Quicken New User Edition 2004 financial center, and a variety of multimedia and security utilities. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent performance
I got this computer because I love multitasking, but I was a little bit tight with my budget, so I decided to look AMD instead of Intel since they are cheaper. The performance of this baby is great watching DVD's, Listening to music, Instant Messaging. I used to have a P4 1.4 GHZ with 256 MB of ram which was very fast when I got it, but is incredibly slow compared to this one. You install programs in a breeze. The only letdown is that it has integrated graphics video card, but that mainly affects gaming, which I don't use in this computer. This was definitely a great buy, it has been the easiest computer I have ever owned to set up once turned on, specially compared to the former one I had that came with Windows ME. You get a trial version of Microsoft Office. It also has a lot of HP bundled software but with about 130 GB of hard drive it doesn't matter much. 512 MB of Ram make it very speedy. It was love at first sight. It also has memory card readers in the front that read multiple kind of memory cards. And if you like to use the computer while the rest of the people sleep, it has a headphone plug in the front. 4 usb ports on tha back en 2 in the front are also very convenient. If you are on a tight budget and need performance, but cant afford a high end Pentium 4 this is the way to go. Still I don't really feel i'm sacrificing performance for price. This computer is extremely good. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Affordable but lacking overwhelming power, the HP Pavilion a220n Desktop PC is built for folks who don't want or don't need to drop a lot of dough on state-of-the-art equipment. The unit won't appease those who constantly strain their computer with processor-intensive applications, but is equipped with a spacious hard disk and DVD playing capabilities, and is therefore a solid choice for the budget-conscious user.

At the heart of the Pavilion a220n lies a 2.08 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ processor running at 2.08 GHz. HP has matched this efficient yet cost effective CPU with 512 MB of DDR SDRAM, an nVidia GeForce4 MX video card with 64 MB dedicated memory, and a massive 120 GB hard disk. In its stock configuration, the unit will breeze through most 2-D tasks and even some 3-D applications, but will have trouble with high-end 3-D games and isn't fast enough for demanding business environments. Data handling tools include a massive 120 GB hard disk, a CD-RW drive through which you can play and burn audio CDs and archive information, and a DVD-ROM drive for watching movies.

The Pavilion a220n features enough connectivity options to suit anyone, including two IEEE 1394 FireWire ports (the accepted standard for data movement to and from external devices such as digital camcorders), a half dozen USB 2.0 ports for speedy interaction with plug and play peripherals, a 56K modem for low-speed surfing and a 10/100Base-T networking interface for high-speed e-communications. HP has added a two-button PS/2 scrolling mouse and convenient HP Multimedia keyboard but did not include a display or speakers.

The impressive bundled software package features such useful applications as WordPerfect Productivity Pack 2002, WordPerfect 10 and Quattro Pro 10, Intuit Quicken New Users Edition, InterVideo's WinDVD DVD player, and several photo and music utilities. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Good Computer, Bad Support
I've worked on computers alot in my time. This seemed like it would be a simple computer that I could just enjoy. it was running great! except for the fact that HP loaded it with a bunch of HP software (trialware) and a wonderful advertisement window that would randomly peek in from the side of the screen every 15 minutes (if you thought popups were annoying, wait til you try to handle an hour with that thing on). But I got it all cleaned up and running just the way I liked it. Unfortunately, something internally had screwed up. Since it wasn't displaying anything on the monitor, I naturally checked the video cards. I tested both the onboard PCI (shared memory ugh) a seperate PCI, and two different AGP cards. All produced similar results. So I decide to call up HP support.

After about 15 minutes of trying to get the computerized voice recognition to understand why my product was, I got to listen to the exact same 1 minute country song in repetition for about 45 mintues. Until finally it rang and the annoying song stopped.

I had a representative start by asking me what the problem was. I told him exactly what happened, explained that I checked all fans on the computer and all were functioning correctly, there were no system beeps whereupon the man decides to take matters into his own hands because he obviously had the solution. After listening to him explain to me for a half hour on how to unplug my computer (and having him ask me if it was unplugged a million times), he instructed me to hold the button for 20 seconds. And it still didn't work. The man went on rambling how I wasn't qualified to install my own video card (even though it is no longer brain surgery, for plug and play. But I was properly grounded) then the man went through the exact procedure listed before (the whole holding the button thing and making sure my computer wasn't plugged in). The man said that they'd ship it to their center and reformat the harddrives (and hopefully reset the CMOS too)

Upon recieving the computer everything worked fine and there haven't been any problems since.

To the point: I might be making a big deal about the fact that I clearly demonstrated that I knew how to handle computers and assemble them. Nevertheless, the support decides to belittle my knowledge and just toss out all the extra information I gave them because I was not "qualified" to give information. Well all I have to say to anyone buying this computer or any HP computer is that the support isn't as great as they make it out to be. Just buy a normal computer with no support, but with a warrenty. The warrenty is nice, but support is completely unnecessary. That I leave for you to chew the fat a bit.

HP a220n is still problematic
Buyer beware. Our a220n has been under repair more than it's been functioning.

Purchsed HP a220n from local big national electronics store for X-mas 2003. Out of the box it would not bootup so returned to the store where they replaced the hard drive (supposedly). Was OK for about 2 weeks and it failed again at bootup - "hard drive not found". Sent to HP in Cali for repair. They reformatted the HD. Good for about 2 weeks, then same error. Returned to HP again, they replaced hard drive this time. Now when it boots, the machine displays non-windows diagnostic pages that list a variety of disk errors. Works intermittently.

Through all of this, the HP reps (including the ones from India) have been polite however they've been unable to diagnose the problem via phone. We're re-boxing the CPU one more time for return for repair.

Who knows, maybe it's simply a bad internal cable or a CPU ... it's still under warrantee so I'm not digging into the CPU.

Next time, I'm getting a Dell.

Simply the most problematic computer I have ever owned
I purchased my pavilion in early July and immediately began having installation problems either it would allow complete installation of games but fail to play them or it would simply not allow any installation at all.
I've spent several hours speaking with HP support to no avail finally I was told to send the machine in for repairs which took 3 weeks, when I finally got it back it still did not work.
HP is now asking for the machine back in order to take another crack at fixing it but refuse to tell me what plan of action they are willing to take if they can not fix it.
Despite the fact that HP has a record of this problem dating back to the time of purchase they are telling me the can not simply replace the computer.;
I find this unacceptable

Pretty good desktop - but lots of fluff
I purchased this computer in late July. So far - we have had no problems at all, and with a family of five it gets a lot of daily use. I particularly like the multi-format card reader - its a really handy way to download digital camera photos, and the fact that it is very quiet. The CPU cooling fan appears to be thermostatically controlled and only runs occasionally. But, there are a few downsides. First, HP has chosen to include dozens of add-on applications and free offers which no one in my family uses. Yeah, I know, you can remove them - but why should I have to remove junk in order to speed up my computer? Secondly, the HDD is really large (120 Gb) but its an old technology 5400-rpm drive. Between all of the start-up junk included by HP, and the speed of this drive, this computer takes nearly two minutes to boot to a log-in prompt, and switching between programs is relatively slow. Third, it comes with on-board graphics which are only so-so with newer games. Both IL2 Forgotten Battles and Raven Shield ran poorly on it. Good news is that it does have an AGP slot and the upgrade to a 128mb DDR nVidia card was cheap and easy (kudos to HP for easy access to the interior). Last but not least, it does not include a set of restore CD's (although it does have a separate restore partition on the HDD). You have the option, on a one-time basis, to burn a set of recovery CD's but that seems kinda chintzy on a nearly-$700 computer. Overall, I am satisfied with the a220N and we all like how quiet it is - but it could've been a lot better.

RAM Memory needed and expensive
To replace my 5 year old computer and to enable me to do graphics programs and burn CD's, I decided it was time for a new computer. The pavilion a220n looked promising after research. Amazingly, it ran almost as slowly as my old computer when I first set it up. Supposedly lightyears ahead of my old computer, I was astounded and disappointed. 2 reasons accounted for the slowness: the new Windows XP operating system is a RAM hog and the many items that were preloaded on the computer also slowed it's performance. After removing some unnecessary items, it was still slow, and expanding from 500MG to 1GB RAM seemed an option. HOWEVER, one can not expand to 1 GB RAM on this system without the purchase of not 500MB RAM, but a full 1000MB because this system has TWO memory slots of 250 RAM, each of which must be expanded to 500, rather than being able to reach 1000MB with only 500 additional MB. VERY DISAPPOINTING AND EXPENSIVE to get this to run smoothly. It performs much better with the extra RAM ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Although Compaq's inexpensive Presario S3200NX Desktop PC is geared primarily for less demanding environments and applications, it is far from a low-end computer. Featuring a CD burner and DVD player, a massive hard drive and a surprisingly gutsy processor, the Presario S3200NX is a great choice for those who need solid computing at a price that won't break the bank.

Powered by a cost-effective yet very capable 2 GHz AMD Athlon XP processor 2400+ with QuantiSpeed architecture, 256 MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1 full GB), and an integrated ProSaveageDDR KM266 graphics chipset with 32 MB shared (not dedicated) memory, the system is ready for most typical home, home office and business applications. Due to its relatively conservative allotment of RAM and mid-level 3-D graphics support, it cannot be considered an ideal high-end gaming or 3-D design platform unless upgraded. HP has installed an impressively large 120 GB hard disk, a 3.5-inch diskette drive, and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive through which you can burn and listen to audio CDs, archive your data and enjoy the latest movies.

The Presario S3100NX features a variety of amenities to enhance everyday computing, including six high-speed USB 2.0 ports for plug and play peripherals, a convenient Presario Internet keyboard with hotkeys, a PS/2-style scrolling mouse, serial and parallel "printer" ports, an integrated 56K modem for basic Internet and email access, and a 10/100 Base-Y Fast Ethernet port for speedy network interaction and e-communication. The system is not equipped with a monitor or external stereo speakers, thus allowing users to custom select these components.

To help get you started, Compaq has pre-installed a variety of software applications, including Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition operating system, Microsoft Money 2003, Microsoft Works 7.0, and Quicken Financial Center. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great computer ...
I bought this computer at a local retail store on ... At the time there were no product specs on the HP/Compaq website. Now there are. I finally found out what memory to buy to upgrade to 512mb... I also added a PNY GEForce MMX 440 64 DDR with TV out video card .... I downloaded the latest Microsoft Nvidia driver. Now the computer is increadibly fast. I played the "Die Another Day" DVD on the computer and it was flawless even in full screen. I plugged in a pair of SONY headphones (not powered) and the sound was fantastic!!. I loaded Medal of Honor Allied Assault and played the game for 4 hours. No lockups whatsoever. I have copied and burned numerous songs from cd to cd. The audio tracks sound great. I have never had a better performing or faster computer than this one. Now all I have to do is upgrade to broadband internet and I will have the total package. Huge hard-drive that operates at 8.9 ms seektime and extremely quiet. This computer is definitely a good buy for the price.

An excellent buy
Fast processor, huge hard disk, DVD & CD-RW. (The pre-installed XP includes software for both.) No speakers, however, and it only supports the powered variety. RAM is a little low for gaming/graphics, but that's still a cheap upgrade (and the system will support up to 1GB). There are more powerful machines out there, but this has more than 90% of users will ever need. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Are you shopping on a budget for a new home office desktop computer that can double as a gamer’s delight? Do you already own a monitor and speakers or prefer to choose them separately? If you answered "yes" to any or all of these questions, the Compaq Presario 6320US might be the perfect match for your pocketbook and performance needs.

The Presario 6320’s AMD Athlon XP 2000+ chip offers cost-effective 1.67 GHz clock speed processing crunch that’s easily powers a wide range of productivity and multimedia applications and 3-D games. The tower system’s cavernous 60 GB hard drive offers plentiful application and data file storage, and its 256 MB of 133 MHz DDR SDRAM--expandable to 1 GB--lets you run several applications simultaneously. Its built-in ProSavage DDR KM266 graphics chip and combined 128 KB of L1 primary and 256 KB of L2 secondary cache memory shore up a powerful system nerve center capable of smoothly running and displaying virtually any software.

Separate CD-RW (40x/32x/10x) and DVD (16x) drives deliver speedy data and audio recording and playback, and smooth, error-free movie viewing. Expansion slots in the 14.5-by-16.6-by-6.9-inch Presario 6320 tower include two 5.25-inch bays, an external 3.5-inch bay, two internal 3.5-inch bays (one available), and three PCI slots (two available).

The Presario 6320 includes a 10/100Base-T Fast Ethernet networking connection and a built-in 56K V.90 modem for dial-up access, as well as a Compaq PS/2 Internet keyboard and Compaq PS/2 scroller mouse. Connecting peripherals is easy via four built-in USB ports.

Installed software includes Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Works 6.0, Microsoft Money 2002, Microsoft Encarta Online Deluxe, Intuit Quicken Financial Center/Quicken 2002 New User Edition, RecordNow powered by Veritas, InterVideo WinDVD SE, Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, Norton AntiVirus 2002 with six months of free upgrades, and two free Game Channel titles. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

As the midlevel model in HP's wide-ranging a300n series of desktop computers, the HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC represents a happy medium between upscale performance and affordability. Though it doesn't feature state-of-the-art amenities such as a DVD writer or an Intel Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading processor, it is more than ready to handle most any home, home office, leisure and business application.

Driven by a reasonably efficient and cost-effective 2.08 GHz AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU, the Pavilion a320n Desktop is not blessed with top-notch processing speed. It does, however, feature quality components elsewhere that help keep the unit faster and more capable than expected. HP has added 512 MB DDR SDRAM memory, so multitasking is not a problem. It has equipped the system with an nVidia GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64 MB of dedicated video memory to allow you to blaze through all but high-end 3-D games and 3-D graphics packages. And it has included a massive 120 GB hard disk so you'll have plenty of room for programs, games, and a full multimedia library.

Other key amenities include a CD-RW drive for playing and burning audio and data discs, a DVD-ROM drive through which you can play DVD movies, and a 7-in-1 digital card reader for accessing memory cards from PDAs, digital cameras, and the like. In its stock configuration, the system does not support DVD writing.

HP has clearly built the Pavilion a320n Desktop to meet current and future expansion and connectivity needs. The unit features five high-speed USB 2.0 ports (one of the front) for exchanging information with external devices such as digital cameras and scanners, two FireWire ports (one on the front) for fast interaction with digital camcorders, front-mounted microphone and headphone ports, two available PCI slots, one available AGP slot, and a six-speaker surround sound audio controller. Communication options include a 56K modem for low-speed dial-up surfing and a 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface for high-speed e-communications. An HP multimedia keyboard with hotkeys and a PS/2 mouse with scrolling wheel complete the hardware picture.

A monitor and speakers are not enclosed, thus allowing you to select from the wide variety of choices available today. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Nice computer after?
I bought this computer Dec.28th 2003. It has a lot of great features and is fast.
My problems came when my monitor wouldn`t always come up the first try. I then called tech support twice and tried a few things with no help. I then purchased a nice graphics card which solved my problem reminding me that on board graphics aren`t always good.
I removed all the buy this and that stuff and then I have a very nice computer.
I also forgot to mention that Best Buy`s low price guarentee is a lie. I found the computer 100.00 cheaper at circuit city and they would only refund 50.00 even after they verified it.

If it doesn't work, take it back DAY 1
I bought the a320n on the last day of the year for my business. Good thing I had a weeks worth of vacation and some slack time because this lemon became my new hobby! I got it all booted up and yes, uninstalled all of the HP "let's sell you something" software. I then tried to install my new HP printer (4110). CRASH, CRASH, CRASH. After 14 hours on customer support (OK, I'm tenacious) to Nova Scotia and India, I received 8 different reasons this might be happening. The last one was what made me bring it back and swear off HP products. Customer support told me that I had getten a virus from my Internet use. Ya know those viruses are REALLY tricky when you can get them without ever being able to connect to the net. I can laugh now but beware. I am writing from my new emachine. Easy set up, so far so good and with luck, I'll never get to know tech support.
One thing I can't get back is the tax break for '03.

So far, so good
I bought this PC as a replacement for a Compaq Pressario that burned out after a year.
It had the features I wanted for a sane amount of money,
namely CD/RW and DVD player. Also a hard drive big enough
for a small radio station worth of music files (My own,
thank you music industry lawyers!)
I can't see an appreciable difference in performance from
my old pentium 4.
It's quiet, generally smooth, runs my CD software and some
good sized games without difficulty.
All the drawbacks relate to Windows XP. It took a weekend to
locate and properly install drivers for printer and other
common items, and the machine was loaded with ads and spy-ware.
(I believe Microsoft's term for this is "clients".)
Once I got rid of all the Microsoft garbage, "free" (as in enter your credit card number just for fun) offers and put some
brakes on it's internet access (I swear, XP is worse than
having a teenager) everything seems to work well.
The memory card slots, front end audio jacks and 5 USB ports are a nice touch. It also comes with a real instruction manual
with step by step illustrated directions for upgrading the system.
I'd recommend it for the money- it was much cheaper than my Compaq- but I'm curious to see how it holds up.
My only other gripe is a lack of back-up software. It comes
pre-loaded on the hard drive (and can be copied and removed,
but only once). This strikes me as not terribly smart if
you can't get the PC booted right out of the box.

Great machine, but...
I bought two of these machines, one for me and one for my mother-in-law, because of the great deal. My machine worked great except for a little bit of intermittent "whirring" that I paid no attention to. The other machine had problems even burning a full set of the system recovery disks, however.

It turns out the 2nd machine had a power supply issue which made the CD-RW and hard drive work intermittently; not a good thing. I determined that the noise from the 1st machine was the same problem, though I experienced no performance issues.

Just to be safe, though, I'm returning both and upgrading to the 350. I wanted a DVD burner anyway and I'm eager to see what the "hyper-threading technology" can do for a processor. I'll probably review that one next week (1/04).

So, all-in-all, I didn't have the machine long but really liked it. If there are no problems, it's fast, quiet, runs mid-level games very well (didn't try anything real high-end), has very easy-to-use recording software, has lots of storage device ports and looks great. Perfect for the intermediate user. I guess it's just a matter of getting one with everything working (as I've found several problem-filled reviews on-line).

Note: A previous reviewer said that the PC doesn't come with any disks, which is true. If you've purchased any computers in the past 5 years however, you know that there is a trend towards pre-loaded everything without disks (cab files, etc.), including Windows. That is why you should create a set of system recovery disks when you first get the PC (finding out if the CD-RW works correctly while you're at it), though I'm not sure why they only allow you to do it once. Make copies of those disks, I guess! The rest of the disks you used to get with a PC was just useless software anyway. And there are multiple ways to "restore", including a Windows restore option. Read the manual.

The reviewer also mentioned the fact that there is a lot of "junk" "trial software" and that it wasn't listed in the control panel. Unless you build your own PC, they pretty much all come like this and the software is easily deleted. No, you can't do it from "Add/Remove Programs" but if you know your way around a PC a little bit, it's not a problem. (If not, don't worry; you have a 120GB hard drive after all!) The software companies aren't subsidizing the PC makers just so you can remove all their software as soon as you get the machine! You can argue that you didn't pay all that money to have to take stuff out, but in actuality you probably did, considering the comparatively low price.

Also at issue was the "HP Organizer". This isn't the type of program for me, but I can see it being handy to the novice PC user. There is a link right on the window for options, which allows you to tell it not to run at boot-up. Pretty simple. It only interferes with Windows as long as you keep it open. Just click the, "X". Again, pretty simple.

Whatever you do, however, don't buy a Dell. I'd go into the horror stories about the Dell users I know, but it's the holidays and you don't need that kind of carnage on your mind.

Great Computer
I bought this computer about a month ago and absolutly love it. The 7 in one media bay on the front is suprisingly handy for digital cameras, and the software seems to be flawless. Everything you could possibly need for your home computer is included. I would also like to add that this computer really includes just about any of the software you will need to use right out of the box. Except for installing a couple drivers, this computer is good to go the moment you plug it in. Everything seems to work extrememly smoothly. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

If you’re shopping for a high-performance mobile computer flexible enough to serve as a productivity battle station or an all-in-one entertainment center, the Sony Vaio NVR23 notebook PC is an outstanding choice. Its multipurpose bay lets you swap out a floppy drive for accessories ranging from fun to functional.

Those accessories include a 10-key pad module for advanced number crunching and a subwoofer module offering impressive audio for watching movies, listening to CDs, or delivering enhanced presentations.

The NVR23’s 1.53 GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ processor packs the power to muscle its way through a broad range of productivity and multimedia software. Its nVidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics chip with 32 MB of DDR SRAM and 3-D hardware acceleration, together with the NVR23’s 15-inch, active-matrix XGA display, offer a big, clear picture for watching movies, playing games, or surfing the Web. A built-in DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive lets you watch DVD movies, listen to and make CDs, and rapidly back up data.

The NVR23 provides generous memory and storage. Its 30 GB hard drive offers plentiful data and multimedia file space, and its 256 MB of RAM lets you run multiple applications smoothly. An integrated 10/100Base-TX Ethernet LAN connector makes networking easy. The notebook supports two Type I or Type II PC Cards, or one Type III card. Other interfaces include a Link S400 FireWire connector that supports high-speed digital video, audio, and data transfers among compatible Sony products, a video-S output, a parallel port, three USB connectors, and a modem port.

The 8.6-pound notebook includes a Memory Stick slot for transferring data among compatible Sony products. It also includes a Jog Dial control with a back button to simplify Web browsing and application controls, and a built-in V.90 modem.

Installed software includes Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Corel WordPerfect Office, and Quicken 2002. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Sony, AMD, Nvidia, oh my!
After my desperate search for a Sony notebook with an Nvidia graphics chip I found the NVR23. Why am I so bent on finding an Nvidia notebook? Cause Nvidia is prolly the best performance video for linux today.

After whiping clean the installed OS, I found installation of my linux distro a snap and was up and running in no time. My only problem-the scroll on the jog wheel doesn't function properly in liunx. The notbook is a bit bulky, just under 9lbs and eats up most of the room inside an average notebook carrying case, but for the performance vs. price ratio, its quite a good deal.

Great deal...Great computer
I have had this notebok for over a month now and have been extremely impressed with it's power and speed. For the price it is by far one of the best deals on the market today. The only drawback is that it doesn't come with a DVD-RW drive, but everything else included. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A powerhouse PC that won't break the bank.
eMachines T2865 review
By Marc Eberhart (marceberhart@yahoo.com)
1/5/2004

You want a powerhouse PC that won't break the bank? Well you're reading the right review. At $719 (US) the eMachines T2865 is heavy on performance and light on the wallet. A month ago the T2865 was the most powerful desktop PC ever offered by eMachines; that honor now belongs to the newly released T6000. However the T2865 is not far behind, offering massive processing power and all the goodies that a desktop PC owner could want.

Most people, myself included, hesitate to buy anything but a top name PC. Even though eMachines is now the third largest provider of desktop PCs in the US, their lack of hard-core advertising does not land them in the ranks of Dell or Compaq in terms of notoriety among consumers. But take it from me, what they lack in recognition they certainly make up for in PC-building ability. Crack open the stylish, durable case and you'll find top-quality PC components aplenty. No substandard parts here. All for a price that blows the competition away.

The T2865 is a lightning fast powerhouse. Powered by AMD's Athlon XP 2800+ processor (2.08 ghz), it offers performance comparable to Intel's 2.8 ghz Pentium 4. And with 512 megs of RAM, a fast 333 mhz system bus, and a 160 gig hard drive, this is not a PC you'll soon outgrow. For the gamers out there, NVIDIA 6-channel audio is standard, as are NVIDIA GeForce4 integrated graphics. The sound is wonderful, and the graphics are more than adequate, even when playing today's most demanding PC games. For you multimedia buffs, a high-speed CD-ROM is standard, as is a CD-RW/DVD-RW combo drive which lets you burn CDs and DVDs 'til your heart's content. Also included is an 8-in-1 media reader, which allows you to insert various media (such as digital camera memory sticks and flash cards). No more connecting the digital camera to your PC, just pop in the media stick and you're off! There are more USB ports than you'll probably ever need, and an 8X AGP slot in case you'd like to upgrade to a more powerful graphics card. The T2865 also comes with plenty of software, including Microsoft Works, Norton Antivirus, and Roxio Easy CD Creator. A 56k modem and 10/100 NIC card are standard. Last but not least you'll find front-mounted USB, headphone, and microphone jacks for your convenience. All of this is backed by eMachines' warranty and highly-rated technical support.

Included with the package are a stylish multimedia keyboard, mouse, and a pair of slim profile speakers. The keyboard is the best I have ever used - the numerous shortcut and internet browsing buttons come in very handy. The mouse is your average roller-ball type; it's decent and gets the job done. The speakers, while slim and stylish, are a bit underpowered and have a "tinny" sound with virtually no bass.

As with any desktop PC, there are always a few downsides. Because the GeForce4 graphics chip is integrated into the motherboard, it has 64 megs of "shared" memory. This means that 64 megs of system RAM are allocated to the integrated graphics and taken away from system memory, leaving overall system RAM at a still respectable 448 megs. Serious gamers will probably want to upgrade to a more powerful video card for maximum gaming performance. But be careful, the power supply of the T2865 is only rated at 250 watts - some high-end video cards require more than that to run properly. Also, the T2865 seems to run a little warm, and a more powerful video card might not receive adequate cooling if installed, not to mention it will add more heat to the already warm PC case. Lastly, the cooling fans in this machine make quite a racket. It's definitely one of the noisiest PCs I've ever used.

On a rating scale of 1-10, I give the eMachines T2865 a solid 9. For $719 you'll be hard pressed to find a better performing PC with as many features as the T2865. eMachines has more than earned my respect with this model.

Great computer, no problems
I've had this computer for two months and it's been wonderful. eMachines has made great improvements in quality and customer service - this company is no longer the Yugo of computer manufacturers. If anything, it's much closer to a Hyundai or even Toyota now... just read the latest computer quality reports. The T2865 features brand-name components, all delivering great performance. I couldn't be happier. The system is rock-solid, the DVD burner is great, there's ample hard drive space, and the price... I don't know how they did it. The only thing you might want to do is add a good video card, but that goes for almost any system - built-in graphics are sufficient only for basic stuff. I was rather surprised at what the other user reviews said, quite frankly. A 15' LCD monitor (yes, that IS too small for most people!) cannot be blamed on a computer's bad performance, and according to the description it sounds more like a faulty driver or a software conflict caused the system to be unstable. Also, these comments about too much heat... how much heat was the machine producing? As far as eMachines and heat are concerned, I previously owned their T2200, which I owned for 11 months and used mercilessly. I almost never shut it off during those eleven months, I used it all the time for something (gaming, surfing the Net, video conversion and editing) and there was never any problem. Were the allegedly excessive heat so destructive, something would have certainly happened considering the thousands of hours it worked for, non-stop....

Think twice about buying this one!
When I purchased this machine, I was hoping to replace my three year old Dell which was beginning to show some signs of wear. My daughter owned an Emachine 366i from several years ago and although it was acceptable for a child as an entry level computer, I never took Emachines seriously in terms of durability. I took this attitude until recently when I saw a few positive reviews on Emachines and noticed a great value for the dollar. Where else could you find a computer which costs $1600 elsewhere for a price of $719? By the way, Emachine advertises that this computer has 6.1 channel audio, however the audio is only equipped with two-channel sound and is integrated in the motherboard. Even so, it was a great price for the features. I purchased a package bundle for $899 which included a Lexmark printer, 15inch Emachine LCD monitor and of course the Emachine 2865 which in my opinion was loaded. The monitor was the first LCD I owned and because of the prices for LCDs, I figured that this 15inch was a good compromise. My mistake. Being use to 17inch monitors at home and even bigger monitors at work, this was no compromise, it was unacceptable. However, it wasn't just the size but the image quality was not what I have grown accustomed to with large CRTs. This concern is not necessary due to a quality issue with Emachines but because of the nature of a 15 inch LCD monitor. As far as the computer, it was slower than my Dell Dimension 4100. I was getting error messages immediately and it would constantly reboot itself for no apparent reason. there was a recurring message about a hardrive error so perhaps this was the problem of why the whole system was unstable. The DVD Rom wouldn't play properly. Every disc I inserted failed to run and when I found a DVD which would work, it would freeze shortly after I inserted it. To top it off, emachine loads it's units with software/advertisements you may not want or want to deal with. As I stated earlier, from the surface this sounded like a fantastic deal for the money. But when things don't work, it was a waste of my time invested in setting it up. My older Dell outperformed this model. Maybe I got a lemon which was not truly representative of Emachine and its products. However, my original perception of Emachine as being a company with unstable desktops was reinforced with this purchase.

A good PC with quality components but poor case setup
I recently bought a T2865 PC and was amazed what components came with it for the price. Most components inside are A+ brands! Harddisk is western digital, DVD rewriter is NEC, Memory is Samsung and the CPU is of course AMD. The motherboard is FIC which is not so wellknown but it does the job just fine, outperforming some big brand Nforce2 chipset motherboards in benchmarks. Lots of software is also included, most of it you would want to keep and some of it (Compuserve, AOL) you might want to uninstall from the getgo.
But wait, it's not all positive.
The heat accumulation inside the case is something that the more technically advanced PC users will not like very much.
Components which get too hot are known to be detrimental to the lifespan of PC's.
The T2865 uses a minitower to facilitate all the components and
there is not much space left for any airflow, everything is packed tightly together. The CPU fan is not a problem but the overall case temperature gets pretty high eventually increasing the CPU temperature as well. Furthermore, the motherboard temperature gets pretty high, this is mainly because it uses a heatsink instead of a motherboard fan.
Now Emachines technical support claims that the temperatures the computer experienced were not considered critical, but invested in a couple of casefans anyway.
Please note that you will have to be inventive creating effective airflow in the case as the front does not have any space for a casefan.
Conclusion, an excellent value for money but be sure to invest in some effective cooling fans so you ensure that the machine has a long lifespan.


12/17/2003 Update: I would like to add that because of my own error I had to send the PC back and I am amazed by the speed of the repairs and the professional handling of my problem.


You don't have to pay sending costs at all and everything is handled by Fed EX fast oneday delivery. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

If you're looking for value in your notebook PC purchase, the HP Pavilion ze4610us offers a lot to like. In addition to a fast Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M Processor, the ze4610us features a combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, 40 GB of storage, a built-in 256 MB memory, -- all packed into a notebook that's just 7.25 pounds.

The Basics

• Hard Drive: The 40 GB hard drive offers plenty of space for most users, and is more than enough for typical data--from spreadsheets and word processing files to your digital snapshots and recorded music. However, if you have a large multimedia library, 40 GB probably isn't enough for you.
• Processor: The AMD Athlon XP-M 2500+ processor offers a 1.87 GHz speed, which is comparable to a 2.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor. This is more than enough power for standard computing tasks. With its "M" designation (for Mobile), this processor includes some power-saving features not found in the standard Athlon XP 2500+ processor.
• Memory: The ze4610us comes with a 256 MB built-in memory (DDR SDRAM, 266 MHz), which is enough to get you started--but you'll want to add more memory to take advantage of multimedia programs and higher-end graphics tasks. It has a maximum memory expansion up to 1 GB (2 x 512 MB). It also has an L2 cache of 512 KB.
• CD/DVD Drive: It comes equipped with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, which enables you to play DVD-ROM discs and DVD movies as well as burn data and record music to CD discs.
• Keyboard & Mouse: The ze4610us has a full-sized 85-key keyboard with 12 function keys and two-button touchpad.

The video/graphics card--ATI Mobility Radeon 4X AGP--offers 3-D architecture and can easily drive an external monitor. If you plan on working with professional design or graphics software, you'll want to consider upgrading this video/graphics card. The 15-inch XGA TFT screen has a native resolution of 1024 x 768.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
You get a decent amount of connectivity options with the ze4610us, including:

• 2 USB 1.1 ports (instead of the newer, faster USB 2.0) for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 parallel port for connecting older printers and scanners
• 1 serial port for older peripherals such as early PDAs
• 1 RGB monitor port
• 1 TV-out (S-Video)
• 1 PS/2 port for connecting keyboard or mouse
• 1 PCMCIA (or PC Card) slot (Type I/II/III with support and 32-bit card bus )
• 1 headphone jack and 1 microphone jack

Preloaded System and Software
The ze4610us comes with the Windows XP Home Edition operating system, and it also features Microsoft Works (for working with word processing and spreadsheet documents). Other preloaded software includes Norton Antivirus 2003 (with 60 days of complimentary live updates), Quicken, Microsoft Money, Microsoft Encarta Online Deluxe, Adobe Acrobat Reader, InterVideo WinDVD SE (for playing DVD movies), MusicMatch Jukebox, and Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator (Basic).

Dimensions and Weight
The ze4610us notebook measures 12.96 x 10.72 x 1.62 inches (L x W x H) and weighs a comfortable 7.25 pounds.

Power
The included rechargeable lithium-ion battery has 8 cells (which refers to the number of charge-storing components within the battery) and offers a standard amount of power for a notebook PC (around 2 hours of typical use).

What's in the Box
This package includes the HP Pavilion ze4610us notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

NICE LAPTOP
I bought mine at Circuit City for 700 and I absolutely love mine. Had no problems with it so far. It is a little big compared to the ibook i used to have, but overall its a great computer. The 1.8ghz is fast enough and the computer does have a kind of velocity engine to speed up your applications so it is just as fast as a p4 compatible. Overall great laptop. Good for college students, not for really serious users. Not good for games either.

Huge Bang for Small Bucks
I have had my ze4610us for six months, and its function and reliablilty have been excellent. The unit has sold me on AMD chips, and I gave my desktop to the kids: This is all the computer that any one other than a design engineer needs.
The display is excellent, as is battery life. The processor performs on a par with much higher rated Pentiums, and flat out stomps the Celerons. The unit is not perfect, the keyboard is stiff and hard to reach, and it needs more ram (it ships with 256 - 64 mg of which is used by graphics card) but over all, I am extremely pleased. I use the ze4610 for word processing, photo editing, and real time strategy games; the latter two of which take huge amounts of processor power. I would recommend this product to any one who wants a power portable or desktop replacement on a budget.

Crappy keyboard ruins otherwise solid notebook
The HP Pavilion ze4610us is my 3rd HP/Compaq laptop. I've been generally pleased with their products (before and after the merger). The performance and features of this ze4600-series laptop have met or exceeded my expectations. System benchmarks were very good, the fan is well designed, system noise is very low, and battery life is excellent. HOWEVER: THE KEYBOARD IS CRAP! The keys are so incredibly stiff that every sentence I type has several missing characters. I've never seen anything like this. I have to *pound* on the keys to get them to work, and even then they're not reliable. I'm still getting missing characters or character doubling due to key bounce. The crappy HP keyboard on the ze4610us is simply unacceptable, and completely ruins an otherwise excellent notebook computer with great benchmark numbers and very long battery life. Now I know why Circuit City and other retailers were blowing out these units on rock bottom mega-sale. If you are a ham-fisted typist who relies upon spell checking for everything, you might be OK with this notebook. If you type normally or prefer light-action keyboards, and expect the keys that you type to always work reliably, avoid this notebook and get an IBM Thinkpad or Toshiba Satellite.

PRevious Reviews False
HP customer support is fine, and as far as the other reviews go that guy is a complete moron. YOur data is YOUR duty to backup not hewlett packard's or any other companys for that matter, dell, sony, gateway, all these companys treat hard drives the same way. Get over it and read your warranty before you buy these types of items. No one ever reads the paperwork. When you buy a new car you read the paperwork right? So why not with a 1000 to 2000 dollar pc? its your fault bub.

Signed and ex hp tech support rep ;)

Excellent Entry Level Laptop
I'v had my HP Pavilion ze4610us about a month now and I'm very satisfied with it. It was my first ever laptop purchase (I've been thru four or five desktop systems). I probably would have waited even longer to finally get a laptop, but the 400 dollars of rebates that were available at the time of purchase made it impossible to resist.
I'm not a heavy gamer or media user; I use it mostly for light business and personal use and as a portable DVD player when I'm on the road. (I love the DVD player software with the screen capture feature; I save pic's from my favorite films and use them as wallpaper and screensavers. Cool!)

No real complaints so far for what I use it for. (I did buy an extended warranty, having heard that laptops in general have some reliability issues. The warranty is cancellable at a prorated amount depending on how long I keep it. If you have any experience/comments on that, you can e-mail me.)
I've gotten over 3 hours of battery life with the way I use the laptop, which I think is reasonable.
My only minor irritations so far are things which may be perfectly normal for laptops in general (with my limited experience, I wouldn't know.)They are: sound level is OK at home or in a quiet environment, but road noise while traveling makes listening very difficult. I've tried my old headphones; maybe I just need better ones. Also, the screen can be difficult to see, depending on lighting conditions. (Again, that may be normal.)
In any case, although I've only had my HP Pavilion ze4610us a short time yet, for those whose usage is similar to mine I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, especially if you can get a good discount and/or rebates.
P.S. - I've just purchased a wireless card and router which I will try to install soon. If I can, I'll update this review after I see how that goes. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Get your motor running and ready for the road with the highly mobile Averatec AV3255P1-01 notebook PC. This tiny laptop weighs just over 4 pounds and runs on a mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 2000+ processor with battery-saving features. It also features a 12.1-inch screen, Windows XP Professional, combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, 40 GB hard drive, 512 MB of installed RAM, and integrated 54g (802.11b) wireless connectivity.

The Basics

• Hard Drive: The 40 GB IDE hard drive is on the small side compared to other notebooks. However, it does offer a decent enough capacity for storing documents and productivity software for road warriors--but not enough for much multimedia storage.
• Processor: The AMD Athlon XP-M 2000+ processor is a moderately fast processor that delivers similar performance to a 2.0 GHz Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor. The "M" stands for mobile, and its PowerNow power-saving features will help extend battery life. It also offers a 266 MHz processor system bus and a 640 KB high-performance processor cache.
• Memory: This notebook has 512 MB of pre-installed memory (DDR SDRAM), which is calling out for more power right out of the gate. It has two memory slots in total, with a maximum memory expansion up to 1 GB (2 x 512 MB), which is rather small in comparison to other notebooks.
• CD/DVD Drive: It comes equipped with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, which enables you to play DVD-ROM discs and DVD movies as well as burn data and record music to CD discs. The CD-RW drive has 24x write, 10x rewrite, and 24x read speeds. The DVD-ROM has an 8x playback speed.
• Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook is outfitted with a standard keyboard (19mm pitch) and large Synaptics TouchPad with graphics tablet mode.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
This AV3255P1-01 model has an integrated 802.11g (or 54g) wireless LAN, which is quickly becoming the most popular wireless standard and is compatible with 802.11b connections as well. The notebook is fitted with a dual 54g antenna, and it can achieve speeds 5 times faster than 802.11b and offers improved reach and added security. You get a standard range of external connections, including:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 VGA monitor port
• 1 PCMCIA (or PC Card) slot (Type II)
• 1 headphone jack and 1 microphone jack

Preloaded System and Software
This AV3255P1-01 notebook comes with the Windows XP Professional operating system (which adds Microsoft's IIS Web server, back-up and recovery utilities, Remote Desktop, and other enhanced business features), and it features Microsoft Works (for working with word processing and spreadsheet documents). It also is loaded with applications for playing DVDs, burning CDs, and protecting your system from viruses (titles are not noted by Averatec

Dimensions and Weight
Measuring 1.2 x 10.9 x 9.6 inches (H x W x D) and weighing just 4.2 pounds, the AV3220H1-01 is an amazingly compact and lightweight notebook that road warriors will barely notice as they shuttle from plane to taxi to hotel.

Power
The included "smart" rechargeable lithium-ion battery offers over 3 hours of battery life (depending on usage).

What's in the Box
This package contains the Averatec AV3255P1-01 notebook PC, rechargeable li-ion battery, AC power adapter, and printed operating instructions. The notebook PC is backed by a 1-year limited warranty; the battery is backed by a 6-month warranty. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

good price for great mobility
I use this on the road a lot and you can't beat it for price, speed and mobility. It is light weight. My only problem is that I didn't protect it well enough physically and it broke the internet during turbulence in the overhead bin. Mine was a refurbished model, so no warranty there, but my replacement will definately be this same computer. I recommend buying a nice padded bag for it. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

excellent product
excellent product. very fast. i added some ram and it was awesome. was able to play simcity 4 easily on it which is some testament to its capability.

Poor product
I purchased one of these computers only six weeks ago. On the second time out I detected black spots on the screen, where there should have been pixels. Pressing the screen brought some of them back, but as the day progressed the marks became cracks in the LCD screen itself. I reported the matter to HP the next day and they agreed to collect the unit for warranty repair. Some 10 days later they called me up demanding $650 to replace the screen, saying they were not prepared to honor the warranty for a crack.
The lid is totally too flimsy to take the stress of holding the closed unit and lifting it from a carry bag. There is a connector right where you grasp the case, and this can dig in and crack the screen. For a portable laptop the design is not fit for purpose.
NB the electronics work great but without a screen are of little value! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I lovet it
This is my second HP PC and All I can say I am very happy costomer, very fast computer. Comparing to my old Pentium II.
HP is my recomendation with Athlon XP cpu!

Can't be Compaq's work alone
My mother's computer was getting old. It was a compaq with 500mHZ and 40 gb and a single cd drive (i put a writer in) and a floppy of course. However 3 weeks ago the cd drive quit working, and her modem went out. The Floppy also went out. So i went shopping on Amazon. I found this. I knew it would be true to my Mom for years to come. I ordered it, i set it up. It went VERY slow for 2100 mHZ. My mother loves it. It does OF COURSE go faster then her 500mHZ old computer. But it still ran really slow. It ran at the speed of my sisters computer, 900mHZ. It surprised me. The gb is awesome. however if you are a person who is constantly using computers. Especially gaming. Then get the other compaq i listed in another review. ... Read more