Opinions on HP?

R

RoffleCopter

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 8, 2005
Messages
1,910
Hey, I am currently looking towards getting an OEM system. I found an HP Pavilion Desktop from Best Buy.

Linky

What do you think of this system? I'll be using this mainly for schoolwork with some gaming on the side (mainly source based games/BF2). I'll also be adding either an x800pro or a vanilla 6800. I cant afford anything more than about 1000, and with college rush coming, I don't really have time to build my own computer, so an OEM is my best bet.

So my question(s) is this: Do you think the PS on this thing would be sufficient to power an x800pro or 6800? If not, is the PS replaceable? What is your overall opinion of this computer, and is there an alternative (better) computer for the money? My budget can't go above $1000 USD...bloody ivy league schools and their high tuition! :p
 
I Have The same exact computer ... so far i haven't found ANYTHING bad about it at all ive upgraded it a little bit
(2 gigs of ram , GeForce 6600GT PCI Express , another 200GIG SATA HD , Sound Blaster Auidgy 4 Sound Card) The Stock Power Supply is still holdin up good , but i have a 7800gt on order .. .think i may swap out to the 400watt coolermaster i have
 
We've recently started using a lot of these HP A64s here at my lab because they are such a price/performance value when compared to the Dells that they used to buy before I came onboard. We have 7 of them in the lab now and not a problem from any of them. One of them even has an Unlocked and OC'd 6800LE in it that is running without a hitch. So I would say that yes, they are fine computers and the PS should run any card that you buy (within reason of course).

Performance-wise, they are middle of the road. But you are looking at getting a 3700+ for ~$670 with a gig of mem so I think that is only to be expected. Be aware that this uses an ASUS A8AE-LE motherboard which is 939 and uses PCI-E cards so you can't get a cheapy AGP card to fit it. The good side of course is that this is a nice cheap way to get a good computer that uses current technology.

I'd say go for it. Especially with the MCE license and a TV tuner thrown into the mix.
 
Yeah I am aware they are PCI E. I'm on a budget when it comes to video cards so I was thinking of getting a 6800 vanilla or an x800pro VIVO (x800gto2 is on my mind but they aren't in stock) and maybe unlocking it to get 16 pipes. What kind of temperatures are you getting on the HPs? I don't want the video card I'm getting to cause heat problems in the case. And another question, does it comes with a restore disc or a copy of windows xp if you wanted to reformat the computer? BTW how is gaming on that computer :p

edit: can you replace with PSU for a better one if you wanted to? or are they proprietary like dell's and you can't do it. And if you can, is there a limit to what of PSU you can replace it with?
 
According to the bios reports , the CPU runs at 95F ....pretty damn good , my video card idles at 46C under load it hits 66C...
 
Thanks for the help. I'm definitely getting that HP then. Now to decide if I want a 6800 vanilla or x800pro/gto/2/xl to compliment it :)
 
My family has had three of them with very little problems. The newest one my p's have is 4 years old, they've had hard drives die, but thats the extent of it. My parents won't let me build them a computer for some reason, they like buying sale bundles so they can get new monitors, kb, mouse, and printers. They have like an HP network in their house. I've never had a problem with their customer service, support, although they made me pay for fuckin recovery discs that should have been included in the P4 system we have.
 
there customer service is excellent , only hitch i had with my system the DVDRW would not read anything i call em up , 5 mins later yesterday they had a new drive out... got it today works perfect!
 
So i take it the HP doesn't come with a backup copy of windows xp should you want to reformat the computer? And if it doesn't how much, would you pay to get one?

@crazyspyder - was the customer support from HP, or BB? did you pay for any extra warranty, and was it worth it? I'm afraid of getting a comp with a bum part in it, so customer service is important to me too.
 
There have been reports of people getting these MCE machines with an actual copy of MCE rather than restore disks. Don't be on it though. Bet on restore disks as that is the norm, and hope for the MCE install.
 
Customer service for HP , i use to work at best buy .. fuck there warnt lol ... yah i got a Actual Windows MCE 2005 CD .. i was surprised !
 
CrAzYsPyDeR said:
Customer service for HP , i use to work at best buy .. fuck there warnt lol ... yah i got a Actual Windows MCE 2005 CD .. i was surprised !
Click to expand...
If you buy the computer from Best Buy can you get a warranty from HP?
 
Good god, a friend of mine who admitedly knows little about computers was sold a HP with integrated graphics and socket 754 athlon with just 512 mb of ram. It was an obscene amount of money for what she got. I'm likely going to have to upgrade it for her, probably do a clean install, you know how we all get yanked into being home-IT guys for our friends, neighbors, families, and co-workers.
 
Most HPs are sold with integrated graphics... You just have to know that goin in. As for the 754 and 512mb RAM... that's actually still common in the lower end A64s. What did she pay that was so bad?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top