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Durand said:
Been in the market for a new PC for a while and wound up purchasing this one yesterday, locally from Office Depot (sixty dollar rebate enticed me over the edge )
Initial impressions were that it seemed slower that I expected a quad core processor to run but it is still plenty fast (downloads and loading software from CD where not much faster at all than my old Pentium 4 1.2G)
Where the quad core really shines is when running multiple apps (antivirus scan while surfing, etc.)
The wireless card requires an external antenna (included, but weird) which is invaluable if you happen to be located any appreciable distance away from your wireless router. I have mine on the other side of the house and still register 100% signal.
I really have only a couple of gripes, with just one of them major. 1, the HP suite is an enormous, cumbersome waste of space that does absolutely nothing. Hard to believe that when I ran antivirus on a brand new machine and the Task Manager showed 61 processes ( Yea Vista ) running and over 700,000 files already on the hard drive. Which leads me to 2. Windows Vista 64.
If you are looking for a single reason to run for the hills away from this computer – this is it. First and foremost, you can toss anything at all you expect to use peripheraly right out the window. I guarantee if it’s over a year old, there are no drivers for it.
Found this out the hard way after spending most of the evening trying to locate drivers for my printer only to find out that the manufacturer no long supports the model and does not and will not write drivers for it. So my 3 year old perfectly good laser printer is now a boat anchor.
Additionally, I planned to do sound editing (actually one of the reasons for the purchase) and guess what? No Vista 64 drivers for the Alesis Multimix. and so on.
Thinking about wiping Vista off and replacing with a copy of XP service pack 2? Forget it – unless you’re gonna replace the motherboard and buy new sound, video, PCI cards…HP doesn’t support XP drivers for the sound and video cards. Talk about a catch 22.
The sound and video are integrated on the motherboard and the sound card is a Realtek which seems more than adequate. Scaleable to HD, 5.1 and 7.1, I’m pleasantly impressed. The video card is average at best and definitely the weakest piece of the package. Gamers will not be impressed.
Overall, it is fine for the money, but be aware of what you are getting. If this is a first purchase, I’m sure the OS will become more and more prevelant and any gear you purchase to go along with it should be Vista 64 compliant. If it’s a replacement, get ready to buy all new stuff.
# 27 July 2009 at 3:23 pm

Phomello said:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Small Upgrades Do Wonders
I originally bought this computer to replace a laptop and an older HP desktop that I was currently using. The thing that jumped out at me was the price and the quad-core.
# 27 July 2009 at 3:38 pm

Pritam said:
I bought this computer in the middle of March and began having problems within the first week (random crashes with a Blue Screen). After several phone calls to HP technical support and after doing all the troubleshooting you can possibly think of (I’m still guessing as to why I was the one doing all of that instead of a trained technician?!), the tech finally agreed with me that it was a hardware issue and not a virus and that my computer needed to be repaired.
After the first “repair” no hardware was replaced and the problem was still there. I had to send in my computer two more times (keep in mind that it takes weeks to ship the computer to a repair facility across the country) and both “repairs” did not fix anything. I wanted to have a replacement for my brand new computer right away, but apparently it takes THREE UNSUCCESFULL REPAIRS before any of the supervisors who have the power to give you a replacement get involved. I’m not even talking about trying to get a refund… Now it is the middle of June and I still don’t have a computer… Bottom line: HP has HORRIBLE TECH SUPPORT so if your computer (this model or any other) breaks, get ready for a long fight to get the problem fixed.
# 27 July 2009 at 4:47 pm

Nefertari said:
We bought this in package form along with an HP monitor and printer to replace our aging desktop. It completely screams when asked to do anything multimedia related, and cruises on native MS programs like Office 2007 as well. If you really want to get some performance out of it, install OpenOffice and Firefox, as both seem to take advantage of the hardware and outperform their MS brethren by wide margins. I can’t help but think what Linux would do on such a machine.
The only problem we had, and it WAS frustrating, was that a technician bent a pin in the wireless card during install. It was nothing that anyone would have noticed visually, and the system initially performed well, but after a day, the bad connection was too much and the wireless card only worked intermittently. After an all night session talking with HP Service in India, I located the problem. A new wireless card, free of charge and with straight pins, fixed the situation. I can’t hold it against HP. The card initially worked on start-up, so it probably passed the bench tests. These things happen, even at Apple and Dell. HP’s customer service was patient and effective, and the new part arrived in 2 days.
Overall, incredible machine. By our “Performance Gadget,” we haven’t even begun to max the processor or RAM out, even with the latest versions of Pinnacle Studio, OpenOffice, and MusicMaker.
# 27 July 2009 at 5:40 pm

Anonymous said:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fitting double slot Video Card in this box??
I’m looking into purchasing this computer, and I hear that the case is pretty tight on space inside.
# 27 July 2009 at 8:58 pm

Vida said:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Finally decided to get one. I don’t see what the big deal is.
I was pretty dissatisfied with this product so I wrote a review in a letter to my son so he could put it on the internets.
# 27 July 2009 at 10:27 pm

Emery said:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Bad
I got this for my wife a few months ago and she loves it. Not the fastest machine out…but for the money its a decent deal!!!
# 28 July 2009 at 1:38 am

Saburo said:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Computer
I am very pleased with this unit. It is fast and has all the functions and more than I need. For office work, PPT, desktop publishing it has the capacity to get the job done…
# 28 July 2009 at 5:33 am

Vivienne said:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HP Pavilion Desktop
I have had this computer for one month and I love everything about it. Vista is very easy to use and very similar to Windows XP which is what I previously had.
# 28 July 2009 at 10:27 am

Idonia said:
5.0 out of 5 stars
entire HP 6000 computer line
PLEASE READ THIS: It’s important that when you all review which computer you purchased that you please state what model you bought.
# 28 July 2009 at 11:41 am

Jennaya said:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for video editing
I bought this computer because my other computer was ancient and I couldn’t edit a movie without crashing.
# 28 July 2009 at 12:07 pm

Edge said:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfying
Very useful, I hope it lasts longer than the one I had before. It was not an HP.
# 28 July 2009 at 2:45 pm

Dwight said:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fast w/low power consumption
I purchased one of these a couple of months ago and have been very happy with it. I however wish it had come with Linux pre-installed because I installed Debian Linux and did away…
# 28 July 2009 at 9:27 pm

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