Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion A1720N Desktop PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6300, 1 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let's start with a few words about Windows Vista, which comes on this PC:
(Skip this section if you love Vista or work for Microsoft)

If you can find a PC that still has Windows XP, you will be better off for another year or two at least. Unfortunately, my PC with XP died just after Vista started coming out on every computer, so I was stuck as a guineau-pig for this new operating system, which is riddled with problems. Everything from the picture screen-saver and sleep mode not working consistently to very little software compatibility. I couldn't even find a Vista-compatible driver for my Canon camcorder on the Canon website. It simply said that Vista was not supported. Same is true with VPN software and many others that are waiting to add Vista compatibility until Vista has been out long enough to work out the kinks.

What are the benefits of Vista? After using this computer for almost 2 months, I have found none. Oh, except for that cool little graphic that they show in their promotional material that allows you to see all of your open windows in a 3D mode. There are no other 3D-type features like that that I have found, even though it is advertised as being more graphically intense. If you are used to previous windows operating systems, you will find that everything you used to look for in standard places, has been moved: menus are rearranged and named differently; buttons are rearranged, look different and replace many menus; control panel preferences and settings have all been moved around and changed - there is nothing intuitive about Vista to the standard Windows user, and you will find yourself pulling your hair out trying to find things and deal with all of its issues. The latest Mac vs. PC commercial depicting Vista as a security agent who asks you for permission for everying single thing that you do on your computer is also resoundingly true. I'm sure there are ways to turn that stuff off, but then how will you know that your PC is still secure? And by the way, there are about a half dozen different programs (several Windows apps plus Windows account settings, HP apps, Norton, etc.) that are running on this machine that each have dozens of security settings so if you want to change anything, you not only have to go through every one of these applications, but you have to understand their terminology for every setting, which of course is different for each security application. You could spend days sifting through the mess that HP and Microsoft have made trying to change the simplest things while trying to keep your PC secure.

All in all, until the rest of the world is caught up with Vista, and until XP actually holds you back, you would do well to steer clear of Vista entirely.

But enough about Vista. After all, you still have the option of buying XP and installing on this machine (of course you may not be able to go back to Vista without buying it again - I'm not high tech enough to know for sure).

Other than Windows Vista, this is a great PC: very quiet, plenty of HD space for storing things, with one of the best and energy efficient processors available. I don't use the multi-card ports on the front, though they may be useful to some people. USB and firewire ports on the front is nice, but that's standard on just about every PC out there. It doesn't have a digital video output to the monitor, which would be nice, but not critical.

One thing worth noting is that this PC has the bare minimum in RAM (1GB) to run Vista. The nice thing is that it is very upgradable (as opposed to some of HP's "slimline" compact PCs, which don't have space for expansion and upgrading). Therefore you can always add more RAM to your liking, and it even has an extra expansion bay if you want to add something like another DVD drive. The one thing it does not have that some other HPs have is the portable hard drive bay. I decided I wouldn't use that anyway, so it's no big deal to me, but it might be useful if you were upgrading to another HP machine in a few years and wanted to transfer all of your stuff via the portable hard drive. Of course that will only work if both computers have the HP hard drive bay.

Conclusion: Add some RAM, install windows XP, and you'll have a very good PC that is usable for home and small business applications for several years. (Oh, and in the mean time, hope that Vista is quickly replaced by something better, so when XP becomes outdated, you can upgrade to Vista's successor - and rumor has it that Vista's life will be short.)

For a minitower, this is very easy to upgrade It has a free drive bay and slots, and it has 4 memory slots, so it can take up to 4GB RAM - some similar machines can only expand to 2. I put in an extra 2GB - more memory is better with Vista.

Digital audio and surround sound are standard. There are 7 USB ports and 2 FireWire ports, and the mouse and keyboard are PS/2, so they don't use up any of the ports. The DVD burner is dual layer and supports Lightscribe, so you can burn laser-etched images right into the reverse side of the disk itself.

Vista Home Premium is ab appopriate version of Vista for home use, with multimedia features. It is a big step up over Home Basic. Vista is the main downside of this machine. I personally like it, I think that the extra security will be worth a few weeks of learning to use it and answering annoying questions.

Other downsides - the power supply is a little underpowered at 250W, so you have to be careful about the power draw of cards you add. The integrated graphics aren't the fastest chip set if you are a hardcore gamer, and you have to burn your own recovery DVDs (although there is a recovery partition on the hard disk).

I am a musician and a computer programmer. I bought this PC when my old motherboard died.

The computer itself is pretty nice. It needs a lot more RAM though, because Vista is a system resource hog of doom.

Which brings me to my big gripe about this computer.

I like to record my original music using some multitracking hardware. This machine should theoretically be more than sufficient to record music on (I remember using the same software and hardware with a 433MHz Celeron II running Windows 98 back in 1999), but somehow it doesn't even like to record a single track, let alone multiple simultaneous tracks. To make matters worse, my very expensive 10-track rack-mount sound card will not be supported on Vista (that's Echo's fault, not HP or Microsoft's fault). And to top it all off, Vista has this thing called Digital Rights Management which appears to be muting my record device when I try to hook up my mixer to the microphone or the line-in. I fiddled around in the control panel for a couple of hours before giving up.

Also, I can't write a new device driver for the unsupported hardware because Vista requires certificates for drivers to work.

If you make music, avoid Vista. If yo uare a gamer, only buy Vista if you require the latest DirectX. Windows XP is way better.

Just Say NO to HP...of INDIA!
I don't have the words to describe to you the feelings I've been left with after commiting the mistake of buying this system. Words like "SCREWED", "CHEATED", "ABANDONED", "HURT", and "LEFT HIGH AND DRY" fall very short. Please...read below, and avoid making my mistake.

The configuration of this machine has been SLAVED to the vista O/S (aka: MEII or Millennium Edition II). DO NOT purchase this system, UNLESS you are willing to be subjected to the following:

1) Be stuck with Vista. Believe me: You DO NOT want this O/S. MEII will not be around that long. Wait. Stay with anything else. Don't make the same mistake I made. MEII (aka vista) truly sucks. I'm not lying, folks.

2) Be stuck with HP. Now based in Bangladesh: What could be worse? Service? They told me that if I changed the operating system it would have the effect of VOIDING the hardware warrantee. In other words: No support. Imagine buying a new F-150 truck from Ford, only to be told that your factory warrantee would be void if you changed the tires!! There is no excuse for this unprofessional and cavelier behavior. HP has changed, and NOT for the better....Do not waste your money on this company until they have taken corrective action at the corporate level.

3) Be stuck in driver hell. Properly identifying all the integrated devices on this machine can be tough...but...it's even tougher to locate the correct XP drivers for the devices. HP will not help you...you must do it alone. Keep in mind that the native install for XP will NOT include drivers for the SATA disk drives AND there's no floppy installed. If you do not understand the implication of this, then do more research: Falling back to a functional operating system will be very difficult.

4) Be stuck spending MONEY. With MEII (vista) it's very possible that you'll need to buy new software. For this machine, you'll need more memory. MEII (vista) is a PIG: It'll be happy with ALL the 1 gig you get with this little box, and nothing less. I just added 2 gigs to this turkey and it is "starting" to act like it knows I'm typing at the keyboard. Save your hard-earned cash. Microsoft and HP don't need it: They'll just use it to pay the wages of their employees....in INDIA!

Finally...one good word. I bought this system from CompUSA, some of the nicest people you could ever hope to do business with. Curtious, professional, prompt and friendly. If you've enjoyed doing business with Amazon (as I have), then you're going to Love the folks at CompUSA.

And...they have lots of computers to choose from. Just choose the RIGHT one...the one WITHOUT MEII (vista).

I wish that I had...

IF you believe me DO NOT buy computer with VISTA atleast for now. It's a junk. MicroSoft is testing their product. You and me paying for it. They are taking advantage since no body else is in the market. HP computer is okay but not with Vista. Another problem is HP support is very poor. They are not willing to help too. Now a days most of the store charge restoking fees. So it hard to return back to the store. Be careful. Do your home work before you buy any computer with VISTA.

We had no choice but to buy this computer with the Vista operating system installed (all new ones have it). After 2 months of working fine, we started getting a pop-up saying our product key was in error. It ultimately blocked us from the desktop. HP customer service took 37 minutes to get a live person. He had a heavy Indian accent and was hard to understand. He had us restore to factory settings and then when we encountered a problem while doing this that he didn't know how to solve, he hung up. We now cannot connect to the Net and are having more problems. We have been waiting on the phone for 45 minutes and I am writing this to vent my frustration! HP customer service is THE WORST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

do not buy pc with vista operting system. i don't recomment to buy it . hp didn't use their name brand parts. compare with dell, what a shame.

this a very good pc and i am happy wiht hp.