Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion A6700F Desktop PC (1.8 GHz AMD Phenom X4 9150e Quad-Core Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

PLEASE READ THIS: It's important that when you all review which computer you purchased that you please state what model you bought. Amazon is taking all the reviews for the entire 6000 series, and merging them into one row of reviews. (Check a6700f, 6720f, 6750f and so on). It's a great idea to shop around, and see what other people are saying on the computer you're purchasing, to see if everything coincides with one another. By having reviews merged what one person experienced may not be the case with the other.

Following up on my prior review (which has not yet been approved/posted) I attempted to install Vista Ultimate 64 Bit on the machine and it would not take; i.e. the installation said this computer would not take the install and it kept Vista Home Premium 64 Bit installed.

Other than that, and I expect MS to fix the issue, my prior review stands. Great value and performance.

UPDATE via 2/8/10 It runs a lot faster with Windows 7.

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. I was weary about using Vista, especially 64-bit but it works better than expected.

The first issue people have been having: drivers. I had absolutely none. Whatever I throw at this computer it finds the drivers (whether online or within the system already) and have had no issues. I'm not sure what kind of hardware other people have been using but I've tried different monitors, gaming hardware, printers, sound cards, video cards. No issues. So, can't complain there.

Secondly, the amount of bloatware is quite annoying at first. I got rid of it all because it only slows the system down and causes more frustration than necessary. The computer loads up fairly quickly once you remove the bloatware off of it.

Thirdly, the power supply is not sufficient for most add-ons so it was the first thing to go. I bought a 650W power supply along with a Nvidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB DDR3. The Windows Experience Score went up from a 4.3 to a 6.0 at this point. Absolutely amazing.

This computer plays Halo, Crysis, World of Warcraft, and any Flight Simulator version smoothly. Haven't had one issue. I can easily use TeamSpeak, Internet Explorer, iTunes, and FSX all at the same time. If anyone doesn't know, FSX will completely KILL a computer if it's not ready for it and this beast does well.

I'd have to say I'm happy with the overrall performance. Disk defrags take no time at all. Virus scans are quick (even full scans). Downloading takes absolutely no time at all and is a huge improvement from using a Intel Duo Core. 8GB of ram is more than enough as I haven't seen it use more than 6GB at a time. And, like mentioned before, it shines when multi-tasking. It's pretty neat to watch it sort out tasks for certain processors.

I bought this computer because my other computer was ancient and I couldn't edit a movie without crashing.

GETTING STARTED

My computer did not work when I first plugged it in. It was not compatible with my monitor. I couldn't figure it out until I connected the computer to another monitor. Apparently, that monitor has issues, because it didn't work with some of my other computers, either.

LOOKING INSIDE

There was enough space for me to add my old SATA hard drive to run as a slave. There's also an extra bay to add another CD/DVD drive. I had to buy a SATA power Y cable, because all the SATA power cables in the case were being used.

The case opens pretty easily and the drives are easy to install.

PORTS

This computer reads 15 different cards. I don't have that many to test. It works well with my SDHC cards. My MMC Pro worked, but it did not seat well in the slot. I had to jiggle it a little to get it to read.

In addition to the card readers, the front of the case also has one FireWire port and two USB ports, one headphone jack and one speaker jack, which make for easier access.

I wish the USB ports were horizontal rather than vertical. I would like to have more than two USB ports in the front and I would like at least one of the USB ports to be a distance away from the other two. The ones on this computer are so close together that they make it difficult for me to insert my EVDO USB modem when something else is connected to the other USB port.

WINDOWS VISTA

It was easy to get up and running and my screen wasn't cluttered with a bunch of useless trial offers. It took me a bit of getting used to, but it is pretty easy to navigate. My only problem is compatibility issues. My Palm software cannot be installed and used on Vista. Therefore, I am unable to sync my Palm.

Internet Explorer 8 came installed on this computer, but I cannot use my American Greetings subscription to print out greeting cards, because the tech support there said it is not compatible with IE8. I would need to uninstall IE8 and install IE7 to use their site.

CREATING VIDEOS

Thus the reason I bought this computer. Can it handle video editing? The answer is yes! And I can multitask while I'm at it. Whereas my last computer took hours to create video only a few minutes long and often crashed in the process, this one took minutes. Burning was quick.

SUMMARY

This was a nice purchase for me. It's a fast computer, I notice it even when downloading and installing programs. I especially notice it when editing my videos. There are some minor compatibility issues but Vista is not difficult to use and I am a happy camper.

Purchased mine at Office Max as they had it on sale without the hassle of submitting the rebate form as at Depot. The performance rating (found under control panel) shows exceptional ratings except for video, which is understandable given that the video is integrated. I plan on upgrading video with a dedicated PCI-E card which should make the computer fly in all tasks. Be aware that Vista 64 does not support older hardware and software. Even ones that run fine under XP may not run under this OS. The processor is an AMD quad which is a cheaper alternative to similar Intel but it does a fine job and is fast. Also note that the wireless is up to G only (no draft N) but with the included antenna, the reception is good and internet browsing is fast enough. For under $510, there aren't too many systems out there that offers similar performance. Only reason why I'm not giving it a 5 is the integrated video and G wireless.

In my opinion this machine has many positives and very few negatives. Positives: The price is inexpensive, the machine is quiet, Its not a phenom II but it is a phenom. Very nice quad core product. It has 8 GB of memory more than enough to handle any vista. (I'm testing windows 7 and I won't need it on this machine.) Even the keyboard is better than most budget (not software loaded- you can buy it yourself cheaper anyway machines). I combed through amazon for something under a 1000 and I'm happy to say this tops the rest. Actually I can't think of a hardware feature making the price over 1000 worth it. Maybe a faster processor although AMD doesn't make a whole lot of them.

The performance rating on this machine for vista. Processor 5.9, memory 5.9, hard disk 5.9 (has 3/4 of a terrabyte)graphics for aero 4.3 gaming graphics 4.0.
Total base score 4.0

* based on a maximum base score of 5.0 at vistas release.

A couple of quick negatives: Ahh, Not an intel processor quad, have to buy your own monitor, there are video cards out there that will give vista a higher score. Be ready for a bombardment of trial offers.

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 with Windows Vista, which unfortunately was included in the price. The machine is speedy and performs well at everything I've asked it to do. The computer is certified as a low power computer. A kill-a-watt meter indicates that it idles at about 43 watts, which is a huge savings over a machine I used to own that consumed over 100 watts. So the average user should be able to save on their electricity bill using this desktop.