Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion Media Center a1310n Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Dbl Layer DVD+/-R/RW Drive)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a powerhouse of a PC and it is priced less than the Intel P4 varient - which is not even 64 bit. I don't know where HP is making money on this one...you can't purchase the individual parts and build your own for this price.

The case is an attractive unit and easy to open for upgrades. A single thumbscrew opens the side of the case and reveals a relatively roomy case for it's small size. Memory sockets and expansion slots are easy to access.

A previous review mentioned that the expansion slots were inaccessible or blocked, however I did not experience this on my PC. I installed an ATI X550 PCI Express video card to connect my dual 19" LCD monitors and the card fit effortlessly into the corresponding socket. I wasn't impressed by the onboard sound as I do some audio and video work as a hobby. I installed a SoundBlaster Audigy PCI sound card in one of the open PCI slots. Again this was effortless. I also installed a Hauppauge 250 Tuner card in the slot that had the modem (because I have broadband) and wanted to leave a space between the graphics card and the next card for cooling.

My final upgrade was adding (4) 1GB sticks of RAM. Sure it's overkill, but I like the bragging rights - a true geek.

The same review that mentioned the expansion issues complained about not having system disks or being able to change partions. This has been common by many vendors for several years. I haven't had the media for a new computer in a long time. If he would have read the manuals for the computer, he would have known to make system restore disks by using the utility in the programs list. Ahh...ignorance is bliss.

I have been very happy with the PC so far. My last *new* PC was a Compaq Presario in 2000 which has been flawless to date. I recommend this PC for the price. You can't go wrong - good looks, great options, awesome power.

This is the best deal on a desktop PC! I was in search for a desktop pc that performs well and also under $700. Was originally going to purchase a Dell with their dollar off coupons, but luckily I found this deal! As of Feb 06, any P4 or AMD 64 with 1GB RAM, 200GB, DVD+RW will run above $700 on any online retail store, then you have add shipping($0-$99) and sales tax($100+ where I live). The only thing I didn't like about the HP was the case's material and color. The front face plate is made entirely out of plastic and is secured by 6 thin plastic clips. One of the clip was broken straight out the box. The other five are barely hanging on and can be easily broken off if not careful. The inside is a bit cluttered if you want to install another hard drive (I had to install the hd from the front of the case). The PCI express and PCI ports are easily accessible and I had no problem installing my PCI-Express graphics card. I do like how easy it is to open the case on the side (one screw opens the case). Now on to the color, I really wish the entire case was in silver instead of the grayish blue color, but that's just being picky. As for another reviewer's comment about recovery CD and OS cd, most pc retailers stopped including those cds about a year or two ago to cut cost, so regardless of what brand of pc u get u probably won't be getting the os cd unless you pay extra for it. I had no problem with hp using an 8GB partition on the hd for the os and recovery files. It still had about 178GB on C drive so didn't really need to do any partitioning. Overall, best deal ever on a desktop PC. I guarantee you won't be able to find a similar spec-ed named-brand PC at this low out-the-door price.

UPDATE: The lightscrib DVD writer broke 8 month later. it still writes but skips the first couple of lines which renders whatever it is writing unreadable.

i bought this pc about 2 years ago. I have had several problems, crashes a lot, programs stop responding. Even when i am not doing nothing, i can see procesor is working at 100 %, ( i see it in the task manager window).

Every 4 or 6 months i need to make a "recovery", i have to back up everthing i have on it, and then put it back.

It takes 5 hours for the recovery to be completed, then the nightmare does not stop here... then i need to spend 2 more hours re-installing all my hardware drivers ( printer drivers, photo and video editing software, etc..) and also deleting all trial software that i just dont need on it.

DVD burner causes a lot of errors, wasting a lot of Blank discs.

This is my first HP, after my emachines broke. Emachines its not good either, and so it is not this HP. Next time i will try a Dell computer.

Fortunally i bought extended warranty for 3 years. Card reader it is not working properly either. And 2 USB ports are bad.

i am not happy at all with processor performance.

I dont recomend HP brand.

When i am burning a DVD, i cant do any other task, because will crash, and stop responding; processor is working at 100 %...

I bought this computer in May, it crashed 17 days later. Sent it in under warranty, got it back and it crashed one week later. I don't have any idea what is wrong but I have never had problems like this. It's very frustrating

FIrst lets start buy saying this is the second hp.

a1310n

now for the pc had it since febuary 1st 2006, today is april 13th, 2006 has broken down twice.

The lightscribe drive broke in less than 2 weeks they replaced it lost the pc from home 1 week

second time the heat seak fan housing broke

called hp took they 48 to return a call to say they want my business

then had to wait another 48 for them to decide rather they should replace a 2 month old lemon they sold me.

after 5 days they replaced it with another they could not give my money back with out another 2 days of waiting. thats all the review they need the pc is junk and there customer service doesnt' exist its all pass the buck and use up the warranty so we can go to the next pigieon

PLEASE PROTECT YOUR SELF AND DO NOT BUY FROM COMPAQ OR HP THEY ARE THE SAME COMPANY AND DO NOT SUPPORT THERE PRODUCTS. THEY DO SAY THEY ARE SORRY FROM COSTA RICA AND INDIA ALOT BUT DO NOTHING THEY REPLACED THIS PC WITH ONE NOT MUCH BETTER HASN"T ARRIVED YET DIDN"T EVEN SEND IT NEXT DAY SHIPPING AFTER 5 DAYS OF DEALING WITH THEM. REMEMBER YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

I bought this computer and encountered several problems.

First, I tried to add a PCI TV Tuner card and found that the

first PCI slot was not correctly aligned which renders it

unusable. The third PCI slot can't be used either, because

due to bad design a large plug (for front panel microphone, etc) prevented the PCI card from being fully pushed into the slot. So I have to use the second PCI slot which is already occupied by a PCI modem card.

I tried HP's own PCI modem card and it won't install correctly into

slot 1 & 3 either, which is probably why it's installed in the second slot by HP! I called HP support and they said they will have to repair the motherboard/chasis! Fortunately, it's less

than 30 days and I can still return it as a defective product.

The second problem is that you can't partition the hard drive and reinstall the operating system to a particular partition with either HP's hard drive recovery system or their recovery CD.

Talked to HP support for quite a while to find out the above information. In summary, if you ever need to upgrade your PC

later or need to partition the hard drive, don't buy HP's a13xx

series (I don't know about other models). And keep in mind that

no operating system CD is included, if you ever need to replace

your hard drive, you will have to pay HP $20 to get a set of recovery CDs.

This model's performance is below from the HP standard I come to expect. Its riddle with more than average trial software that only takes disk space. It started to crash after I loaded some of my own utilities software, which performs just fine on my other HP processors (m7160n).