HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC (2.40-GHz Athlon XP 2800+, 512 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

by HP

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 15.2 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 38 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000CNU9W
• Item model number: dm168a#aba
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,223 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 5, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

As the midlevel model in HP's wide-ranging a300n series of desktop computers, the HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC represents a happy medium between upscale performance and affordability. Though it doesn't feature state-of-the-art amenities such as a DVD writer or an Intel Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading processor, it is more than ready to handle most any home, home office, leisure and business application.

Driven by a reasonably efficient and cost-effective 2.08 GHz AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU, the Pavilion a320n Desktop is not blessed with top-notch processing speed. It does, however, feature quality components elsewhere that help keep the unit faster and more capable than expected. HP has added 512 MB DDR SDRAM memory, so multitasking is not a problem. It has equipped the system with an nVidia GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64 MB of dedicated video memory to allow you to blaze through all but high-end 3-D games and 3-D graphics packages. And it has included a massive 120 GB hard disk so you'll have plenty of room for programs, games, and a full multimedia library.

Other key amenities include a CD-RW drive for playing and burning audio and data discs, a DVD-ROM drive through which you can play DVD movies, and a 7-in-1 digital card reader for accessing memory cards from PDAs, digital cameras, and the like. In its stock configuration, the system does not support DVD writing.

HP has clearly built the Pavilion a320n Desktop to meet current and future expansion and connectivity needs. The unit features five high-speed USB 2.0 ports (one of the front) for exchanging information with external devices such as digital cameras and scanners, two FireWire ports (one on the front) for fast interaction with digital camcorders, front-mounted microphone and headphone ports, two available PCI slots, one available AGP slot, and a six-speaker surround sound audio controller. Communication options include a 56K modem for low-speed dial-up surfing and a 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface for high-speed e-communications. An HP multimedia keyboard with hotkeys and a PS/2 mouse with scrolling wheel complete the hardware picture.

A monitor and speakers are not enclosed, thus allowing you to select from the wide variety of choices available today.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Computer.., November 19, 2003

By 

"buntarosama" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC (2.40-GHz Athlon XP 2800+, 512 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I just bought the a320n about three days ago and I really like it a lot. It may be because I went from an HP with a Pentium 3 856 with 256MB SD RAM to this computer, however, it came with a lot of the things that I wanted in a computer. I don't use the computer for anything really complicated, I just like to download stuff, write papers, do powerpoint presentation and other meaningless things. But the computer came with a lot of useful stuff like Norton Anti-Virus, Microsoft Money 2003 (Microsoft Works), and it also came with Quicken, which was kind of convienient since I'm about to enter the realm of dealing with bills and getting a constant paycheck and with my growing interest in the stockmarket. Anyway, It came with the necessary stuff, like a good AMD processor, not the fastest one, but it is powerful enough to deal with everyday computations and a little more. What does make a difference is that HP excelled in upgrading stuff that was more important, like 512 MB DDR RAM, 120 gig hardrive, and USB ports all over the place. I thought this was excellent because it kept the price down and I was able to afford the 17 inch flat panel from HP, the F1703. All in all, it's not the fastest computer out there, but it is definately worth it for anyone just using for there home and school. I looked at one from Dell that had what I had, including 17 inch flat panel monitor and the computer itself, and it came out to a little more than 1400 dollars, I bought the HP (with monitor) for 1223.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Computer, December 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC (2.40-GHz Athlon XP 2800+, 512 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I bought this computer about a month ago and absolutly love it. The 7 in one media bay on the front is suprisingly handy for digital cameras, and the software seems to be flawless. Everything you could possibly need for your home computer is included. I would also like to add that this computer really includes just about any of the software you will need to use right out of the box. Except for installing a couple drivers, this computer is good to go the moment you plug it in. Everything seems to work extrememly smoothly.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great machine, but..., December 29, 2003

By 

Jason Cook "Jason M Cook" (New Britain, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC (2.40-GHz Athlon XP 2800+, 512 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I bought two of these machines, one for me and one for my mother-in-law, because of the great deal. My machine worked great except for a little bit of intermittent "whirring" that I paid no attention to. The other machine had problems even burning a full set of the system recovery disks, however.

It turns out the 2nd machine had a power supply issue which made the CD-RW and hard drive work intermittently; not a good thing. I determined that the noise from the 1st machine was the same problem, though I experienced no performance issues.

Just to be safe, though, I'm returning both and upgrading to the 350. I wanted a DVD burner anyway and I'm eager to see what the "hyper-threading technology" can do for a processor. I'll probably review that one next week (1/04).

So, all-in-all, I didn't have the machine long but really liked it. If there are no problems, it's fast, quiet, runs mid-level games very well (didn't try anything real high-end), has very easy-to-use recording software, has lots of storage device ports and looks great. Perfect for the intermediate user. I guess it's just a matter of getting one with everything working (as I've found several problem-filled reviews on-line).

Note: A previous reviewer said that the PC doesn't come with any disks, which is true. If you've purchased any computers in the past 5 years however, you know that there is a trend towards pre-loaded everything without disks (cab files, etc.), including Windows. That is why you should create a set of system recovery disks when you first get the PC (finding out if the CD-RW works correctly while you're at it), though I'm not sure why they only allow you to do it once. Make copies of those disks, I guess! The rest of the disks you used to get with a PC was just useless software anyway. And there are multiple ways to "restore", including a Windows restore option. Read the manual.

The reviewer also mentioned the fact that there is a lot of "junk" "trial software" and that it wasn't listed in the control panel. Unless you build your own PC, they pretty much all come like this and the software is easily deleted. No, you can't do it from "Add/Remove Programs" but if you know your way around a PC a little bit, it's not a problem. (If not, don't worry; you have a 120GB hard drive after all!) The software companies aren't subsidizing the PC makers just so you can remove all their software as soon as you get the machine! You can argue that you didn't pay all that money to have to take stuff out, but in actuality you probably did, considering the comparatively low price.

Also at issue was the "HP Organizer". This isn't the type of program for me, but I can see it being handy to the novice PC user. There is a link right on the window for options, which allows you to tell it not to run at boot-up. Pretty simple. It only interferes with Windows as long as you keep it open. Just click the, "X". Again, pretty simple.

Whatever you do, however, don't buy a Dell. I'd go into the horror stories about the Dell users I know, but it's the holidays and you don't need that kind of carnage on your mind.