Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion a350n Desktop PC (2.80-GHz Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 512 MB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD+RW/CD-RW Combo Drive)

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

 

 

This computer is awesome! This computer is unbelievably fast. Because of Hyper Threading technology, XP thinks this computer has 2 processors. When you go to Windows Task Manager and look at the performance screen you see two processor boxes, very cool. It also has everything most people would need or want... 160GB, 7200rpm hard drive, DVD+R/RW drive that burns DVDs and CDs. It has a second CD-ROM drive to use for copying directly to the burner. It has a front panel 7 in 1 memory card reader, high speed video card with TV out, 2 firewire (1394) ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, HP Image Zone, Director and Memories Disk creator software. It supports 5.1 audio. It also includes software to burn CDs and DVDs. Other than a better keyboard and mouse, there is not much you would need to add to this computer. Take a high grade look at the 350n, I don't think you will be disappointed.

I recently upgraded from HP Pavilion w/ Celeron to HP Pavilion a350n w/P4 Hyper Threading and all I can say is....WOW!! This computer is super fast, and has all the latest features you could ask for. DVD+RW/CD-RW, front access usb ports, good tech specs, etc, etc, etc...In a word it is very "current." I have broadband internet and whoah..this is awesomely fast. I love it and it's my new "baby!" It's my first REAL computer! It is too new for me to have any complaints yet, however, I think I have grown attached enough that I will be able to get over any let downs, if any, pretty easily. Ultimately, I chose this HP Pavilion a350n over the HP M series(media center) and Sony Vaio RS420 due to price, but I don't belive I have sacrificed much more than more expense, ALTHOUGH, I am aware of how much more HP M's offer. I would've been just as satified (if not more),I think, but the HP M's are just too expensive for me, and like all electronics, have a tendency to break down. tacvba@comcast.net

My employer (a small software company) just bought these for all the developers (including myself). They're barely faster than the Athlon XP 2000+ workstations they replaced. HP cut several corners with this model:

- There are no available internal or external drive bays
- The power supply is only 250W
- They skimp on the RAM, using DDR333 instead of DDR400 despite the 800FSB processor
- The hard drive is mounted in a bizarre plastic vertical bracket which isn't very secure and tends to vibrate
- There are no CDs included with the system (except one Microsoft Works disc). There are no restore CDs, let alone Windows install discs (but my Pavilion ze4240 notebook I bought a year ago came with both--shame on HP for backing down on that).

Since the systems shipped with XP Home and we need Pro, we reformatted the hard drives. And now we have no way of installing the DVD burning software that came with the systems. HP wants $9 for an HP RecordNow install disc.

My parents own a Gateway, a Sony and a Dell - all three purchased in the last three years. It is my opinion that all three systems were a waste of our money - with graphics and shared memory. Great service from Dell and Gateway but they often times told my brother, sister, and I as college students we did something wrong. I guess when one of use turned the PC on, it was wrong thing to do.

My dad's firm uses HP Servers and he was referred to look at the HP Pavilions. He is an IT Manager and knows how to get answers to his questions. The HP service recommended he take a look at the Pavilion line that were introduced in the 2nd half 2003 and my dad did so.

My mom and dad ended up buying me an HP a350n for Christmas. I had it setup and burning DVDs in under one hour. It is so very quiet and very powerful. The CPU is a P-IV with HyperThreading - meaning the CPU can run tasks in parallel. I mean the unit is very fast. And the graphics card, although not the best on the market, is very adaquate for gaming, burning and viewing DVDs, digital photography, and my college work. My dad loaded software he purchased from Microsoft - including Office and Visio.

The HP a350n is fabulous. Now, I can do my homework and research work from my apartment at college and do my digital photography too.

A friend received a Sony DS420 for Christmas. Both the HP a350n and Sony DS420 are comparably equipped - with the Sony coming with more software titles but a slightly smaller hard drive. My friend and I were going to run benchmark tests side-by-side. But, two weeks after Christmas, my friend is still waiting to setup his Sony. At first, he could not get support to give him a straight answer to why Windows XP would not load. His recovery files were not there. He finally got some help from Sony service and an RMA for the HD. I helped him extract the HD from the case and package it up to be returned. There is no assurance the HD is the problem. I suspect the problem is the HD controllers on the mother board. My friend paid for expidited S&H or else it would be longer time without his "new" PC. He is waiting for the HD to be returned. He will go to college without it - and wait until he comes home for a holiday.

I had a few problems with my A350n but nothing serious. The XP operating system (XP Home) needed some tweaking that my dad helped me with. And HP Service helpdesk was excellent too! I spoke with a "David" who was very helpful and curteous. I am no "hot-shot guru" but he stepped me through some evaluations / testing, explaining what the test results meant and what to do to resolve the problem.

The HP a350n is a fabulous computer. I am a happy and satisfied HP customer.

Now, we are packaging the unit up so I can take it to college with me when I leave on Saturday for the San Francisco Bay area.

I am excited about my HP Pavilion a350n. Thank you HP!

I bought my first HP a350n 3 weeks ago for $1,000. Decent package of hardware for the price and it worked fine for a week. Contacted HP's online tech support about a trivial problem and they had me perform a system recovery that blasted my downloaded programs to Saturn (after assuring me no programs would be lost). Their technical expert neglected to tell me to disconnect the printer before doing the system recovery which evidently damaged the system.

I returned the PC and like either an idiot or masochist, I bought another a350n through Amazon.com/Home Depot due to what seemed like a great price, $796. That a350n ran OK for one day before seizing up and losing Internet connections. HP's telephone tech support had me perform 2 system recoveries, again sending my programs into deep space. Every day since then I have spent numerous hours online with HP's tech center in India which is apparently manned by untrained goat herders or with HP's telephone tech people. The a350n seizes up, loses Internet connections, loses settings, and generates a steady stream of serious error messages. HP's technical instructions are contradictory, nonsensical, bizarre, inaccurate and sometimes make problems worse. HP's technical wizards have not helped me resolve a single problem. I have spent night after night online with HP and it's like something out of the Twilight Zone. They give instructions that are impossible to comply with, contradict each other, fail to respond, and accomplish nothing (while telling you what a "valuable customer" you are).

I bought an HP based on horror stories I read about Dell's tech support center in India, never imagining HP's online center was also manned by lackwits in India. HP's telephone tech support is no bettter. They castigated me for downloading Windows XP updates from Microsoft which both Microsoft and other HP tech reps said the a350n needed. They complained I am running too many programs while I ran as many on an old Emachines PC with only a 400 Mhz Celeron and 32 MB of RAM. The a350n has a 2.8 Ghz Pentium 4 with 512 MB of RAM yet I have had far more problems with it in 3 weeks than with my old Emachines relic in 3 years. If you get an a350n that works, great. But if you need competent technical help, forget HP. Now I understand why Home Depot was selling them for only $796.

This is a solid machine. Nicely built, and easy to remove the panel to upgrade. The Ram and processor are eminently upgradable for future consideration.
This machine is *Very* fast, has a large disk and enough ports, firewire, ethernet etc. to satisify most anyone.
BTW, I am an engineer who knows and designs hardware.
The down side?
1. It looks like a 1940's toaster. Hmm, maybe thats good...
2. The bundled software is full of trials and even annoying reminders (advertising) that I will soon strip out.
3. The memory is 512MB of DDR333. Not bad, but could be a little better.
I removed it and replaced it with 4 512MB modules (2GB)of DDR400. Already faster than blazes with the DDR333, the new memory moves yet faster; I would say my apps now move 25 to 40 percent faster with this.
Upside:
The 250 watt rated power supply in this unit is enough for most anything; most people, even technical support folks don't understand this.
The processor uses about 35 watts; each drive less than 25 watts, the sound card less than 15 watts and add on cards less than 20 watts each.
So everything uses less than 130 watts for real.
Even with that fancy $500 video card which warns you to use a 300 watt supply, there is overhead. That card draws a max of 50 watts more for a grand total of 180 watts.
Another thing; I cannot stand computer noise and this unit is very, very quiet. Nice!
Also, there is more software inside than the package indicates: Take a look.
For $800 or so a great deal. Even some $1500 units are not this good.
Then again, I like the doggie search character, so that shows what my opinion is worth.
Cheers!

I finally wore out my old HP computer and found this beauty to replace it. The a350n exceeds all of the capability of my old unit with the upgrades I've installed over the years for a fraction of the price. And there's more. This computer is whisper quiet and better ventilated than any I've seen. You may not think about how much noise your PC makes until you hear this one. HP has shrunk its tower cases yet still leaves you with working room if you want to add something. The set-up process is better documented and requires less user involvement than ever before and- shocker here- the a350n comes with a detailed printed manual. There is lots of software included. I spent some time dumping most of it, but there were things I kept too, so the variety of offerings is designed to please a wide spectrum of users. This is my 6th PC dating back to a 486 unit. Each has been from a different manufacturer until now. My old HP survived everything I stuffed into it over the years and worked well through two OS changes and two BIOS changes. That is why I looked at HP again and when I found the a350n with everything I needed at this incredible price, I couldn't pass it up.

I hate the idea that I had to return this system twice before finding one that worked or me. Both of the first two did not see the DVD and after hours on the phone was finally told to return the PC. But the third was a charm and it works fine. The media ports (2 USB 1 Firewire) and headphone speaker access on the face are very user friendly and the hardware package overall is aboce par. Access to the inside of the PC is simple and everything is at your fingertips. So installing new Ram and a Video card for gaming was a breeze. The only complaint is the onboard audio card. I would have had second thoughts if it had been brought up before the purchase. But the marked down price and rebate made this an easy decision for me.

Overall it's been a great computer very few problems and as I already noted the hardware package is pretty good. I would like to have had a better software package but the cost of the Hardware made it cheaper to purchase the A350n than build a new PC that would have been close to the same performance without the software.

I got this PC two weeks ago and I must say this is a great desktop. It has almost everything an intermediate PC user wants: it is fast( P4 HT @ 2.8 GHz), lots of hard disk space(160 GB, good if you want to edit videos), 512 MB of RAM, USB and IEEE 1394 ports(to connect to digital camcorders), CD and DVD burner, etc, etc. The HD makes some noise, but the performance of this desktop as a whole is fantastic. The absence of recovery CDs, used when you need to format the HD, is not a source of problems at all, once you can create the CDs set very easily(there is even an application for that included among the provided softwares), as long as you do not make a mess of the HP Recovery Drive. It is an excellent HP product. I really recommend it. Congratulations to HP.

I just bought my HP Pavilion a350n an after-Christmas sale. I had bought my wife an HP Pavilion PC with a Celeron but I wanted a more powerful unit for myself. I currently do database and software development work as a consultant. The store gave me an excellent deal on the two PCs - for buying multiple PCs.

We have had very good experience with HP's. In 1998, we purchased an HP Pavilion with a P-II/400. In June 2000, we bought an HP OmniBook laptop with a P-II/400. Both are still running today - and are fully functional PCs. A little slow but they are operating.

I did a comparison of PCs and decided I'd get an HP Pavilion a350n. I compared it to many $1,000-PCs (including Sony 420) and decided the HP Pavilion a350n was the one I'd get. My previous positive experience with HP was a factor.

The HP Pavilion a350n is a fabulous computer for home or home/office. It is reliable, well-equipped, and F-A-S-T! Set-up ran flawlessly. The PC is quiet - very quiet. Software included is very good. Graphics are excellent. It is an excellent value for the dollars invested.

One thing - I explored the 160-GB HD and found extra preloaded software that was not advertised. The HD, after setup, had 130-GB free. HP uses about 8-GB of the 160-GB HD for its recovery partition. The other 22-GB was pre-loaded software - much of it I have not loaded. I explored the pre-loaded folders and found several software titles not advertised that was pre-loaded that I was going to buy. A nice addition from HP.

One piece of advice: After two days, the PC began failing to shutdown a video driver application on shutdown. I went to HP's website and saw they had an update that had been loaded and installed during the setup process. I went to NVIDA's website and saw they (NVIDIA) had a more recent update dated mid-December 2003. I downloaded & installed the updated drivers and the problem went away. I recommend getting the updated video drivers directly from NVIDIA's website. The drivers seem to have fixed the minor problem I was encountering. I consider this a "little inconvenience" and not major - taking maybe 20-minutes time to correct.

I feel, overall, the HP Pavilion a350n is an excellent value. Thank you HP.