Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion 513n Desktop PC (1.8 GHz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 60GB hard drive)

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If you're looking for an ultra high tech machine, look elsewhere. Likewise, if you're looking for a PC that you can easily upgrade as time and finances allow, this is not the model for you. However, if you're looking for a basic PC that will connect easily enough to a network to be used as a work station, or directly to the Internet for a little browsing and emailing, or perhaps to listen to some music or even watch a DVD, this one will do just fine. It also has more than enough punch to do any household chores, like money management and light desktop publishing. It certainly is a great machine for a student. I have a number of HPs around my home and office, and for the most part they were bought to be functional rather than "cutting edge" performers. They have not only proven themselves to be functional, they have proven themselves to be extremely reliable (one machine in my home has been left on virtually 24-7 for 2 years and still runs like a top). This machine has just about all the features any casual computer user would want: an adequate 1.6 GHz Celeron processor, 256 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard disk and a good CD-RW+DVD player. Perhaps most impressive, however, is the price. Machines this capable are the equivalent of the sub-$$$$ color TV: they may not have all the "bells and whistles", but they certainly do their job well enough.

This computer did us well as a starter home user and with a high school student, but as we progressed my husband needed to add some big office software. The computer came with Norton 2002 anti-virus which slowed the system down considerably. When I took it out it speeded up the system by about 30 percent. Then I changed the setting to "adjust for performance" instead of "adjust for appearance" and sure it was ugly then but 30 percent faster even yet. The Celeron is slow compared to the Pentium 3 or Pentium 4. 256 mgs of memory should be upgraded if you get tired of this computer freezing up everytime you want to use more than one app. at a time. It doesn't have the juice. So we are going to sell this one and upgrade to a Dell for the same price with a P4 and add a 512 of memory chip. I still would recommend this computer for your family and kids as a starter for the price. ...

I just bought the Pavilion 513x-b, which is very similar to this model. My only complaints are
#1 That there isn't enough PCI slots available to really upgrade this system in the near future.
#2 That there are only 2 - 5¼ slots in the tower and 1 - 3½ slot. That means you can only add one drive (Mine came with a CD-RW and I added the hp dvd writer dvd200i, which is currently the 2nd top rated DVD-RW drive on the market, only beaten out my Sony on audio ripping) a DVD-RW drive.
#3 - There is only space for one more hard drive. I already threw in my old 40GB, as the system only came with a 30GB (guess I'll have to add a Raid Array to add my two other 13GB's)
Other than that, it's a great system. :o)