Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion P6230F Black Desktop PC (Windows 7 Home Premium)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Okay - I know at least one review has said that Amazon is "price gouging" as compared to HP's site - not even sure if the person bought the computer. This is a popular computer this winter - HP has had it on sale, Office Depot has had it one sale, and even Amazon has had it on sale. When I bought it, it was cheapest on Amazon. I saved $60 over Office Depot.

But that isn't a review - here is a review:

Pros:

Has Digital and Analog video on board with Nvidea so either monitor type works. A plus nobody is stating: WORKS perfect with two monitors. No need to buy an extra video card! This is huge! If you have never ran two monitors, try it! If you normally do, this is a great addition without taking up any extra PCI ports or buying an extra card. I almost purchased an extra video card when I bought this because I can't live without my two monitors, but to my surprise, dual on board!

Audio - has digital and multi-channel (or single channel option) audio out - no extra charge. My 6 piece speaker system hooked right up - no issues at all!

Windows 7. I know, some people don't think Windows 7 is ready for "prime-time" but what Windows version is ever ready? So far no issues. I am sure a SP 1 will come out soon. But my advice is NOT to get a Vista machine and later upgrade. There are ALWAYS problems when you upgrade IMHO. This is a clean install from a decent OS.

Card reader is a plus for me.

Keyboard has a nice feel - not like the really cheap ones out there. I enjoy typing on it.

QUIET! OMG this computer is so quiet as compared to my last one. My last computer heated my office up so much, this one isn't doing that (of course that can be a bummer in winter time!) But I just love how quiet this computer is.

2 USB on the front with the standard earphone and microphone jack.
5 USB ports on the back.


Neutral Comments

As others have mentioned, comes with "junk" software from HP. Just delete it - no worries - takes a second. Actually, as a PRO, Windows 7 deletes programs faster than any other OS I have used from Windows (and I have used each and every version ever made!)

Windows 7 has the same annoying system security popups as Vista does, just does seem as common. They are security ones when running a program as administrator or when installing a new program. I'm happy they aren't as frequent as Vista, but I still don't like them. But hey, that's the world we live in. Evil people make evil viruses.

Comes with Norton. I personally don't like Norton, but easily removed.

CONS:

It has 6gb RAM -- a quad core should come with 8gb. Not a deal breaker, but I really wanted 8.

640 gb HD. I really wanted 1TB. I know, I bought the system this way, but just wish it was a TB. This probably shouldn't be a Con, but hey, it's my review!

No backup DVD. This is becoming the norm with computers lately, but I think all computers should still come with backup CD/DVD with the OS on it. Never know when a system will crash.

Besides that, no other CONS that I have found yet. Just had the system for a short time so will update as necessary.

My advice? If you aren't sure to buy or not, then buy it, it will be perfect for you. 6GB of Ram is great for a regular user. I am a power user (I edit audio/video etc) and may need to upgrade to 8gb or more, but for now it seems fine. The Quad core is to die for! The video is fine - and seriously, try two monitors, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it! This is an inexpensive, quiet, and powerful computer - enjoy!

*****
*****
*****
THIS, BY FAR, IS A MORE POWERFUL POWER HOUSE!!!

FIVE-STAR WITH FLYING COLORS
*****
*****
*****

Pavilion P6230FAMD Phenom II X4 810 Processor (2.6 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache + 4MB Shared L3 Cache, 4000MHz System Bus
VS
P6210F 2.6 GHz Athlon II 620 Quad


I purchased the 6210F model and reviewed it. (Please see my review here: http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-P6210F-Desktop-Windows-Premium/product-reviews/B002ONCCJS/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

To my surprise, however, Amazon is offering the 6230F for $50.00 less than the 6210F despite the fact that even the MOST casual observer will have no difficulty what so ever in determining that the 6230 is a more powerful machine packing better AND MORE POTENT COMPONENTS.

So I decided to test it in person to compare it to the 6210 that I already have. Fortunately, two of the local Costco stores in the Portland-Vancouver area had it in stock, and because they have a 30-day no question asked return policy, I bought one and took it home for a test drive.

All I had to do to obtain a very quick result was run the already bundled performance testing software. The initial result showed the 6210 at 4.6 overall performance while the 6230 produced a 5.5 performance rating. This is no small feat in performance difference. Nor was I surprised at the result; after all the 6230 packed a whole lot more powerful processor, graphics card, memory and a larger hard disk, though this had no effect on the performance rating.

If you have read my review of the 6210 you will be pleased to learn that this one is at least 30% more powerful in overall performance, and at least 50% better in handling high intensity graphics such as Photoshop and produced 25% better performance in handling high math crunching software such as Matlab and AutoCAD.

In more mundane tasks, I was able to run the heavy graphics email program Incredimail, and MS PowerPoint, MS Word, MS Access, while Running TuneUp Utility's Disk Defrag, and at the same time worked in Photoshop Element, and at no time did I observe lingering or slowed performance.

This machine is bay far a more powerful work station than the HP P6210F with the Athlon II processor, and get this, at a $[...] lower price from Amazon.

This computer represents what I think is a great value for the money on the current prebuilt scene. I couldn't come anywhere near this price if I were buying these components separately and then building this machine myself.

It has some preloaded nuisance software that I promptly uninstalled without problems. Per my plan when I purchased it I then gave this machine to my 89 y/o mother whose 6+ year old Dell Windows XP computer now seemed very slow and unreliable. The Windows Transfer Wizard worked beautifully and after an initial adjustment period of a few days she seems to have acclimated to Windows 7 quite well. My support issues with her have all but disappeared.

I was sufficiently impressed that I also purchased another one, this time for my own use in a home/home office environment.

Instead of a review, I'm including an abridged version of a letter I sent to Mr Mark Hurd, the President of Hewlett Packard



Dear Mr. Hurd, On April 27 at 2 PM I received a Pavilion Elite Desktop that was defective and "dead in the box." I've been buying computers since 1992 and can accept this but not what followed. (Repair Order #803.........)

From 6 PM to midnight I talked to people in India whose English was barely intelligible making the process extremely difficult. They had me doing tests over and over and sitting on endless hold in between. This was incompetence. Around midnight I was asked to do a "System Restore?" and told by your Tech he would call back---he never did and I was to find that this is common.

On April 28, convinced that the problem was beyond the abilities of your offshore people and not wanting to go back to people I couldn't understand, who never called me back, and who put me on endless hold; I requested (per your guarantee) someone to make a housecall here in Seattle, which was denied. I tried to access American support to no avail and ended up calling Sales--at least they spoke English. They essentially told me "I was on my own" and I thought of the phrase--"Abandon hope all ye who enter here"

On April 29 I got your Filipino station and repeated the same process for hours. One particularly grating aspect was listening ad nausea to your parroted message about being able to get home service while I languished on endless hold. This is deceptive and a rotten lie. My machine was brand new----a fact that wasn't even noticed by your techs until the third day. After 20 hrs of my personal time had been chewed up, the dead machine was finally pronounced unfit and carted back by FedEx on April 30.

On May 1, in one final exhaustive attempt to throw salt in my wounds, I received an email double charging me, and my Visa card was billed an extra $50 to boot. Come on Mr. Hurd, you are a great big Fortune 500 company, how hard is it to fix these things.....things I would expect if this was a David Packard startup in his Palo Alto garage. Best Regards A---- E----


Post Script---Yes there is a post script to all this. Hewlett-Packard again sent me a brand new machine---machine #2. After the initial setup, I couldn't get on the Internet. Once again I called your techs in India (Repair order #------858----). After about 5 hours, including a "face to face" and the usual endless tests, I went to bed. Since I wasn't willing to spend another 20 hours on the phone I sent the machine back for a refund. Two bad machines in a row strains the credulity and the bounds of coincidence, but your people were merely sanguine about it all.

The original deal was that I gave HP a price they advertised and they gave me an operational Core i7 machine or they would come out and do an in-house repair. I felt cheated. I got my money back but lost 25+hours of my personal time. Hewlett Packard is a good example of a giant global faceless octopus of a company with ubiquitous advertising, cheap prices and shoddy rubbish products. One of the sales guys told me that if HP used American techs it would add $400 to each machine----so that's why Apples cost more?! Believe me Mr. Hurd, gone are the days I'll do business with HP again.

I've been using this computer for about a month now, and have found it to be fast and reliable. I was surprised to find that the operating system, Windows 7 Home Premium that was preloaded on the computer was much less crash-prone than previous Windows operating systems that I've used.

The computer, itself, is exceptionally quiet. It runs cool, and there is essentially no fan noise. I'm using the built-in graphics coupled with a ViewSonic 1080p Full HD monitor. Although the on-board graphics adapter only has 256 MBytes of memory, I've had no problems viewing full-motion video. The quality of the graphics is superb. However, those who are into heavy-duty gaming might want to add a more powerful graphics adapter.

I've had my HP Pavilion p6230f for two weeks now and I'm very pleased with it. While I don't think HP makes the best PCs, whenever I go to buy a new desktop I can never find one with a better combination of hardware for the price than an HP. $649 with free shipping was the best price I could find; naturally, a week later a major vendor had them on sale for $60 less.

I initially wanted a more expensive HP Pavilion Elite with higher specifications. However, after reading so many horror stories from owners who'd experienced frequent crashes related to a problematic motherboard HP uses in many Elite models with Intel processors, I decided to save money and hopefully avoid problems by getting a p6230f with an AMD Phenom II X4 810 which is more than adequate for my needs. Ideally, I wanted a 1 TB primary hard drive. However, many of the 1 TB drives used by HP are only 5400RPM; the 750 GB drive on this PC is 7200RPM.

The Windows Experience Index ratings for my p6230f are (out of a possible 7.9): Processor: 7.1; Memory (RAM): 7.5; Graphics: 4.3; Gaming Graphics: 5.4; and Disk data transfer rate: 5.9. I considered installing an ATI Radeon HD 4550 (about the limit without replacing the stock 300W power supply). However, folks who did so reported only a modest increase in performance and their fanless 4550 video cards ran extremely hot. Since I'm not a gamer, the stock ATI Radeon HD 4200 is sufficient for my purposes.

My p6230f is extremely quiet, setup was a breeze, and there was less preloaded "bloatware" than on my other HPs. The only glitch I experienced is when I downloaded and installed an update for HP Support Assistant, the program stopped working. HP Support couldn't resolve the matter so I used a backup image to restore my PC to the state it was in prior to installing the update. Windows 7 comes with a backup imaging utility which works OK (make sure you create a recovery CD) but I supplement it with imaging software from Acronis and Paragon which provide much greater versatility.

I installed a 1 TB second internal hard drive for storing backup images. This was the first time I installed an internal drive myself but the process wasn't difficult (after I went to HP's website and watched a video showing how to remove the hard drive bay and bought a data/power cable which didn't come with my retail box Western Digital Black Caviar drive). Overall, I'm happy with my p6230f and would highly recommend it as a mid-performance desktop.

I ordered a brand new HP from the on line HP store last year, got a lemon, sent it back within the 3 week review period. I was lucky to do that, after reading support messages from people who were stuck with that buggy computer. I really liked the setup, though, and thought surely they fixed the bugs in a similar (not exact) refurb model. So I decided to take a chance again with HP. It turns out that this computer works well, and does what it says it will do, and has been very smooth going. My best advice is to put computers through their paces right away and send back the ones that have odd behavior from the beginning. This refurb model is a nice one, and I am very pleased with it. I can recommend it.

I am a web designer who is constantly on the computer. Upgrading from an old one with Vista, to this computer has been and will be a tremendous help to my business and sanity. I was contemplating building my own computer, but needed the price to be right at $500. This one was a miracle find, with 8 gigs of DDR3 memory being a huge bonus. Windows 7 is a dream come true, finally, and this model handles it perfectly. There were a lot of bonuses that I will leave you to find, but one that stands out is how quiet it actually runs. Whisper soft!

I bought mine refurbished from [...] through Amazon Marketplace. Got the expedited shipping which was a bit more expensive, but I ordered at 5pm on Tuesday, and the computer arrived at 7pm on Thursday. Much earlier than I expected! Also the tower itself was in perfect condition, was only thing I was nervous about since the computer is refurbished. However it looks brand new, so I'm definitely happy about that. I'm knocking on wood for all these since I've only had it for a few days, I might update in about 6 months or so. But for the price, you can't go wrong with this refurbished model! I'm definitely a very satisfied customer!

The mother board on our HP computer died just after the one year warranty. We went online to discover that this is a common problem with HP. We replaced the video card with no success. A call to HP customer support resulted in an offer for telephone support at a the price $59. This can be credited toward the purchase of a new HP if the effort fails. We declined HP's offer as we have no intention of ever purchasing another HP. Either HP is a piece of crap or made of faulty hardware for which HP refuses to take responsibility. I recommend another brand or a very good warranty that you are prepared to use.

I bought this from FRY's for a great price due to a weekly special (Sorry amazon).. Love Windows-7. 8 GBS of DDR3 RAM rocks !!!
750 GB hard drive is plenty.. PC is quiet and smooth with all the latest support/media features etc.. I highly recommend.

Also make sure you save your bookmarks from firefox or IE before you switch pc's.