HP Pavilion Media Center A1540N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer DVD+/-R/RW Drive)

by HP

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 17 x 10 inches ; 24 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 33 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000GAL1IO
• Item model number: EX276AA#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,115 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The HP Pavilion a1540n comes loaded with the all tools you need to easily create, manage, share, and enjoy your digital photos, home videos, movies, and music. It features a wide range of connectivity options for all your peripherals and preloaded HP Photosmart Premier digital image editing and management software. And you can easily burn your home video productions to DVD for friends and family with the dual-layer, multi-format DVD/CD burner, which enables you to store up to 8.5 GB of data on a DL disc and provides a super-fast 16x DVD+R write speed. It also includes LightScribe technology for personalized silkscreen-quality, laser-etched CD/DVD labels created right in the drive. Store more music, videos, and data on the roomy 250 GB hard drive. It comes loaded with 2 GB of RAM (which can be bumped up to 4 GB), a 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ dual-core processor, a 9-in-1 memory card reader that's compatible with today's most popular digital camera formats, Windows Media Center 2005 (with Rollup 2 Update), and a wide assortment of pre-loaded software.

The Basics

• Hard Drive: The extra large 250 GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive (7200 RPM) offers a wealth of storage space, perfect for storing a vast multimedia collection or for editing digital video. This SATA hard drive also quickens the pace with a higher speed transfer of data--akin to FireWire and USB 2.0.
  
• Processor: The 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor offers a dual-core architecture, which delivers additional computing resources to help expand your PC's capabilities by providing higher throughput and simultaneous computing--increasing your performance by up to 80 percent. You'll be able to perform multiple tasks such as digital rendering and gaming all while running virus scan or other background tasks seamlessly. And it's designed to handle simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing with no degradation in performance. It also offers such AMD technology as Cool'n'Quiet, for a quieter performance and lower power costs, and HyperTransport, for maximum system efficiency. Each core has a 512 KB L2 cache (for a 1 MB total).
  
• Memory: The 2 GB of built-in memory (2 x 1 GB, PC4200, DDR2 SDRAM) is a great start right out of the box for power users, and it offers a very fast 533 MHz speed. This desktop has a 4 GB maximum RAM capacity (4 x 1 GB), excellent for your multimedia needs today and tomorrow.
  
• CD/DVD Drive: Offering the latest in DVD writing technology, this multiformat DVD/CD drive is compatible with writing both DVD+ and DVD- disc formats as well as dual-layer (DL) DVD+/-R discs, which can store up to 8.5 GB of data. It features 4x DVD-R DL Write Once, 2.4x DVD+R DL Write Once, 16x DVD+R, 4x DVD+RW, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, and 40x CD-ROM speeds.

  This LightScribe DVD+/-RW drive lets you laser-etch silkscreen quality text and images on to CDs and DVDs . Your software, PC and discs work together for a no-hassle way to burn just the labels you want. After you burn content, just flip the disc over, reinsert and burn your label--anything from a simple title to a full-disc work of art.
  

• Keyboard & Mouse: It comes with an HP multimedia keyboard and scroller mouse (both with PS/2 connections).

Screen, Graphics and Sound
Video and graphics are powered by the integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Graphics with TurboCache supporting up to 256 MB of shared video memory. It also has an integrated audio card that can produce high definition surround sound configurable to 8 speakers.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
For expansion, this desktop has three PCI slots (two available), one PCI Express slot (available), two 5.25-inch external bays (one available), two external 3.5-inch bays (one available), and one internal 3.5-inch bay (occupied). It comes with a built-in floppy drive and the following external connectors:

• 7 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players (3 in front--including 1 in memory card reader--4 in rear)
• 2 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals (1 in front, 1 in rear)
• 1 parallel port for connecting older printers and scanners
• 2 PS/2 ports for connecting keyboards and mice
• 1 VGA monitor port
• 9-in-1 media card reader on the front, compatible with CompactFlash (Type I and II), MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital, and XD Picture Card
• 2 headphone (1 front, 1 rear)
• 2 microphone (1 front, 1 rear)
• 2 line-in (1 front, 1 rear)

It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).

Preloaded System and Software
The pre-installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Update Rollup 2) is essentially Windows XP Professional Edition with a variety of tools to help you to create, organize, and enjoy digital media ranging from music to home movies to photo slide shows. The Update Rollup 2 upgrade offers support for the Windows Media Center Extender technology built into XBox 360 game consoles, which lets you access entertainment from your Media Center PC--whether it's live and recorded TV and movies, music, photos or Online Spotlight--on any TV in the house.

It also comes preloaded with Microsoft Works (for working with word processing and spreadsheet documents), Symantec Norton Internet Security 2006 (with 60 days of LiveUpdate), PC Recovery, MSN Encarta Plus, Microsoft Money, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus, muvee AutoProducer, RealRhapsody, Vongo, and HP Photosmart Premier for digital image editing and organizing.

Dimensions and Weight
This desktop PC measures 15.2 x 7.2 x 17 inches (HxWxD) and weighs approximately 24 pounds.

What's in the Box
This package contains the HP Pavilion a1540n desktop PC, power cable, keyboard, and mouse. It is backed by a limited warranty for parts and labor for one year from date of purchase as well as technical telephone assistance for one year. Software is also covered for 90 days from date of purchase.

Product Description

The HP Pavilion Media Center A1540N PC features a AMD Athlon64 X2 4200 Plus 2.2GHz Dual-Core Processor and double layer 16X DVD±R/RW drive that lets you create your own digital photo albums on DVD or CD. HP Photosmart Premier photo and imaging software makes Digital Photography fast, fun, and easy by helping you organize, edit, protect, and share your digital pictures and video clips. Your HP Pavilion Media Center desktop PC has other advantages for digital photography. Sonic's DigitalMedia Plus makes it easy and intuitive to back up your pictures, videos, and music onto DVD-R or DVD+R media for safekeeping. LightScribe technology burns custom, silkscreen-quality labels and artwork directly onto LightScribe-enabled discs, right inside the drive. The hard drive offers enough storage space for the most enthusiastic photographer - up to 115,000 photos on 250GB. With a 2.2GHz Processor, Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Graphics with TurboCache, 2GB of memory, a front-panel 9-in-1 Memory Card Reader and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition it's easy to manage your digital photos, music, videos, and movies all together in one convenient location.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A terrible disappointment, February 26, 2007

By 

Hector Mansard (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP Pavilion Media Center A1540N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer DVD+/-R/RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

Computer has completely failed three times since I bought it 7 months ago. First time HP had it for a month waiting for a part. Second time (three weeks later) I had to install a new hard drive. Two months down the road I have had to reinstall the whole system (lost all my settings and programmes, but at least I didn't have to reinstall all the documents and music). I would estimate my wasted time at about 100 hours of installing and reinstalling so far.

The HP customer service is abrupt and often rather rude. Certainly I have received completely conflicting advice from different agents. Often I have reamined completely uninformed of important facts; even once - when they decided unilaterally that they weren't going to process the warranty issue at all.

They refuse to replace the product or refund my purchase price (which was from a large computer retailer).

All in all I couldn't recommend this product or HP computers less highly

4.0 out of 5 stars nice computer, August 26, 2007

By 

Mark Fisher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP Pavilion Media Center A1540N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer DVD+/-R/RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

Nice computer. I thought it would be a little faster but runs nice and smooth. Seller was excellant. Great communication, easy to contact and quick to respond. Thanks