Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion A1630N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti Drive)

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

 

 

When I received this computer over two weeks ago, it was slower than I expected. After some software deletions and telephone calls did not improve the situation, I performed a "Full System Recovery", removed Yahoo Toolbar and AOL which I did not intend to use, cleaned and defragmented the HD. At that point the little bugger turned into the Road Runner. It was no surprise to me that the machine easily outperformed the previous 11 computers I owned, since it came equipped with an AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ processor running at 2.4GHz with 2GB of RAM. However, I was in no way prepared for the Chaparral Bird on my desk. The speed it manipulated my photographs went way beyond my expectations and additionally, I was unable to detect any slow down when performing two tasks simultaneously. It blows my mind that such speed was capable of being purchased for under $800. Since I do not use the computer for playing games, I cannot comment on that aspect but otherwise this is one impressive computer for the price.

unbelievable for the price. had occasion to call support for minor questions and got a quick and helpful response, unlike was happening with dell. blistering speeds. recommended without qualification.

5 years with this baby. The best I've owned, running with W7 and 4gbram, has 4 ports.

This is a great system for the price. This is actually the first complete computer system I've ever purchased. In the past I have built my own systems, but I couldn't beat the price on the a1630n. Such as is the case with all similar vendors HP preloads the system with a ton of software which you may or may not need. I reformatted the drive and installed Vista Ultimate and it runs much faster without all the HP-added software. I have the Aero interface and the system performs very well. If you're a gamer you'll want to add-on a faster graphic card, but for non-gaming users the out-of-the-box config will work well for them.

It looks like the a1730n is the direct replacement for this system, but the specs on the new system aren't much of an improvement over the a1630n (ie: slightly faster CPU, larger HD). It looks like the a1730n will included Vista preloaded so you should consider that in your decision, assuming you can even find the a1630n still.

Added 2GB more RAM, wiped windows completely (who wants to run a crappy 32-bit putative OS on a 64-bit machine?) Loaded slamd64 & linux-2.6.22.5 kernel, rebuilt with SMP and (reluctantly) installed NVIDIA X11 driver. The result? This machine hums along, happily streaming DVD video from a drive, running PovRAY, and BOINC and slurping multiple FTP feeds from the net. No degradation in performance noticed, as long as one of the cores is relatively unburdened the system is very responsive. Best machine I ever bought. For power-aware people; this machine draws 150w when both cores are chugging along, 90w when idle. Using the ondemand cpu-frequency governor in Linux drops this to 60w idle so leaving it on doesn't mean big bills. Next up is a dual-Quad core AMD when they finally get their fingers out!

I purchased 2 a1630n desktops. The first one had to be sent back to HP after having it for 4 days. They had to put in a new power supply, after it just stopped turning on. Now the second one just started actingup. First the mouse stpooed working, then the keyboard and now it turns on, but it won't do anything.

i cant even tell you how unhappy i am with the a1630n i have never owned a hp before and i would never own another one. nothing but trouble with this product from the first day i purchased it.