Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion Elite M9280F Desktop PC (2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB Hard Drive, Blu Ray Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this computer primarily for photo and video editing and so far, my results have been excellent. Processing and DVD creation that used to take 1 - 2 hours on my 1.7 Ghz machine, takes between 4 and 13 MINUTES!

I did have some minor problems changing over to the Vista operating system, mainly configuring my video inputs using the Vista 'Media Center'. I "fooled" the Media Center so that I could record using the 'composite' connections in the end, but I made things a LOT easier by going to the webpage of the TV Tuner card (Haupauge) and downloading the control programs that normally ship with the card - they did NOT come already installed on the computer! Once I did this, it was VERY easy to record TV from ANY of the inputs - including the 'composites'. The program even made it easy to automatically find and configure the TV channels that came "over the air", so that you could easily use the computer as a DVR to automatically record TV OR Radio shows.

This computer was BY FAR the best for the money - and I compared ALL the worthwhile web sites AND local stores (like Best Buy, Circuit City). I have used HP computers for the last 13 years, and they have always been very solid, dependable machines. Also, NO ONE even came close to the deal Amazon had (in early May, 2008)! I also ordered the computer with the 'free shipping' option and it arrived 3 DAYS LATER!! Also, since I bought from Amazon, I did not have to pay taxes, so keep that in mind..!

When I recieved my first M9280F I was very disappointed that it was DOA. Despite calls to HP which lead me on several adventures trying to revive it the poor thing was dead as a doornail. "No problem" HP said, "we'll send you a box and you can ship it back to us for no charge, we'll fix it and ship it right back to you." All well and good except then I would essentially have a refurbished computer, which I wasn't happy about. Then I contacted Amazon. They arranged to send me a new machine even before I shipped the old one back to them. They paid for the return shipping and charged nothing to ship the replacement unit to me, within a couple of days I was up and running. I can't say enough about the exceptional service provided by Amazon, they were great!
As for the M9280F, it's a great machine. Lightning fast, stable as a rock, runs everything I've thrown at it and worked with all of my existing equiptment and a new Canon ImageClass printer (also purchased at Amazon) although I did have to download a 64 bit driver for the ImageClass printer from Canon's web site.
Don't hesitate to buy big ticket items from Amazon. I've purchased plasma TV's, home entertainment systems, computers and monitors. They've all been great deals and they've all worked out or Amazon has made them work out.

This computer is extremely fast, has a huge 1 terrabyte harddrive and gigs of ram. The BIGGEST problem I have had is with the new Vista 64 bit operating system...finding other hardware that will work with it. At first the modem for my DSL didn't work, spent a coule hours on the phone with tech support. My expensive ZYXEL prestige 300 router would not work with the 64bit operating system...I spent hours on the phone with tech support for the modem and router and my ISP. I finally checked the microsoft website they recommended 4 routers for use with the 64 bit Vista, so I bought oneof them, a brand new D-LINK EBRR-2310 from amazon, with cable, it got here and I installed it, and zippo! Spent another four hours on the phone with the D-LINK guy in India and he advised me to take the router back where I got it cause it wasn't gonna work! In exasperation I talked to a techie guy at work who suggested I should try the combo modem/router by AT&T which is my ISP (ATT-Yahoo dsl) and I ordered one of these combo modem/routers, 2WIRE gateway 2701HG-B gateway....it is supposed to configure itself once it is plugged in, and it didn't!! I went to the "backup" method of using their CDROM installation which worked like a charm to get wired ethernet connection to my second computer! So after spending an extra $200 on new routers and modems,I finally got the router to work, and the modem to work. On top of all this the CPU is a little noisey, more than I would like..but it is a white noise and seems to get quieter after it runs a while. Great machine, the operating system is fine if you can get hardware that works with it. I suggest the combo modem/router from AT&T, IT WORKS!!
by the way this computer turns on in about 10 seconds, and turns off in about 10 seconds. extremely fast on and off, compared to my old Dell computer which could take five minutes to turn on or off.

I am a first-time HP computer customer. I have used many Dell and PowerSpec (from MicroCenter) computers in the past but was wary of HP, since I expected a ton of crapware, low quality parts, and shaky support.

I was pleasantly surprised. The computer performs as advertised! The machine is well built. It is very, very quiet, and very fast. I bought a DoubleSight 26" monitor and hooked it up to the DVI port and the combination is perfect for my digital photography needs. HP only adds a small amount of crapware (starter-type programs and previews) which can be easily removed.

Pros: Love the Media Center (can watch over-the-air HD TV), powerful CPU, very quiet fan, the Blu-Ray player is superb.

Cons: Documentation is somewhat skimpy. What they do provide is generic info for many computer models. When you call their 24X7 telephone supportline, you speak to someone in India who just repeats what you ask them, then responds with a scripted answer. It is very frustrating to get concise, accurate, and straight answers to questions which invariably arise. Email support is similar-just canned answers. In fairness, most major computer manufacturers are doing this. Anyway, I gave up with HP telephone support and went to MicroCenter (where I bought the computer) and they answered all my questions. Lastly, I wish HP had dropped the extra external HD drive bays and included a more useful second optical drive.

I really like the computer, runs quiet and fast. Looks good and has pretty much all features. I recommend this product to anyone.

Three things I liked less, it does not have bluetooth which is clear from the specs, but it would still be a "nice to have".

It does not have 2 DVI ports, instead it comes with one DVI and one HDMI and you need to buy a separate HDMI to DVI converter to hook up two DVI monitors.

And three, the software is pre-installed but not included on a CD. I contacted tech support and they acknowledge that when you need to re-install your operating system you just lost all tools and are pretty much on your own.

One last piece of feedback, when I installed Symantect Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.2 I ran into an error. HP was very quick to refer me to Symantec, so do not expect support unless it is clearly a sole HP issue.

August 2011 - Installed Win7 64bit and increased the memory from 4GB to 6GB. Over the 3 years since I put XP on this, it had slowed down considerably, to the point of me waffling over whether to buy a new pc or install WIN7. I installed WIN7 64-Bit, increased memory by 2GB, and I'm very impressed. It's unbelievable how easy the WIN7 install went, and better yet, no pre-installed HP programs/garbage etc with the WIN7 Builder DVD. Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack. Should anyone with one of these 3 year old machines wonder how well it works, I'm here to say it works GREAT!

August 2008 - I converted my M9250F to WinXP Pro and would give it 5 stars with XP. After 2 months of wrestling with Vista64, the failure of the seagate hard drive provided me the opportunity to convert to Win XP. HP support Fedexed me a new samsung hard drive the next day. Now with XP, I can work with the other components on my LAN again (especially my Network Storage Server). I'll revert back to Vista64 at a time when it makes sense for me, or if I need HP support within the next 10 months. BTW - it wasn't as simple as one would think to convert to XP. But with XP, this system is blazing fast! If I had done the conversion the day I received the pc, I could have saved myself $600 on stuff I didn't need.

July 2008 - I think this computer could be much better than it is if it had Windows XP on it. I went from XP Media Center Edn to Vista-64bit. I found Vista64 virtually incompatible with everything I own. I had to buy a new scanner, print server, Quicken, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop and MSOffice because Vista64 doesn't support them (check for Vista drivers at the manufacturers website for your printer, scanner etc to see if it's supported!). The pc comes pre-loaded with IE7 64-bit, but you can't go to any websites that require Flash Player. 64-bit FLASH PLAYER is NOT supported (yet?). Yes, IE7 32-bit is included, but you need to know what you're looking for. If I knew I was going to spend another $600 on peripherals and software, I would have gone with a Dell Vostro and downgraded to XP to avoid the hassles and expense. I was very happy with my 3 previous HP's over the last 10 years, so I went with them again. I hate change.

After many years as a computer programmer one thing I know is that software developers will use all available hardware resources as they design new systems(as they should). This means that you need a computer that will anticipate future 'heavy duty' software. With the HP m9260f you get massive amount of disk storage (two 500gb drives) and a fairly large main memory 4gb. The first thing I did was buy another 4gb main memeory, making a total of 8gb. Note that you are replacing 4 x 1gb with 4 x 2gb so you actually need to buy 2 pairs of memory, a little over $200. Then I bought the HP 500gb personal drive for $160 which ups the total hard drive capacity to 1.5 tb. I hope this much hardware will last for awhile.

Another major plus factor of this computer is the Vista 64 bit operating system, which some view a big negative, is actually required to take advantage of the large RAM (look for most future software to be written for the 64 bit operating system). Much of the sofwtware I was running would not load or download because it wasn't compatable. Most vendors are modifying ther systems to run under Vista 64bit but there are still plenty that are not. My Epson scanner software isn't available, I had to upgrade my photoshop to a new version. This is all painful and somewhat expensive but I think in the long run it will payoff.

Last thing, you don't need to buy the model with the Blu Ray but it is kind of nice to watch the HI Def movies with the computer. I did buy the HP w2408h 24" LCD monitor at $450 to take advantage of the Blu Ray -- it is really good.

I bought this computer along with the HP 24 inch monitor. I've been very impressed with the power this machine has. I did a lot of research before making the purchase. I wanted something that could handle lots of graphics programs like PhotoShop since I own a company that builds websites for small business. I also wanted a computer that would allow me to watch cable tv inside a window and have a built in DVR. This computer does all that. It even downloads a TV Guide that far exceeds the one I get on Comcast. Running Vista 64bit was also something important to me as this allows greater expansion of memory in the future and it's the direction the software industry is going. Also, I loved the fact that it wasn't too loaded up with crap software. I had to remove Norton manually but other than that the other software remained fairly quiet and wasn't a pain. My recommendation is to buy this computer with the HP 24 inch monitor. Great combination.

To those who are complaining about software not running on Vista 64 it simply isn't true. Especially adobe, Quicken, MS Office. Everything I own software wise has installed and run fine under Vista 64. You also have the option to run any program under XP compatibility mode which takes care of anything you may run into. Vista drivers have automatically installed now for three printers, one scanner, a router, external DVD burner and external harddrive. Zero problems. I just don't buy the Vista 64 statements I'm reading out here. Again, I highly recommend this computer and have no regrets buying it from Amazon.

I needed to replace an older P4 computer because it ran too slow. Looked for a great CPU and plenty of power and storage at a low price and I kept coming back to the HP elite M9260. This unit does everything from recording video from television, radio tuner, DVD writer with litescribe, plenty of memory, 2-500gig HD's plus I did purchase a 750gig HP Personal Media Drive for portability to work for all my files. It also has a 10/100/1000 NIC card which helps with broadband high speed connections. About the only distraction is Vista Home Premium, I have paid for an upgrade to Microsoft for Vista ULTIMATE Upgrade and I am over two weeks waiting for the DVD to arrive. There are some issues with networking that HOME PREMIUM is not as flexible as VISTA ULTIMATE. That should not take away from the real value of this system. Highly recomended to anyone who anticipates using the PERSONAL MEDIA DRIVE from HP.

The computer arrived in good condition. The box was partially open, but nothing was missing. I think HP could have done a better job with the box. The computer is very fast. I think the fact that it has 4 GB of ram helps. It has room for a second dvd player and the media drive works great. I bought 500GB drive and now I have 1.5 TB of storage space. Sweet! I was replacing a 4 year-old laptop and I wanted a much faster computer and I also wanted to be able to play blu-ray disks. Windows vista on the other hand is very disappointing. I am unable to play most blu-ray and old dvd disks. I looked in the internet for an answer and I found that many users have the same complaint. Apparently the controversial Digital Rights Management is to blame. Vista will stop playing DRM content if an unverified component is detected or suspected. It also decreases the quality of video under certain circumstances. I do not understand much about this, I only want to play high definition videos in my 24" monitor. No luck. I tried to install Linux, but I do not have enough experience. So, I find myself using the windows XP old laptop again more often than I would like to.