Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion P6140F Desktop PC

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

 

 

I purchased this with all the bells and whistles out of the gate, rather than worrying about customizing it and then upgrading later, because HP makes it so much less expensive this way. I had a lot of questions that weren't answered until I actually bought the thing, but I was happy with the answers once it arrived.

Facts: Comes with wireless A/B/G/N card and gigabit Ethernet. Shows up in Device Manager as an Atheros a/b/g/n dual-band wireless network module. The external antenna is connected to the system by a 2 to 3 foot cable so you can place it on a desk for better reception. The network card is a gigabit RealTek RTL8168C(P)-family.

The combination power light/on-off switch shines bright blue when on and amber when in sleep mode. The switch is located on the very top of the front panel of the computer on what is the top of the case, so it's very visible in a room without having to squat down or lean over to see it.

The system is fast with the quad-core and is already maxed out at its 8 Gb limit. There is a free PCIe slot (the wireless takes up one), a free standard PCI slot and a free PCI Express x16 for the video card that you'll eventually buy. With the standard graphics chip, you get a Windows Vista 3.5 Windows Experience Index with Vista SP1. There's also an IDE interface for a floppy on the motherboard, but no IDE for hard drives. The power supply is a 300-watt Lite-On.

You can add two more hard drives internally, plus a second optical drive. I think that you can put in a floppy drive where one of the additional hard drives would go and it would have front panel access. There are connectors on the motherboard for four additional SATA devices and there are four available Molex power connectors plus one for a floppy drive. There are no parallel or serial ports available. It's a USB world out there now. The included card reader, that is located in the top front of the case above the CD drive, uses drive letters F: G: H: and I: at all times. The front panel has a slide down cover that reveals two USB connectors and speaker and microphone connectors. There are also legacy PS/2 connectors for a keyboard and mouse on the lower back of the case.

I won't go into details about software other than to say that there aren't any backup disks provided, but they provide a wizard to make your own (B.Y.O.-DVD). The D: partition on the main hard drive is your recovery partition and all software is probably there in some compressed format. If you decide to remove an installed program, you may find difficulty reinstalling it without making the recovery disks first. Update: After owning the machine for several weeks I am now aware that the 3 DVD's that you create are only for a complete rebuild. You can't reinstall individual applications once they're removed.

Pros:
Everything comes with it except for an upgraded video card
Good expansion capabilities with USB and motherboard interfaces
Good DVD and CD burning software included, including Lightscribe

Cons:
Keyboard has non-standard layout above arrow keys for insert/delete, page up/down, etc. Touch typists won't like it.

I switched from my previous computer vendor to purchase this HP because of all the standard features. I'm not disappointed at all in the quality of build or performance. My only planned purchase for this fully-loaded system will be an upgraded graphics card to match the system's other hardware capabilities.

Why not read the specs on the system you're buying, rather than complain about what you purchased? It's clear, that this PC has an integrated video on the MB. The specs say as much. No mention of DVI capability. Simple enought to add a graphics card.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the high quality of telephone support (India?) as my last HP experience circa 2000 was awful. To my ears the machine I received is noisy for a media center, its hard drive was imperceptibly vibrating. I could press down on the plastic case top and the noise would stop. Even placed a brick on it for awhile but no go. Finally I folded up paper matchbooks and stuffed them between the drive and its internal support rack. Placed the Pavilion on a soft pad to help absorb noise. Installed a passive graphics card. Now I faintly hear what sounds like the AMD processor fan.

Keyboard is a bit cramped compared to my old generic and took awhile to get used to it. Also, kind of flimsy ... not very good for heavy office work. Were I to rate it separately it would get 2 stars.

But otherwise this computer is a fine office machine and holds its own with Dell and Acer. Price determining factor.

Likely the slight noise issue is unique to me as I am in a silent home office environment. HP support offered to replace drive but too much trouble.

This computer works great out of the box. My particular product had a faulty motherboard, which I was easily able to replace at not cost to me. I have upgraded the power supply and the graphics card, and now it runs even better.

The only reason i gave this PC 4 stars is because i don't believe anything is perfect.
The only issue with this PC is MS Windows Vista and that is not even HP's fault.
With 8GB of Ram and a quadcore processor my trading platform runs like a dream and it is pretty fast i must say. The price was also excellent. I have had this PC since July and i have had no issues as all. The 1 TB HD is not a big thing for me since i don't use it to store documents or download but it is still convenient. The only other thing is that the mouse is a bit bulky but u get used to it easily , i am used to a Sony Vaio ergonomic.The keyboards keys are a little bit stiff at times but that isn't a deal breaker at all with this PC.I upgraded the graphic card to support two monitors and that was seamless, no issues there at all.

This is my first HP model and I'm very happy with it.8 Giaga Ram is a plus,fast specialy if you do graphics.1T hard desk is OK.The wireless card in a desk top is good thing to have.So far it is an excelent PC ..I used to have Dell for many years, But I did some research and I find out that Dell could not offer these options for that price.I'm waiting for windows 7 upgrade after contacting HP.
I highly recomend it to any one looking for quilty and saving.

I can not recommend this product. It totally died on me after only 4 months of light home use. Conversation with technical support was not able to resolve the problem. Their solution was to send it to them for repair. After three weeks, I still don't have the computer back and haven't been able to get any information on what the problem is.

I purchased this item, along with the high-def monitor and hi-def cables recommended for it on Amazon's site. They then proceeded to send me an analog-only capable computer, along with the hi-def monitor and high-def cables. They didn't even send an analog cable, so I had to go out and buy it separately. Now I can only get an analog picture on my hi-def screen which I payed extra for based on Amazon's recommendation that I buy it.

I called customer service and they gave me the complete run-around.

The lesson? Don't buy from Amazon unless you know exactly what you're getting, and don't rely on what Amazon says because it could well be wrong.