Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion S3020N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

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

 

 

First, to the person who was ranting about the rebate, check it out. Amazon has updated the dates so everything should be cool.

I've had the computer for about 3 weeks now. Its fine. I have a powerhouse computer in my home office, but needed something small to stick in the built in desk in my kitchen. Mainly for my kids, but also for me when I don't feel like trotting all the way downstairs. Where else can you get a dual core with a gig of memory, wireless Lan, and all the other usual goodies, for under $500. I've had no problems.

To the person who complained about the computer being slow, just know what you are getting into. This computer does not have the fastest processor or fastest graphics card on the market today. Can you do extensive photo or video editing on this computer? No. Can you play the latest graphic intensive games on this comptuer? No, because the graphics card is puny. Can you do word processing and spreadsheets? Absolutely, with no problem. Can you watch videos or listen to CD's? Yes. Can you surf the internet? Yes. Does the wireless Lan work? No problem whatsoever. Picked up my home network the minute I turned the computer on.

So, don't spend less than $500 and expect to have the latest, fastest and best computer out there. For that, plan on spending around $2000. If you want a very capable, very functional, very stylish, very small, and very inexpensive computer for your kids (or to stick in another room), then this is perfect.

First off, I give the PC unit 5 stars, and I give the Vista software 3 stars. This makes an average of 4 stars.

I purchased this unit from CompUSA about 10 days ago and have nothing bad to say about the unit itself. I purchased a 22" LG LCD monitor for it, and the picture is outstanding! I also purchased the HP Pocket media drive that slips right into its own little slot. The unit recognized it instantly and voila, another 80 Gbytes of drive space. The PC unit is compact, fast, and pulls up my programs immediately. If I take 2 15" laptops and place them on top of each other, that is the size of this unit.

The unit has never locked up on me. I've played CD's and DVD's and they play perfectly. The fan is very quiet, and the unit does not build up much heat at all. It took some fumbling around before I could place my CD's and DVD's in the vertical slot, but after a couple of times, no problem.

I do think the Vista OS needs some tweaking here and there, but, mainly minor stuff. But that's a Microsoft issue, not HP. I've had to upgrade some of my favorite software packages to make them Vista compatible, but they were due for an upgrade anyway. I still have Win XP on my 2 laptops and my older desktop. Other things like MS Office 2002 loads and runs perfectly w/o upgrading to Vista. Vista is not very user friendly when trying to hook it into my wireless home network, and I spent a weekend trying to make it see my other units and the printers via wireless. It's all in how you tweak the firewall. But again that is Microsoft, not HP.

Everything is running smoothly now, and I would not hesitate to recommend this product to anyone.

I definitely disagree with the above review, I order my one on Sunday (May, 20th) 11:50 pm and received on Wednesday (May, 23rd) by 4:00 pm. Amazon offers 2 days delivery and keep their word. The rebates could be place on time, and base on my search this was the best price. The equipment is small but powerful just like I expected.

I'm basically using the s3020n as a media server so I'm not making many demands on it. I'm using it to replace standalone equipment - an old DVD writer a DVD player, a 5-disc CD player and a CD copier. So four boxes are replaced by one small footprint and it looks sharp in the middle of my media center. It's hooked into my Plasma wide screen (RGB) and after hitting a few aspect buttons on the TV I've got a 61" diameter desktop. Pretty impressive -the graphics card is up to the challenge.

The DVD writer has a little mystery about it. Trying to open it can be impossible. When I press the white-screened button on the top of the writer drawer, it doesn't always (make that almost never) opens. I have to use the software "eject" to have the tray slide open. I'm not sure what the problem is there. Since the PC has crashed trying to write a DVD (see below about ROXIO) I have to reboot to get the DVD out. I'm just thankful that the partially written DVD hasn't prevented any reboots (so far.)

The documentation HP supplies with the S3020N is generic. It does a nice job on how to connect speakers because the back of the computer is common among other HP computers. There's nothing about the DVD writer that comes with the Slimline.

The software included is giving me fits. ROXIO seems to be having problems with the DVD writer. The two DVDs I tried to write - the first gave me an error message that the DVD didn't write correctly and to start over. I checked the DVD on another PC and it was fine. On the second attempt ROXIO flash an estimate of 8 hours 30 minutes to write a 4 gig photo file (plus it never really started.) Meanwhile burning the DVD from native VISTA took about 3 minutes.

Setting up the network was another nightmare due to the Norton Firewall. I disabled it and the VISTA firewall is hopefully giving me the protection I need.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if it was my only home computer but bottom line - for less than $600 it's a pretty good deal.

I got the piece as promised. I loved it's design and features. But just two week later the power supply broke down. Tech support got involve but not working. I couldn't install new power supply. Very difficult to remove & replace power supply in a tiny place. Until now I am still waiting for instruction to send the PC to HP for repair. Not really happy about this...

I really can't say much about this little PC. I bought an older s7700n and I liked it so well I bought this one. It works great and it was the easiest one to set up I have ever had. It was all practically automated. It was a real good buy with the two rebates. I would buy another one.

Motherboard has design flaw where the onboard NVIDIA graphics chip overheats and fails to function. The heat sink is only a passive design meaning there is no fan blowing over it.

HP acknowledged the problem and extended the warranty 1 year past the end of the standard 1 year warranty. It was good till the end of 2009.

[...]

We bought this June 07 so we are out of luck as are you.

This product has been good but because it uses the Vista format many of my previous software programs have not worked. This is the biggest drawback to this product.

I purchased this PC about 6 months ago primarily to learn the Vista OS. I have been very pleased. It is quiet, small, boots and shuts down fast, and I can surf the net. I believe this is a better solution for me than an underpowered laptop. I received both rebates, albeit with a long delay.

I like this product because of its size. It is not too big and easily handleable. It has all the features. Most attractive feature is it's built in wireless connection.