HP Pavilion A6152N Desktop PC (Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, 3 GB RAM, 400 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

Other products by Hewlett-Packard

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 16.3 x 9.6 inches ; 28 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 21 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000S6O03E
• Item model number: A6152N
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,961 in Computers & PC Hardware (See Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 22, 2007

Product Description

Product Description
HP A6152N Pavilion Desktop PC. HP Pavilion desktop PCs include a variety of features that make taking and sharing digital pictures easier than ever. As you would expect from the leader in consumer PCs and PhotoSmart printers, every HP Pavilion PC gives you the tools to make working with digital photos and video clips fun and convenient. Organize, edit, share and protect your digital photos with HP Photosmart Essential. The front panel 15 in 1 memory card reader makes it easy to transfer photos and files to and from your digital camera and other peripheral devices. HP Pavilion PCs feature the exclusive HP Pocket Media Drive bay that allows you to add instant storage and works with any other USB enabled PC. The SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe technology lets you create custom, silkscreen quality labels and artwork directly onto LightScribe enabled CD and DVD discs. The Windows Vista Home Premium operating system is the preferred edition for home desktop PCs. With extensive digital entertainment features, expanded search capabilities and the fluid, three dimensional Windows Aero user interface, it provides a truly extraordinary user experience. The Intel Core 2 Quad processor is the latest in cutting edge processor technology for the desktop PC. Based on the new Intel Core microarchitecture, the Intel Core 2 Quad processor delivers four complete execution cores within a single processor, delivering unprecedented performance and responsiveness in multi threaded and multi tasking business and home use environments.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent deal, here's some more info, July 28, 2007

By	amanooensis (Flyover Country) - See all my reviews

This PC offers a great bang for the buck, but naturally some compromises had to be made to create a bargain. Amazon's description is a bit thin and there are no other reviews yet, so I'm offering this info for anybody who might need it. Meanwhile, great thanks to MonsDomain for those photos!

I've been shopping the various HP quad-core offerings lately, and I haven't yet decided whether to buy this one. But based on comparisons to its peers, I would rate it five stars for its cost-effectiveness, minus one star partly for the cramped interior and other technical limitations, and partly in case there are other flaws one can't foresee.

This is based on an Asus motherboard, uniquely coded by HP as "Berkeley-GL8E." It uses the Intel G33 Express Chipset, and the installed memory speed is 667MHz. It has a full set of LAN, USB, Firewire, and memory card connectors, like the other Pavilion Media Center models.

Unlike those others, there is no TV tuner, and the "stock" video is integrated (built into the motherboard). Also unlike those others, there is no unused PCI slot available. But there are PCI Express slots available, including one at 16X if one wanted to add a better video card.

One of the more important, and surprising, details according to the HP website is that it specifies at TWO year warranty on hardware parts and labor. There is a one-year limit on telephone tech support, but it is surprising to see such a long hardware warranty.

HOWEVER, I would *strongly* suggest confirming this with Amazon before assuming anything. Conceivably, one gets a longer warranty when buying direct from HP, where I got this information. If one gets the same warranty from retailers like Amazon, then it's pretty impressive.

I've also been looking into Dell lately, and they seem to be lagging on the implementation of these quad-core chips into their product lines, *especially* in prebuilt systems like this one. So, this looks like quite a deal for the moment.

P.S. On another site, a user reported that the stock power supply in this computer is 300 watts. That info is not available on HP's spec sheet for the computer (go figure!), so one has to decide whether to trust some stranger on the internet for this data. It sounds right, though. None of the comparable low-price HP systems have power supplies beyond 300-350 watts.

300 watts is not a lot these days, but this new Intel chipset is designed for energy efficiency, and there isn't much else in the box. So 300w is probably enough for many add-on graphics cards. Do some research on a card you are considering, before assuming that you have to perform surgery on the PS. In case you do, another user here has posted great pictures of such a procedure to add a high-end Nvidia card.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Performance, August 2, 2007

By	R. Batara "User of Life" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Recently purchased this machine, mainly for the Core Duo Q6600 CPU. The machine is an excellent value. The mother board is the IPIBL-LA built by Asus. The cpu performs very fast and the machine runs cool (after 5 hours tests with sever applications running and transferring data between the interal harddrvie and an external hard drive, the computer was still cooler than my LCD monitor) and the machine runs very quiet, upon boot up, the two fans spin loudly for about 3 seconds, other than than that, no noise from the machine (the machine is located next to my monitor on a desk, not on a floor, so I would notice any additional noise). Upgrades are easy, a thumb screw holds the side panel in place and the PCI-E slot is located towards the middle of the mother board, allowing for large amount of air movement around what ever video card you choose to install. But, be warned, there is only 1 PCI slot, and that is occupied by the modem. You could remove it and put a different card in. The power supply is 300 watts. Also, there is no parallel port, those with older model printers will need a USB to Parallel adapter or get a PCI-E 1x parallel card for one of the two open PCI-E 1x slots. The built in Intel G33 video on the motherbaord is powerful enough for Vista's Aero interface and runs smoothly on this machine, but for any high end gaming, you will need to upgrade, but buy a good card (GT8600 or ATI HD2600) on the PCI-E slot because the overhead of Vista is too much for older cards and you should be prepared for DX10. I took an ATI X1300 PCI card out of my old computer to test it out on this machine, no good - the Aero interface runs slow and scrolling drags on. The built in audio is good, but only as good as the speakers you connect to it. The digital audio output sounds great if hooked up to stereo via coax input (RCA plug) but the 1/8" audio jack is cut off when connected. You might need to use the Windows XP compatibility mode on certain older programs. Programs run very fast. HP built a very good machine, better than their older media centers which I needed to replace (hot cpu, noisy fans and harddrive, no pci slot, extremely crowded interior). My only complaint (other than the lack of PCI slots) is the collection of programs installed on the machince which are mostly useless, I wish HP would offer the option of just installing a raw operating system with no applications. As for the warranty, 1 year, through HP.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great deal and poweful, August 31, 2007

By	MilitaryMan (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

PROs: This is a great deal. I bought it last week and have had no problems with it at all. I was able to easily take out the Power Supply (300W) and replace it with a 700W RocketFish powersupply. Very easy procedure. In addition, I added a PCI-e NVIDIA 8800 GT Graphics card and everything fit perfectly. Now the Vista Index went from a 3.3 to a 5.3. This machine really flys. For a gamer this is the route to go. For others, the machine as-is works great. Since you have quad-processors, even a locked program doesn't halt the O/S because they're on different processors. The onboard sound has surround sound which has so far impressed me and with 3 GB RAM, Vista Premium and a 400 GB Hard Drive, this computer should stay up-to-speed for many years. I really like the low-power mode which basically is like a super-hibernate mode except that it wakes up faster than turning on your TV. Very nice. The photo doesn't show it, but the very bottom flap opens up to reveal headphone/mic jacks and also 2 more USB ports and a firewire port. There are also the same on the back of the machine. Also, it is remarkably quiet. It is literally 1/4 as loud as my previous machine. You hardly know it is on. Again, a big plus. Also, the DVD is LightScribe so you have that as an added bonus. Overall, just a great powerful machine for a good price. Plus you have HP to stand behind it.
CONs: For some reason HP decided to put a modem in the only PCI slot. It can easily be taken out, but it seemed strange to include it. In the old days I would've been concerned about only 1 PCI slot, but with everything external USB 2.0 now anyway, I don't see it as an issue.