Customer Reviews

Hp Pavilion a1230n Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer 16x DVD+/-R/RW Drive)

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

 

 

I expected more from an AMD processor. I've had it crash out to a white screen and other variations when performing several simple tasks at the same time. The slots for memory cards are great. It saves a step in having to search for a high speed USB reader and is even better if you have two different sized memory cards. I've been satisfied with the CD burner but had to search to find a solution for the DVD burner. The Sonic software it came with had missing dll's. An update is available from the HP website but I went through alot to get that figured out. Another complaint I had was that some software such as Norton security were only trial editions which is kind of deceptive since a selling point is that some softwares come loaded in and ready to go. Media Center is so-so. I don't use it as much I thought I would. There are alot of other more comprehensive programs out there that cover the same tasks.
It's fast and has alot of room which is important to those of us who store alot of images on our hard drive even temporarily.
I bought mine at CompUSA with a service warranty. Their repair department is very competent and busy. Forget the rebate they advertise. I've had a big problem getting mine back and have read about many others with the same problem. Amazon has the best deal on this I've seen so far.

I bought the a1230n for about 875.00 (not incl. monitor) in Sept '05. I give it a hlaf notch above mediocre. Solid cabinet, separare DVD/CD drive bays, handy audio jacks in the front, 4 USB jacks. MD processor is suppose to be better for multi-media.. hmmm. Replaced the chinsey keyboard/mouse included in the package. I grew up in HP territory, the once thriving giant HP comlex is now a ghost town. Almost all design/assebly is outsourced now, this unit assembled in China. Whould I buy it again knowing what I know now ... naah.

HP has good reliable pcs which is saying a lot considering the amount of junk out there. Still with basic cpus selling under $400 I expect a lot more for the extra dough. The dvd drive can be testy, meaning it may or not work. I've had trouble w/ other drives and disk burning hardware is not as reliable as the old floppy drives. The speed seems fine and I didn't experience slow down on word processing. I like to edit video so the memory and processing have proved to be sufficient. It isn't a super computer but it does the job.

I have the same feelings about this cpu as the writer before me said. The system crashed on the first day out of the box. I tried installing media center and it froze. While doing updates it crashed. While installing games, Battlefield 2 and Quake 4, it crashed. The list goes on.

But once I worked out those issues, it seemed fine.

Also, the CD-R drive is slowwwwww. I didnt pay much thought into it before purchase. Thats just a minor problem.

Its an OK cpu, it could be better

I have owned many HP computers, but this one really has added a lot of great stuff to it. I was very pleased with the quickness of the CPU (at least in most cases). It's taken me awhile to figure out just how to burn the "flip" side of the new LightScan discs to put a title or picture on it, but it generally is worth the wait--not to mention you don't have to worry about losing the "stick-on" label or worry that the glue is going to ruin your data or music files. This is especially true if you are archiving data or music for future use, as you don't want to lose all the hard work you put into burning your disc in the first place.

The computer has many, many places to plug in your USB equipment, as it has several USB 2.0 ports in the back as well as in the front where it's convenient to plug in something temporarily.

I did exchange the single modem port with a two-port modem so that I could have the house phone cord run into the computer and then branch it to the phone on the desk. With just the one original port, I would have had to have a way to divide the phone cords to both places at once. It's better to go with the two-port modem if you want to have a phone (not cell phone) near the computer.

Other than that, I find that this a1230n computer to be top notch!

One other thing, if you happen to currently use a lot of floppies, you won't find a floppy disk drive in this computer. Evidently, the powers to be have decided that floppies are on the way out and CDs and DVDs are "IN". Just thought I'd throw that in for those who use floppy discs.

I have had this system since September 2005. I haven't had any problems that weren't easily solved. They were software conflicts and that I needed to get updates from HPs sites. It was easy to find and install. This is my fourth HP desktop and so far the best. I find fault with the flat screen moniter in that the speakers are terrible and don't give much sound. I was suprised that you have to make your own copy of the operating software or purchase it from HP for around 12.00 plus shipping. I think they should still include this recovery software. On the software included they really skimped with this one. They should include a year of anti-virus with the system since there is advertising (ISPs,Sonic, ect.)all over the computer disguised as being helpful most of the programs are very limited. They used to include a lot more useful software bundles and you were able to actually use all functions in the programs. This desktop has plenty of USB ports. I love the AMD processor I really see the affect in everything I do. I don't use the media center like I thought I ended up loading my own, and the light scribe is okay. They have along time to go with this. The time spent burning and the generic looking color it produces needs improvement. The price for the DVDs are to high when you compare to your basic blank DVDs and they aren't widely available yet. I received all of my rebates (350.00) and purchased through Best Buy in the local store. For around 700.00 I can't complain.

The computer is nicely built. The onboard graphics is
weak, it chokes on COD2. Windows Media Center is problematic,
gone through 2 system restores in 2 weeks, both IE related.
Help desk is OK if you get the right person, some of them
aren't helpful at all.

Update Aug. 2007: both
DVD and CD drives failed. Be careful with HP optical drives, especially
the DVD writer, I have 3 HP writers, 2 needed replacement, 1 dead out of warranty. The case is too crammed, frontpanel plastic very cheap.

This will be brief, as I'd like to limit the amount of time I've wasted as a result of buying this dog. I've had quite a few problems with mine, the latest of which is a DVD drive which falls out of DMA mode and thus can't playback DVDs properly. This is a cheap, consumerish machine, not something you should trust your media and data to. The included graphics processor is too weak to even handle high definition video playback.

[...]It came with a 17" flat panel monitor, printer, and everything else that normally comes in a bundle. I've had some issues with performance while running multiple programs, but after I installed a 256mb graphics card it freed up alot of main memory and took alot of stress off of the cpu. It eliminated almost all of the issues i've had with it and it runs all of the newest games with ease now. I recommend this computer to anyone looking for good performance at a low price.

The DVD-CD writer stopped working after few burns,support has been good so far, they promissed to exchange the defective drive.
Navigation on the desktop is slow,might be caused by the shared video memory, I had the same issue in an older Pavillion.