I bought my new HP a couple of weeks ago after saving up for awhile. I knew I wanted to get an HP Brand computer but didn't know what one I wanted for sure.

I started out thinking I was going to buy one of the Wal-Mart specials. They had one for $798 and one for $998. Well after taking I good look at those two, I had to ask myself this. "I'm I going to be happy with this computer for the next 3 or 4 years"? Well The answer was NO. I decided that I still wanted to go with the HP brand but something with a little more kick to it.

I found the HP Model 8766C at are local computer store and it was love at first sight. The speed, the size of the hard drive, The DVD, CD-RW the amount of Memory was just what I wanted.
Granted I did spend a bunch more than I would have at Wal-Mart, but I figured that what I would have been spending in the next year or two to upgrade the Wal-Mart HP I was going to be money ahead anyway.

My 5 1/2 year old son took to it big time. The deal was he gets the old computer and his Mother and I get the new one. So you can see how wears the pants in this house right?

After I had it up and running for a couple of days I was having trouble with it shutting down. I called HP Tech support twice and both times they were no help. I have been messing with computers for over the last 15 years, I am not an expert, but I do know my way around a computer fairly well. The problem with calling HP Tech support on the phone was I could not understand the tech's to well. I am not trying to be mean or anything it is just a pain when I can't understand the person on the other end when it is my dime for the call.

Since I didn't have any luck with calling Tech support I tried the e-mail route. That seemed to work a little better it took 2 times for them to figure out the right model number, but after that they were very helpful on fixing the problem.

I bought a Phillips 107S monitor for it and I really liked how the monitor worked but my wife really wanted to be able to hookup the speakers that come with the computer to the monitor so I went and got a HP M70 monitor. Well the HP M70 monitor didn't last more than 24 hours at my home. The picture was not even close to being as clear as it was with the Phillips 107S monitor. So I packed it backup and went back and got the Phillips Monitor. To make the wife happy I bought some LabTec $49 speakers with a woofer and with the DVD and games it sounds awesome. the Labtec speakers that sit on the desk are small and they will not tip over as easy as the speakers that came with the computer.

One thing that really bugs me about getting a new computer and I am sure it isn't just HP, it is getting what I call ride along software. It is software that is on the computer but you have to buy it or register it for a price to get the full use of the program.


So when you go out to buy the computer of your dreams, before you do think about what it will cost you if you don't just get what you want now and have to spend $$$ down the road.







Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1298
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40