Excellent speedy system, but case has some issues.
Written: Oct 22 '07
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Quality of Tech Support:
Pros: Great VALUE for extras/OS/processor included. Works great right out of the box. Fast!
Cons: Unfriendly case for upgrading. No CDs or upgrade specs included. 1 free PCI slot.
The Bottom Line: If I could go back, I would still buy this exact PC again. It was the best value of everything I analyzed, despite any upgrade problems I had.
l8rgator's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion A6200N (GN556AA#ABA) PC D...
I got this machine from BestBuy a few days ago because my small business PC had a meltdown.
The PC was very very easy to set up to a usable state right out of the box. I was sure I'd have to install XP right away because I heard bad things about Vista. But all my major gadgets and programs (even the ones specifically NOT supported) seem to be working for the most part, so that was a bonus. My personal wireless network card has a minor security glitch, and my camera connection doesn't have a driver. But Vista found and installed everything else on it's own in seconds - and I was on the internet and my wireless network in minutes.
With the in-home coverage policy, I felt I was spending too much at first. But I'm very happily surprised and pleased I chose this machine. It is a great value, with lots of space for memory upgrades in the future. I haven't used the light scribe disk to label any disks, or the proprietary HP media drive (I don't foresee using this since it's probably pricey to get a drive for it), or the fire wire slots, but I like that it has those features.
The power supply was a 250W supply (with a much lower max power). It actually did run all the extra things (hard drive, maxed out all the USB ports, extra fan, etc) I put in there with NO problems, surprisingly.
Now for the issues I've faced:
I don't think they expect you to do many upgrades on this machine.
Replacing the power supply was very easy. And pulling out the spare hard drive holder to install more drives was a piece of cake also. But after that I just had problems. There are only 2 PCI slots, and one comes filled (I think with the modem or network card I yanked right away).
Getting the metal piece off the back of the 2nd slot was extremely difficult. And after it was off I promptly sliced my finger open grabbing to hold another part of the system still. Also, some of the strange flexible metal parts you have to work around bend permanently and get in the way.
Having a book about the case, expanding/upgrading, or the motherboard would have been nice to have. But I didn't find much of anything in any of paperwork included at all.
Getting the metal off the front of the Expandable Media drive was even more difficult. It's an expandable drive slot with a nice door - why wouldn't it be punched out before shipping? Despite being very careful, I managed to mangle the spring on the door and pop it off (the door is not removable I guess) so now the door does not remain closed. Of course when I finished, my extra unnecessary drives (floppy, CD burner, and a DVD burner) would not fit anyways (2 were millimeters too big, and there were no screw holes to affix a floppy drive or really any other drive) - doh!!!.
My system did NOT come with ANY disks because it is pre-installed. This was a problem when I needed the disk to fix some things (I was trying to set up a backup program - and vista does messed up things with the drive letters when you set up a clone - so I needed a boot disk). And there is just something special about having a nice holographic Windows disk of some sort stored safely in your cabinet!
My final complaint is the location of the on button. It is on the top. I've accidentally turned my PC on while looking into and holding onto the case 3 times this week. And my cats have hit the button walking on it once. But if you have been known to accidentally knee your box on and off in the past - this design might be for you!
Overall, now that I'm done upgrading (and maybe once I get Best Buy out here to replace the spring on the door), I love this PC.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 574 Operating System: Windows Processor: AMD K-2 Processor speed: Don''t Know RAM: More than 256 Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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