HP Vectra VL400 P4379T
Written: Aug 21 '01
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Pros: Wonderful case design, no tools required.
Cons: Comes installed with Windows 98.
The Bottom Line: Fast, easy-to-use PC at an affordable price. The tool-free case is a real time-saver. I highly recommend the VL400 P4379.
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| hephe's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Vectra VL400 (P4150T#101) PC Deskt... |
This review is for the HP Vectra VL400 P4379T.
The VL400 P4379T is a well designed, easy to use computer. It features a Pentium III 933Mhz processor, 128MB SDRAM memory, a 20GB ATA66 drive, 48X CD-ROM, as well as onboard Ethernet, sound and video.
It comes in a desktop configuration with 3 open PCI slots and 1 AGP slot. An optional two-ISA slot board can be added to support legacy devices.
The onboard graphics are fine for business use. It uses an Intel 815 integrated graphics chipset with 4MB of memory. An optional add-in memory module can be inserted in the AGP slot to add an additional 4MB of video memory. If you add a seperate AGP video card, the onboard video will automatically disable itself, so you don't have to go searching through the BIOS to find the setting to turn it off.
Other onboard features include a 3COM fast Etherlink XL 10/100 network port, AC '97 audio chipset, PS/2 mouse and keyboard, parallel port, two serial ports and two USB ports.
By far the best feature of the PC is the design of the case. It requires no tools for basic upgrade or repair tasks. The top releases from the case by pulling up on a lever, and you can install or remove expansion cards quickly without a screwdriver. A metal bracket that fits over the top of all the I/O cards can quickly be removed by hand, a card dropped in, and the bracket snapped back into place. I was able to add a wireless network card into this computer in less than a minute using no tools. This is a wonderful feature when you have a large number of these machines to roll out at once.
My only complaint about the system was that it came preinstalled with Windows 98 Second Edition. The Vectra is HP's line of business-class PC's, and they should have installed a business-class operating system.
They do offer what is esstentially this same PC (the P4378T) preinstalled with Windows 2000. However, the P4378T comes with the Matrox G450 dual-head video card, which has caused problems for me in the past.
I cannot speak much about the rest of the default software configuration because I installed all of my P4379T's with my own before deploying them.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 899.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
hephe
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Location: Milwaukee, WI
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 0 members
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