Excellent computer for general home or school use.
Written: Nov 15 '04
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Pros: Perfect as a general purpose home computer/"e-mail machine".
Cons: Celeron processor and so-so integrated graphics aren't so hot for intense 3D gaming.
The Bottom Line: If you're in the market for a good used PC, and you can find a good deal on a used 513n, pick it up!
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| mikegatti's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion 513n (P9850A#ABA) PC Desk... |
I picked up my 513n in May 2003 at a Future Shop store in Montreal, Canada. It was the last one there, a demo model, so just to be on the safe side I bought their extended warranty, covering it until May 2007.
In the year and a half I've had it I have to say that I definitely got my money's worth. First, performance-wise it runs fairly smoothly for e-mail, Internet surfing, CD burning, file-sharing, and playing any PC game out on the market before 2003. The system tends to lag if more than 3 applications are open, but this is par for the course and could be fixed by adding a bit more RAM (512MB total would be the sweet spot). DVD and .avi & .mpeg Movies play flawlessly on it, thanks to a whopping 64MB of onboard graphics memory ("whopping" for a budget system). And it's VERY stable; in the year and a half I've had it, the system rarely froze up. I only had to hit the manual reset button on 3 or 4 occasions during that whole time.
Hardware-wise this computer is a monster. I've left it running pretty much 24/7 since the day I bought it, and the fan and hard drive still run relatively quietly. The only real hardware problem I've had is the DVD/CD-RW drive dying on me after about a year, but this is because I always pushed this 8x max drive to burn CDs at 24x or 32x using Nero Burning ROM. Poor thing couldn't take that kinda punishment forever.
Now no computer is perfect, so here's the downsides: One little nuisance is that the onboard sound has some interference from the processor; if you turn the volume WAYYY up you'll hear a crackling sound, which gets worse when the CPU is very involved in a task. This is only an issue when the volume is up high, so it won't be noticeable unless you've got the sound turned up to hear a low-quality audio or video file. My second (minor) beef is with the processor, the Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz. This is Intel's budget CPU, and including this kept the unit's price down. While the Celeron is perfectly adequate for general computer tasks like e-mail, surfing, low-end gaming, etc, it doesn't handle high-end 3D gaming or video editing very well (a Pentium IV or something from AMD's Athlon line would be a better choice for these). But all told the Celeron met my needs; Command and Conquer Generals ran pretty smoothly at medium resolution, and Roxio Easy DVD Creator never had any trouble with VCD creation.
I just bought a Pavilion a530n, so it's time for the 513n to go. After cleaning it up and adding a 48x CD-ROM and a DVD+RW, it's going to make a nice Christmas present for my parents. Hopefully it'll be as kind to them as it was to me, up to and beyond May 2007.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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mikegatti
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Reviews written: 3
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