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11-30-07
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: The Media center is a great value, mine has litescribe and that is difficult to use though. The remote control is also a value because it does so much for you and you dont need your keyboard.
Weaknesses:With vista there are still issues that aggravate me. Probably cause I am still pretty new to computing. It just seems that I am always downloading something for speed, and performance. And if your not careful enough vista is easily corrupted. Dont really know why. It just is .
Overall Evaluation: I like it and I know it is much better than Dell and Gateway combined. Look out though Sony Viao seems to put hp to shame, I just cant afford it you know
11-04-07
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Price: Several stores (Fry's, Office Depot, etc.) Ran the system for $749 with a $50 rebate. For 700 bucks this system is hard to beat, I know, I looked for a long time. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 Dual Core is second only to the 6400 and the benchmarks are very good. 3gb of 800mhz memory is rare at this price. The Haupauge TV card works flawlessly, it even has a remote. The 500gb HD and Lightscribe DVD-RW leave litte to have to add.
Weaknesses:Obviously integrated graphics suck but hey, good 128mb+ PCI-e graphics cards are cheap now. I'm not really down with the whole HP Personal Media thing. I have to spend about 20% more to get a HP PM drive to put in the bay designed for it. I suppose if you travel and need to take all your stuff with you on a 3.5" drive it's cool, but I don't, so I am left with a bay that I am going to have to modify to use for anything else. Either that or break down and buy the HP drive.
Overall Evaluation: All and all, I would give this thing a 9 out of 10. You can't beat it with a stick.
10-21-07
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: specs on paper
Weaknesses:lots of torouble with graphics quality to drive above 17" screen....lot's of trouble finding any wireless networking PCI card to work with this box...individual specs seemed great, overall not happy if you want to do more than email.
Overall Evaluation: go with a slightly older model that has longer user experience and support fixes
05-29-08
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: This computer comes with 3G of RAM, expandable to 8. It also comes with a port for a pocket drive, which is a great option for backup and extra storage.
Weaknesses:Hard drive is very noisy. No DVI output.
Overall Evaluation: This is great starter computer. Its fast, has a dual processor, 500GB of memory, and Vista works well after you install all the updates. First time I turned it on it kept freezing on me and acting weird. Install Microsoft website and installed all of the available Vista updates. After that the performance improved. Could use a better video card for a better monitor.
02-29-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Very fast. No lag with multiple applications running at the same time. Very decent price.
Weaknesses:Hard Drive/Processor very noisy, distracting.
Overall Evaluation: I am a Graphic/Web designer and was looking to upgrade my computer. I chose the Media Center because of the many media input/output options, with top of the line specs, for a very decent price. On the first run out of the box the first thing you notice is the hard drive/processor (not sure which one) is very loud. It is very distracting and annoying at first. However, the more you use the computer the less noticeable. Also, I'm not crazy about Windows Vista. I had less problems with XP, but hopefully with future Windows updates, and getting used to the operating system, it will get better. The TV tuner is cool but unless you have cable the reception will not be all that great. Overall I am very happy with this computer because of the many media options, good performance, and very good price.
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