HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC (2.40-GHz Athlon XP 2800+, 512 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

[Archived in Athlon, HP Pavilion Desktops, Hewlett Packard, Hewlett-Packard, Products]

Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard
Price at amazon.com: Used from $500.00

Product Description:

As the midlevel model in HP's wide-ranging a300n series of desktop computers, the HP Pavilion a320n Desktop PC represents a happy medium between upscale performance and affordability. Though it doesn't feature state-of-the-art amenities such as a DVD writer or an Intel Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading processor, it is more than ready to handle most any home, home office, leisure and business application. Driven by a reasonably efficient and cost-effective 2.08 GHz AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU, the Pavilion a320n Desktop is not blessed with top-notch processing speed. It does, however, feature quality components elsewhere that help keep the unit faster and more capable than expected. HP has added 512 MB DDR SDRAM memory, so multitasking is not a problem. It has equipped the system with an nVidia GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64 MB of dedicated video memory to allow you to blaze through all but high-end 3-D games and 3-D graphics packages. And it has included a massive 120 GB hard disk so you'll have plenty of room for programs, games, and a full multimedia library. Other key amenities include a CD-RW drive for playing and burning audio and data discs, a DVD-ROM drive through which you can play DVD movies, and a 7-in-1 digital card reader for accessing memory cards from PDAs, digital cameras, and the like. In its stock configuration, the system does not support DVD writing. HP has clearly built the Pavilion a320n Desktop to meet current and future expansion and connectivity needs. The unit features five high-speed USB 2.0 ports (one of the front) for exchanging information with external devices such as digital cameras and scanners, two FireWire ports (one on the front) for fast interaction with digital camcorders, front-mounted microphone and headphone ports, two available PCI slots, one available AGP slot, and a six-speaker surround sound audio controller. Communication options include a 56K modem for low-speed dial-up surfing and a 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface for high-speed e-communications. An HP multimedia keyboard with hotkeys and a PS/2 mouse with scrolling wheel complete the hardware picture. A monitor and speakers are not enclosed, thus allowing you to select from the wide variety of choices available today.

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Nice computer after? Rating:
I bought this computer Dec.28th 2003. It has a lot of great features and is fast.
My problems came when my monitor wouldn`t always come up the first try. I then called tech support twice and tried a few things with no help. I then purchased a nice graphics card which solved my problem reminding me that on board graphics aren`t always good.
I removed all the buy this and that stuff and then I have a very nice computer.
I also forgot to mention that Best Buy`s low price guarentee is a lie. I found the computer 100.00 cheaper at circuit city and they would only refund 50.00 even after they verified it.

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Comment: If it doesn't work, take it back DAY 1 Rating:
I bought the a320n on the last day of the year for my business. Good thing I had a weeks worth of vacation and some slack time because this lemon became my new hobby! I got it all booted up and yes, uninstalled all of the HP "let's sell you something" software. I then tried to install my new HP printer (4110). CRASH, CRASH, CRASH. After 14 hours on customer support (OK, I'm tenacious) to Nova Scotia and India, I received 8 different reasons this might be happening. The last one was what made me bring it back and swear off HP products. Customer support told me that I had getten a virus from my Internet use. Ya know those viruses are REALLY tricky when you can get them without ever being able to connect to the net. I can laugh now but beware. I am writing from my new emachine. Easy set up, so far so good and with luck, I'll never get to know tech support.
One thing I can't get back is the tax break for '03.

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Comment: So far, so good Rating:
I bought this PC as a replacement for a Compaq Pressario that burned out after a year.
It had the features I wanted for a sane amount of money,
namely CD/RW and DVD player. Also a hard drive big enough
for a small radio station worth of music files (My own,
thank you music industry lawyers!)
I can't see an appreciable difference in performance from
my old pentium 4.
It's quiet, generally smooth, runs my CD software and some
good sized games without difficulty.
All the drawbacks relate to Windows XP. It took a weekend to
locate and properly install drivers for printer and other
common items, and the machine was loaded with ads and spy-ware.
(I believe Microsoft's term for this is "clients".)
Once I got rid of all the Microsoft garbage, "free" (as in enter your credit card number just for fun) offers and put some
brakes on it's internet access (I swear, XP is worse than
having a teenager) everything seems to work well.
The memory card slots, front end audio jacks and 5 USB ports are a nice touch. It also comes with a real instruction manual
with step by step illustrated directions for upgrading the system.
I'd recommend it for the money- it was much cheaper than my Compaq- but I'm curious to see how it holds up.
My only other gripe is a lack of back-up software. It comes
pre-loaded on the hard drive (and can be copied and removed,
but only once). This strikes me as not terribly smart if
you can't get the PC booted right out of the box.

Posted at November 11, 2003 06:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)