Hp Pavilion a1230n Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer 16x DVD+/-R/RW Drive)

Average customer rating: 3.0

Cheap components
I give the HP a1230n one-half notch above mediocre...
It's OK for the money
Good overall, but at this price expected more
The best bang for the buck

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Hp Pavilion a1230n Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer 16x DVD+/-R/RW Drive)

Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard Office
Product Group: Personal Computer
Binding: Personal Computers
ASIN: B000BC8VV2

Related Categories:

Desktops

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HP Pavilion Desktops

Amazon.com Product Description

The HP Pavilion a1230n comes loaded with the all tools you need to easily create, manage, share, and enjoy your digital photos, home videos, movies, and music. It features a wide range of connectivity options for all your peripherals and preloaded HP Image Zone Plus photo editing and management software. It comes loaded with 1 GB of RAM, which can be bumped up to 4 GB, as well as a roomy 200 GB hard drive. It also features an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2 GHz processor, LightScribe multi-format DVD/CD burner, additional DVD-ROM drive, a 9-in-1 memory card reader that's compatible with today's most popular digital camera formats, and a wide assortment of pre-loaded software.

The Basics
<ul>

Hard Drive: The large 200 GB Ultra DMA hard drive (7200 RPM) offers a wealth of storage space, perfect for storing a vast multimedia collection or for editing digital video.

Processor: AMD's Athlon 64 3700+ processor is built for tomorrow's 64-bit applications, which will require a processor with significant power. This 2.2 GHz processor offers a system bus with speeds up to a blazing 2200 MHz and 512 KB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance.) It includes such AMD features as HyperTransport Technology (which increases the communication between integrated circuits) and Cool'n'Quiet Technology that conserves power while also keeping the PC nicely quiet.

Memory: The 1 GB of installed RAM (PC-3200, 2 x 512 MB) is a good start for this multimedia-centric desktop PC, so you'll want to take advantage of the ultra-roomy 4 GB of total RAM capacity (4 x 1 GB) for such multimedia needs as video editing and immersive 3D gaming.

CD/DVD Drive: Offering the latest in DVD writing technology, this multiformat DVD/CD drive is compatible with both DVD+ and DVD- disc formats as well as dual-layer (DL) DVD+R discs, which can store up to 8.5 GB of data. It features 4x DVD-R DL Write Once, 2.4x DVD+R DL Write Once, 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD+RW, 4x DVD-RW, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, and 40x CD-ROM speeds. This desktop also comes with an additional 48x CD-ROM drive.

Keyboard & Mouse: This desktop comes with an HP Internet keyboard and scroller mouse (both with PS/2 connections). </ul> Screen, Graphics and Sound
Video is powered by the ATI Radeon XPress 200M IGP video/graphics card, which delivers good, though not high-end, 3D graphics and is designed to integrate with AMD's Athlon 64 processors. It delivers up to 256 MB of video RAM shared with the system RAM. ATI's HyperMemory technology allows the chipset to run in either Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) mode or with dedicated frame buffer memory to enhance graphics performance. It's the first chipset with a graphics processor that let you play the latest game titles on DirectX 9 and OpenGL technology. It also features an integrated audio card and headphone, microphone, and line-in jacks.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
For expansion, the a1230n has two 5.25-inch external bays (one available), two external 3.5-inch bays (one available), one internal 3.5-inch bay (occupied), three PCI slots (two available), and one PCI Express slot (available). It comes with the following external connectors: <ul>

7 USB 2.0 ports (3 in front, 4 in rear) for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players

2 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals (1 front, 1 back)

1 parallel port for connecting older printers and scanners

2 PS/2 ports for connecting keyboards and mice

1 VGA monitor port

1 microphone, 1 headphone

1 line-out, and 1 line-in jack

9-in-1 media card reader on the front, compatible with CompactFlash (Type I and II), MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital, and XD Picture Card </ul> It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).

Preloaded System and Software
The pre-installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (with Service Pack 2) is essentially Windows XP Professional Edition with a variety of tools to help you to create, organize, and enjoy digital media ranging from music to home movies to photo slide shows. Additionally, it enables you to control your television with the included remote and record and pause programs (much like a DVR--or digital video recorder--such as Tivo or ReplayTV). It's compatible with cable, digital cable, satellite TV and antenna inputs, and it includes an FM tuner.

It also comes preloaded with Microsoft Works (for working with word processing and spreadsheet documents), Symantec Norton Internet Security 2005 (with 60 days of LiveUpdate), Encarta Encyclopedia 2005, Quicken New User Edition 2005, Microsoft Money 2005, RecordNow, WinDVD Player, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus, muvee AutoProducer, iTunes, and PC Doctor.

The included HP Image Zone Plus photo and imaging software makes it easy to organize, edit, share, print, protect, and store your photos and video clips. Organize and find your photos easily by timeline, keywords, and/or location using the unique photo-globe mapping tool. Remove red eye and fix other common problems. Share your photos quickly via e-mails that include thumbnails with links to the full-sized images--without downloading time-consuming attachments.

Dimensions and Weight
This desktop PC measures 15.2 x 7.2 x 17 inches (HxWxD) and weighs approximately 24 pounds.

What's in the Box
This package contains the HP Pavilion a1230n desktop PC, power cable, keyboard, and mouse. It is backed by a limited warranty for parts and labor for one year from date of purchase as well as technical telephone assistance for one year. Software is also covered for 90 days from date of purchase.

Product Description

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor / Lightscribe DL DVD and CD Drive / Radeon XPRESS Graphics Card / 9-In-1 Card Reader Download all your favorite songs and organize your personal music collection with the Apple iTunes software Create a killer music collection, copy data CDs, and back up files with the CD writer drive Make home videos with the included muvee autoProducer photo and video software Connect accessories like joysticks, driving wheels, and MP3 players with the top- and back-access USB 2.0 ports (three in front, four in back) and FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports, one in front, one in back Conveniently use the 9-in-1 digital media card reader and audio ports via front access Protect your PC against viruses, hackers, and worms with the Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 Guard against viruses, spam, and spyware with the preinstalled Norton Internet Security 2005 and InterMute SpySubtract Pro (60 days of protection, after which you must update the subscription) Get peace of mind with the one-year limited hardware warranty (90 Day software support) Dimensions(WxDxH) - 7.17 x 17.0 x 15.0 unpackaged, without monitor(sold separately) Monitor is not included

Customer Reviews:

Cheap components.......2007-02-11

This will be brief, as I'd like to limit the amount of time I've wasted as a result of buying this dog. I've had quite a few problems with mine, the latest of which is a DVD drive which falls out of DMA mode and thus can't playback DVDs properly. This is a cheap, consumerish machine, not something you should trust your media and data to. The included graphics processor is too weak to even handle high definition video playback.

I give the HP a1230n one-half notch above mediocre..........2006-06-27

I bought the a1230n for about 875.00 (not incl. monitor) in Sept '05. I give it a hlaf notch above mediocre. Solid cabinet, separare DVD/CD drive bays, handy audio jacks in the front, 4 USB jacks. MD processor is suppose to be better for multi-media.. hmmm. Replaced the chinsey keyboard/mouse included in the package. I grew up in HP territory, the once thriving giant HP comlex is now a ghost town. Almost all design/assebly is outsourced now, this unit assembled in China. Whould I buy it again knowing what I know now ... naah.

It's OK for the money.......2006-02-25

My friend bought this computer from BestBuy, a big electronics retailer. It had a good price for what it had and it came with a free monitor.

The hard drive is 200 GB, this is a lot of power. Of course every manufacture rounds it, it probably has 190 GB. Still, this is not a small hard drive. You can store a lot of stuff on this thing, music, movies, games, documents, or anything with ease.

The processor is an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ processor. Overall, AMD processors are a problem with Windows computers, I'm not sure why this is true, but it is so. I've had a few lock-ups, mainly on Windows Media Player 10, even though it's a memory stealing program, 1 GB and a 3700+ processor, I expected more. I think an Intel Inside Pentium 4 D would've worked fine.

The CD drive with this thing is packed with features. You can pretty much do anything with CDs. It can write any CDs you can want. It also has a DVD/DVD-RW, which will play and burn DVDs. It also has HP's lightscribe, which is a pretty neat feature that will write on the top of your CDs.

The keyboard is a basic one with internet features. It is not wireless but what CAN you expect. The mouse is a basic wired scroll mouse.

The graphics are powered by the ATI Radeon XPress 200M IGP, a pretty average graphics set, usually Nvidia's are sharper. It should work for most movies and video games but if your looking for the best graphics chip around look elsewhere.

It also has a memory card reader which will read any kind of memory card avaliable today.

If your buying this for the Media Center, I'd pass. It's honestly not anything big and you can do most of it on Windows Media Player 10.

One thing that sucks about it is that it freezes a LOT, especially on Windows Media Player 10. I've got a lot of errors and waiting while using it.

Overall, it's OK for the money.

Good overall, but at this price expected more.......2006-02-23

HP has good reliable pcs which is saying a lot considering the amount of junk out there. Still with basic cpus selling under $400 I expect a lot more for the extra dough. The dvd drive can be testy, meaning it may or not work. I've had trouble w/ other drives and disk burning hardware is not as reliable as the old floppy drives. The speed seems fine and I didn't experience slow down on word processing. I like to edit video so the memory and processing have proved to be sufficient. It isn't a super computer but it does the job.

The best bang for the buck.......2006-02-10

[...]It came with a 17" flat panel monitor, printer, and everything else that normally comes in a bundle. I've had some issues with performance while running multiple programs, but after I installed a 256mb graphics card it freed up alot of main memory and took alot of stress off of the cpu. It eliminated almost all of the issues i've had with it and it runs all of the newest games with ease now. I recommend this computer to anyone looking for good performance at a low price.

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