HP Pavilion A6030N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 4800 Plus, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

Average customer rating: 4.0

Overall, a nice machine
Worthwhile purchase, lots of neat features

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HP Pavilion A6030N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 4800 Plus, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard Office
Product Group: Personal Computer
Binding: Personal Computers
ASIN: B000O5D472

Related Categories:

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Product Description

The Pavilion a6030n PC is great for anyone looking for a PC to simplify digital photo editing and organizing. With 2.4GHz it's got the power you need plus LightScribe for easy disc labeling and an integrated digital media card reader. SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology Front-access ports - 15-in-1-memory card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 FireWire, Microphone, Headphone & Line-in Surf the Web via DSL or cable using the 10/100Base-T network interface High Definition Audio, 8-speaker configurable Experience genuine Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft's innovative new operating system Dimensions - 16.28 x 6.89 x 15.24 inches Monitor is not included

Amazon.com Product Description

Boasting a sleek and shiny black-and-silver chassis, the HP Pavilion A6030N desktop PC comes loaded with the all tools you need to easily create, manage, share, and enjoy your digital photos, home videos, movies, and music. You can easily burn your home video productions to DVD for friends and family with the dual-layer, multi-format DVD/CD burner, which enables you to store up to 8.5 GB of data on a DL disc and provides a super-fast 16x DVD+R/-R write speed. It also includes LightScribe technology for personalized silkscreen-quality, laser-etched CD/DVD labels created right in the drive.

This desktop is powered by the 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor, which increases the efficiency and speed of the PC while running multiple programs and the latest multi-threaded software. Store more music, videos, and data on the roomy 320 GB Serial ATA hard drive, which offers fast transfer rates. It also comes loaded with 2 GB of RAM (which can be bumped up to a very generous 8 GB), an integrated Nvidia GeForce 6150 video/graphics card with 128 MB of dedicated video RAM, a wide variety of connection ports on both the front and rear of the box, and a 15-in-1 memory card reader that's compatible with today's most popular digital camera formats.

It comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, which includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center. In addition to easily playing your DVD movies and managing your digital audio library, you'll be able to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV). Vista also integrates new search tools throughout the operating system, includes new parental control features, and offers new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures.

The Basics
<ul>

Processor: AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor is built for tomorrow's 64-bit applications, which will require a processor with significant power. It outperforms the highest-performing AMD Athlon 64 4000+ single-core processor on multi-tasking benchmarks by up to 30 percent. Dual-core technology is like having two processors working together, each one taking care of different applications, so power-users actually experience greater performance when multiple applications are running. Digital media enthusiasts will appreciate the enhancements while simultaneously working in high-definition video and photo editing and audio mixing programs. It includes such AMD features as HyperTransport Technology (which increases the communication between integrated circuits) and Enhanced Virus Protection.

This 2.4 GHz processor offers a system bus with speeds up to a blazing 2000 MHz and each core offers a 512 KB L2 cache--for a 1 MB total. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.)

Hard Drive: The huge 320 GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive (7200 RPM) offers a wealth of storage space, perfect for storing a vast multimedia collection or for editing digital video. This SATA hard drive also quickens the pace with a higher speed transfer of data--akin to FireWire and USB 2.0.

Memory: The 2 GB of installed RAM (PC4200, 2 x 1 GB, 533 MHz) is a good start, but you'll want to add more RAM to handle today's demanding multimedia and gaming software. This desktop has a 8 GB maximum RAM capacity (8 x 1 GB), perfect for high-def video and 3-D gaming.

DVD/CD Drive: This multiformat DVD/CD drive is compatible with writing 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, 8x DVD+R DL Write Once, 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM, 40x CD-R, 32x CD-RW write speeds and 40x CD-ROM, and 16x DVD-ROM read speeds.

This LightScribe DVD+/-RW drive lets you laser-etch silkscreen quality text and images on to CDs and DVDs . Your software, PC and discs work together for a no-hassle way to burn just the labels you want. After you burn content, just flip the disc over, reinsert and burn your label--anything from a simple title to a full-disc work of art.

Keyboard & Mouse: It comes with an HP multimedia keyboard and scroller mouse (both with PS/2 connections). </ul> Video & Audio
This desktop features an integrated Nvidia GeForce 6150 SE graphics/video card with 128 MB of dedicated graphics memory. Windows Vista can also allocate up to 319 MB of total graphics memory from the system memory. It features NVidia's PureVideo technology--which provides great picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for video content--and full support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 for stunningly realistic cinematic effects for all DirectX-compatible applications. It also offers an integrated audio card that can produce high definition surround sound configurable to 8 speakers.

Networking, Connectivity & Expansion
For expansion, this desktop has two PCI slots (two available), one PCI Express x1 slot (available), one PCI Express x16 slot (available), two 5.25-inch bays (one available), and three 3.5-inch bays (two available). It comes with a built-in floppy drive and the following external connectors: <ul>

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

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

2 PS/2 ports for connecting keyboards and mice

1 VGA monitor port

2 headphone and 2 microphone (front and rear)

2 line-in (front and rear)

Digital coaxial audio output as well as surround sound speaker outputs (rear/side/center)

15-in-1 multi-format memory card reader, compatible with CompactFlash I/II, IBM Microdrive, Secure Digital (SD), miniSD, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC), MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus), MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, SmartMedia, 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).

Operating System
Windows Vista Home Premium is the operating system for users with advanced computer needs, and it includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center for watching DVD movies and accessing your digital audio library. You can also use Windows Media Center to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV) and to access new kinds of online entertainment content. Computers that include Windows Vista Home Premium and an auxiliary Windows SideShow display will also allow you to access key data even when your computer is off. It is also easier than ever to share files between other PCs in your household and to manage your laptop computer settings to more securely connect via Wi-Fi.

Every edition of Windows Vista provides the essential tools and technologies to help protect you whether you are browsing the Internet, connecting to a wireless network, or just reading e-mail. All editions of Windows Vista include new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures long before you have lost any important personal data. And, all Windows Vista editions include parental control features that allow you to manage and monitor your family's use of games, the Internet, instant messaging, and other activities.

Preloaded Software
Includes Microsoft Works 8, Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 Trial, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2007 (with 60 days of Live Update), Roxio Creator/MyDVD (with LightScribe technology), Muvee autoProducer (for creating professional-looking home videos and burning to DVD), and HP Total Care Advisor.

What's in the Box
This package contains the HP Pavilion A6030N 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.

Customer Reviews:

Overall, a nice machine.......2007-06-10

First of all, just a clarification regarding what I read in the previous review: the machine DOES have USB ports in the front. It has 3 USB ports, one firewire and the 3 standard audio jacks. You just have to open the small panel at the front.
Now to the review:
I'm a Honda Civic owner. That means that with most things I own, I don't look for the fancy-schmancy bling bling neon lights - I basically want them to work as expected and in a reliable fashion. Therefore I wanted to get a PC that has the right specs and will work out of the box. Yes, I guess as a software engineer I'm capable of building my own machine, but I really don't have the energy for looking for all the components and ending up paying more than with a decent pre-built machine.
Therefore, the a6030n is quite a good fit for my needs. It has nice processor-ram-hdd bundle to tackle nowadays tasks and it's relatively (not totally, though) expandable for future enhancements.

Things I like:
1. This machine is blissfully quiet!! I really adore that. I consider myself quite sensitive to these things. Compared to my old tractor (sorry, PC) this is such a great improvement. And it keeps cool too.
2. Size of the box is decent. It's not too small and not too big. You can fit two CD/DVD players (it wasn't such a breeze to install the second one, but oh well), I think about 3 or four hard drives (i.e. add another two to the existing one). Enough PCI slots and memory can be upgraded to 8 GB.
3. I like the 2 GB memory. It's quite fast (well, I guess w/ Vista it's kind of a must).
4. Large (320GB) SATA hard drive works well. Fast and quiet.
5. Digital audio output - nice addition.
6. It's kind of silly, but I'm really fond of the keyboard keys - they're more like a laptop style, you know, you need to press half the depth as with standard keyboard.

Things I don't like:
1. The tons of software HP pre-installed. It's really a pain. Especially the Norton Firewall which doesn't really work in a home networking.
2. Vista is kind of a mixed bag. The GUI is nice improvement to XP, but there are quite a lot of issues. I still haven't resolved some spontaneous crashes. The sleep button didn't really work at first since the network card would wake up doe to router DHCP messages. Had to set some switch in the Power Management of the the NIC.
3. Ball mouse?? Helllllo, it's the 21st century.
4. No IDE on motherboard, except for the one already used for the optical drive. I ended up buying IDE-to-SATA convertor for dimes on eBay for my old HDD.

This review was written about a month after getting the PC.

Worthwhile purchase, lots of neat features.......2007-06-07

I am really enjoying learning the new Vista operating system. I did have a few snags reloading software and hardware, but for the most part, it went verrrrrry smoothly. The one thing that I can't believe this computer doesn't have is any USB ports on the front of the machine! There are 5 or 6 on the back side, but most every computer I see today has at least one or two USB ports on the front for thumb drives or backup drives... I also thought it weird at first that it came with an expansion bay--I wanted something in there! However, the more I think about it, I can surely buy something cheaper--and get exactly what I want--to use as an additional hard drive. The only other strage thing is that it came with an HP Pocket Media Drive Bay. That's something that I doubt the general public is going to have--or gou buy just because they now have the drive available on the computer (I know I'm not). This computer is also small enough to sit on my desk instead of at my feet (which is wonderful).

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