Customer Reviews
Great PC 
2008-02-12
The HP Pavilion A622ON Desktop is a great machine for the price. Setup went without a hitch and the software provided walks you through every step. My high speed internet connection was detected automatically and I was on-line within 10 minutes of hooking everything up. New software installed to work with Vista also went smooth and with no problems.
computer is ok, but HP help is useless 
2008-02-10
i connected the desktop to my 47" LCD and got a message that the video signal was not supported so i called HP help. they told me the video card would not support this size TV and i would have to order another for $100. they also said the card would only support TV's up to 27" (or something like that). i considered returning the computer, but after another attempt it worked fine (i didn't do anything to get it to work, it just worked). the reason i gave it 4 stars is because of the HP service and i am not thrilled with the XP OS.
No problems yet 2008-02-10
We have only had this PC hooked up for a few weeks but so far we have experienced no problems. I had heard many negative things about Windows Vista and problems with incompatability with software. Surprisingly, I was able to load most of our software, some of which is six or seven years old. The only issue I had in connecting our printer was that I had to go to the HP website to find an alternate printer driver. The website had very clear instructions regarding how to do this and we got it connected first try.
Overall we are very happy with this product. This PC is replacing our previous HP PC, which we were also satified with. Don't let all the negative comments regarding Vista scare you off...it's not nearly as bad as everyone is making it out to be.
HP Pavilion A6200N Desktop - Works with Ubuntu! 2008-02-10
The HP Pavilion A6200N Desktop is a rather stylish-looking (and very quiet) machine that a friend purchased as a replacement for an E-Machines PC that died. After trying Ubuntu (Gutsy) he wanted the same OS installed on this new machine. I'm pleased to say Microsoft Vista is no more - in fact, it never even got to start as I booted straight into an Ubuntu Install CD - and everything worked great out-of-the-box.
I would recommend this machine as an excellent buy for those who need a reasonably priced Linux box, with very good performance for the money.
Things I learned during the Ubuntu installation:
1) Don't accept the default video driver - choose 'GeForce6 series' - your performance will be massively improved,
2) There is no parallel port on this machine - you will need to purchase a parallel port card or a USB-parallel port adapter if you have an old parallel port printer,
3) To get DVD playing to work reliably, you need to install 'non-free' software from Medibuntu (http://www.medibuntu.org/). This is quite painless but unfortunately necessary. I found that without doing this, only one of my DVDs would play (which fooled me for a while, when I discovered others would not),
In short, this machine is a bargain and you can easily trash the bundled Microsoft Vista and put a decent operating system on it instead. For those who take issue with what seems like an inflammatory statement, I would only say that the person for whom I installed Ubuntu was delighted with one thing in particular 'You put a DVD or CD in and it just plays! Fantastic!'. Before, he had to do - to him - an unreasonable amount of Windows navigation to choose a DVD-playing program. Ubuntu delivered exactly what he expected - 'I put the DVD in, I want it to play'.
You can see why I didn't hesitate to wipe Vista from the newly-acquired machine!
seriously good for the money 2008-02-10
For what I paid this thing is fantastic. Not a serious gamer rig but it will run H.264 (QuickTime) with few difficulties. Do get some lag when multitasking but that shouldn't be a surprise. Anyone who says Vista has problems may be right but that is only because they don't know how to use it. Personally, I like this machine.
Build your own computer, don't buy one and get ripped off! 
2008-07-24
I'm going to tell you right now. Most people will buy this computer because they either don't have time to build their own, or simply don't have the time. I will also tell you that it would be a big mistake. I built my own computer for $720 and some change that is much better than this. I'll compare the specs below.
Hard Drive
While this computer has a 360GB hard drive, mine rocks a 640GB hard drive that's backed with a 5-year warranty. Not to shabby, eh? That's almost a 78% bigger hard drive.
DVD/CD Drive
I have a 20x DVD/CD Burner with lightscribe/dual-layer capabilities which is the same as the one that comes with this computer, only faster, as this computer's drive is only 16x.
RAM
Though both my computer and this computer have 2GB's of RAM, there is a difference...the speed. The RAM on this computer runs at 667MHz, while mine runs at 1066MHz. Also, my motherboard has a max amount of 16GBs, while the motherboard that comes with this computer maxes out at 8GBs.
Motherboard
As mentioned above, my motherboard has a higher amount of possible RAM, but that's not all it has going for it. My motherboard has a FSB of 5200MT/s while this motherboard has only 2000MT/s. Quite a difference if you ask me. There are also a few different things you'd see my motherboard has that this one doesn't, though minimal.
Graphics
While this computer comes with nothing but onboard graphics mine looks stunning on my 22" widescreen monitor when it's connected to my 8800GT. I can't even begin to tell you the difference between onboard graphics, and an actual graphics card, let alone the 8800GT. You'll NEVER want to go back to onboard graphics once you've seen what "real" graphics cards can actually do.
Power Supply
This seems to be a big problem among must buyers. With this computer you get a wimpy 250-watt power supply which is good for nothing except what's already on the computer. If you even want to add a few things you'll want to upgrade your power supply first which can cost another $50 (give or take) to what you've already spent. However, my computer has a 700-watt power supply which powers everything in my computer seamlessly, AND leaves room for anything else I might want to add.
CPU
Though the CPU in this computer is nice (AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz), you might find mine to be the real attention grabber, being an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2GHz.
Computer Case
I'm not going to lie, I don't have the greatest looking case, but it gets the job done, and with over 1900+ happy owners (including me) who have had no problems, I'm not going to complain.
Now, to end my review, I'm just going to ask everyone, why? Not really, I'm going to rant on some more, but I think people should really take the time to learn how to build their own computer. It's actually a very easy process, and can save you hundreds of dollars. In my case it didn't save me any money, per se, but I did get a much better computer for the same price. If I had chosen to make the exact computer shown here (on Amazon) I could have easily saved anywhere from $200-$400. Either way, I spent almost exactly the same amount to build a computer that is possibly 10x better. All the products I used are below, and if you have the time, I recommend you look into building your own computer.
PLEASE NOTE---I did not include the price of Vista. You should be able to find Vista for anywhere from $120-$200 depending on which version you want, which will obviously put you up a bit, maybe to $850, but you can easily leave out the 8800GT and use the $150 you would've spent on that on a copy of Vista, or whichever OS you want. Even if you choose not to get the 8800GT you'll still have better on board graphics, and all the other components will still be better as well. Hope that informed people!
-Samsung DVD Burner SH-S203N-------------------$26.99
-Western Digital Caviar 640GB WD6400AAKS--------$89.99
-BIOSTAR TFORCE TA780G M2+ (Motherboard)------$79.99
-COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW (Case)---$49.99
-EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512-P3-N801-AR-----------$149.99
-OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V------$114.99
-G.SKILL RAM (2x 1GB) F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK--------$59.99
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2GHz ADX6400CZBOX----$149.00
Please note, prices vary by store and time of purchase.
Excellent machine 2008-05-06
Purchased this machine in November '07. I was only hooked up to the onboard video long enough to see if the machine would boot up and when it did I immediately added a mid-grade video card and upgraded to a 430 watt ThermalTake power supply. I also added an additional 2GB system memory, even though the standard 2GB would have probably been quite sufficient. I'm not convinced it is absolutely necessary add memory to run Vista, but you can't have too much of the stuff either. Vista Home Premium is what it is...I guess we'll have to get used to it eventually. I don't have any particular problems with Vista, just some things rearranged and not where I got used to them being. The machine has plenty of horsepower to operate the Aero desktop so at least you get that benefit from the Vista OS. The Vista driver for my ancient HP PSC1210 All-In-One supported just the basic print functions (and not very well at that) and HP said they weren't going to release Vista drivers for that printer, so that gave me the excuse to go buy an Epson. The machine has flawlessly run everything I've asked it to run for these 6 months now, so I guess I have enough hours on it to be able to recommend it to anyone thinking about purchasing a new machine.
HP Pavilion A6200N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 5000+, 2 GB RAM, 360 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)
Think Twice Before you buy HP 
2008-04-03
I purchased an HP Pavilion a year ago. It came with a broken 9 in 1 card. In less than a year the hard drive went out. Wanna know if HP service lives up to the ads? I found out...because of the two breakdowns. They fixed both, but when the machine was returned after repair to the hard drive, the front cover was broken. Two tabs that hold it in place had been broken during service. Not a big problem, but the fight I've had with HP since is the real story. They wanted me to ship the pc back again, rather than just ship me a new cover. They assigned a case manager since we didn't want to ship the PC back. He would call us back within 24-48 hours, during a time convenient to us. 1 1/2 weeks later I called back to see why we hadn't been called and was told I had to call the case manager during his working hours which start at 11pm Eastern Daylight time. I can't figure out why they asked us what hours were convenient for us. This issue still isn't resolved. I hope your experience with their award winning service is better because you may well be depending on it.
Excellent Budget Desktop, HIghly Recommended 2008-03-03
None of the problems described by negative reviews on Amazon occurred for me at all. I purchased this PC a month ago. As I am a gamer I will be installing new Power Supply next month, along with new graphics card, but even as-is the system runs World of Warcraft (an older game) at very acceptable frame rates on medium settings. Make sure to disable all of the HP software bundled with this thing in Selective Startup, (its useless).
This machine is a perfectly fine desktop for basic needs, and is a great platform for future upgrades, provided you upgrade PSU, which many other reviewers also mentioned. The lack of a dedicated graphics card is also a pain, but as there is a wealth of expansion slots, including PCI Express 16, it isn't that big of a deal.
All of these Vista nightmares I expected never panned out. Vista just isn't that bad an OS, despite what I feared.
Highly recommended.
Couldn't Be Happier! 2008-02-25
After looking at many brands, I finally decided that the wise decision was to go with the HP. For the money, no other brand could even come close to all of the many pros this machine has to offer. My internet is lighting fast and with the huge amount of space on the hard drive I reinstalled my Kodak Easy Share program. Even with this large program taking up hard drive space, it will take a long time for me to use the rest of it up! I love Windows Vista as well.
I am so happy with this machine and I wish I would have purchased it a long time ago!
