HP Pavilion M8330F Desktop PC AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core Processor, 3 GB RAM, 640 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium

Editorial Review
The HP Pavilion Media Center TV desktop PC is designed and built for your digital life. Take control of your digital entertainment with a PC that helps you consolidate, organize and play your favorite TV shows, movies, music, photos and videos. AMD Phenom processors enable true multi-core solutions for a new dimension in performance that deliver an exquisitely powerful, intensely visual and strikingly efficient computing experience. The built-in ATSC TV tuner and personal video recorder let you watch, pause, rewind and record live television - with no monthly fee. The free online Electronic Program Guide lets you review the TV schedule and choose a single episode or an entire series, so you can watch your favorite shows on your own time, at your own convenience. NVIDIA Geforce 8500GT 256MB dedicated Graphics Memory for improved video performance TV tuner card, over-the-air ATSC high-definition television HDTV tuner and FM tuner (antenna included) LightScribe SuperMulti DVD+-R/RW with Double Layer High Definition Audio, 8 speaker configurable 10/100 Ethernet 15-in-1 card reader Front ports - 1 IEEE 1394, 2 USB, Composite Video, built-in TV remote receiver Back ports - 1 IEEE 1394, 4 USB, Headphone, Microphone, Audio In/Out, S-video out, Digital Audio Out, Microphone/Line-in/Line-out, Rear speaker-out, Side speaker out, Center (subwoofer), 2 PS2 ports (keyboard, mouse), 1 RJ-11, 1 RJ-45, VGA, HDMI, DVI, TV-out Expansion slots - 1 PCI (occupied), 1 PCI Express x 16 (occupied), 2 PCI Express x 1 (1 available) Drive bays - 2 external 5.25 (1 available), 2 internal 3.5 (occupied) Monitor is not included
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Customer Reviews

Great Desktop Machine

2008-05-09
Bought this HP Pavilion M8330F Apr08 on Amazon.com.
Pros:
- Fast machine and QUEIT(fan is quiet)
- Lots of RAM (3G)
- Lots of HD space(640G)
- Media center capabilities + PVR, HDMI output
- Front cover/hidden USB/FW input and various port.

Cons:
- The DVD/CD writer come with the machine is noisy when using. Replaced it with my old Pioneer dvd writer solved the problem though.

- Keyboard and Mouse comes with the machine is way below my expectation.

- The extend hard disk bay is HP proprietary if you want to extend the storage using the HD bay reserved space.

- Just being greedy with $200 extra should include a 22" LCD monitor - saw this deal on other website.

Overall very good desktop machine for me. Ran video input capturing real time while using the computer to browser internet without interfering which is pretty amazing.

HP M8300 Desktop PC

2008-05-08
Very nice desktop PC. Can handle all processing jobs easily and quickly. Nice compared to other models.

I agree - DON'T buy

2008-05-07
Less then 3 Months old and HP Repair has now had it twice for a period of nearly 4 weeks. Like others, i've spent hours on the phone with too many calls to count. The PC locks up without reason. HP keeps insisting they can fix the problem. Second time, I even them screen captures, video and pics back with my PC, yet you get every excuse in the book why they won't replace it. "we will fix it". Unless you enjoy talking hours on the phone with folks that have NO clue what they are doing, I'd suggest not buying this PC. To those that have already bought it, good luck. I'm DONE with HP.

Great PC

2008-04-21
This unit is fast and reliable. It never froze on me (yet!) and I normally run multiple demanding applications at the same time. Buy it with confidence: buy HP a million times over Dell.

DO NOT PURCHASE!!!!!

2008-04-14
Do not even consider this product! My computer is less than 2 months old, and I have had nothing but problems with no help from HP. (Let's just say 3 calls to the company and about 5 hours - still problem not fixed.) Not counting all the hours researching the problem myself. The problems are associated with the DVD drive. You're supposed to make system recovery discs after purchase, but how do you do that when the DVD drive is faulty. I am now going to have to pack up my computer and send it back to the company. This product is nothing but a headache. DO NOT PURCHASE!!!

Rough Start But Up And Running Now

2008-07-04
HP Pavilion M8330F Desktop PC (AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core Processor, 3 GB RAM, 640 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

Got the computer quick tried to fire it up but system could not find boot disk and wanted me to install it. After looking at the computers initial settings noticed only one 320gig hard drive was recognized opened case and noticed the serial cable was not connected to the second hard drive (the one with vista installed on it). Plugged it in and started right up;however, Vista would not display on my TV (32in pc ready HDTV). Hooked it up to old monitor and it worked eventually played with the graphics card settings and got everything straight. Using a HDMI cable was able to connect PC to HDTV. IF USING A TV FOR MONITOR RECOMMEND USING AN HDMI CABLE TO CONNECT WITH PC. There are options you can play with to get the desktop to fit the screen. Now the computer works awesome, no other problems with tuner card, video card, hard disks or processors. Although Intel chips are better this machine still smokes anything I have ever owned. Definitely something I would recommend even with the hassle.

Good for the money

2008-06-19
HP's AMD Athlon dual-core 6000 plus w/3 gigs of RAM is the minimum here, as a power-hungry Vista OS sucks any extra speed out of this system. TV tuner card blows, so don't buy this setup for that (which I did). Graphics card is faster than average, but not top-notch. I still can't figure out how to run analog signals from my camcorder and have them play on the monitor, even though it has composite video IN through AV cables, and an (overrated) "media center" configuration (makes 10 dollar sounds but delivers 5 dollar performance). Others have written that the drives are noisy, but it's only the the seeking portion of the multi-drive that is loud, plenty quiet for my needs, and money saved is several hundred dollars less than a comparable Dell.

Great computer for the money!

2008-06-17
I'm so glad I paid the extra $130 for the quad core processor! It will extend the life of the computer by a few years and it makes the computer run really fast now! Even Windows Vista can't slow it down! And...despite all the bad stuff I heard about Windows Vista -- I really like it. Everyone complains that Windows Vista is too slow -- but not with this computer! And the TV tuner card is great -- we get 34 channels and we just use an antenna!

Great desktop!

2008-06-13
I purchased this PC from a source other than Amazon, after doing a lot of research on different brands and models. I was a bit skeptical at first because I had never owned a machine with an AMD processor and I had heard so many terrible things about Vista... but after having used it daily for over 3 months now, I haven't had a single problem with it. Unlike some of the people who have reviewed this machine, my dvd/cd drive works great and I love the LightScribe option. Since I have passed the learning curve now, I can honestly say that I like Vista, too!! This is my 4th HP computer and I have never experienced a problem with any of them. Problems with Windows, yes, problems with monitors, yes... but never a problem with the machine itself. I am still running my 6 year old HP Pentium III desktop in another room and have both PCs connected to a multi-function HP printer through a wireless network. Everything works together flawlessly! I purchased a 24" Samsung HD monitor to compliment the capabilities of this PC and together, they smoke!!! The only thing I would wish for is a blu-ray drive to go in it. I hear that HP is releasing an external one soon but I haven't seen anything about it in the past couple of months. I'd rather have one to go in the empty bay on the machine but I'll settle for an external one if that's all that is available. Would I purchase this machine again if I had to buy another computer? Without a doubt! It does everything I need it to do and more.

Great computer for the price.

2008-06-04
I got this on sale for under 600. Amazing deal. I give it five stars at that price. Fast, Vista, lots of HD, lots of RAM.

Complaints... I had to add a PCI-e x16 card as the on-board graphics capabilities are not so good (scored a 3.0 on Vista benchmark). have to be careful on what card you get as there is not much room inside so some larger cards would have issues. Also the power supply is low wattage and most newer video cards will require more. Also should mention that it does not come with any software disc. No Windows Vista disc and no Recovery disc. It has a 10 gig partition labeled as RECOVERY. You can burn the image to three DVDs or keep the partition there for recovery from the boot screen by F11. If you had harddrive failure it would be lost. Be sure to burn the discs just in case. Still a great deal for the price.