Customer Reviews
Okay purchase once you downgrade to XP. 
2008-03-30
Bought this computer on February 25 using the free shipping (estimated 5-7 days) and it arrived on February 27! Overall, no complaints. But there's a few things you should know. The computer isn't as quiet as the specs claim; the fan emits an audible hum. Still, it's a far cry from the roar of the AMD Duron Athlon I had custom made in 2000 and upgraded from. However, said roar is perfectly duplicated by this system when a DVD is burned or initially read-accessed. At times I can also hear metallic clicks (sounds kinda like when you crinkle foil) indicating that the computer is processing something. While noticeable, they're not loud.
CDs take quite a few seconds to auto read; my old PC detected them almost instantly by comparison. About the hard drive size, I confess that I was ignorant to the fact that video cards and other internal components can consume 35 or more GB of space. This was what the HP rep told me when I called asking the reason that my A6330F was showing 465 GB and not the 500 GB as advertised. I know, I know, it's still a huge hard drive---I'm not complaining. I just like to know upfront exactly what I'm getting and paying for is all.
Unlike what I read in the first review here, the back of my PC did not come with a DVI port, but I figure I can buy a VGA-DVI adapter and a DVI cable to compensate.
Giving Vista the benefit of the doubt, I tried it out for a few minutes and boy was everyone right. You ARE better off downgrading this computer to XP and I was oblivious to how I should go about doing this. When I stupidly installed XP Pro SP2 Lite I was thinking that it would autodetect all components during installation like it did on all of the PCs I ever put it on. It did NOT and I had no internet because the network card wasn't being recognized. I'm going off the topic here I know but I thought it best to share this part of my experience because I wasted quite a few hours before I was able to enjoy this purchase, completely ruining my excitement over finally replacing my 8 year old computer.
Since nothing in the paperwork you get says this, I thought I'd let you know: calling HP and letting them know that you overwrote Vista will completely void your warranty. I found this out in a pretty bad way too. I call them all alarmed that the crucial hardware isn't being recognized and as soon as I told them that I attempted to downgrade from Vista the rep unceremoniously transferred me to technical support and that guy coldly said as though addressing a felon, "There is nothing I can do for you. You have just permanently voided your warranty." I fell silent, shocked and expecting him to elaborate or apologize but he eerily kept quiet. Sorry to digress further but I must add that some people forget that their failure to help their fellow man in sheer loyalty to the multi-billion dollar corporation that likely pays them all of $6-7/ hour isn't gonna get them a raise, bonus or any kind of award. I'm sure HP didn't promote that rep. for being so calloused. Sheesh, would it have killed him to mutter, "You can get the drivers free on the internet at the HP site, don't worry, it's gonna be okay"?
Through forum reading and driver searches made using the HP website (I spent hours pulling up the desktop models that came with XP and noting what drivers HP had for download; I trial-and-error installed some and thank God, even though the model numbers were different it worked as evidenced by the yellow question marks going away in Device Manager), NVIDIA website and freeware programs like Unknown Device Identifier and Everest Ultimate Edition v.4.20.1292 I not only got all of the drivers I needed but also discovered that you need to run XP MCE on this system unless you don't mind seeing "IEEE 1394 Controller" with a yellow question mark next to it in Device Manager. My PC was totally functional, no problems at all running XP Pro with the drivers I'd installed but for some reason, no matter what I did, I couldn't get rid of that one aberration in Device Manager is all. Switching to XP MCE (and installing the drivers I collected---yes you still have to install them) was the only thing that solved this.
In short, downgrading will cause the following items in Device Manager to have a yellow question mark next to it: Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus; Other PCI Bridge Device; SM Bus Controller; Video Controller (VGA compatible); PCI Simple Communications Controller (and said IEEE item if you downgrade to XP Pro instead of MCE). I uploaded the required drivers here (I call it my Vista Downgrade Kit for HP A6330F: hxxp://xxx.megaupload.com/?d=HS7FX0Q3 Mirror: hxxp://momupload.com/files/84176/Vista_Downgrade_Kit_for_HP_A6330F.rar.html Mirror: hxxp://thefilehost.net/download.php?id=5A2955031 hxxp://momupload.com/files/84206/Win_XP_Pro_SP2_Lite.iso.html Mirror: hxxp://xxx.megaupload.com/?d=EYRFWHC4 For MCE try torrents (my upload to filedropper.com is taking longer than a week). If I can save just one person the stress and aggravation I went through, my pains will be worth it.
Fast and easy 
2008-03-24
This is a great desktop for the price. It is fast enough for advanced users and seems super fast for the novice. Can't get much better than this for the money.
great deal! 2008-03-21
very nice pc for the price. very easy setup, no problems. the geforce graphics this comes with are onboard junk, i added much better dedicated video and sound cards and upgraded my power supply all for around $100, and now am very pleased with this machine.
Great PC for the price 2008-03-21
I bought this to replace an old Dell unit that served us well for almost 5 years. The price when I ordered it was under six hundred and purchased with the 19" monitor came to $719.00 out the door. So far we are very pleased with the unit. No problems at all. We did call HP support with a few simple questions we had and were very pleasantly surprised with the 24/7 availability. The agent was polite, patient and very eager to answer any questions we had. All in all, I highly recomment this item to anyone who needs a good, fast everyday desktop for surfing, mail, music, games etc. Shipping was free and fast- thanks, Amazon.
Beyond Expectations 2008-03-18
I am pleased to report that the HP Pavilion computer that I recently purchased exceeds my expectations for performance. After purchase, I compared similar machines at Costco and Sam's and found that Amazon was substantially under their price for comparable equipment. Your on-time delivery and speedy service with the ability to track my purchase is appreciated, also.
Thanks,
Don Howard
Auburn, WA
Tower and keybaord 2008-05-26
This has been great so far. I am not a computer buff, but this has worked well for me so far and have loaded most of my prgrammes in without problem. Price was good and shipping was reasonable.
Smug and Confident 2008-05-24
My son-in-law suggested and even ordered this HP for me. He explained his confidence in Amazon and HP and I bought. I now am TOTALLY happy and confident in choosing Amazon for purchases and HP for their products.
The Best Bang For Your Few Bucks 2008-05-16
I have owned this PC for about a year now and I am very proud with it's performance. It hasn't failed me yet, no crashes, no freezes, nada. After installing an nVIDIA 8600GT Overclocked Edition I can power through Crysis with full medium level graphics with select ones on high (physics was set to Very High). This makes a statement about both the card and the PC. It plays Assassin's Creed, COD4, The Orange Box, Counter Strike: Source, World In Conflict, Company of Heroes and countless other games on the full Audio and Graphical settings with little or no lag. After installing the card I have found that it lines up with many 1 grand medium level gaming rigs at only a cost of around 700 bucks. Vista works like a charm, as I have said there have been no problems with it. I have a Logitech G15 V2, Logitech G9, Ideazon FANG and a Logitech headset wired to the rig and the drivers have installed fine on Vista while the ports from the PC have powered my devices (the headset among all of the others are USB items). The build quality is outstanding and the case is very stylish when matched with black accessories. The HP tech support is beyond helpful, I talked to a tech on the internet about a problem with a Ubisoft (I asked about the game's problem, not the computer) and the tech still helped me find a few sites to check out (kudos Geroge S. although the answer was e-mailed to me through YAHOO! nearly a month later.) The case is just over one foot deep and 1.5 foot high. It's only about 5 inches across. The inside of the case is kind of messy but if you snip of a zip tie the wires easily part for your new installation. The CD tray is not very thick and requires you manually push the tray in to make it withdraw which slightly bothers me. On the case of the thinness of the drive, it should not break off and if it does you should not own a computer. Drives such as that are meant to be opened and then closed. The card readers work very well and quickly and the CD drive spins quickly. The system is setup for surround sound though and getting a simple 2 or 3 piece system to work is difficult. It is best to simply by a stereo headset or a set of surround sound speakers. The computer is not a cheap crappy thing as I expected either for the price and the specs. It's all very new and works with everything (except an old Saitek joystick from somewhere around '97). I highly, highly recommend this product for everyone buying a new computer. It is fast, big (in storage, not size), stylish, functional, practical, and best of all very inexpensive.
Review of new computer 2008-04-05
HP Pavilion A6330F Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core 5600+ Processor, 3 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) This computer is great and works very much to my satisfaction!
Great basic computer 2008-04-04
This computer (and a Toshiba monitor) replaced my Gateway system. So far it does everything I need and it does them well. I was worried about Vista but the 2gb of memeory seems to be handling it. Great DVD setup, and the price is right.
