HP (Hewlett-Packard) Pavilion Media Center A1540n Desktop

nice power desktop

Strengths: 2gb ddr2 memory, x2 4200+ dual core cpu, windows vista capable. media card reader, usb and firewire on the front panel

Weaknesses: a little bit noisy and too many preinstalled junk software

Summary: Have had this machine for about two months, and so far liked it a lot. Everything has worked perfect. I like multi-tasking and this machine makes it so much more smooth than my previous pentium D pc. 2gb memory definitely makes a difference when I play games and do some computation. The only complain is that I had to uninstall a lot of junk software when I started it up the first time, which took me quite a while.

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Great Value! Nice Features.

Strengths: Good speed, excellent memory capacity, big hard drive

Weaknesses: Not the fasted memory out there. Not much included software. Included keyboard and mouse are cheap.

Summary: I've had this machine for about 3 months. It's performing very well. It boots fast and all the components work well with the exception of a little bit of trouble I've had with the speaker ports. When a headphone is plugged in on the front panel, the rear speaker jack doesn't work after headphone is removed. I haven't called HP about this yet. I have worked around it by plugging the speakers in the front jack.

I think this machine is an excellent value. I paid about $600 from J&R Music.

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Amazing computer, enough power and capacity

Strengths: Fast and efficient AMD processor, plain of space on HDD

Weaknesses: None found until now.

Summary: I bought this desktop at Circuit City, and I have tested it in the last days and I am totally satisfied with its performance.

I think AMD processors are better than Intel ones processing Windows. This HP unit uses only 350 MB after loading the O.S. (I have an Intel-based HP laptop, Centrino Duo, that uses over 450 MB just loading Windows XP), and I have never used its 2 GB RAM.

I installed a Hauppauge 950 USB HDTV tuner, and it has performed ok watching and recording HD movies (even with Media Center), reading my e-mails with Outlook 2007 and writing a document with MS Word, and with 10 Internet Explorer windows opened simultaneously.

I loaded a lot of pictures, music files, and some movies, and I still have lots of space on its 250 GB HDD. I started to record High Definition movies using the Media Center, and I don't think that I will need an additional hard disk, as I can record these videos using its DVD-RW drive.

I have not completely tested its sound card, as I have just used stereo active speakers. Its configuration application looks impressive. I will upgrade my sound devices with an active 5.1 speaker system, so I can exploit all its sound potential.

I bought an HP 20.1" w2007 LCD monitor, and its video performance has been also impressive (so the monitor).

I think this machine, or its most recent equivalent ones, is ideal for entertainment and multimedia use.

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