A Product Review of the HP Pavilion A6230N Desktop PC - A Great Inexpensive Desktop

Just by looking at the price I'd categorize this as an entry level or budget desktop but upon a little harder analysis it just may be a great deal. With the economy slowing I believe we've really begun to see some significant price drops from the major computer manufacturers to compete for the few consumers that are still spending. This desktop isn't filled with perks but I think you'll be surprised. Let me start with some of the basics.

Hardware:

Processor: 2.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ dual-core

Storage Space: 400GB Hard Drive (with open bay for HP pocket media drive for expandability)

RAM: 3 GB of RAM (expandable up to an 8GB maximum)

Optical Drive: a CD R / RW burner with integrated DVD +/- R RW

Graphics Accelerator: Nvidia GeForce 6150 video with (128 MB of standalone video RAM)

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Starting with the processor, it is pretty darn quick at this price point. I like these 64 bit Athlons they're often a little better bargain then Intel's offerings. It boots up quick despite Vista being a memory hog the 3GB is more than adequate, if you'd like to though it could be expanded up to 8GB. The graphics card allows for just about any of today's games to be run with no problem.

This really is a great deal, you can tell by the hardware included and the expandability that this desktop is ready to roll straight from the manufacturer as well as maintaining some shelf life with a considerable amount of room to grow.

Connectivity:

6 2.0 USB (the gold standard for PC connectivity, use these to connect to things like printers, mp3 players or digital cameras)

2 FireWire ports (for fast data transfer between devices like other PC's or digital camcorders)

2 PS/2 ports (use these to connect old school input devices like older mice and keyboards)

1 VGA output (use this to connect to a typical monitor)

2 audio out / 2 mic in

Digital coaxial audio input and output with surround sound speaker ports

15 in 1 memory car reader (for the little flash memory cards found in your digital camera or other devices like your blackberry)

Ethernet port (to connect to your LAN)

56K modem

The connectivity is superb. Add a HDMI port and you've got a real winner. For around $600 bucks or even less this is a steal. I would pick one of these up for just about any PC consumer. If you have a gamer, or a school age kid, this is going to work great for them. It will work great in the living room for the whole family, it can really do it all. I'm very impressed with the HP Pavilion A6230N Desktop. It doesn't have the extra ports for the proprietary external hard drive crap or a few other ancillary bells and whistles but for the most part this is a very solid desktop. This is certainly two thumbs up, especially at this price.