Canon Puts Efficiency On Press
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"GREAT PRODUCT for the money" on by BF2007M
Pros: Price, Performance, Build Quality, Small
Cons: Vista, Memory, Keyboard
Summary: I purchased this product as a quick inexpensive replacement for a Pavillion Laptop with a motherboard failure. I was very surprised by the features and build quality of this little machine. The only complaint about the hardware is the keyboard which has a real problem with sticking keys. Other componants are of good quality including an ASUS motherboard with NVidia nForce 430 Chipset and GeForce 6140LE Graphics, and Samsung hardrive. The DVD burner works flawlessly and also has LightScribe, which is a fun feature.
Memory is expandable to 2GB ... BUT ... both slots are populated with a stick of 512MB. To upgrade to 2GB you have to purchase two, not one, sticks of 1GB RAM. Adding a single 1GB memory module will upgrade your memory to 1.5GB. You will probably wind up with some kind of memory upgrade at some point. (1GB memory sticks can currently be found online for about 50 bucks each -- don't pay more).
Other great features include lots of USB ports, firewire, and media card ports.
HP does NOT offer a Vista DVD for a "Clean" install. Recovery means installing the original shipped system only: complete with loss of updates, apps, and data and also re-introduces all the "crapware" that had to be deleted in the first place. Purchase good disk imaging software for backups, if you can find one that works with Vista -- Norton Ghost 10 doesn't.
Performance is surprising good once you dump the Vista and install XP Pro. I wasn't happy with the included Vista Premium's bloat, compatibility with existing applications and devices, and loss of needed features (ie. EFS) versus XP Professional. I see no point in paying an additional $150 for the "Anytime" Ultimate Upgrade or Buiness OEM upgrade just to get back some features I already had with XP Pro. XP Pro, which the technically savvy can "dual boot", runs fast on this machine. You just need to download the proper drivers and install XP. Most of the useful included applications (MuVee, Roxio, Microsft Works) can be found in the "Recovery" partition and install just fine under XP.
Here's a short list of the needed XP drivers which can be found on the respective companies' (not HP) websites. HP only provides Vista drivers but have been helpful in directing me to the right places:
Chipset NVidia nForce 430 (version 8.26_11.09)
Graphics NVidia 6150LS (version 93.71)
Ralinktech RT2571 USB Wireless (version 1.2.0.0)
AMD CPU (version 1.3.2.0)
Realtek High Definition Audio (version 1.66)
OVERALL, a GREAT little machine with "bang for the buck" that simply can't be beat!!!!Updated
MOTHERBOARD:
-- M2NC51-AR (HematiteXL) - Google it for more info. Form factor: micro-ITX.
MEMORY UPGRADE:
-- I used 2GB of 4200 Corsair VS2GBKIT533D2. Others report success with faster RAM (5300 and 6400) as well, or so they say.
VIDEO CARD UPGRADE:
-- Others report success with NV 7600GT, 7300LE, and 8400GS PCI-E x16 cards but be very wary of exceeding the limits of the pathetic 160W (24pin power) proprietary power supply (PS). A mostly passively cooled system raises airflow/cooling concerns as well.
WIRELESS:
-- It is an internal USB-based Lite-on WN4300R using the Ralinktech RT2571WF chipset. It was clearly a cheap afterthought and picks up too much noise, even in a quiet RF environment, to be reliable. I replaced it with an external USB 802.11b/g adapter, which doesn't drop so many packets.
CPU UPGRADE:
-- Possible with max. 65watt Athlon 64X2. (eg. AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual-Core 5200+ 2.6Ghz)
HP TECH SUPPORT:
-- Absolutely Worthless.
In summary, if you think that you will **EVER** need to upgrade memory (past 2GB), video, the power supply, or add additional drives, etc -- Just buy a bigger, more standards-compliant, user serviceable box. As you may have surmised, I'm no longer overly impressed with this machine although it still is a good fit for certain users and an even better bargain now that prices have fallen.Updated
MOTHERBOARD:
-- M2NC51-AR (HematiteXL) - Google it for more info.
MEMORY UPGRADE:
-- I used 2GB of 4200 Corsair VS2GBKIT533D2. Others report success with faster RAM (5300 and 6400) as well, or so they say.
VIDEO CARD UPGRADE:
-- Others report success with NV 7600GT, 7300LE, and 8400GS PCI-E x16 cards but be very wary of exceeding the limits of the pathetic 160W (24pin power) proprietary power supply (PS). A mostly passively cooled system raises airflow/cooling concerns as well.
WIRELESS:
-- It is an internal USB-based Lite-on WN4300R using the Ralinktech RT2571WF chipset. It was clearly a cheap afterthought and picks up too much noise, even in a quiet RF environment, to be worth using. I replaced it with an external USB 802.11b/g adapter, which doesn't drop so many packets.
CPU UPGRADE:
-- Possible with max. 65watt Athlon 64X2. (eg. AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual-Core 5200+ 2.6Ghz)
POCKET MEDIA DRIVE:
-- Do you really need this? Probably not.
HP TECH SUPPORT:
-- Absolutely Worthless.
In summary, if you think that you will **EVER** need to upgrade memory (past 2GB), video, the power supply, or add additional drives, etc -- Just buy a bigger, more standards-compliant, user serviceable box. As you may have surmised, I'm no longer overly impressed with this machine although it still is a good fit for certain users and an even better bargain now that prices have fallen. -
"Better be satisfied with analog output..." on by esr22
Pros: it'd be nice to use Aero...
Cons: HP slimline hardware cannot be upgraded!
Summary: I had forgotten, years ago, someone told me never to buy HP=since there was no way to upgrade them, I should have remembered. SINce i got s3020n(the s stands for slow), I have been trying to hook up with a low-profile video card to improve performance, SLI would be nice to augment chipset,OR AT LEAST GET DIGITAL output for MONITOR ! Vista will tell you VIDEO CARD IS the lowest rated performer in this system. I have called and written Hp and checked the internet forums. This is some major crap here, it only has a 108 watt power supply, the heat inside case is formidible, you don't want anything blocking the fan, which sounds like bacon frying, at least - I hope that sound is the fan! Cnet, for the past 5 years, i've bought all my equipment based on your reviews. Please take that line out of review about 'possible add on pci-X2 express card', it's not out there and it's not going to be. So, i have a great paper weight( a really slow one), and learned a valuable lesson. I really got to say "shame on you for leading us on". If you don't believe me, call your local Best Buy, and they can tell you! And I have it in print from HP if you want a copy, this is verbatim HP : "Actually you cannot upgrade hardware on a slimline PC"., I looked on site for how to email copy to Cnet unsuccessfully, so this is the next best thing I can do. so beware of HP my fellow surfers!
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"Fantastic value" on by dividius
Pros: Price, size, performance
Cons: Can run hot, upgrading isn't easy, no gaming
Summary: For the money, you probably can't find a better buy out there at the moment. That's probably why they're so hard to find (I bought the last one left at my local Circuit City.) Including tax and a $50 refund, I paid about $550 for this awesome little machine. The specs say it all. I started looking at laptops, but I would pay almost double what this costs for basically the same features.
There's only a couple minor negatives that I have found in my short time (about a week) with this machine. The store clerk alerted me to the fact that Slimline's run hot because they're so small and the parts are close together. That's not a problem for me, but if you're one of those people that leaves your computer on 24/7/365, you might have to be more careful. I left it on for 2 days in row when it was pretty hot out, and it was very warm to the touch on the outside. I haven't had any issues because of it, but down the line, it might become a problem. Just keep it well ventilated and turn it off when not in use for extended periods of time and it should be alright. The clerk also said that he believes they under clock the processors in an attempt to cool the machine down. It really runs closer to 1 GHz than 2 GHz. Still fast enough for me, but it should be mentioned.
Like another reviewer said, upgrading the RAM can be a pain. Eventually, you'll want to push this machine to 2GB. But to do that, you have to buy two 1GB sticks, not one, because it only has 2 slots and they're both taken by 512MB sticks out of the box. Kind of annoying, but that's one of the trade offs you make in exchange for the small size. Upgrading it at all will be difficult because of it's space saving design.
Another trade off you make is in the gaming and graphics department. Like the CNet review mentioned, you can only fit half height video cards in here, so forget about serious gaming. I own an Xbox 360, so I wasn't looking for gaming performance anyways, but if you are, look elsewhere.
Overall, it's really hard not to like this computer. Sure, you can't really do any serious gaming and upgrading it is a pain, because of its small size. But that's not what you should be buying this for anyways. This is a simple, no frills, yet powerful enough computer for typical day-to-day home use. I suppose you could use it as an office machine, but you might want something a mite more powerful and/or flexible for work applications. For me though, this is perfect and was exactly what I was looking for in an affordable home computer. -
"brilliant design and specs" on by jaguaraja
Pros: size and sexiness
Cons: graphics card
Summary: i'd rather get the configurable s3000y than this preconfigured s3020n. In the s3000y, you can get a core 2 duo, 2gb ram, and get a geforce 7500le card. Still not the best card, but will handle aero nicely.
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"terrible product Read this more recent Review!" on by thefdice
Pros: none buyer beware big defect in computer slimline 3000 series!
Cons: hp slimline series has had numerous problems with video card. Apparently a windows update fries the video card and your computer is done, you cant recover files that easily.
Summary: this slimline series seems like big problems are coming for hp, forums and discussion boards have been talking about this since 08 looks like more are crashing and they have a fix for people until dec 09 they might have to extend the warranty even further as more computers crash.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01514044&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3376325
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