Lots of HorsePower (HP) for the money

I was looking for a second machine for my son to use for his learning games and for web browsing and email.

My last 5 computers I have built on my own and I have always been a firm believer in building my own computer. I am very picky about components. After pricing out the components, I could not come close to the price that I could get this machine for. I also looked at a Dell E521. Although I was able to configure a similar machine for a similar price, I decided on the HP based on experiences with friend’s machines.

I was able to purchase this machine along with the matching HP 19 inch widescreen LCD monitor for $839 after rebates. That is a hard price to beat for the features that you get.

I have had the machine for 2 weeks and am very pleased with its performance. This is my first dual-core processor and it works great. I am a die hard AMD fan and wanted to stick with them on this machine. One of the first things that I did to test out the machine was to rip a digital video from my camcorder. A nice feature on this machine is the firewire input on the front of the machine, as well as flash media drive and USB 2.0 ports. So, while I was ripping the digital video, I surfed the web, trying to make the video download jump or stop. Needless to say, I had no problems. All of my son's games work great so far. I was concerned about Windows Vista, but so far, so good. The DVD burner has a great feature called http://www.lightscribe.com/." Basically, you will never need to label your CD's or DVD's again. Very cool and the media is easy to find at your local Best Buy. The graphics on the machine along with the LCD monitor are great for a standard machine. If you want to use it for gaming, you will need to do some upgrades. Like I said, I bought it for my son's games and for web surfing. I knew that high end graphic games might be an issue. But I did a little research before I bought this machine. This machine comes with a PCI xpress 16 slot for a future video upgrade. Once I upgrade in the future, I am sure that this machine will do very well with just about any game. A couple of other little perks - expansion bay for another DVD/CD drive, expandable for video, ram, and processor, two extra PCI slots, ASUS motherboard, and offset buttons for CD drives (this is nice when you have your machine lower than your table. The button to close the drive tray is not blocked by the tray when it is opened)

There are few drawbacks about this machine. I was not happy that I had to make my own restore CD's for the system, but it did give me a choice for CD, DVD or Dual Layer DVD. Windows Vista is preloaded and you can only reload it if you use the restore discs. This is a minor annoyance. The lack of video power in the machine was a little depressing, but I knew what I was getting into. The keyboard and mouse are cheap. The mouse has a ball in it. I did not even know they made mice with balls in them anymore. The preloaded software is not all needed. You will have to shut down some things to clean up your desktop.

Overall, I am very happy with this purchase. I will ultimately upgrade my homemade machine to a dual core processor when I have a chance. Until then, I am sure that this machine will handle anything that I throw at it.