Wootalyzer's Pricing Post! - The price of today's woot item is saved here for future reference
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HP AMD Athlon II Quad Core Desktop Computer
$389.99 + $5 Shipping
Condition: Refurbished

Product List:
- 1 HP Pavilion p6310f Athlon II X4 2.8GHz, 6GB DDR3, 1TB SATA, DVDRW, Win 7 Home Prem 64-bit

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

The perfect computer for productivity, just pop a GPU in it and its also a great gamer!

These are great little computers, however the case is a fingerprint/dust magnet.

Just be careful, only 90 day warranty, computers usually have 1 year.

Let me clear this one up for this item quick...

Yes you can add a good video card into this and have a good gaming rig on your hands, but you will need to upgrade the power supply to something beefier unless you stay in the lower end of the spectrum.

The ATI 5550 can run on this stock power supply which is rated at 300 watts.

Corsair power supplies are king these days. Add a 5870 and a Corsair TX-650 and your set.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X4+630

In the grand scheme of things, the whole thing is okay for the price.

The 5770 is a good card for $150 if you want something powerful and inexpensive.

pretty solid computer my dad uses the power to beet the computer in solitare for hours on end such a waist

PC Mag Review:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358478,00.asp

Decent digs.

Great reviews here

Review at PC Mag

and cnet

I would buy three of these if they came with Windows 8.7 already installed. This is the new windows version where if something goes wrong, Bill Gates comes to your house and fixes the problem himself.

pfft... Quad core! There is no such thing as 4 cores in the same processor. Why don't they just tell us it runs on magic pixie dust! Four cores.... Ha...

Product Website

Does anyone know what chipset this uses?
Particularly interested in the SATA controller, is it nVidia or Intel?

I'm guessing this PC will be enough to run the minimum requirements for Starcraft II, but nowhere close to the recommended requirements?

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=26242&locale=en_US

I'm guessing the video card is the only thing that's the bottleneck for that game? Can you even upgrade the video card on this thing?

AMD Athlon II X4 630 (P) 2.8 GHz (95W) with 4000 MHz HyperTransport 3.0 and Socket AM3
6 GB PC3-10600 MB/sec (message as PC3-8500) 240 pin, DDR3 RAM installed (Upgradeable to 16GB)
1 TB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec) 5400rpm hard drive (drives use less power and support quieter, cooler-running desktop)
SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology optical drive
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
High Definition 8-channel audio with ALC 888S chipset
15-in-1 (4 slot) memory card reader
6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front, 4 in rear)
NVIDIA GeForce 9100 video graphics chip set
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) Operating System

1rudeboy wrote:pfft... Quad core! There is no such thing as 4 cores in the same processor. Why don't they just tell us it runs on magic pixie dust! Four cores.... Ha...

Really, 1rudeboy?

not bad.

$100 cpu
$40 (or so) motherboard
$120 RAM
$40 ghetto case w/ psu
$20 DVD drive
$50 hard drive
$99 win 7 home premium

total ~470

you can't build it this cheap, and the cpu and ram should keep just about anything happy that you want to throw at it.

for better movie/gaming you could add a graphics card, but likely you'd need an new PSU as well.

$30-40 for a 500W PSU if you watch slickdeals (OCZ ModXStream), plus ~$50-90 for a 9800GT, means decent gaming for $470-ish. not bad, but it's going to show up a few days late for starcraft 2!!!

While the 1TB Hard disk, 2.8GHz processor and 6GB of RAM might entice some people to look at this for a starter HTPC, I don't think it would be the way to go unless you added a blu-ray drive or video card with an HDMI out, and then you still would need a TV tuner to record TV.

This would be more than enough to play Starcraft II when it drops on Tuesday, though. :D

+ a nice video card = great comp. Notice it's quad 4x not dual 2x. Also that 4x is 2.8ghz... isn't that like 11.2ghz? No, not really... but still, it's a good thought isn't it?

I can not believe HP put the operating system on a 5400 RPM drive. This should also have Gigabit Ethernet.

The 5400RPM drive is going to effect performance especially if it is one of the earlier models.

I would only use a single 5400 RPM drive in a HTPC. These 5400 RPM green drives work great for storage though.

apull wrote:not bad.

$100 cpu
$40 (or so) motherboard
$120 RAM
$40 ghetto case w/ psu
$20 DVD drive
$50 hard drive
$99 win 7 home premium

total ~470

you can't build it this cheap, and the cpu and ram should keep just about anything happy that you want to throw at it.

for better movie/gaming you could add a graphics card, but likely you'd need an new PSU as well.

$30-40 for a 500W PSU if you watch slickdeals (OCZ ModXStream), plus ~$50-90 for a 9800GT, means decent gaming for $470-ish. not bad, but it's going to show up a few days late for starcraft 2!!!

You are right that you can't build that cheap. But your prices are deffinetly off... The processors about $150 and thats 10600 RAM, so its more like $180.

Either way you cant build that cheap, but seriously it is a ghetto case. I've had a couple of these HP's and they always seem to have upgrade bottlenecks for 1 reason or another.

Comicon Nerds!

If you really want to game with this PC, in addition to a new video card and PSU, you should also install a faster hard drive. 5400rpm isn't going to cut it when your game is trying to load textures et. al. for the next level/area. Still, this can be turned into a good gaming rig for less than $700, including the cost of buying it from Woot!

Previous Woot

bitethat wrote:+ a nice video card = great comp. Notice it's quad 4x not dual 2x. Also that 4x is 2.8ghz... isn't that like 11.2ghz? No, not really... but still, it's a good thought isn't it?

I've had a x4 for a long while and its still beastly. It can handle whatever I throw at it.

Got a similar computer from Woot! (p6310y - not sure of difference, same CPU, Memory, HD, refurb, etc.). I added a GeForce GT240 and now I have a really nice, budget computer. I do a few games, but not a "serious gamer". Those folks are not the ones considering this computer, so I will advise everyone else: This is a good buy on a powerful machine that has plenty of memory and hard drive (and Windows 7, which is much improved over Vista). If you add an inexpensive (>$50) low-power (mid-high performance) video card, then you will end up with a computer that does anything you want it to do. Skip the back-to-school specials at big box stores that are selling lower-performance computers at this price.

ackmondual wrote:I'm guessing this PC will be enough to run the minimum requirements for Starcraft II, but nowhere close to the recommended requirements?

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=26242&locale=en_US

I'm guessing the video card is the only thing that's the bottleneck for that game? Can you even upgrade the video card on this thing?

yes, you'll need a new video card.

buy this one:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=402378&t=2143208


unfortunately, you'll also need a new power supply to handle the card's power requirements.

try this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-SlickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&ItemList=Combo.445416

you have to get a free graphics card with it, which is a pretty lousy card, but $25 for that PSU is a nice deal.

motherboard info

So how much would I need to add to this in order to play WoW with a 23in 1080p monitor?

jidery wrote:Just be careful, only 90 day warranty, computers usually have 1 year.

How is one to be careful ?

yogeshdengle wrote:Does anyone know what chipset this uses?
Particularly interested in the SATA controller, is it nVidia or Intel?

NVIDIA GeForce 9100

In depth specs from HP

Here's the Model's Documentation pages.

Doesn't look like HP has a PDF download for a manual, though.

jshoop231 wrote:You are right that you can't build that cheap. But your prices are deffinetly off... The processors about $150 and thats 10600 RAM, so its more like $180.

Either way you cant build that cheap, but seriously it is a ghetto case. I've had a couple of these HP's and they always seem to have upgrade bottlenecks for 1 reason or another.

you need to check newegg more often:

CPU @ $99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704&cm_re=x4_630-_-19-103-704-_-Product

ram is referenced as 8500, so you can get it for $120, but even if you had to be apples to apples, here's some 10600 RAM @ $130:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144287&cm_re=ddr3-_-20-144-287-_-Product

because once you know...you newegg.

1rudeboy wrote:pfft... Quad core! There is no such thing as 4 cores in the same processor. Why don't they just tell us it runs on magic pixie dust! Four cores.... Ha...

You know he's right. 4 cores in the same processor is a myth. Just like RAM. RAM is a myth. And whats with hard drives? Whose ever heard of something spinning at 5400rpms? let alone 7200! You know what I think? I think Quad cores and RAM and Hard Drives are all conspiracies made up by the goverment. Just like everyone knows when a giant plane flies overhead leaving a white trail, its the government trying to poison us! Also, I'm almost certain 9/11 was caused by Billy Joel.

I'm done being sarcastic now.

jshoop231 wrote:You are right that you can't build that cheap. But your prices are deffinetly off... The processors about $150 and thats 10600 RAM, so its more like $180.

Either way you cant build that cheap, but seriously it is a ghetto case. I've had a couple of these HP's and they always seem to have upgrade bottlenecks for 1 reason or another.

no he was dead on with the processor price, a little low with RAM more like $150 maybe less on sale

ackmondual wrote:I'm guessing this PC will be enough to run the minimum requirements for Starcraft II, but nowhere close to the recommended requirements?

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=26242&locale=en_US

I'm guessing the video card is the only thing that's the bottleneck for that game? Can you even upgrade the video card on this thing?

AMD Athlon II X4 630 (P) 2.8 GHz (95W) with 4000 MHz HyperTransport 3.0 and Socket AM3
6 GB PC3-10600 MB/sec (message as PC3-8500) 240 pin, DDR3 RAM installed (Upgradeable to 16GB)
1 TB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec) 5400rpm hard drive (drives use less power and support quieter, cooler-running desktop)
SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology optical drive
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
High Definition 8-channel audio with ALC 888S chipset
15-in-1 (4 slot) memory card reader
6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front, 4 in rear)
NVIDIA GeForce 9100 video graphics chip set
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) Operating System

Yes, you can upgrade the video card. A GT240 fits quite nicely, keeps you in a budget, and leaves other hardware (see HD) as the bottleneck.

Okay, I bought this very same computer during the Woot-off just a couple of weeks ago (and paid ten bucks more than the current price) so I think I known what I'm talking about. I don't know why a select few insist on griping about the video card and power supply. They're fine, and by the way there's more to life than playing computer games. As someone pointed out, you couldn't build this computer for what you're paying. It took me until tonight to find the two USB ports on the front, however... they're well hidden.

CNet user reviews are good, but very sparse.