please, a pc on the TV is so much better than a PS3, Xbox, Wii, or AppleTV.

Hulu is better, youtube is better, netflix is better, Pictures are better, Amazon is better, Hell, iTunes is better.

I would recommend making sure to add a better video card and a better power supply for this system, but PC on the big screen rocks.

so whats the deal with this...it says it comes with DDR2 but it also says it comes with (occupied) DDR3 slots?

ahuesca wrote:so whats the deal with this...it says it comes with DDR2 but it also says it comes with (occupied) DDR3 slots?

The HP specs page says DDR2 for both.


edit: can someone at Woot fix that - that's the 3rd time I answered this same question.

reluctant wrote:You'd be better off getting a Wii if all you want to do is stream Netflix. The Wii comes with wifi, and as a bonus, you can play Wii games!

There's no HD with the Wii, but this only has VGA, so you wont' be getting an HDMI signal with it either. This also doesn't have wifi, so you'd need to buy a wifi adapter for it.

If you really need an HD signal, even an xbox360 would be better. You can get an HD signal from it, it's got builtin wifi, and again, you can play Xbox games on it.

Best of all: Get a Playstation 3. It has wifi, 1080 HD, and it can play BluRay discs. I watch Netflix movies on mine all the time.

reluctant wrote:You'd be better off getting a Wii if all you want to do is stream Netflix. The Wii comes with wifi, and as a bonus, you can play Wii games!

There's no HD with the Wii, but this only has VGA, so you wont' be getting an HDMI signal with it either. This also doesn't have wifi, so you'd need to buy a wifi adapter for it.

If you really need an HD signal, even an xbox360 would be better. You can get an HD signal from it, it's got builtin wifi, and again, you can play Xbox games on it.

VGA does support HD resolutions. a 10 year old CRT Monitor that is HD supports Hi Definition. VGA is nothing more than RGB cables. DVI will give you a better picture but VGA is more than capable of displaying HD.

reluctant wrote:You'd be better off getting a Wii if all you want to do is stream Netflix. The Wii comes with wifi, and as a bonus, you can play Wii games!

There's no HD with the Wii, but this only has VGA, so you wont' be getting an HDMI signal with it either. This also doesn't have wifi, so you'd need to buy a wifi adapter for it.

If you really need an HD signal, even an xbox360 would be better. You can get an HD signal from it, it's got builtin wifi, and again, you can play Xbox games on it.

I know other alternatives to a 360 or a console in general have been offered up, but I want to say that the 360 in particular would be a bad choice if Netflix streaming is all you want, at least in terms of consoles. The 360 requires you to buy a gold subscription to XBox Live in order to get to Netflix, and the price of a gold subscription just went up.

Netflix can be done from several non console devices, but if you do want to go the console route, and only want it for Netflix, stay away from 360 unless you want to pay an extra $60/year.

For the uninitiated, does this have a wireless card? Or would I have to purchase one?

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rosenb87 wrote:Win7 is installed but not included? Or is that a part of HP MediaSmart Software Suite? I'm gonna have to reformat at some point!

In that case you need to spend about an hour with HP technical support over the phone and have them send you system recovery disks. I did it a couple of days ago.

I've been pretty pleased with woot deals in the past, but a quick search in google shopping on this product shows that various vendors around the net have the same thing for the same price. Take a look: http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=BQ466AARABA&vid=195&src=F

I feel bad for all the peeps who didn't think to search before their purchase . . .

I'm crossing my fingers & toes on this one -- it's my biggest purchase from Woot yet, topping the Roomba. But it looks like a good deal for what it is.

My mom was just about to go to Micro Center and get a $300 low-end Windows 7 box, but all they had at that price point were giant, ugly tower-format machines. This one will fit nicely on the desk next to the printer. All she's going to be doing is email and word processing, so there's no worries about the system overheating due to excessive processor usage.

Strange, though, that the sub-$300 laptop machines are so much better than the sub-$400 desktop boxes. I figure it's a market demand issue... there's more competition for low-end laptops than for low-end desktops, so manufacturers aren't bothering with desktops at that price point. That's good news for us, of course... if they don't sell, they end up on Woot.

Serminator wrote:For the uninitiated, does this have a wireless card? Or would I have to purchase one?

You'd have to purchase a PCIe low-profile card, like this or this.

tmedvick wrote:please, a pc on the TV is so much better than a PS3, Xbox, Wii, or AppleTV.

Hulu is better, youtube is better, netflix is better, Pictures are better, Amazon is better, Hell, iTunes is better.

I would recommend making sure to add a better video card and a better power supply for this system, but PC on the big screen rocks.

If you add this, you can also make it a DVR. Granted, slimline boxes are never my first choice for HTPCs (heat issues), Windows Media Center makes a fine DVR & streaming solution. Still though, keep in a well-ventilated place and dust it off regularly.

jxbwoot wrote:Would this be any good as a "dummy" terminal just to stream movies from Netflix onto our big screen TV? Does it have (or need) an HDMI connection? Does it have a wireless connection or is that something that I'd have to buy (we don't have hardwire connection near the TV).

Thanks.

I have an old desktop next to my tv and it uses Windows xp and is connected with just a serial cord. Netflix comes in great and looks just as great. It is hooked up to a 1080i 42 inch. So I would say this will work great, even though you wont get a 1080p picture. I would even say this could be over kill if you are just using it for Netflix. My old computer has only 1GB of ram, windows xp and the generic video card. You could pick a computer like that up for $50 at a flea market or something.

lethargicmass wrote:More likely went to design school or otherwise has a vocation in which one knows what lorem ipsum is and does not assume (incorrectly) that it's Latin.

Well, it's pretty much latin, just scrambled...I guess maybe in the same sense that Jabberwocky is English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorum_ipsum for anyone who wants the gory details.

rangler123 wrote:this sounds like an absolutely great deal, however i would probably get more ram for it and then i would get a better video card for it of course now I would need a bigger power supply, motherboard and cpu to allow the new video card to not get bogged down and a new case so that it would fit, and now that i could actually run some new games i think a bigger faster hard drive makes sense, but other than those few modifications, superb deal!!!!

So in other words, you'd build a new PC using exactly...none of the included parts? Makes sense to me. I am going to guess that was you being facetious, then.

Years ago I had a WONDERFUL IBM Aptiva. Served me well back in the days of the BeOS. But when the power supply fried, one could not find a replacement readily and when found it nearly the price of a new PC!

Power supply replacements costs need to be factored into any PC purchase...if proprietary, think TWICE!

Serminator wrote:For the uninitiated, does this have a wireless card? Or would I have to purchase one?

ripprsoul wrote:You'd have to purchase a PCIe low-profile card, like this or this.

That would work, but there are 2 other solutions that may be easier:

1) If you will use this machine in the same room where your router is located, just run a cable to it.

2) Use a USB wireless adapter.

spinner76 wrote:I've been pretty pleased with woot deals in the past, but a quick search in google shopping on this product shows that various vendors around the net have the same thing for the same price. Take a look: http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=BQ466AARABA&vid=195&src=F

I feel bad for all the peeps who didn't think to search before their purchase . . .

To be fair, they want $21 to ship.

Amici, Romani, socii wooters. Erat Product Description dirum!

Likus el scribus incomprhednsble en fourem aqui.

i like it!

ripprsoul wrote:
If you only want to stream Netflix, just get a $60 Roku. It's cheap, easy to use, and streams HD Netflix flawlessly.

If you want media center options beyond Netflix, wait a week and pick up a Boxee Box for $199, which does just about everything, and is also HD.

Love Roku here for Netflix, et al streaming. My teenaged son prefers the Roku box his 'rents use to access Netflix to the PS3 he utilizes.

A Boxee Box?! Mother-of-Pearl, that's good news! Thanks for that link.

Do you think it will run windows server 2003? i recall my old work laptop running it and it only had a pentium 4.


I need to run business objects, and sql server. I don't expect it to be uber fast, but enough so that it can run my server software.

Front-side Bus (processor dependent): 4000MHz System Bus

That has to be a typo. I highly doubt the Front-Side Bus is faster than the processor. Now 400 Mhz could be correct.

dkouts wrote:Not necessarily true.

If your TV has HDMI, just do as Zelgadis123 suggested: Get a $20 video card with HDMI and built-in audio.

He's using the ATI 4550, I'm using the ATI 4350. Either way, it has HDMI audio built-in (RealTek chipset, which will easily do 5.1 channels).

For my htpc (not too different from this one), I also threw in a Blu-Ray drive. The HDMI easily carries 5.1/DTS audio.

Oh! OK, Lets get a new motherboard, processor etc. As supplied you cannot get 5.1 . Go argue with your Gramma.

privatehand wrote:Possibly the best product description evah!

yeah i thought so too. So many initiate heads exploded on this lol. The simple directions to reading this are to read it aloud and imagine an italian mafia member talking. It's not italian it's mumblish. lol

chipware wrote:I have one of these as a Media PC. It's quiet, small, and looks good next to my TV.

Me too. It's been running MediaPortal (playback only, I'm not recording TV) & driving a 720P TV for nearly two years with no problems. I'm not a huge HP fan but I've been happy with it.

NightGhost wrote:That would work, but there are 2 other solutions that may be easier:

1) If you will use this machine in the same room where your router is located, just run a cable to it.

2) Use a USB wireless adapter.

I have had bad luck with every USB adapter I have ever personally used or provided support for (20+), without a single exception. After a long (1 hour or more) period of sustained high-bandwidth use (streaming from Netflix, for example), they tend to heat up, which then causes connectivity to become erratic. I've had this happen with Linksys, Netgear, DLink and Belkin USB adapters.

Rgeneral23 wrote:Woot had a Philips refurb Bluray not long ago that streams Netflix. Works great. I also have Xbox 360 that does Netflix and has a HDMI no Blu-Ray though

Get a TV with a connector for a WiFi dongle like:
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIERA-TC-P42G25-42-Inch-Plasma/dp/B003924UBG/ref=sr_1_1?s=tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1288800923&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/LG-42LD550-42-Inch-Internet-Applications/dp/B0039RSYQS/ref=sr_1_2?s=tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1288905171&sr=1-2

lazymangaka wrote:I hate to be that guy, but does anybody know about Ubuntu incompatibilites with this system? There's a couple of great Ubuntu flavors that make for a great settop/HTPC OS, but I wouldn't want to put down the money for something with known issues. A quick Google search didn't reveal much except for a couple of 2+ year old threads, so any intimate experience would be great.

By searching the hardware specs listed, I don't see any major hardware issues that would arise from installing Ubuntu. Either way, if you try it & have any problems the Ubuntu community is generally quite responsive in forums to help when needed.

You don't need an add-in video card for HDMI video -- you need a DVI-D to HDMI cable, which you can get online for about $4 plus shipping at the mono, and you pipe the audio in seperately.

If you DID want HDMI with video and audio you'll need the add-in card. A ~$50 low profile ATI HD5450 based card from the egg would give you full 7.1 blu ray audio streaming. Of course that means adding a $60 blu ray drive, and we're starting to get to the point where we've replaced all the components, but we're also getting to the point where this is a pretty kickass HTPC.

If you want to think about using this as a DVR, you're limited to broadcast and precious few clear QAM channels from your cable company. In my case the clear QAM channels are the broadcast channels and nothing else. To really consider this as a DVR you also need to add a cable card tuner, the only one (sort of) on the market now is the Ceton Infinitv4, which is $399, and also not really available. But you can put in a preorder and pray.

jxbwoot wrote:Would this be any good as a "dummy" terminal just to stream movies from Netflix onto our big screen TV? Does it have (or need) an HDMI connection? Does it have a wireless connection or is that something that I'd have to buy (we don't have hardwire connection near the TV).

Thanks.

Netflix advertises a machine that you can purchase specifically for this. It is less expensive than this computer or any of the game consoles. Retails for $100 I believe. Check it out before you buy this.

tewkewl wrote:Do you think it will run windows server 2003? i recall my old work laptop running it and it only had a pentium 4.


I need to run business objects, and sql server. I don't expect it to be uber fast, but enough so that it can run my server software.

With ease.

Hardware Requirements for Windows Server 2003

adamdn wrote:Front-side Bus (processor dependent): 4000MHz System Bus

That has to be a typo. I highly doubt the Front-Side Bus is faster than the processor. Now 400 Mhz could be correct.

From HP's specs page:

"Bus speed: 4000 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz)"

ripprsoul wrote:I have had bad luck with every USB adapter I have ever personally used or provided support for (20+), without a single exception. After a long (1 hour or more) period of sustained high-bandwidth use (streaming from Netflix, for example), they tend to heat up, which then causes connectivity to become erratic. I've had this happen with Linksys, Netgear, DLink and Belkin USB adapters.

Hmm - I have 'em all over my house and they run without a hitch 24/7. My younger son tried a card and went back to the USB because it was more reliable.

Go figure.

Jellodyne wrote:You don't need an add-in video card for HDMI video -- you need a DVI-D to HDMI cable, which you can get online for about $4 plus shipping at the mono, and you pipe the audio in seperately.

If you DID want HDMI with video and audio you'll need the add-in card. A ~$50 low profile ATI HD5450 based card from the egg would give you full 7.1 blu ray audio streaming. Of course that means adding a $60 blu ray drive, and we're starting to get to the point where we've replaced all the components, but we're also getting to the point where this is a pretty kickass HTPC.

If you want to think about using this as a DVR, you're limited to broadcast and precious few clear QAM channels from your cable company. In my case the clear QAM channels are the broadcast channels and nothing else. To really consider this as a DVR you also need to add a cable card tuner, the only one (sort of) on the market now is the Ceton Infinitv4, which is $399, and also not really available. But you can put in a preorder and pray.

Uh - this doesn't come with DVI either.


Note that there are 2 alternate solutions to adding a graphics card: 1) VGA to HDMI converter (NOT just a cable - won't work!), or USB to HDMI. Until recently, both of these solutions cost $100 or more, but deals have been popping up lately. Solution 1 only offers one output.

vcanfield wrote:You're better off buying a Wii (which is wireless) for $200 to use for netflix streaming. That's what we did and it works great. Plus it takes up less room.

Uh, Wii is not even close to HD. So keep that in mind.

jxbwoot wrote:Would this be any good as a "dummy" terminal just to stream movies from Netflix onto our big screen TV? Does it have (or need) an HDMI connection? Does it have a wireless connection or is that something that I'd have to buy (we don't have hardwire connection near the TV).

Thanks.

Roku Player is the cheapest and simplest solution.

reluctant wrote:You'd be better off getting a Wii if all you want to do is stream Netflix. The Wii comes with wifi, and as a bonus, you can play Wii games!

There's no HD with the Wii, but this only has VGA, so you wont' be getting an HDMI signal with it either. This also doesn't have wifi, so you'd need to buy a wifi adapter for it.

If you really need an HD signal, even an xbox360 would be better. You can get an HD signal from it, it's got builtin wifi, and again, you can play Xbox games on it.

The roku Netflix player can be had at Ebay for around $50. Plus it delivers Amazon on Demand (in HD), Hulu Plus, tons of free internet content, Pandora, Major League Baseball, and a constantly growing roster of content thanks to its public SDK.

I don't understand why everybody doesn't have at least one of these fab boxes...