phacopida wrote:Do HP desktops have the same overheating issues as their laptops?

I own several HP laptop models. I also buy them for my contractors and lend them out to my interns. Never had any over heating issue.

I DID buy a similar machine from Woot a few years ago. No problems at all. It's still running like a champ.

shadowplay1 wrote:That 250W power supply scares me...

An educational link:
http://c1.neweggimages.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html?cm_sp=Cat32_PowerSupply_left-_-PowerSupplyFinder030510-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fproductfinders%2fpowersupply.jpg

kmoyer21886 wrote:A used computer for over $400, pass

How 'bout this one? It's under your price point. (w/o shipping)

I see refurb HP equipment on woot all the time. So does HP just make c___y stuff that has to get repaired often, or is there some other explanation for why there's so much HP stuff here?

PWeaverFL wrote:I see refurb HP equipment on woot all the time. So does HP just make c___y stuff that has to get repaired often, or is there some other explanation for why there's so much HP stuff here?

Most likely Woot has a deal with HP in which the refurbed equipment gets bought by Woot at a decent price. All vendors have to sell their refurbed stuff somehow or another...

tsfisch wrote:Most likely Woot has a deal with HP in which the refurbed equipment gets bought by Woot at a decent price. All vendors have to sell their refurbed stuff somehow or another...

I guess I'm just a little creeped out that there's so much HP refurb available. Makes me think their quality must stink. Hope I'm wrong...

taierone wrote:How does this compare to the ZT Affinity from Costco? Sorry for the noobish broad question.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11622756&search=zt+affinity&Mo=8&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=zt+affinity&Ntt=zt+affinity&No=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

One would hope a computer that cost close to 40% more than another computer was better. What's the better car, a Hyundai or a Mercedes? Doesn't mean the Hyundai isn't possibly a better value...

coltelj wrote:Does anyone know if this has virtualization support. I want to run ESXi as the main OS?

Did you ever get an answer on this? I want to do the same thing.

dapdrums wrote:Did you ever get an answer on this? I want to do the same thing.

stebrad wrote:According to the spec sheet, this cpu even has hardware support for virtualization. Nice.

wonders if this system will run Pro Tools M-Powered 8.0?

laptop please

zannisvel wrote:I am an engin. student and use AutoCad, my laptop suffers. it has a 2.4 GH and 2 Gb DDR3. You think this machine could do it for me? Thanks in advance!!!! (is it cleared from all these hp preinstalled bs? pointless software)

More then you will ever need for autoCAD. I would only want to upgrade the video card if I was working on dual monitors (a must for cad work in my book).

migelito wrote:it has the expansion slot for a decent video card (the onboard integrated video card won't do for most recent games) but can someone a little mor savvy than me tell me if that 250W power supply be adequate for the computer and a fan-cooled card?

Heellll no.

I bought a similar computer a while back from Woot!. I added a GT260 video card and beefed up the power supply. I am extremely happy with my purchase. It will do a little gaming and runs everything I throw at it. If you are wondering if this computer will be fast enough, it is. If you are a serious gamer/video encoder/virtual machine type of person, then you don't need a second opinion from a bunch of goofballs (myself included) on this message board. Same goes for those who are bragging about how they built their system for less money and ended up with a better rig. Don't trash a good deal on a pre-configured system when you are obviously not the demographic that this deal is created for. This is a great deal for the average computer user as-is. Put $100-$150 in a new video card/power supply and you have a machine that will also handle most games.

xrock wrote:This thing is expensive for used computer.

I built my own, a lot cheaper and it's not used.
Case 40.00
CPU 89.00 Phenom II x 2 BE 3.2GHZ revision 3
PSU 29.99 w/10.00 rebate 500W Cooler Master
RAM 39.99 w/10.00 rebate 2 x 2GB of Corsair XMS 3
DVD Rom 17.99 Asus 24X DVD burner
Hard drive 45.00 1 TB 7200 RPM w/32 cache Hitachi Deskstar
Micro ATX board 65.00 Biostar AMD 880G chipset [HDMI, DVI]

Total: 327.00 without rebate

The Phenom II x 2 can be unlock to Quad. A lot of success story. My CPU unlock to Quad. Run Prime 95 stable for 2 hours on stock heatsink.

This is really the way to go. You will have so many more options to play with the settings, do later upgrades, etc.

However, not quite fair to compare the costs directly. You also need to consider the opportunity cost of building your case = what your time is worth. For someone new to computers this time could be considerable when you include the time it takes to research components and do the build.

noviceboy wrote:From the given picture and a quasi-trained eye, it appears to have 3 PCI-Express X1 slots and a single PCI-Express X16. Not sure of the PCI-E version type. The typical gaming machine nowadays would have a PCI-Express 2.0 X16 card in it, but I would be worried about fitting any of the larger GFX cards on the market in this rig due to size, overheating and power considerations.

Yeah, I knew which size slots were there, but I was wondering about the version. This rig has the almost the same exact layout of my current HP desktop, so I'm certain my 8800 GTX will fit, and I'm going to swap the power supply with the 500W one I'm using in this computer, but I was wondering about the version in case I wanted to upgrade to a faster video card

funkycat32 wrote:I got one of these in a previous sale. I've had some problems with my sound card, and there were comments from others that had other (varied, often unrelated) problems.

Although it's a nice computer (especially for the price), if you get this, you'll want the warranty too.

Where do you get the warranty?

How wanted 3, and I pressed 1 - how do I change my order?

I have one, got it for Black Friday last year at Best Buy. I do a lot of graphic design and have had no problems running multiple documents in multiple Adobe programs as well as anything else that I might want.

I like it and have little problem running WoW on it too, though it's not really graphics intesnive.

jnail wrote:Where do you get the warranty?

Click the SquareTrade logo under the item description.

jgrindley wrote:How wanted 3, and I pressed 1 - how do I change my order?

email service@woot.com, include your order number, and ask them to change it.

I have bought this EXACT same computer. For those of you who are ripping on the graphics card and the onboard gpu I will say this. I run World of Warcraft on "GOOD" and Starcraft II on "GOOD" . In WoW I get 30 FPS flawlessly and in SC2 I get 80 FPS without any hiccups in either. SO, for those of you who say this won't game it will as is. However, if you want to run these games on ultra and get higher than 30 FPS on each I would suggest a graphics card but the graphics at good is good enough for most people and it runs as is out of the box without any issues. The computer doesn't run hot at all. I have downloaded a program which monitors the cpu temp and all and its never even close to over heating with the case closed even when I'm gaming. So please, stop mis informing people with bad information based on specs... this computer will run games fine as is.

PWeaverFL wrote:I guess I'm just a little creeped out that there's so much HP refurb available. Makes me think their quality must stink. Hope I'm wrong...

I have bought 5 HP refurbs over the past 4 years. They all have worked fine. Not top of the line machines, but a good bargain.

I believe that the computers are built for the holiday/graduation season and shipped out to retailers. When they don't sell and HP comes out with a new model then HP takes them back and jobs them out through a secondary market.

Segerone wrote:Lost me at AMD.

AMD is good for el cheepo bargains that yield comparable performance to the more expensive option (Intel). I'm pretty sure that description matches most of the purchases made here on woot! for better or worse.

I have this system. I run two monitors on it, and upgraded windows to run virtual machine and xp mode. It runs stuff in xp mode faster than the P4 with XP could dream of. It runs autocad, it does video, audio editing and all kinds of stuff very quickly. It's damned fast, perfectly reliable and I want another one.

Goosenuts wrote:You have the wrong idea. I insinuated that the size of the motherboard is indirectly proportional to power usage and performance and as a rule of thumb, the larger the motherboard, the more power it will draw and the better performance it will have over micro-ATX counter parts. If you don't believe me just go look at some motherboard reviews. My generalization is actually quite the opposite of ignorant, it's based off of many years of experience.

You neglect to mention that smaller boards cram the traces closer together. With a larger board, the engineers have space to place everything in a more logical manner...

NightGhost wrote:

One thing to be careful of; just because the hardware supports virtualization, doesn't mean ESXi supports it. ESXi is meant for "server grade" hardware. Consumer grade may use different ethernet cards, for example.

Last year I installed ESXi on a home-grown machine and it required hacking and unsupported drivers for it to run. If you're willing to go to the effort then you can probably get ESXi to work. You might find Citrix XenServer simpler, though.

nyquiljunkie wrote:With some careful parts shopping you can build a better system with parts you KNOW the specs of for the same price.
Plus you can put in a much better graphics card and a better power supply for that price.

Funny you should mention that. Using a motherboard with the same chipset and graphics, etc., identical memory, HDD, and so on, I built this system on Newegg and it would cost $100 more, not including the keyboard and mouse.

Add in a warranty and (admittedly not the best, but it's THERE!) tech support and this one isn't a bad deal.

But... The 3 core setup I've been thinking about building along with a Geforce460 video card would be a better deal at the same price...

$599.99 after $100 OFF
ZT Affinity AMD Phenom™ II 955 Quad-Core processor (3.2GHz) Lifetime 24/7 Toll-Free Support
22x DVD±RW Drive
19-in-1 Digital Card Reader
Item # 567346 Costco deal with free shipping and doubles the warranty to 2 years,new not refurbished. $599.
An AMD Phenom™ II 955 Quad-Core Processor combines with 8GB of system memory to provide breathtaking speed, and a vast 2TB hard drive lets you store massive quantities of music and high definition video.

ZT Affinity PCs are engineered for excellence and assembled in the USA using the highest quality components. Over 15 years of experience and proprietary quality control processes, backed by lifetime 24/7 toll free technical support, mean unmatched performance and dependability you can trust.

Processor & Memory:

AMD Phenom™ II 955 Quad-Core Processor (3.20GHz)
AMD® 760G+SB710 Chipset
8GB DDR3 Memory
Drives:

2.0TB SATA II Hard Drive
22x DVD±RW Drive
Front Panel 19-in-1 digital multimedia card reader
Graphics:

Integrated ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics
Communications:

10/100/1000 Mb/s LAN
Audio:

8-CH High-Definition Audio CODEC
Keyboard & Mouse:

USB Keyboard
USB Mouse
Expandability (total bays/slots):

2 x 5.25" external (1 occupied)
1 x 3.5" external (1 occupied)
5 x 3.5" internal (1 occupied)
1 x PCIe x16
1 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI
Ports:

8 x USB 2.0 ports (2 Front, 6 Rear)
6 x Audio ports
1 x VGA port
1 x DVI port
1 x HDMI port
1 x PS/2 keyboard / mouse port
1 x RJ45 network port
Operating System:

Genuine Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
Additional Software:

Microsoft® Office Starter (reduced functionality versions of Word and Excel; not the full version of Microsoft® Office 2010)
Access the full Office 2010 experience when you purchase a Product Key Card. The Product Key Card is a single license card that contains a 25-character code to activate full-featured Office 2010 software on your new PC. To purchase Click Here
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2011 (60-day trial)

Madmax31 wrote:Hey Goose,

Can you spec me out a PC with around a $400-550 budget. Not a huge gamer but do a lot of Adobe and CAD work.


Thanks!
Gary

What form factor would work: any ol' tower of any size? Does the monitor need to fit into that budget, or do you already have one? How about peripherals (mouse, keyboard, speakers, printer, scanner)? Also, are you open to building it yourself or having someone you know help you build it? Would you be willing to do some basic work in the BIOS for overclocking and such?

I'd have some fun spec'ing a PC for you, but I'd have to know these things first

xlazyslothx wrote:
For just checking email, skype, etc.. should be more then enough with the quad core cpu.

I used to think I could check email happily with just a pentium 3 and 256M RAM. And then I discovered quad core optimized plain text email. Man, it's emaily.

codroh wrote:What about shipping?

Shipping can be free. Most Amazon product is free shipping after you spent $25.00. Newegg has a lot of promotion and give free shipping. TigerDirect don't taxes if you live in CA. There are deal out there. RAM is very cheap now. The other day, I ordered RAM from Newegg. The cost was 49.99 - 5.00 promo code and 25.00 rebate = 19.99 or 23.xx if you have to pay for taxes. The shipping is free. The RAM is Kingston Hyper X 2 x 2GB = 4GB.

I built my nephew computer too using spare parts and new parts and end up paying 178.00.
The 178.00 was for a new Gigabyte motherboard (audio, lan, HDMI, and DVI), AMD 2.8 Quad, and a silent TT heatsink + fan and case. The use stuff was: RAM was Corsair DDR2 1GB with nice timing (donate my Ram to him), Coolermaster 450W PSU, Liteon DVD burner and used 250G hard drive. The system was very quiet.

He upgraded from Intel Northwood single core 2.8 and SIS 645 chipset. The RAM was 750MEG PC2100 speed.

He is high school student, so the upgrade work well for him.

harmoginizer wrote:wonders if this system will run Pro Tools M-Powered 8.0?

For god sakes, yes. Pro Tools 8 (M powered, LE, or HD) is not that much of a system hog when compared to gaming, video rendering and other modern super-applications. I have used M powered PT8 with 32 tracks and plugins on a 2009 iMac w/ 2 GB RAM and a C2D processor @ 2GHZ, with not a single hiccup.

indranil1703 wrote:Umm... never mind. This does not have a hdmi port.

It has a DVI port. DVI is HDMI without the audio. You can order a cable with a DVI connector on one end and an HDMI cable on the other for under $5. (I got mine from techforless.com) Most TVs with HDMI input will have one HDMI input which accepts a separate audio input.

APitcher4926 wrote:Still, minus 2gb RAM and the Windows license, and the reliance on unlocking the 2 add'l cores with those endemic issues...

Your system is cheaper, but I still think this one offers more value.

It ran fine with four core with no issue for two week now. It's retail CPU w/revision 3 and it has 3 years warranty. The revision 3 CPU have better yield and give you more head room to overclock. Don't need 6GB of RAM. It's wasteful money, unless the RAM is extra cheap. I did order another 2 x 2GB because the deal was so cheap for 19.99 after rebate. Still don't need the extra RAM. I'll save the extra RAM for future built.

There are cheaper Quad or dual from AMD. I like to gamble and reason why I picked the Phenom II x 2 3.2GHz BE revision 3. With AMD new chipset 880G board, more than 80% have success unlocking the extra 1 or 2 cores on the retail AMD Black Edition CPU. For 40.00 more I could have got AMD Quad Phenom 3.2 but it's not a black edition or AMD Quad 3.2 for 20.00 dollars more, but it's not a Phenom. In the end I got Phenom II x 4 BE55 edition. The 6MEG L3 cache is wonderful.

Why do I need Windows when I already have one. I don't need pre-stall OS with junk to slowdown my system.

My offer have more value because of the performance and it's still cheaper. Unlocking CPU is not for everybody. If you want a working Quad from the start, then spent the extra 20-40.00 more.

can't see this system has an HDMI output

indranil1703 wrote:Umm... never mind. This does not have a hdmi port.

You can buy an HDMI to DVI cable for $10 and it will display 1080p.

hrphlps wrote:You can buy an HDMI to DVI cable for $10 and it will display 1080p.

Or output using the VGA connector, which supports up way higher than 1080p. 1080p is impressive because it can be stored on blueray/live streamed over cable. Computers were higher res than 1080p before the first HD tv rolled out.

phacopida wrote:Other Wooter's personal experience is why I post questions on these message boards. Thanks for sharing yours!

I own a refurb HP similar to this but got it from NewEgg. Great machine, had it about a year, only overheating problems I ever had was from a NVidia graphics card i added on that had a fan that died to fast. This was something I added tho and not HP's fault. Got a new video card that runs great and still loving my computer. I have a 2.7 dualcore, how i envy this quadcore...

travelocity wrote:Or output using the VGA connector, which supports up way higher than 1080p. 1080p is impressive because it can be stored on blueray/live streamed over cable. Computers were higher res than 1080p before the first HD tv rolled out.

I have used both, however the picture quality and ease on the eyes has been much better from a digital signal(HDMI and DVI) than with the older analogue VGA signal. Is it analogue? IDK, it just looks better from dvi than from vga