cbashaar wrote:Some people like buying "barebones" systems. This way when they upgrade it they can feel self-righteous. Now they don't have to worry about bending a quad core pin...unless they upgrade the mobo
And people wonder why PC makers languish.

Ignoring the crippled NIC and the inadequate PSU that would make this less than ideal as a barebones system, that is...

For the people who know what they are doing (me, you, /. people, many other people here, etc.), yes, this is a fine fixer-upper, but come on, we are a tiny minority. And most importantly, we are not the target market of HP's consumer division. They sell these things (before they got returned and refurbed) at Worst Buy for Auntie Em.

NNNEEEXXXTTT!!!

Mydnyte wrote:Greetings, Program!

(great Tron reference!)

End of Line.....

Tron Legacy is due for release in December 2010!!! YES:YES:YES:YES:YES

Woot, it's the Master Control PROGRAM, not the Master Control System...

Wait... boy am I a geek.

Almost gone!

How many pieces in all? Does it come with pot covers??

Dang, some rich soul bought 3?!

Broding wrote:
2) Read/write is fastest at the outside of a HDD plate. Buying a drive sized in the sweet spot will keep your data on the outside of the plate, maximizing performance. Example: A 1TB, 750MB and 500MB drive may use the same set of plates, but are just restricted in their ability to read/write from the whole plate. The 500MB drive would perform better than the 1TB because all of the data it contains is on the outside of the plate.

Why would sectors on the outside of the platter provide better performance sectors located closer to the center of the platter?

I have seen this type of statement posted several times in recent months, and I have even heard technical personnel reference this reasoning in recommended server configurations to improve performance.

My basic understanding of physics and admittingly, limited understanding of how data storage and retrieval work leaves me to believe that this type of logic is in error, and that one sector is as good as any other.

Can someone who has a clear understanding of drive mechanics please provide some clarification on this subject?

3devious wrote:Can anyone who has bought the refurbished HPs confirm that the machine comes with the HP system restore disc?

I have purchased two different HP refurbs, and neither of them came with restore discs. But both had a separate Restore partition on the HD. And as part of the original setup, let me create System Restore Discs.

So you can burn your own, on your own media.

Will the DVD player in this play Blu-ray? What would be involved in replacing the DVD unit in this with a Blu-ray?

3devious wrote:After getting an understanding of PCIE 1 vs 2, learning that I can upgrade the power supply and video card cheaply, and learing that I can easily make an image of the OS I have decided to buy one. I am glad this item lasted this long so that I could flesh all of that out. My main objective was to enjoy all of that RAM on a decent computer.

I look forward to its arrival.

I agree!!! Took some research before i pulled the trigger 5 minutes ago. I cant wait till this thing arrives. Anyone have any idea on when it will arrive?

rdalton2100 wrote:Why would sectors on the outside of the platter provide better performance sectors located closer to the center of the platter?

I have seen this type of statement posted several times in recent months, and I have even heard technical personnel reference this reasoning in recommended server configurations to improve performance.

My basic understanding of physics and admittingly, limited understanding of how data storage and retrieval work leaves me to believe that this type of logic is in error, and that one sector is as good as any other.

Can someone who has a clear understanding of drive mechanics please provide some clarification on this subject?

he's kinda correct and kinda not. The write speed at the outside of the disc is going to be better because the speed of the head over the media is going to be faster at the outside of the disc (since the head has to travel further at the outside of the disc radius to complete one revolution, more bits can be fit in one revolution. pi r^2...) his end logic isn't so great though, a larger drive will have more relative space towards the outside of the disc, no matter the file size. e.g. 250gb of info will occupy the outer half of writable area on the 500gb drive, but on the 1tb drive, it will occupy the outer 1/4, in theory making the 1 TB drive 'faster'... (if throwing out side arguments like having to wait for the sector to come around may also slow down your seek times)

the reason i'm using the quotes however is because, in my opinion, arguing about the speed between the outside and the inside of a disc is rather pedantic. The relative speed difference is minor relative to the overall computing experience. There may be a few mission critical areas like google datacenters that can reap benefits by optimizing it, but i doubt that you or I can really tell the difference. Paying more attention to brand and reviews (to make sure you don't pick up a drive with a known flaw, something each manufacturer is prone to in varying degrees (e.g. the 'deathstar' series) will get you a lot further in the long run.

illegible wrote:he's kinda correct and kinda not. The write speed at the outside of the disc is going to be better because the speed of the head over the media is going to be faster at the outside of the disc (since the head has to travel further at the outside of the disc radius to complete one revolution, more bits can be fit in one revolution. pi r^2...) his end logic isn't so great though, a larger drive will have more relative space towards the outside of the disc, no matter the file size. e.g. 250gb of info will occupy the outer half of writable area on the 500gb drive, but on the 1tb drive, it will occupy the outer 1/4, in theory making the 1 TB drive 'faster'... (if throwing out side arguments like having to wait for the sector to come around may also slow down your seek times)

the reason i'm using the quotes however is because, in my opinion, arguing about the speed between the outside and the inside of a disc is rather pedantic. The relative speed difference is minor relative to the overall computing experience. There may be a few mission critical areas like google datacenters that can reap benefits by optimizing it, but i doubt that you or I can really tell the difference. Paying more attention to brand and reviews (to make sure you don't pick up a drive with a known flaw, something each manufacturer is prone to in varying degrees (e.g. the 'deathstar' series) will get you a lot further in the long run.

The read speed difference is significant - this data is pretty old, but the principle remains - http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/tracksZBR-c.html A larger capacity drive will also probably have more sectors in the outer zone, allowing more sector reads without moving the head, depending on whether the data is all in the one cylinder.
That said, factors like head seek time, readahead and caching, both within the drive and by the OS, make comparing the performance of two drives not simple.

Any recommendations on power supply upgrades and video cards?

is this thing going to require signature upon delivery? (if it ever ships)

For anyone wondering about shipping, I did a FedEX tracking by reference # and found out my computer was picked up today and estimated delivery is Saturday. WooT!

Edit (Friday-April 30): Updated tracking now say the estimated delivery date will be May 4. Oh well. Would have been nice to have had it for this rain weekend. It is shipping from somewhere in NY or NJ.

janry wrote:For anyone wondering about shipping, I did a FedEX tracking by reference # and found out my computer was picked up today and estimated delivery is Saturday. WooT!

Edit (Friday-April 30): Updated tracking now say the estimated delivery date will be May 4. Oh well. Would have been nice to have had it for this rain weekend. It is shipping from somewhere in NY or NJ.

Mine still hasnt shipped! I'm in CT. I hope it comes fast!

janry wrote:For anyone wondering about shipping, I did a FedEX tracking by reference # and found out my computer was picked up today and estimated delivery is Saturday. WooT!

Edit (Friday-April 30): Updated tracking now say the estimated delivery date will be May 4. Oh well. Would have been nice to have had it for this rain weekend. It is shipping from somewhere in NY or NJ.

ha you are wise! I just did the same, and the computer is on the truck for delivery right now! Gotta go work from home and wait for it !!! WOOOOOOOTTT!

I got mine this morning.... damn thing keeps blue screening.. says it's a driver, still working on it... meh thats life

otisjay wrote:I got mine this morning.... damn thing keeps blue screening.. says it's a driver, still working on it... meh thats life

Just got mine today too ... dead on arrival... now on to tech support.

Got mine yesterday, won't start, talked to HP tech support bad mother board. How can they fix something and it not start the first time ? Very unhappy right now.

Well I was really looking forward to this new computer, but three computers received and none work out of the box? So when they refurbished these, HP did not QC them to see if they actually were functional?
Depressing....

Has anyone received one that works?

How is HP helping those of you with bad computers?

Mine is scheduled for delivery today and I probably won't have a chance to even unbox it till Thursday.

Mine just shows it is supposed to ship today (May 4). It is normally a week before I see it. I was hoping for better initial reports. I am not quite as excited as I was

FedEx updated to show the 13th as planned delivery date and it is coming smart post from Texas. I live in PA, I hope they did not drive by me just to ship it from Texas!

Maybe you are getting the sample one Woot used to make pictures of for the posting.

I got mine on Friday 4/30. Awesome computer! Fast as all hell too. No problems as of yet.

Good luck

I have mine running and so far so good. Looks new.

janry wrote:Maybe you are getting the sample one Woot used to make pictures of for the posting.

Would that mean it is an internet star? Maybe I should emblazon it with as seen on Woot.

My box arrived a few days ago. It is hooked up and running great so far. I am happy!

janry wrote:Has anyone received one that works?

Mine came on Saturday, May 1.

I did not get to open it up until Thursday night. It worked GREAT out of the box. Then I ran PCDecrapifier and cleaned out all the junk software. Boots up in about 10 seconds to the login screen and then another 15 seconds until fully ready to rock-n-roll.

I will be upgrading the Video card and PSU, I need this PC to control 3 video outputs, 2 VGA and 1 S-video to run two Monitors, a TV; and a Projector.

Runs fast and quiet. Windows 7 is a great upgrade from XP! (Vista was worthless!)

Do Not buy. The one I got was DOA, spent way too much time troubleshooting and with HP support. Great deal if you have time to waste.
I did read that this was a problem in this blog but I ignored and now I'm suffering.

i purchased 3 of these from woot and all three had the western digital hard drive fail...bad deal, and western digital will not honor the 1 year warranty because it was sold to HP and HP only had 3 month warranty on these refurbs.

So when I purchased this computer last april.. I was hoping it would last. It didn't even last a year, my motherboard went out in december...