OOPS!

Stupid double post . . .

intelisevil wrote:Does anyone know if I were to wipe my drive and reinstall from the recovery disks, would the bloatware be reinstalled?

Couldn't say for sure, since I haven't done it, but based on past experience I would say yes. It would be the same state as when you unpacked the system: not only would the bloatware be there, but the recovery partition would be recreated.

If you had a generic Win 7 x64 DVD (rumor has it one could be downloaded from the net) you could install using the license key that's printed on the sticker on your PC's case. I believe the key would limit functionality to Home Premium (no Professional or Ultimate functionality). You'd have to separately download and install the HP-specific drivers, and find free or commercial software to do what the bloatware does: office tools, DVD playing/burning, etc. If you were unhappy with the results, you could always fall back to the recovery disks.

Bought one of these. Received it on 9/16. It powered on once and now won't POST. After a couple of hours of screwing with it, it seems that all of the RAM slots are bad except one, and now I get the pleasure of sitting on the phone all night with some tech support person in India and hopefully get a warranty replacement.

Finally got mine.

Some scratches and dirt on the front of the case. The Microsoft product key sticker is half removed but I can still read the number.

Hard drive was flopping around, I was able to find three of the four screws to secure it back into place. The fourth screw is still floating around between the layers of sheet metal. I think I'll have to remove the motherboard to track it down. Otherwise, the innards look spotless.

I'm used to memory slots being populated starting at slot 1. Mine are in slots 3 & 4. With some people reporting bad memory slots, I'm going to do some testing before I upgrade and fill all four slots!

Fired it up, all three fans turned on and the wireless card (on the motherboard, not a separate PCI card) found three available (secure) networks, 2-4 bars. I don't have a wireless network currently so I really can't test it.

I've burned my recovery DVDs. So far, so good.

Mine looks perfect, like new. I cracked it open this weekend and added a Nvidia GT 520 video card and a 2tb internal SATA drive.

I had to supply my own SATA cable, but observed there are 4 SATA ports on the motherboard. I also had to
buy a SATA power cable adapter from RadioShack ($3.99).

Also noted that there are two more USB connectors on the motherboard, in case anyone wants to put in a front-side USB

jibal wrote:This is nonsense. Internal speakers on desktop machines are only used to produce a beep; they aren't connected to the sound card.

No. Many desktop PCs come with what is called "onboard audio". There is audio off the motherboard to a small speaker. It is not just for signals/beep.

I just set up a classroom full of HP desktops. They have no sound card, but onboard audio. The other classrooms have other models of HP desktops, and those also have onboard audio. We have an old lab with some old Dell and Premio systems, and, yes, they all have onboard audio. I know this, because I have played music on all of them, and have often had to disable onboard audio because of mischievous playing of sound files, youtube, etc. We are budget conscious and do not buy systems with sound cards.

From these comments, I am wondering whether it is more likely to find onboard audio on HP desktops. While it may be much less common than I had thought, it most certainly does exist.

Does anyone know how to add a second HD to this computer? I have a SATA HD out of a iMac that I want to add to this computer, but I'm not sure of how to hook it up.

fiatster wrote:Does anyone know how to add a second HD to this computer? I have a SATA HD out of a iMac that I want to add to this computer, but I'm not sure of how to hook it up.

You'll need the two SATA cables, data and power, because they are not supplied in the computer, but connections are. Actually you need one SATA cable (the one from the iMac may work, or may not) and one adapter cable for the power, called a Molex to SATA, here's a pic

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10226&cs_id=1022604&p_id=1253&seq=1&format=2

Any computer parts store should have both cables for a few bucks each, and should know exactly what you're talking about.

Unplug the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that, trace back the connections from the hard drive that it came with and you'll see its data cable plugs in on the motherboard where it is labeled with a very tiny "SATA1". Right nearby is an unused "SATA2" connector. Plug the cable for the drive there, and attach a power connector with the Molex-to-SATA adapter to the drive of course.

Pretty easy. You do not need to change anything in the BIOS.

If it's a drive from a Mac you will need to reformat it in Windows with a full format. Windows can do it but it could be easier to use a utility. If your HP came with a Western Digital hard drive you can use their free utility, no matter what brand hard drive you're adding. Download the program and manual here:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

Starting at page 90, "Adding a New A Hard Disk" the manual walks you through it.

Getting the HP drive cage out to screw the drive into it is another matter. I can't describe that, but here's the HP page with pics and videos:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph03429&lc=en

I got two. First one I installed 16gb (4x4gb) sticks. Had to re-seat ram 3 or 4 times before it would post. Now up and running with all 16gb showing. Windows experience only 4.3. Seems like it should be higher.
The 2nd one is running 8gb (4x2gb) and windows experience is 4.2. Go figure!

jiggersgreen - Are these the overall windows experience results or the RAM results? I do not know why your results did not improve with the new RAM but my RAM results went from 5.9 (original 4gb) to 7.3 when I installed 16gb. Did you refresh the windows experience after installing the new Ram?

Best Wishes!

jiggersgreen wrote:I got two. First one I installed 16gb (4x4gb) sticks. Had to re-seat ram 3 or 4 times before it would post. Now up and running with all 16gb showing. Windows experience only 4.3. Seems like it should be higher.
The 2nd one is running 8gb (4x2gb) and windows experience is 4.2. Go figure!

I installed the same amount of ram, but my Windows experience index went up to 7.3. I do remember having to click somewhere on the Windows experience screen that I had installed new hardware before the rating would "recognize" the newlly-installed ram (even though the bios had previously recognized it).

Frustration abounds! Wouldn't boot this morning. Ran windows start up diagnostic. Result was problem unfixable contact mfgr. I suspect it's MB or ram slot related but not sure. Do I contact Woot or HP to get things resolved. This is the Gray HP with external WIFI antennae.

jiggersgreen wrote:Frustration abounds! Wouldn't boot this morning. Ran windows start up diagnostic. Result was problem unfixable contact mfgr. I suspect it's MB or ram slot related but not sure. Do I contact Woot or HP to get things resolved. This is the Gray HP with external WIFI antennae.

Here's Woot's take on it. Bottom line seems to be: if you're pissed and want a refund, try Woot; otherwise you're better off contacting HP under the 90-day warranty.

Mine is perfect, other than there was a loose screw in the case that I could not find where it went, and the plastic covering over the front ports is missing, so there's holes where additional USB and audio connectors would go. I put a GTX 550 Ti (and of course a better power supply, 430 watts is fine for it) and it runs games great.

So I actually bought this computer through woot, but it had the 750GB hard drive. Everything else is identical to this computer (spec wise). I noticed my computer came with a 24-pin motherboard connector with a 20-pin power supply connector. Anybody else have that?

http://i.imgur.com/Job22.jpg

That doesn't seem right. But the computer seems to run just fine...

Well, I took the plunge and upgraded to 16 GB RAM. Like steve6611, I'm putting my 4GB of Samsung RAM up for sale on eBay, for the same price: $22 shipped to the US. If you have the same Samsung RAM and wish to double it, here's your deal. ... Update: sold.

sandmanac wrote:So I actually bought this computer through woot, but it had the 750GB hard drive. Everything else is identical to this computer (spec wise). I noticed my computer came with a 24-pin motherboard connector with a 20-pin power supply connector. Anybody else have that?

Having already had my case open once today, I'm loath to do it a second time... but the pic that Woot provided seems to show the same configuration, with 4 empty holes at the bottom of the power connector.

That said, if I'd received only a 750 GB disk, I'd be on the horn to HP in a heartbeat.

I bought this for my daughter and hooked it up at her place yesterday. It also came with the mini PC card with the external connection for the antenna but no antenna. I emailed woot service and was told it didn't come with an external antenna. I looked on the site and my paperwork for warranty info but not finding who to call. Maybe easier to just buy an antenna though. Has anyone found the part number or a 3rd party option they can recommend?

MisterSadoo wrote:I bought this for my daughter and hooked it up at her place yesterday. It also came with the mini PC card with the external connection for the antenna but no antenna. I emailed woot service and was told it didn't come with an external antenna. I looked on the site and my paperwork for warranty info but not finding who to call. Maybe easier to just buy an antenna though. Has anyone found the part number or a 3rd party option they can recommend?

OK, I found the HP part number. 594323-001. There's one on eBay for $12. I might be able to get HP to ship one at no charge but time is money so I'll probably just bite the bullet. If anyone has a 3rd party recommendation I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Finally received mine today (I'm stationed in Japan, so it took over 30 days to ship) and it's dead! Hooked it up and the power light comes on, HDD and fans spin up, but no POST beep, USB power for mouse/keyboard or video. I opened it up and found the power cable wasn't connected all the way, but fixing that didn't help. I also pulled the RAM from slot 3/4 and put them in 1/2 with the same results. Pulled the RAM completely and got a slow repeating beep.

Put one stick in slot 4 only and it booted. I'll play some more, but I might have a bad stick of RAM or several bad slots. :-/ I wonder if HP will just send me a RAM stick?

So I'm sure this is a long dead thread, but I switched the RAM around so the other stick was in slot 4 and it booted. I put both sticks back into slots 3/4 like I arrived in the mail and nothing. Then I moved one stick of RAM to slot 1 to see if would boot that way and nothing. Finally I put one stick in slot 4 and the other in slot 2 and it booted with both sticks... I'd need more sticks of RAM to check if I have a bad slot, but I just think that like the older machines it's supposed to be in alternating slots (4 and 2) when you only have two sticks... I just wonder why it came with them in 3/4. Any ideas?

nermal101 wrote:So I'm sure this is a long dead thread, but I switched the RAM around so the other stick was in slot 4 and it booted. I put both sticks back into slots 3/4 like I arrived in the mail and nothing. Then I moved one stick of RAM to slot 1 to see if would boot that way and nothing. Finally I put one stick in slot 4 and the other in slot 2 and it booted with both sticks... I'd need more sticks of RAM to check if I have a bad slot, but I just think that like the older machines it's supposed to be in alternating slots (4 and 2) when you only have two sticks... I just wonder why it came with them in 3/4. Any ideas?

I believe it should work no matter which slots you use. The board is designed with two memory channels to increase performance; putting identical DIMMs in slots of the same color (1/2 or 3/4) enables this benefit. With the memory in slots 4 and 2, it works but it's not as fast as it could be. I'd want to do a little more testing -- ensuring, for instance, that you're seating the memory completely in the odd slots -- but the data you've provided indicates that both slots 1 and 3 may be bad. Maybe the single memory channel that comprises those slots is bad.

I don't think you need more memory to test if the slots are bad. It should run with just one DIMM in any slot, I think. Now you know you have two good DIMMs, so I think you have enough to work with. With the long lead time (from your location) and the short warranty, time is growing short to get a replacement if you want one. Hope that helps; good luck!

In case anyone is interested, I decided to turn this into a gaming rig. I followed a lot of the information in this thread, and also researched all the recent GPUs. I've never had a gaming computer before so I knew I'd have to take some time to figure out the best bang for my buck. After all, this rig started as an affordable commodity.

Like what was stated in the thread earlier, all that is necessary is a PSU and a GPU and you got yourself a decent gaming rig. I didn't really know what would fit but found that the case is just a mid-tower and any standard PSU will fit.

For the PSU I went with the Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200

I'm not sure what makes a PSU good, but it got good reviews on NewEgg (4 eggs with 200 reviews) and it was cheap @ $60. Plugged it in, worked well, had plenty of power connectors and the fan is very quiet. Very happy with this purchase.



For the GPU, I went with the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

It was only $150 ($160 after shipping + tax) and was ranked really high on videocardbenchmark.net:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6850

It is ranked 13 out of around 200 of the best high end graphics cards there. It also got best bang for your buck on tomshardware for the $160 mark for September 2011.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-performance-radeon-geforce,3018-3.html

I installed the PSU and GPU on Saturday and everything worked the first time around. Super simple. I was slightly worried that the GPU (which takes up 2 slots) might be too big for the mid-tower. Or at the very least I'd have to rewire some of the internals to accommadate it. But needless to say, the card popped in perfect.

So after both were installed I wanted to try it out.

I downloaded the Battlefield 3 beta to not only play an awesome game but to test. The game automatically assigns everything to "high" for the card. Although, there is an "ultra", i put it on it and it ran fine.. i seriously could not tell a difference between high and ultra. Fraps tells me I get about an average of 42 FPS on "high" setting. The game runs flawless.


I mainly wanted to get the PSU and GPU upgrade for Diablo 3, but now that this thing runs great I think I will be buying Battlefield 3 because it is one of the best war games I've played (even though it's still in the beta!)

So after all is said and done the money I spent was around $500 for a very good gaming rig. It plays the latest high graphics intensive game (Battlefield 3) on high at 40FPS. Spending any more money on a graphics card would just be future proofing it for other very high graphics intensive games. Diablo 3 will have lower requirements than Battlefield 3. The 4gb of memory is more than enough.. the quad core is more than enough.. and the graphics card is more than enough.


Computer - $305
GPU - $160
PSU - $60
-------------
$525

525 for a great gaming rig. Definitely worth the buy.

The unit I got has been running perfectly for 2 1/2 months.