HP Pavilion M8400F Desktop PC (AMD Phenom Quad Core 9500 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 720 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

List Price: $997.00 Discount Price: $795.87

Features:

• Powerful multimedia desktop with 2.2 GHz AMD Phenom 9500 quad-core processor
• Dual 360 GB hard drives, 3 GB RAM (8 GB max), 16x LightScribe DVD drive
• NVidia GeForce 8500 GT graphics with up to 1535 MB total available memory; 10/100 Ethernet; open bay for optional HP Personal Media Drive
• Connectivity: 6 USB, 2 FireWire, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, 1 DVI, 1 S-Video, 1 composite A/V, digital audio output, surround sound speaker output, 15-in-1 memory card reader
• Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (Service Pack 1); includes remote control and wired keyboard/mouse

Customer Reviews:

Like the computer - don't like the operating system. [Posted on 2008-06-20]
The HP Pavilion M8430F Desktop PC I purchased from amazon.com arrived within 2 days of the order. Perfect timing. Initial setup was easy and the documentation, though minimal, was adequate. After several days of working with the unit the DVD recorder/player stopped working. I immediately called HP's toll free customer support and after turning the unit over to their control on-line, the technician edited the registry and solved the problem. I was impressed to say the least. The unit is fast at rendering video clips, which is the main reason I chose this computer in the first place. However, that said, not all of my video/audio editing software has installed successfully. The software in question was updated to work with Vista but apparently only works with Vista's 32 bit version. From what I can glean from user forums the software really doesn't like any version of Vista. So, now I am at a crossroad. I'd like to go back to Windows XP Pro in order to get ALL of my software to work, but in so doing I will apparently lose the use of that 4th gig of ram and possibly all of the Windows Media Center capability that the unit has to offer. Decisions, decisions. I like the computer - but I don't like the operating system.

AV input [Posted on 2008-06-24]
This is a nice computer but one of the main reasons that I bought it was because it had the audio/video input card in the front of the tower in the fourth picture. I was wrongly mislead when I just got it in the mail there was no such interface, but other than that I don't really have a problem with it. This makes me mad because I bought a new monitor separately in faith that I would be able to use it to hook my 360 to my computer and play on my monitor (I have to still see if that is possible).

superb [Posted on 2008-07-02]
Extremely happy with my new system. No porblems have surfaced using Vista as of yet.

Bad documentation, no connector [Posted on 2008-09-20]
It is one of the things that drive consumers crazy. M8400f with the Nvidia 8500 GT card does not have a VGA connector. You need a DVI cable or VGA-DVI adapter. Not a big deal but no warning until you come home and try to assemble. Horrible first impression. I hope to come back and update to a better review.

UPDATE: Bought the cable and so far very happy with the computer. It is as advertised in terms of performance.

I do not seem to be able to change the star rating but I'll give it 4 stars. Can't imagine being able to beat what I got for the price (found a clearance below anything I had seen)

Quad-core screamer [Posted on 2008-09-23]
This is quite a step up from my previous systems. Very fast. No problem performing multiple tasks. Much better than average video card. Two 360 gig hard drives. Fast is the word. All-in-all a great system that is fun to use. Highly recommended.
GerryO

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