HP Pavilion 514n Desktop PC (2.2 GHz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 60GB hard drive)

Amazon Customer Reviews

(4 out of 5)

Good system for everyone except for 3D gamers

This system is a good choice for most people looking for a reliable, low cost computer. HP does a good job of covering the needs of most users, but this system has a week spot: 3D gaming.

A quick review of the components:
CPU: 2.2 GHZ Celeron - all the Celerons sold in new systems today are based on the same `core' as the P4. The only difference is that the Celeron has about half the on-die cache as the P4. This is one of the things that will impact 3D gaming, however it won't have a major affect most other applications used by normal users.

Video: Built "Intel Extreme" graphics (can not be upgraded) - This is fine for most users, and will play all the games out today. However you will not be able to play newer 3D games at there highest settings, and this will only get worse as the years go by. On the other hand 2-D games will run fine on this system for many years to come. So I would not buy this system if you want to play the latest 3D games. If you want to play 2D games (such as card games or strategy games), or pre-rendered 3D games (such as Myst style games), you will find that this system won't even blink.

The other components (hard disk, ram, CD-RW drive, DVD drive) are all perfect for the typical user. They should be more than enough for the life of the system. It has built in networking for those building a home network, or who want to connect to a high-speed Internet provider via Cable or DSL. It also has USB 2.0, which is great for MP3 players, scanners, and other external add-ons. With USB 2.0 you can also add high-speed upgrades such as extra hard drives or a DVD burner without opening up the computer. A nice feature for those not technically inclined.

The speakers are small and the sound won't be great. Try them out, and if they don't work for you replace them.

The software bundle is good: DVD player, MP3 software, Photo editing software and the Word Perfect productivity suite cover 90% of your software needs.

HP reliability is very high, so for most, but not all users (those 3D gamers I mentioned), this is a good low cost computer system you can expect to last for a long time.

If you are looking for a good low cost monitor to go with it, look at the Samsung monitors.

(4 out of 5)

No Microsoft Works

Be warned, in the event that it matters, that the Microsoft Works Suite listed is NOT part of the software package. It was not included on my computer and an HP representative tells me that this listing is an error. I'm slightly annoyed. It's not really the reason I bought the computer, but I did note the inclusion of this software when I was making the decision.

Otherwise it's great.

(4 out of 5)

Had it for 4 months but........

As of Sept 2003 the PC would not power up. So I have to ship it to HP in CA to see what's the matter. Thank God it's still in warranty! The tech support was good and I hope the repair will be the same.
The reason I gave 4 stars is because the shared graphic card can't be upgraded.

UPDATE: You can upgrade the graphics by adding a PCI card. I added an ATI Radeon 9250 Diamond Stealth with 256MB of memory. Now I can play those games wich gave me an error saying my video memory wasn't enough to play the game although Doom 3 still gives me fits with choppy frame rate now and then.
Next upgrade will be a bigger hard drive around 400-500GB. You'd be surprised how fast you can eat up a 60GB hard drive with only a handfull of games loaded!

(5 out of 5)

Great general workhorse w. some upgradability but limited

I have had this system for 5 years now & have upgraded the base system in several ways:

256MB RAM is now 512MB (am thinking about going to 1GB for about $15.00 investment)
Added a GEFORCE 256MB Graphics card
Upgraded the HD to a 250GB drive (am using less than 1/4 of it)
Upgraded the chipset and bios drivers to most recent ones
Bought a 19" LCD monitor.
Added a Logitech speaker system with a subwoofer

This has been a great system. I have never had a hardware problem with it, although the original HD (now in a USB case) recently crashed--except for the Microsoft XP/SP2 problems that crop up now and then (I have never had to do a Recovery, but have done many Restores).

I don't do games, except for a Flight Simulator 98 and Microsoft Golf and a couple other 2D games. Mostly I do Investments and computer research, and spend several hours/day, every day on one or other system.

I also have 2 other computer systems, one is newer--a Compaq Presario SR1610NX--with more memory, one is an older laptop (Toshiba 4090XDVD--mostly used as backup when troubleshooting).

If you can find a used (preferably lightly used) Pavillion 514n, buy it for about $100 or less, and do some of the upgrades, especially HD and memory, and you'll have a great deal. Some folks are giving them away!!