Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Pavilion a350n Desktop PC (2.80-GHz Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 512 MB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD+RW/CD-RW Combo Drive)

I have owned my a350n for several years now and really find it still very efficient for all my needs. Over the years I've added 1.5GB of DDR Memory, a 128mb video card and a 300 watt power supply. For the little extra expense in upgrading I've avoided having to upgrade to a new PC for now. I expect another 2 years of usage out of this machine before I invest in newer technology.

This is a solid machine. Nicely built, and easy to remove the panel to upgrade. The Ram and processor are eminently upgradable for future consideration.
This machine is *Very* fast, has a large disk and enough ports, firewire, ethernet etc. to satisify most anyone.
BTW, I am an engineer who knows and designs hardware.
The down side?
1. It looks like a 1940's toaster. Hmm, maybe thats good...
2. The bundled software is full of trials and even annoying reminders (advertising) that I will soon strip out.
3. The memory is 512MB of DDR333. Not bad, but could be a little better.
I removed it and replaced it with 4 512MB modules (2GB)of DDR400. Already faster than blazes with the DDR333, the new memory moves yet faster; I would say my apps now move 25 to 40 percent faster with this.
Upside:
The 250 watt rated power supply in this unit is enough for most anything; most people, even technical support folks don't understand this.
The processor uses about 35 watts; each drive less than 25 watts, the sound card less than 15 watts and add on cards less than 20 watts each.
So everything uses less than 130 watts for real.
Even with that fancy $500 video card which warns you to use a 300 watt supply, there is overhead. That card draws a max of 50 watts more for a grand total of 180 watts.
Another thing; I cannot stand computer noise and this unit is very, very quiet. Nice!
Also, there is more software inside than the package indicates: Take a look.
For $800 or so a great deal. Even some $1500 units are not this good.
Then again, I like the doggie search character, so that shows what my opinion is worth.
Cheers!

This computer is worth every penny. I am a big fan of gaming (Counter-Strike) and tis computer preforms like the game was ment to be played on it. My friend just bought a top of the line computer with the best grphic card and i cant tell the difference between mine ans his.
My computer
$1,000(1 Gig memory upgrade)

His
$3,000

This computer fits all my needs. It is very fast, I havent had 1 single problem with it, it runs great, and it is perfect for gaming!

I used to have a sony vaio and i hated it. Teh memory went out in a second and it lagged like there was no tomorrow!

Any Questions at all about this computer email me at seany012012@yahoo.com!

Buy it! You wont regret it ! i promise!!!

I hate the idea that I had to return this system twice before finding one that worked or me. Both of the first two did not see the DVD and after hours on the phone was finally told to return the PC. But the third was a charm and it works fine. The media ports (2 USB 1 Firewire) and headphone speaker access on the face are very user friendly and the hardware package overall is aboce par. Access to the inside of the PC is simple and everything is at your fingertips. So installing new Ram and a Video card for gaming was a breeze. The only complaint is the onboard audio card. I would have had second thoughts if it had been brought up before the purchase. But the marked down price and rebate made this an easy decision for me.

Overall it's been a great computer very few problems and as I already noted the hardware package is pretty good. I would like to have had a better software package but the cost of the Hardware made it cheaper to purchase the A350n than build a new PC that would have been close to the same performance without the software.

I got this PC two weeks ago and I must say this is a great desktop. It has almost everything an intermediate PC user wants: it is fast( P4 HT @ 2.8 GHz), lots of hard disk space(160 GB, good if you want to edit videos), 512 MB of RAM, USB and IEEE 1394 ports(to connect to digital camcorders), CD and DVD burner, etc, etc. The HD makes some noise, but the performance of this desktop as a whole is fantastic. The absence of recovery CDs, used when you need to format the HD, is not a source of problems at all, once you can create the CDs set very easily(there is even an application for that included among the provided softwares), as long as you do not make a mess of the HP Recovery Drive. It is an excellent HP product. I really recommend it. Congratulations to HP.