Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Pavilion Media Center M8200N Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 6000+, 3 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

This is my second HP computer, I have also owned Dells, Macs, and I also use a Gateway computer at work. I think this is a great computer for the price. I was looking for a computer that could do a good job at handling photos and also editing video files. I currently use Adobe Premier 3.0 and Premier is a very memory intensive program, the new HP really handles this need well. I was concerned about the new Vista operating system, but so far, it has been working fine. I really like the interface and new features of the Vista system. I had one initial problem with Vista. Be warned that at this point, you should not try to use the "sleep mode" feature, my computer would not "wake up." I called HP tech (surprisingly easy to reach and very helpful) and they helped me set it up in the hibernation mode and said the problem will soon be fixed in a Vista update. This computer comes with 3gigs of RAM, expandable to 8. It also comes with a port for a pocket drive, which is a great option for backup and extra storage, the extra drive is not included with the unit. I have a HP WW2207 22" monitor hooked up to it and it looks and runs great! I'm sure there are bigger and better high end computers, but this HP is really well designed and the price is very reasonable.

I got this desktop couple weeks ago with a new 22' LCD monitor.

ISSUE 1- When I connected the two, the screen was flickering all over. All the drivers were properly installed and the settings were fine. So to figure out what the problem was, we tried the monitor with another desktop and the desktop with another monitor. Obviously, the DESKTOP created the flickers and the monitor was fine (pretty good actually). Then, we installed an average video card with a DVI output (Oh, this desktop does NOT have a DVI output, which is a shame), and the flickering was gone. So there was something wrong with the integrated video card. Well, it is indeed a very cheap video card. Getting another video card for the PCI-Express slot is also a PROBLEM due to the TV card that is sitting right next to it. That means, you have to choose a slim video card that doesn't have a heat sinker but instead has a fan and have to bear with the extra noise. You kinda have to do that because those with a heat sink basically won't fit into the PCI-express. Finally, I got a new video card and got rid of the very annoying flickering. An extra $50.

ISSUE 2- The hard drive is VERY noisy. I am not sure if this is all due to hardware or also a Vista problem, because I installed Ubuntu (Linux), and the hard disk noise is much less if not completely gone.

ISSUE 3- Be aware that it comes with a 32 bit Vista although the cpu's are 64 bit. The machine is noticeably faster with 64 bit Ubuntu.

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with this desktop, especially due to the integrated video card. I am not a gamer, so thought I wouldn't care that it is an old video card while buying. But how could I know the annoying flickering! And again, there is no DVI output.

HP 8200 is a good system that works well. One notch down from their HP9040 system, the 8200 uses an AMD chip instead of Intel. The 9040 uses a quad channel while the 8200 uses a dual channel. The 8200 only has an analog output while the 9040 has an HD digital out which would make a difference if you needed to connect your system to an HD monitor or HDTV. Vista takes a little getting use to if your not familiar with it or are very use to WinXP. You will need a transfer cable if you want tranfer your files and setting easily from XP to Vista. Your can transfer files using discs but its a pain. Many of my programs on their factory discs would not install, including my HP 4010 printer. Vista does have an "incompatibility" install program to help with troublesome XP programs that won't autorun. For other programs I went to the product website, (Epson printer), and downloaded drivers and patchs. Vista will ask and sometimes find the needed downloads and patchs. With 3GB the system is fast. The over-the-air TV and Radio tuner work well. The 8200 can be your computer, TV and Radio all in one if that was a consideration, lets say for a dorm room where space is limited. My only complaint is the cheap keyboard and even cheaper mouse that comes with the 8200. I would opt for a upgrade not from HP. Otherwise, quite satisfied. By the way, some tech friends have said I should take out Vista and install WinXP, but in the long run did'nt really see any advantages to going backwards. If you want to do it, there is a link in Help that helps you do it.

This is a great starter computer. Its fast, has a dual processor, 500GB of memory, and Vista works well after you install all the updates. When i first turned it on it kept freezing on me and acting weird. I went to the Microsoft website and installed all of the available Vista updates, which thanks to the computer's fast processor and having a fast internet connection only took minutes. After that the performance improved a whole lot. One thing if you have a high resolution monitor... you need to buy a better video card. The one this thing comes with can barely keep up. I bought a GeForce8600GT and it has improved this computer a whole lot. All video content runs so smooth.. I love it! I will definately be getting me a readyboost flash card to take advantage of that feature and sometime in the near future i'll be adding more ram as this baby can accept up to 8GB.

All in all, good computer, but needs some work to make it perfect and as always, Amazon offered a great price and free shipping! Very happy customer here.

The speed, system memory of 3GB, and performance are great for the price. The only thing I dislike is the CD/DVD Tray. It's very thin and fragile with the touch of cheap quality. I had to return my first one back to Amazon.com because the CD/DVD compartment lid was stuck on the second day. I bought it again because of the price, and performance. Just keep hoping that the DVD tray will work fine this time.