Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Pavilion S3500F Desktop PC (2.80 GHz AMD Athlon X2 5400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

I had been wary of purchasing a computer with Vista operating system due to all the bad press. However, since XP is no longer easily available, I had no choice, and landed on this computer because of (a) great price (b) slim profile and (c) 4 GB RAM memory. The memory was the final and most important point for me as I'd heard that Vista requires at least 2 GB of memory to perform.

WOW - this thing hauls you know what. You click on Internet Explorer and the browser is open, and a second or two later the page is open. Mega fast. And I really am enjoying the Vista interface.

And yes, it works with my 7 year-old printer via a USB hookup. There is no parallel printer port if your printer requires that.

Also, I like the HP support software which automatically downloads software updates (like drivers for the video card etc) for me, something which Windows Update does not do for non-Windows drivers etc for the most part.

Overall, this is a great value and I'm very pleased. You won't believe how small the box is when it arrives!

Hope this helps.

On the upside the small size of the unit is great.On the downside the small size of the unit makes it difficult to upgrade components.
If you are a gamer this computer is not the one for you.The vidio card is the weak link in the unit. As we all know in order to upgrade the vidio you must increase power output and with the compact size of the unit the selection is limited.
As I am not a gamer this is not an issue. We use the computer for a home office and for that purpose it does quite well.

If you like the power of a PC but not the size, this is a great PC. I like the compact size of the computer. I just put it on my desk and it takes up little room. Also, you can lay it on its side if you want. The speed is really quick. The only drawback I can say it that there is a kind of annoying orange light on the disk drive that is constantly flashing. But you can't go wrong with this PC.

Fast! I mean really FAST!!! I wish I can complain about something in this system, but... I can't! Haven't tried it in gaming though. Other than that - AWESOME! Besides, it's HP, only brand I always trust. No regrets, whatsoever! On the other hand, I might contemplate about blu-ray, bluetooth, etc. but let's be realistic - if you need all those "perks" get ready to dig deeper in your wallet. Excellent balance between quality and price. I'm thinking to get another one - just for web TV and videos. You'll be surprized how compact it is, too.

we bought this cuz we needed a new computer and needed to get something with wireless and this was perfect. we also needed windows xp to run some programs. after install of xp it did not see the ethernet adapter so i could not get on the internet to gwt all the drivers so i tried tons of stuff but i finally got the right one fron nvidia.com when i inputed the info that i got from hp.com about the specs of the computer. then i ran the driver program and then it recognised the ethernet card and i was on the internet went to windows update and got everything i needed and no probs. i read other articles that people cannot get their driver for this or others like but i did and it runs great. so now we will have vista and xp on this nice little computer.