HP Pavilion p6510f Desktop PC Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
For your average user this is a great system. Quad Core CPU along with 4gb of ram rocks for normal use. I was amazed don't know if it's Windows 7 or if the extra utility that Hp provides is in play but I plugged in all my peripherals to the USB ports and fired it up.

The system recognized and installed all my peripherals some around 2-3 years old. My HP Printer and my Life Cam camera were recognized and the correct drivers installed.

Your average user will be 1000% satisfied with this system. 4gb is enough for Windows 7 unless you are doing gaming or really intensive graphics. My dvd playing of movies and my netflix streaming looked great on my 27" viewsonic monitor. I read a rating of the quad core CPU used and it scored highest in video streaming and normal in the other tests. So this system is optimized to play your movies.

The machine was just plain fast, I couldn't believe how fast it was for the measly $450.00 I paid for it!!

By the way it has 4 memory slots and is using 2 ddr3 Memory Modules so you can upgrade to 8gb Memory without having to trash your old memory. Dell loves to put in 1gb Dram so you end up losing the memory. This was not a concern for me because I'm replacing the memory with 8gb of (2X4) of G.Skill 1333 memory.

At $450.00 this machine bought at a famous office supply store this system is a bargain.

Now the Cons.
I'm the type who is just not satisfied with a plain system, its just no fun to use the stock system. I felt I wanted to buy a Cheap System than upgrade and make the system into something much better than you buy stock from the stores.
I'm upgrading the RAM to 8gb ddr 1333. Put in a 1gb gamer card an extra fan maybe a SSD hard drive and we are off and running. Before buying this system I confirmed with HP that it has a 300 Watt Power Supply. Well I cracked open the case and it only has 250 Watt PS.

By the way the stock powersupply is very quiet. The situatio turned out not to be too bad 400 Watt PS are available on Amazon for $20.00 and I ended up buying the Thermaltake W0070RUC TR2 Series 430W Power Supply with 2 Fans for $40.00. But it is an inconvenience. There are Passive Vga cards available that will run on this without the need for a Power Supply upgrade.

For my video card I bought a XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 1 GB DDR5 DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card HD567XZNF3 on amazon for $100.00 reason why I chose it was that besides users saying it brought the Windows Experience index to a whopping 7. It also according to 1 user who measured it uses 75 Watts of power at full tilt.

A 300 watt power supply is sufficient to run it but a 250 watt is cutting it too close so by by stock power supply. By the way if you go to support section on hp and pump in the model number there is a sheet that covers this and if I had known about the support section I wouldn't have been surprised.

A negative for me is that if you use more than 2 slots the memory speed will slow down to 1066 so in order to get that 33% boost in memory I couldn't use my current 2ghz 1333 memory sticks

For me sound is not that important and I'll be happy with the sound provided it has jack to support everything including digital
By the way some good links if you want to go into depth are
For the system as a whole
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and for the Motherboard
[...]

I did find out one thing that was distressing. Turns out that if you use more than two memory slots than the ram will default to the lower frequency. So instead of buying 2gb stick I had to buy 4gb sticks of Ram to be assured of the speediest system.

I looked up the motherboard on the HP sight and guess what the CPU is upgradeable to the Phenom series so in the future when the Phenom comes down to a low price and it will I'll be able to upgrade the CPU for the moment the quad speed CPU that this comes with is fine. It had a rating in the high 6 for windows experience level and with a fast video card I'm sure it's ample to handle anything but the highest games which I don't play anyway.

One drawback is that according to the motherboard manual the machine is Sata not Sata 2 for most of you that won't mean anything but if you plan to upgrade to a SSD Hard drive like I do than that means that you simply won't get the throughput of a SATA 2. It'll be plenty fast but not reach maximum potential.

Anyway in summation this machine as is is great for the average user and is very upgradeable if in the future you need more power. So it's a great machine for now and for the future!!

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Product Description

Get the right PC for photos, videos and music. Transfer photos directly from a memory card to the HP Pavilion p6510f PC. Create photo slideshows, share home videos, play your favorite tunes and watch DVDs using the exclusive HP MediaSmart Software Suite, your one-stop multimedia and entertainment center. This desktop computer also has built-in Wi-Fi, so you can browse the Web without using cables and connect to a wireless printer easily. Enjoy simple productivity using an affordable desktop computer. Get great performance and work more efficiently with the HP Pavilion p6510f PC, powered by a quad-core processor. Burn files onto CDs and DVDs, create custom disc labels with text and images, and burn the labels directly onto the discs using LightScribe Technology. Connect a digital camcorder to your HP desktop using the FireWire® port, plus enjoy high-definition audio. Store thousands of songs and photos right on the hard drive and count on great service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a desktop icon that provides one-click access to the Help and Support Center.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2611 in Personal Computers
• Color: Black
• Brand: HP
• Model: WW639AA#ABA
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 15.32" h x 6.97" w x 16.85" l, 9.75 pounds
• CPU: AMD Athlon 2.8 Hz
• Memory: 4GB SDRAM
• Hard Disk: 750GB
• Processors: 1

Features

• AMD Athlon II 630 Quad-CoreProcessor; 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM) (expandable to 16GB); 750GB Hard Drive; Genuine Windows 7 Premium 64-bit
• ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics; High Definition Audio with up to 7.1 surround sound capabilities; SuperMulti DVD Burner
• HP USB keyboard and optical mouse; 15-in-1 memory card reader: SmartMedia, xD, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD)
• Mini Secure Digital, Compact Flash I & II, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick & Pro, Memory Stick Duo & Pro Duo, RSMMC, MMC Mobile, MMC+
• Front Ports: Headphone, Microphone and 2 USB 2.0; Back Ports: 4 USB 2.0, 2 USB 1.1, VGA-out & DVI-D, Microphone/Line-in/Line-out
• 10/100/1000Base-T network interface; Built-in wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n; 2 external 5.25" bay; 1 external 3.5" bay; 2 internal 3.5" bay
• Rear speaker-out, Side speaker out, Center (subwoofer), LAN, 1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port & Optical Digital Audio Out (Back)

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