HP Pavilion Slimline s7320n user reviews (Celeron M 1.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB HDD)

Pros Small, big hard drive

Cons not upgradable, no vista support, slow

Pros Small footprint

Cons DVD burner broke, Terrible service through HP.

Summary Based on my trying to get this system repaired, I would not buy another product from HP. The DVD burner would not burn data. They sent me a replacement part. That did not work. Sent the unit to HP and double packaged it. The unit came back with the front bezel damaged and the fan or hard drive making a loud noise. Called tech support in India, took off the side panel and put it back on. Noise stopped for the most part. Now they want me to ship it back or send me the replacement part. I asked them how do I bill for my labor as the unit is under warranty. They did not have an answer. Wanted to speak a supervisor - put on hold no one answered. Run away from HP.

Pros truly quiet, ample power and speed, tons of ports

Cons HP's kludgy business-oriented software regime

Summary This is my idea of what all pc's should be today: super quiet, reasonably small, lots of speed and memory, and ports for all purposes. The CNET editors' complaints about upgradeability come from a lack of imagination: the modem slot gives you a place to install a board after you give up dialup (which you must to enjoy what this pc has to offer) and having usb, ethernet, firewire, and a dozen kinds of card reader slots gives you all the options you could want. Using Intervideo Windvd I'm able to watch dvd movies in glorious full resolution and color on an lcd widescreen monitor and multitask underneath it if I want! This is the pc to put in your living room and use as a media player. The hardware is first-rate and will do the job.

I would have given my slimline a 10, but HP is pretty backward about configuring the os desktop for home users. Too much spyware and freeware come with the os and hp's own disc backup utility relies on a trial copy of Roxio which wasn't even loaded properly, a big no-no. Configuring profiles and passwords for separate users gets tripped up by the ghost "HP administrator" whose profile always seems to steal your place in the hierarchy. Still, Windows media player is there and once you prune out the deadwood software and add your own you've got a great pc.

Pros Best Media Center on the planet

Cons None that I can think of.

Summary This PC is perfect for my needs. It is as if I designed it myself. I have two of them at home. HP sells an excellent USB external tuner that includes a remote control if you want broadcast TV. Check out the My Movies add in for Media Center. Love the high performance Celeron-M with 1MB L2 cache. This machine plays WMV 9 HD 720p without a glitch. The reveiwer knocks it for the ball mouse but I find that it works great on my granite countertop where optical mice will not work well. The reviewer also says it has no expandability but with five free USB ports and a Firewire port what else do you need? HP also sells a cool Personal Media Drive (USB connected) that sits right on top of the Slimline for 300GB extra storage.