HP Pavilion Elite M9150F Desktop PC (Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 720 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Reviews

• awesome

  
  By ASO96FG0KCRJO on 2008-02-22
  This computer is fast, quiet and extremely powerful for the price. I was a little worried about getting this computer becouse it was 64bit. have only found one program that wouldn't work. All the games I have work fine so far, Oblivion, WOW, Battlestations, Driver, etc.. Hooking up a TV through the HDMI cable works great, just make sure to run the video card at the same resolution as the tv, not the monitor. Changing channels on live tv seems a little sluggish, but I use the channel guide the most so dont notice it to much. I also have a Dell inspiron 531, dual core 2gb ram with the same video card and many of the same features. This HP runs quieter,faster, and was only about $200 more. I do video editing, burn DVD's, and put them on my PSP or Ipod very quickly with this computer. Gonna give the Dell to my mother for her B-day. Because it has 4GB RAM 1GB is automatically alloted to the OS, and being that it's a Quad core means that its pretty hard to slow it down. I've been able to rip/burn a dvd and watch a recorded TV show, while web browsing with absolutely no lag on the recorded show.This is definitely a computer that you'll want to use with an HDTV and the monitor. Be aware that it only comes with 1 DVI, 1 HDMI, 2 S-Video output. There is a VGA output but it doesnt work do to the Video card. Definitely the best computer I've found for the price.
  
  

• Love it!

  
  By A3DIEBU257KDW9 on 2008-03-10
  I am giving this HP a 5 star rating with reservation, because it just is one sweet little computer, probably one of the most powerful machines for the money your can find.
  
  It is fast, quiet and flawless in execution of operation. Vista 64 actually runs most of the old programs I enjoy including BF2 and COD4. Microsoft Flight Simulator X has to be seem to be believed with Direct X 10 on this machine! Havent loaded Crysis yet but I can imagine. So far have only found one program that would not run (32bt virius checker). The on board sound system has as good a sound and utility as any add on sound card I have had in the past including the SB Hi/Fi card.
  
  
  Of course there is always somethings that needs to be addressed, This computer has limited expansion cabablities. If you dont need a phone moden than you can remove that and open one slot to work with. But other than that the machine comes pretty maxed out with card slots filled. One other thing I find a little on the light side is the power supply is only 400 watts. But adequate for the standard equipment supplied with the machine.
  
  For what it is as it comes from the box, I like this computer very much. Others in this review section have talked about its ablity to multifunction very well. I know I run things on my desktop and game play does not get affected at all. That is amazing if you have ever tried it with a single core processor machine you know what I am talking about.
  
  

• HP Pavilion Elite M9160F Desktop PC

  
  By A108RP07Y6GDO0 on 2008-06-19
  There are several reasons why I've only given this computer three stars.
  
  1. It doesn't come with a Vista 64 install disk. This makes it impossible to set it up as a Raid0. It's already set up in a non-raid configuration when you get it, and without a Vista 64 disk, you're stuck.
  
  2. It's under-powered. This thing should really have at least a 500 watt power supply. This makes upgrading a chore, since you WILL have to swap out the power supply.
  
  3. HD DVD: can you say Betamax?
  
  4. The case is too small, and it's further cramped with those proprietary portable media bays. Who is actually going to buy one of those overpriced things when they can buy a 1 terrabyte external hard drive for less money?
  
  5. The hard drives keep parking their heads (clicking) unless you turn off the power saving features.
  
  6. It will be difficult to swap out the optical drives without buying them from HP because of their non-standard appearance.
  
  7. Instead of 4 1GB RAM sticks, it should come with 2 2GB ones. Then upgrading to the maximum 8GB of RAM would be as simple as adding two more 2GB RAM modules. As it stands, you have to swap out all of the installed RAM and buy 4 2GB RAM modules.
  
  Other than that, it's a fast quiet computer. Once you go quad-core, you won't go back. I can watch a movie, whilst running a virus check, whilst compiling a C program without any lag. Also, it's pointless having a 64 bit Operating system unless you're going to take advantage of the ability to install 8 gigabytes of RAM!
  
  

• Good value

  
  By A33XKUJKDQA9BU on 2008-02-22
  Good basic machine. Not very expandable, unless you plan to use vendor-specific USB hard drives. Only 1 PCI slot available.
  
  

• Sweet Machine, Especially for the Price

  
  By A2WAZE9Z8ZQWPP on 2008-02-08
  Definitely a top notch machine and amazingly cheap! Great performance and runs VERY quiet. My only complaint is that there is not a ton of available slots for expansion.
  
  
• Great if used as is, ok if you modify
  By A20XYY96A4370I on 2008-06-26
  Out of the box this is a great machine. The case is elegant and quiet. 3GB of ram is the optimal configuration for a box running 32-bit vista premium (4GB can't all be accessed). The TV card/Windows media center intergration is flawless. There are a decent about of usb ports, and I have yet to find anything to tax the cpu. The graphics card is a little bit of a letdown. The graphics card is a low end geForce 8400GS. While the rest of the pc's components manage a Windows Experience index of 4.4, the card lowers it to 3.5. Its fine for general use, but you'll only run into that issue if you plan to run a lot of high end games (e.g. crysis).
  
  The only real down side of this machine is that it attempts to guide you down the path of more hp products by embedding a couple of ports for hp portable drives. The front of the machine has two slots avaiable. If you've ever looked for these drives, you'll quickly realize that they're more expensive than any external usb harddrive but are less compatible (read: will only work with another hp machine with the same ports). In addition to being a bad idea, the ports take up crucial real estate needed when trying to add additional drives or access memory modules. Bad HP. This isn't a deal breaker (I love mine), but something to be wary of. Overall a great system.
  
  
• GREAT COMPUTER FOR COLLEGE!!!
  By A1SRPDFV0VE19X on 2008-03-30
  I'll keep it short but sweet. This machine is great . It is easy to set-up and the features all work great. If I were to say something bad about it is that norton internet security, the security system it comes with, slows the system down to much; I would recommend another internet security system. I'm a college student and this system is perfect for my scholastic endeavors. I highly recommend it.
  
  Follow up:
  Oct. 11, 2008- Great computer! I would like to retract some previous advice. I stated above that you should buy different anti-virus software. Well I did and the results weren't so great. My computer caught a virus, and the anti-virus I got (kaspersky) wasn't powerful enough to save my info. But the computer works great. I called HP and they walked me through restoring my computer and told me that Norton is the best anti-virus for my PC. But it's a great computer. No doubt!
  
  
• Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm
  By A1D8T720IRA2MF on 2008-03-13
  I bought this machine in Jan 2008. Have really loved setting it up, have not had many problems - mostly just VISTA compatability issues that required new drivers for my peripherals. But finally got pretty settled with it when it developed this annoying, rather loud hum in the last few days - it comes and goes, but mostly comes. I haven't called HP yet, but am searching on the internet for a possible solution just in case they have "no idea." So far I've read it may be the fan for the graphics card....but am just learning that and haven't tested that theory.
  
  -Alisa
  March 13, 2008
  
  
• Great Value/ Great Support
  By A274U619ZC3X0M on 2008-04-09
  Have to admit that I lived with a single core pentium notebook for a long time. This machine (purchased at Best Buy) is just a terrific value. About the fastest Intel (I recommend staying away from AMD) quad cpu's currently on the market, 3gig memory, and a 750 gig 7200 rpm disk.
  
  I was pleasantly surprised on two other counts. The utility software and web were easy to work with, and I had little trouble migrating all of my files and applications from my old PC. (PC Mover is a good product)
  
  What really surprised me was the 24/7 technical support. I had two issues: 1. First is was attempting to create recovery disks on read/write dvd's. They nailed that one quickly and advised that the program requires one time writeable disks 2. Second time through the configuring of an HP all in one printer, i managed to erase the HP help and support files. That one took about an hour, however support was excellent. And yes in the second case it was provided by a foreign call center.
  
  I purchased a two year extended warantee from Best Buy (Geek Squad), but am going to swap it for an extended warantee from HP.
  
  Great performance, great value, and actually great support...i am not sure that is a combination i have ever experienced before.
  
  This is a 'can't go wrong' product. Good luck, N.Rich
  
  
• It's quiet, fast and compact.
  By A27VP0WVQMGFEW on 2008-03-15
  This computer is fast, it is also very quiet and does not occupy much space. It is the best computer I have had to date.
  
  
• Fast
  By A2DUV61I2JKY4M on 2008-03-26
  I'm using it work and for video editing and this is a very fast computer. I recomend it highly. If you are going to edit video, I suggest upgrading to 8 gigs, the 64bit Vista can handle it.
  
  
• Was skeptical at first, but definitely proven wrong
  By A1WJC277RJ23X7 on 2008-04-08
  Just as my subject line says, I was SO wrong. I usually never write reviews for anything, unless it really sucked or pissed me off; however, I am obsessed with this computer right now. I was searching the market for a more than generous gaming computer, and I decided to get this one, although I've been told to either build my own or get a dell for their ability to be upgraded really well.
  
  This computer is CRAZY fast(having owned a pentium 4 processor before), switching between applications is a breeze. I can be in the middle of playing Warcraft3 or UT3 while listening to music on iTunes and Alt+Tab to check my mail simultaneously and there is no wait time at all. Yet the GPU didn't really cut it for me(ASUS 8500GT)so I upgraded to a BFG 8800GT(although no HDMI input now). Damn, now I feel complete. Plus the 720gigs of hard drive space doesn't hurt either.
  
  No problems with Vista so far or the computer in general like odd humming or BSOD(Blue Screen Of Death). Only thing that I really have a problem with is the expandability. Only one PCI-Ex16 slot(already taken by the factory GPU),and one PCI-E slot. I had to remove some wires and take out some cards in order to put in the new GPU I bought; very crammed and kinda frustrating. From what I've learned about HP's since back in the day, is that they don't like people messing with their products in the sense of upgrading or things like that; what you see is what you pretty much get.
  The wireless keyboard and mouse look really clean and slick when they came out of the box but after a day of using it, they keyboard spazzed out on me in the middle of gaming. I haven't really researched if other people have had this problem, but it wouldn't pick up any key strokes or anything. It wasn't a connection problem either, so I just replaced it with my old one. Such a shame, it looked really classy too.
  
  I bought the HP monitor(w2408h) with this computer together since they both come with HDMI output, and they compliment each other like coffee and cigarettes. I haven't used WMC(Windows Media Center) yet or connected it to a cable box to record tv, only because its a bit tedious for me.
  
  All in all, I wanted a gaming computer that could handle even the most demanding of games such as Crysis (settings on very high/1024x work flawlessly) or Company of heroes, and couldn't be more pleased considering me being a crazy multi-tasker. I'd recommend this(m9105f) or the M9180F model only because it has a slightly faster processor speed, a TB hard drive and a 8800gt GPU.
  
  
• HP Customizable Elite 9000 Series
  By A3QQGPI3CTV9SX on 2008-07-21
  My review is for my own custom built HP 9000 series, very similar to this one.
  
  I have 4GB of ram the maximum you can have in a 32bit system with windows Vista Premium.
  
  I selected the highest Nvidia graphics card for use whether for TV, Gaming just onlne streaming video and I made sure it was blue ray/HD DVD so I have both as at that time they hadn't chosen. Fortunateky I have both and even had HD DVD's so this way I am ok for Blue Ray as well.
  
  This is one of the best computers I have eve had. I had mine made back in mid December 2007 and I have been running it daily for many hours with virtually little issues or needs to contact support.
  
  I have the HP 24" flat panel monitor and it works flawlessly with the computer.
  
  I recommend before you buy to go to the HP website and even just do a mock custom built machine to see what you want, what they recommend and see the pricing. Then go back to the net, to Amazon to shop for the best price and combo of choices. In many cases you may find exactly what you want already built. All of these computer makers create several commercial spec sytems with more bels and whistles and some with less all taylored to a variety of consumers.
  
  I have the 750GB HD and 4GB of ram and this machine runs fast and quiet from my past large desktop towers and actually much smaller too.
  
  I have loaded the full Adobe CS3 Design Premium Extended, full MS Office 07, Visio Professional, Project Professional along with several other large programs and have had a few open at the same time with very little lag compared to the past.
  
  Like with just about any PC maker they all come with bloatware, not too much in comparison to my Sony laptop but still some. Simple fix is to delete the trial and other things they give or want you to try unless you are interested of course. Trial software though is good, just remember when you are near the end of the trial period so as to NOT sign up or make sure to say NO as you maybe charged. That is rare as most companies will ask several times first. Take on only what you want or need.
  
  I have emailed support most often when needed and usually receive a response a few hours later with links or instructions on a fix. I have had very minor issues and all have been corrected via using the email tech support. Like with almost all computers except Apple iMac you get a 1 year warrenty via phone/email tech support. Although I love Apple computers, their latest all inone desktop comes with 90 days tech support after that you pay. That is unacceptable when paying a premium for any computer in my experience and opinion.
  
  The computer is easy to set up with big diagrams for connections and pretty easy for cable hook up via your cable companies cable box or other ways that are described in the materials. For me it worked fine with a direct cable box coaxcial hookup on the back of the computer.
  
  Remote works fine with the computer as well as the monitor being it is HP and I have BOSE speakers adding in the sound as the HP monitor has rear speakers and of low wattage so needed external to compensate and just turn off the monitor speakers.
  
  All in all I have now had two products in the past year from HP and each have been above my expectations in their operation and customer support has been efficient so far from my personal experience.
  
  Again, research the brands you like, check them out in any store to test them/sample them go to the brand websites, decide your needs and search for the best price before buying.
  
  
• Best Computer Ever!
  By A1DQ4I0X6FJPLL on 2008-04-08
  I just got my m9150f two weeks ago and I absolutely adore it! It is very fast and runs smoothly. I appreciate having USB ports in the front so that I can easily plug in extras like my camera, GPS, etc. The fact that there is a "door" that you can close to cover them up is a nice feature as well. Set-up was extremely easy and I didn't have a problem transitioning from XP to Vista. Just make sure to download the drivers/patches for programs and hardware you have that isn't compatible with Vista and you'll be just fine. I am so happy I purchased this computer.
  
  
• Very capable system.
  By A3TVNAX95L4UPN on 2008-04-12
  I purchased the 9160F and have had it for approximately a month now and I have been very pleased. The Q6700 processor is very quick. As far as gaming, the Nvidia 8600GT is a good place to start, but if you want to run crysis on high settings you probably want to look into a system with the 8800 series. Overall this computer is a good value for the included hardware.
  
  
• Great multi-function computer
  By A3VFY0FZ2EZG3V on 2008-10-10
  I purchased this computer for my teenage son and he LOVES it! Not only can he download endless music and photos but he can watch and record TV programs. It is everything we could have asked for and more. The only issue that we've had is that set-up is a little more complicated than our other computers but once it is set-up correctly it is phenomenal.
  
  
• Makes regular grinding noises
  By A2Z2LI2VL4IHYW on 2008-04-04
  This computer makes regular noises like it is shutting down.
  
  You cannot do control alt delete to change sessions.
  
  It freezes up and will not do anything.
  
  This is the last HP I buy.
  
  
• :oD
  By AFV7NTAQAOG5K on 2008-04-12
  We are very satisfied with this Desktop. For what you pay for this computer, it is a good deal. We have had other HP Pavilions and we like them very well. I would buy another HP Pavilion.
  
  
• Wonderful P.C.
  By A226YEU1AA9CU6 on 2008-04-20
  Just connected this new HP P.C. from Amazon. It is wonderful! The speed is great and the memory, 720 GB, will definately solve our previous memory problems. We did a lot of homework in searching for the perfect home business P.C. and we are pleased to have found it!
  
  
• Definitely a great Computer
  By A392EX9DP7V67D on 2008-06-19
  It's awesome computer with many excellent features.. I really love it... the wireless mouse and keyboard, the integrated tv card,etc.
  
  

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