My computer seems a little light...

[nlinecomputers]

probably the full size cases were cheaper.

every time I have looked for mITX cases, they have actually been quite pricey in comparison, despite the size difference. Maybe its the respective market share - the ATX cases are produced on a much larger scale, so counter-intuitively they cost less?

Or not. Just a theory

.

Oh it's a valid theory. It's the rivets that bug me. Makes it impossible to upgrade. And actually the cases are BTX not ATX. That too limits upgrades but you can find SOME BTX motherboards.

 

[strollin]

I don't really see the big deal. Not a whole lot should be expected for $271.

For the vast majority of computer buyers, upgrade-ability is way overrated.

Might be nice if it had a little more memory. But at least it's Windows 7 and not 8. And a 500gb drive is big enough for most folks.

Let's face it, it'll work just fine for email, Facebook, surfing the net, and watching stupid Harlem-Shake videos on Youtube.

It fits the niche for which it was designed.

I agree that it's not really a big deal.

It comes with Win 7 Pro which probably means it was designed for a corporate setting where it's typically used to access the corporate network to do email and access a corporate DB. Perfectly suited for admins and clerical type users. The machine would be perfectly adequate for email, web access, word processing and light spreadsheet crunching.

Corporations don't typically upgrade these computers, once they have depreciated their value ($272), they can pretty much toss them.

It might be slightly deceptive to put that tiny mobo in the large case but as has been pointed out the large case was probably less costly than a mini ITX case.

No heavy duty power supply needed since there is no power hungry video card with multiple GPUs and there is some advantage to having the AC exterior to the case (less possibility of RF interference) with only DC inside the case.

 

[Bryce W]

Looks like it has a DC-in plug similar to a laptop.
Power supplies blow up all the time. I find that my most common hardware work ends up being blown power supplies.

With this laptop-esque setup where the power supply is on the cable, it would make it much easier and less costly for HP to replace it.

Instead of sending a tech out to swap out an internal power supply, HP can just send a new laptop-esque power supply in the mail and tell the customer to just use that one instead.

There appears to be method in HP's madness. At least from a cost cutting perspective.

 

[compnet]

Win 7 pro, 500 gb hdd, 2gb ram, optical drive, case would set me back 220-250, without a mobo/cpu...

Not sure what more some are expecting. For most purposes it will serve I don't see it failing before or being more costly to repair than any other sub $400 computer.

What I hate are dell inspirons where the I/o shield is part of the case.. I was seriously contemplating taking the dremel to one we needed to replace the mobo on.

 

[angry_geek]

It's not that it has an external power supply or that it's cheap that concerns me. In fact, the external power supply is a good idea . . . for a small form factor machine. This is a mini-itx system inside of a micro-atx chassis. The look and feel of the machine screams cheap Chinese crap. There has already been a ridiculously high failure rate along HP's consumer line (both desktop and notebook) for years, and it doesn't seem to be getting better. The fact that these systems are such colossal junk that HP is ripping their name off of them and selling them on the secondary market is enough to tell me what HP thinks of their customers.

Now, obviously, their business line is another story, or, at least, it was. Last year, I had the opportunity to conduct a little test. A customer of mine had purchased a couple of HP business desktops from their last tech. Then they contacted me to set these up and order a couple of Dells for other users. Now these are just basic machines running Office and a lob app called Shafer's . I didn't ask why they suddenly wanted Dell; I just sold them Optiplex 390's with the same spec as the HP machines. Core i3 (can't remember which chip now, but it was the same one as the HP's), 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, Win 7 PRO x64, standard mini tower chassis. While setting these machines up, it just seemed like the Dells were going faster. So, once I got all the patches installed, I decided to see if I was right. I removed the few pieces of bloatware from both machines, and started the Office 2010 Pro install. I'm not kidding when I say this: the HP's took a full 3 minutes longer to install. Before you start in, I realize this was not a scientific benchmark. After a year of use, I still think the Dells run faster.

I will say this for HP: their business support is great. No problems at all getting parts or repairs dispatched. This goes the same for Dell, though I usually just do the online chat so I can multi-task. I truly hope the powers that be at HP get their collective head out of their ass and go back to basics. Good, reliable machines at a fair price, both on the consumer side and business side. And I keep my fingers crossed that the stupid things happening in other departments (printers, consumer machines, software, etc) stays the hell away from their servers.

 

[basic]

The AMD Fusion chips are actually pretty good. I have a ultra-portable that uses the E350 and it is more than capable. The integrated Radeon video is much better than the Intel integrated video.

 

[KompuKare]

An external PSU is actually a very good idea provided the PC is low power enough (this example doesn't have any expansion slots at all).

Why? Well what I hate the most about my main desktop is the noise it makes despite having a decent Seasonic PSU and low noise CPU cooler. I know there are some PSUs (including Seasonic) where the fan is off until a certain temperature. But a good media PCs designs have external PSUs or those PicoPSUs (basically a 12V-20V DC to ATX power-out) because when you have got rid of every other source of noise, the PSU fan remains.

This kind of a machine if honestly sold (that is, not put in a big box with a silly noise case fan but with a proper large heatsink so it's silent and so on) does have a niche.

 

['putertutor]

It's not that it has an external power supply or that it's cheap that concerns me. ..... The fact that these systems are such colossal junk that HP is ripping their name off of them and selling them on the secondary market is enough to tell me what HP thinks of their customers.

This kind of a machine if honestly sold (that is, not put in a big box with a silly noise case fan but with a proper large heatsink so it's silent and so on) does have a niche.

This is my real issue with this unit. Not the external power supply, or most anything else (at $250 for a new unit I wouldn't expect much), but the way in which it was sold. My customer who bought this knows enough about computers to know that a 'regular' computer - one in a full case as opposed to a small form factor - carries certain features, like upgradability and normally a decent design. What he bought looked like a 'regular' computer. What he got was a sack labeled 10 pounds with 1 pound of sugar inside.

 

[starfireone]

SilverLeaf,

I agree with you 100%. We are heading towards the "disposable" computer
market everywhere. Hence, the reason for tablets selling so well.
Buy it, use it for a few months, dump it and buy a new model.

Yea, its only good for email and browsing the internet.
But hey, you got Win 7 Pro and 2gb of mem and its a very
light portable desktop computer too.

 

[kwest]

I have setup two of these for a fitness shop. They wanted the cheapest new computer they could get. My fees cost almost as much as one of the units. It is a desktop with laptop parts. I don't see a problem with it for a super basic pc

 

[red12049]

This is my real issue with this unit. Not the external power supply, or most anything else (at $250 for a new unit I wouldn't expect much), but the way in which it was sold. My customer who bought this knows enough about computers to know that a 'regular' computer - one in a full case as opposed to a small form factor - carries certain features, like upgradability and normally a decent design. What he bought looked like a 'regular' computer. What he got was a sack labeled 10 pounds with 1 pound of sugar inside.

So, he paid for a pound of sugar, and he's complaining about the bag it came in? He got what he paid for.

Rick

 

[tarik]

I too dont see much of a problem with it. TBH its a cracking price for a full system in my opinion. I couldnt build something to that spec for £185. Especially that its windows 7 pro. The larger cases are generally cheaper to buy (for us anyway) so likely the same for them too.

 

['putertutor]

So, he paid for a pound of sugar, and he's complaining about the bag it came in? He got what he paid for.

Rick

Once again, my problem is not the value he actually received for his money, but the inflated value the ad was trying to portray he would receive for his money.

Yes, he got what he paid for. But I still think the manner in which it was sold is deceiving. The fact that it was not upgradable was not easily found, or even mentioned if I recall correctly. Basically to him, it seemed like a great deal, but it only seemed that way because there was information withheld from the site. This information would have made a difference in his buying decision.

We can scream "Caveat emptor!" all day long, the ad was still intentionally misleading. If you buy a car with four door handles, you expect four doors, not two doors and two decorative handles.

 

[basic]

Once again, my problem is not the value he actually received for his money, but the inflated value the ad was trying to portray he would receive for his money.

Yes, he got what he paid for. But I still think the manner in which it was sold is deceiving. The fact that it was not upgradable was not easily found, or even mentioned if I recall correctly. Basically to him, it seemed like a great deal, but it only seemed that way because there was information withheld from the site. This information would have made a difference in his buying decision.

We can scream "Caveat emptor!" all day long, the ad was still intentionally misleading. If you buy a car with four door handles, you expect four doors, not two doors and two decorative handles.

I am not seeing the deception, based upon the link you provided. It says HP debranded, says it's refurbished, defines what refurbishment can mean, states the specs, and does not have any incorrect or misleading specs. No where in the specs does it state any expansion slots being available or any claim that the system is expandable.