HP Pavilion A6500F Desktop PC

2.40 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E2220 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500GB Serial ATA/300 7200 rpm, DVD Drive with LightScribe, Vista Premium, 15-in-1 Memory Card Reader, Optical Mouse

This desktop is the bomb! With a dual-core processor, a 64 bit OS (Vista Premium) and 4g of RAM, it’s the fastest thing I’ve ever owned! It also has a 500g hard drive, DVD with Lightscribe Technology (although that’s not real impressive so far), and a sound card that supports Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound. And I paid a lousy $469 for this monster.

But the price got even better. A couple of weeks later, I was looking online for a new machine for my son, and found the same computer, from the same store, for $369!! I sent an email out to a few friends – if anyone is looking to buy a new computer, you gotta check this one out…

One friend wrote back to say “how did you know?”. I met her at our local OfficeMax and she bought their last one. It was several minutes past closing time, but the sales help was very nice about it (thanks OfficeMax). The computer was in the back room, and they had no idea it had been marked down online. But after checking, they honored the price.

But then…

The next day, I called to ask them to check around town for another one, for my son, and have it shipped to the local store. Too late. One store had 3 left, but they were all defective. And that was it. I called a national number, and they checked and found nothing. Bummer. The model has been discontinued and there won’t be any more of them. I still see a few online, but not at that great price. Still, even at the $520+ I’ve seen, it’s a bargain!

Issue: There’s not a lot of software ready to take advantage of the 64 bit Windows systems.
Solution: The OS is backwards compatible with 32 bit programs, much like Windows 95 was with 16 bit programs.

Issue: There is no Flash player for the 64 bit browser (c’mon Adobe, we need this!).
Solution: A 32 bit copy of Internet Explorer 7 is included on the machine, but it’s just a hassle to have to open it whenever you need a flash player, which is a lot more often than you might realize.

Issue: Some hardware is not compatible – no drivers installed for 64 bit systems (or for Vista!)
Solution: The computer went out to the internet and found new drivers for all of my hardware, and installed it automatically, except for my router. The router didn’t support IPv4-6, so I had to buy a new one. 20 bucks. Big woo.

With 4g of RAM, you can actually run the neat new Vista Aero experience, without suffering any system drag. I’m not sure what it is that makes this computer so fast – the 2.4ghz processor, the dual-core processor, the 64 bit OS, the 4g of RAM, or all of it together, but I do know that now I am looking for a similar replacement for my laptop.

Speed thrills!

Related Links:

• An outdated network router may not function correctly when you use it together with new networking features in Windows Vista (Also notice the link on this page to a free tool to test your router with – the Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool)
• Software compatibility list for Vista 64 bit systems.