A beginner's guide to computer buying

HP Pavilion p6370t Customizable Desktop PC

Each month I am planning to highlight a quick pick computer.  This is the computer that I would buy for myself or recommend to any friends or family that asked for advice.  This is an average computer to meet the needs of home use.  It’s great for Internet surfing, sending email, writing papers or documents, and downloading and storing pictures from a digital camera.  It’s also great for students to use for various school assignments.

This month’s pick is the HP Pavillion p6370t.  I’m choosing this model because it’s running a fast dual core processor, comes with plenty of memory, and a good sized hard drive.  I’m going to recommend a couple of upgrades over the base model.  I’ll walk you through the upgrades you may want to add after clicking the link to HP.

Starting Price is $549.99.  The base model is perfectly acceptable and will handle most any home use activities.  To get the most bang for the buck, and to get the most usefullness and longevity, I recommend making a few upgrades.  These upgrades will bring the total price to $1087.98.  Feel free to change it in any way you see fit.  In the areas I suggest upgrades I also give you my reason for doing so.  Since your needs may differ, you should choose whatever best fits your situation.

Click here to begin your customizations and purchase:
HP Pavilion p6370t Customizable Desktop PC

From the first page after clicking the link above, Start with the Base configuration and choose Customize & Buy

Operating System – No Change – Windows 7 Home Premium

Processor – No Change - Intel Core i3-530 dual-core processor [2.93 Ghz, 512KB L2 + 4MB shared L3 cache, DMI 2.5GT/s]

Memory - Upgrade – $40 - 6GB DDR3-133Mhz SDRAM [3 DIMMs] ($40 is a good price for the additional 2 MB over the base of 4MB.)

Hard Drive – Upgrade – Free Upgrade – 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s (Can’t beat a free upgrade)

Graphics Card – Upgrade – $100 – 1GB ATI Radeo HD 5450 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]  (I like to have the option to run dual monitors from a single card, and this one will do that fairly easily and in most cases without an adapter.  If you don’t plan on dual monitors, you can stick with the default selection of Integrated graphics – Intel HD Graphics)

Monitor – Add – $199.99 - HP2159m 21.5 inch 16:9 Full HD Widescreen.  (This monitor is the best combination of size, features, and price.  It also has three type of possible connections, which makes it more flexible for moving around to other computers)

Primary CD/DVD drive - No Change – LightScribe 16x max DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive

Secondary optical drive – No Change – None

Networking – No Change – Integrated 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet, No wireless LAN (If you need wireless access because your computer isn’t near your Internet Modem, then you can choose the Wireless N LAN card for $40)

Front Ports – No Change – 15 in 1 memory card reader, 2 USB, audio

TV & Entertainment – No Change – No TV Tuner

Sound Card – No Change - Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports

Speakers – Upgrade – $20 – HP USB 2.0 stereo speakers (If you already have speakers, you can choose No speakers.  If you plan to listen to a lot of music or watch videos, you should upgrade to something better.)

Keyboard and mouse – No Change – HP multimedia keyboard and HP optical mouse

Portable Media Drives – No Change – None (If you want to use an external hard drive for backup or file storage, then I’d recommend the 500 GB drive for $130)

Productivity Software - Upgrade – $119 – Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2007 (This version of office will be more compatible with the version you likely use at work.  If you aren’t transferring documents to other computer, you could stick with the Microsoft Works 9.0.  If you are a student, then definately go with the student edition.  You might also check with your IT department at work to see if they have any discount programs on Microsoft Office.)

Security software – Upgrade – $59 – Norton 360 (You’ll need virus protection, and Norton is one of the industry leaders.  The 360 package also comes with online backup, allowing you to backup your important files to a secure online location.)

Photography software – No Change – None (You can use free alternatives like Google’s Picasa)

Learning and reference – No Change – None

DVD/CD burner, movie software – No Change – None

Finance & accounting software – No Change – None

Back-up & media management – No Change – None

HP Care Pack Services – No Change - None

Additional Software – No Change – None

Headsets & webcams – No Change – None

Cables & power – No Change – None

Storage devices – No Change – None

CD/DVD media – No Change – None

Networking – No Change – None

Installation Services – No Change – None

Consultative services – No Change – None

Select a Printer – No Change – None

HP All-in-ones – No Change None

Total price – $1087.98.

HP Pavilion p6370t Customizable Desktop PC

HP Pavilion p6370t Customizable Desktop PC Buy this configuration now or customize and price your own HP Pavilion p6370t Customizable Desktop PC — direct from Hewlett-Packard.

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