HP Pavilion A6150e desktop computer Review

Bottom-Line: The Pavilion A6150E Media Center Mini-tower is powerful home workstation that is more then adequate for Media Center duties, but also serves well as a small business server platform. 

64-bit computing, it has been slow to catch on in both the personal computer arena and in the business environment, but it is the wave of the future.  When it came time to migrate my Microsoft Exchange 2003 server over to Exchange 2007, my only choice was a 64-bit platform. 

I spent a week on-line configuring different systems that both fit my specifications (dual-core processor, SATA hard drive backbone, dual channel memory, and DVD/RW drive) and budget parameters.  I needed a box that was robust enough to run two principle Microsoft server applications: the aforementioned Exchange 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 64-bit Edition.  I looked at Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett Packard, but in the end I settled on the Hewlett Packard Pavilion A6150E mini-tower computer with a AMD Athlon dual-core processor.    

HP designed the Pavilion A6150E as a mid-level Vista (Home Premium) computer with an eye on Media Center functionality.  The Pavilion A6150E incorporates the new BTX design into its mid-tower case.  The case itself is a sleek black and silver BTX cassis.  The BTX design calls for more venting slots in the case and a single large fan to keep the innards of the computer cool.  The result is a very quite system and I have to strain to hear. 

HP decided to offer only (fast) AMD Athlon processors in the Pavilion A6150E, including the new AMD Athlon 4000+ x64-bit with dual-core technology.  The AMD Athlon 4000+ incorporates two execution cores in a single processor chip greatly enhancing the computers performance.  The AMD Athlon 4000+ runs on an 800MHz FSB (Front Side Bus), feature 2.1GHz core speed, 2MB of cache, and accept 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM in either single or dual channel operation. 

My Viewpoint

I like the Pavilion A6150E; its size is manageable, expandability good, and performance stellar thus far.  I like that HP decided to move the front-facing USB ports to a high position on the tow where they are much more user friendly.  The same is true for the audio outputs and Firewire ports. 

That being said let the buyer beware, if you purchase the unit with a 32-bit Operating System (OS), putting your hands on 64-bit drivers will prove problematic.  I install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 64-bit on the computer and ended up with hardly any drivers for video, audio, USB, and the built-in 10/100/1000 NIC.  It took me two days to hunt down the drivers for everything except the NIC, for that I finally ended up purchasing a new Intel Pro NIC, for which I downloaded drivers from Intel's web site.  Before I installed the Intel NIC, I disabled the on-board adapter.    

After I received the Pavilion A6150E I immediately reformatted the drive and install Windows 2003 Standard Edition 64-bit, so I could use the computer as a server.  Despite it stated purpose, the Pavilion A6150E if outfitted with more memory makes an excellent server platform for small business use.  The processor is certainly up to the task as is the bus and memory, and certainly the hard drive.   Backing up the system is not a problem; I utilize external high capacity (400 - 750GB) Seagate hard drives for the purpose; they work rather well and cost far less than a comparable taps backup unit.     

Conclusion

The HP Pavilion A6150E Media Center Mini-tower is powerful home workstation that is more then adequate for Media Center duties, but also serves well as a small business server platform.  For the price ($654.00 including 19" flat panel monitor) the HP Pavilion A6150E is a relatively inexpensive high performance workhorse that more than meets my current computing needs and fits into my network-centric environment with ease.