Rating: 
Summary: Choose the Compaq or Dell
Review: My cousins both owned a HP pavillion. One I only experienced from second hand. The first cousin's crashed. The second cousin's I was unable to fix, and I have been following computers for 2 years. Hers crashed once. She fixed it then wanted me to hook up DSL. As I was doing that the start menu started to malfunction. I do not know if it was a virus or the computer. If you are going to buy this computer, I suggest you go to the equivilant Compaq presario. The Hewlett Packards have a bad reputation, turning out sorta like the former "Packard Bells" (now extinct). For better quality, try the Dell or Compaq. However, if you find that the HP works for you, go get em.
Rating:
Summary: Performs OK But No Windows XP CD
Review: My Pavilion seems to perform fine and I would recommend buying it unless you are concerned that it ships with Windows XP preloaded. That means you don't get a CD with XP on it and you don't get a Recovery CD and you don't get the MS Backup software that is shipped on the Windows XP CD.What you get from other manufacturers on CDs is instead put in a hidden (recovery) partition by HP. This reduces the useable size of your hard disk by about 7 GB. It isn't much of an issue unless your hard drive crashes. If it does, you have to return the hard drive to HP who will send you another preloaded hard drive. If this happens after the warranty expires, HP will charge for replacing the hard drive, but I have not been able to find out the cost. If you want to replace your working hard drive with a bigger one, you can but it is not as simple as it used to be. You have to buy a program like Norton Ghost (...) and it may or may not work. You also have to buy your own backup software since none is preloaded by HP (even though it is included on the Windows XP CD if you were to buy your own copy.) In fairness to HP, there may be some advantages to shipping the Pavilion with XP preloaded, but I have not been able to find out what they might be.
Rating:
Summary: Was a great deal for $115
Review: Picked up this machine used at a neighbors garage sale for fifteen dollars ($15). The seller said she started having problems almost immediately but HP was of little help - pay-per-call phone tech support kept having her restore Windows XP. The store where she purchased it informed her that all her problems would resolve after the machine "broke in". It broke, alright... with a hard drive crash just two weeks out of its warrantee.
I tested then replaced its defective 40g 5400rpm Samsung SV4002H hard drive with a pair of 20g WD200BB Western Digitals I got off eBay, swapped the 32mb ATI Rage 128 video card out for a (Chaintech) NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440, upped the RAM to 512, and now, with a total investment of about $115 have a decent email getter.
The best part of having a HP 7955 is that the Xandros 2.0 Linux distro installs trouble-free on the first try :-)
FWIW, the system runs on a ASUSTeK P4B-LA REV 1.xx motherboard
Rating: 
Summary: Only for home entertainment
Review: The lack of documentation and no Windows XP CD makes this computer too much of a risk for users who have critical information on their computers. The machine has almost no upgrade potential because the slots are filled and no extra bays. HP Instant Support does not work on my machine. The OEM version of Windows XP Home is not complete (installed by HP before the final version of XP was published) and therefore Microsoft will not support the software, saying that it is HP's responsibility. The telephone support personnel (I've spoken to at least 6) are not very knowledgeable. The mouse and driver included with the computer does not provide scrolling with the wheel in several programs. Recovery disks are said to become available after January 18, 2002 but only if you can prove certain circumstances. The machine is really designed only for playing games and home entertainment. If you need the computer for business and critical information call Dell.
Rating: 
Summary: nice...but most of the hard disk is used
Review: Well it's nice and I needed it...but there is no install CD for it which worries me. Everything (OS, programs etc) is stored on separate partition on the harddrive from which you can restore the system which worries me because what if the disk crashes?
And because of this restore partition and all of XP and such...it seems that only like 32gb were on the disk and only 22 free...maybe i'm exaggerating..
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