HP Pavilion Desktop: Ryzen 7 3700X, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, RX 550 2GB Expired

i do IT consulting and my degree was in electrical engineering. i bought some of these for a cheap client. this computer is worth $550 and not a penny more. here is why:

-the motherboard is just about the worst thing i've ever seen. it's a 4 phase power delivery using the cheapest chokes i've ever seen in my decade+ of experience. i use to think acer was bad but this thing just blew my mind. the motherboard is hard limited to 65W so you can forget about PBO.

-CPU-z reports an X570 chipset but the PCI-E slot only has 8 lanes wired to it (WTF????), i'm guessing to save cost. it's only saving grace is that the PSU is not strong enough to run any GPU that will use more than 8 lanes anyway. there is also a PCI-E 1x (3.0) slot wired to the chipset.

-motherboard only has 2 RAM slots.

-wifi card is a junk realtek POS that's not worth the circuit board its' glued on. if you want a consistent wifi and/or Bluetooth connection, you can upgrade the wifi controller to an intel AX200. those sell on amazon for under $20.

-SSDs in these are DRAM-less nvme drives from either SKhynix or toshiba. it's just a single NAND chip glued to a circuit board. no controller, no cache, nothing. write speeds are only slightly faster than a SATA ssd.

-the power supply has two 12V rails rated at 16A each, one of which goes to a dedicated 6+2 pin PCI-E power cable. it will run a reference RTX 2060 as long as you don't OC. the case is tall enough for a tall RTX 2060 like some of the custom cards out there. don't get the fat evga 2060 as the fans will be too close to the PSU.



i'm not the type of person who tells people to DIY, BUT i strongly recommend you DIY your own system if you are considering this. i would have returned these but this client wanted a "brand name" fast PC computer, they wanted them NOW (some of their computers were a decade old and dying) and wanted to pay bottom of the barrel prices. so they got this bottom of the barrel PC

if you have any other questions, ask away

I bought this desktop in January.

What I like:
- Fast. Quick boot-up. Snappy response.
- Quiet. (It's 9:40 at night and you can hear the crickets chirping outside. The PC is much quieter than whisper-quiet, my whisper booms by comparison.)
- Reasonably well-built. I'm particularly happy with the build quality of the keyboard and mouse. I was planning on using 3rd party peripherals, but liked the keyboard and mouse so much that I'm actually using them.
- Power button. The position and backlighting of the power button makes it easy to find. I've had other PC's where it was difficult to find the on-off switch.
- Bloatware. To this point, I haven't noticed any bloatware. Not with the installed software, anyway. I get all the usual promos and ads when loading the various apps and internet websites, but nothing that I've noticed from the PC's operating system.

EDIT: When I first set up the PC, I deleted a whole bunch of apps that I didn't expect to use. I guess that is why I haven't subsequently encountered any bloatware issues.

What I don't like:
- Vertical loading optical disk drive. Instead of dropping a CD or DVD into a front-loading drive, you need to manipulate the disk (being careful not to drop it) into the vertical holder. Nuts! After the first ugly attempt, I got one of my old external optical disk drives and plugged it into the PC. It's so much easier to use the horizontal drive!
- Power button. While the button is easy to find, actuating it is another story. It's sort of semi-recessed. I find that I have to focus on pushing my index finger into the hole in order to turn the PC on and off. I can't casually swipe at it.

Other issues:
- SSD. 256GB is adequate for my needs. In my last PC, I used only 150GB. However, if I ever need more space, it's a simple task to add a 2-1/2 inch SSD into one of the empty bays.
- 8GB ram. 8GB is adequate for my needs. I ordered another 8GB only because it's a cheap and easy upgrade.
- RX 550 GPU. The GPU is overkill for my websurfing and streaming video needs. I don't do any gaming, except for an occasional Sudoku.
- 310W PSU. I wish it were bigger. But again, it meets my present needs.

Note: I liked it so much, I just bought another. This one to replace my Alienware Aurora R8 that I bought on this SD deal. The Aurora is going to my son.

Build it yourself option:

$340 Combo at Microcenter
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz 8 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Prism Cooler
ASUS B450M-PLUS TUF Gaming AMD AM4 mATX Motherboard

$50 at Newegg
Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L Micro ATX Tower w/ Magnetic Design Dust Filter, Transparent Acrylic Side Panel, Adjustable I/O & Fully Ventilated for Airflow

$40 at Newegg after rebate
EVGA 650 N1 100-N1-0650-L1 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply

$60 at Newegg
MSI GeForce GT 710 DirectX 12 GT 710 2GD3H LP 2GB 64-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Video Card

$25 at Newegg
ASUS DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS

$37 at Newegg
Crucial BX500 2.5" 240GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CT240BX500SSD1

$70 at Newegg
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-16GVRB

$20 at many places online...some motherboard auto active Windows 10 pro, as part of agreement with Microsoft.
Windows 10 Professional License

$20 online
Generic keyboard and mouse.

Price is higher than the $550 deal, if you shop around for rebates and discounts, it might be possible to get the price of
a desktop in the same price range. Good luck.