HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, Intel Core i3-10100, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Windows 11, USB Mouse and Keyboard, Compact Tower Design (TG01-1022, 2020)

Going into this knowing that this is lower spec hardware and is a workstation or lower end beginner gaming computer. So I base my information knowing this. You cannot compare this to a $2500 computer because it isn't. I base this review off what I paid for it. The good: I was surprised by the 1650 super. The current day games play excellent as long as you keep your graphical settings conservative. The 10100 CPU is far better than I expected for a low core count. Don't walk past this CPU without taking a look. I do a lot of PCB design that's somewhat CPU intensive. This CPU it's practically sleeping while I'm doing my work because it doesn't even need to try. The efficiency and ability to divide its workload is absolutely fantastic for such a low end CPU. It's multitasking ability is amazing for the price. The bad: Really HP? 1 ram stick? It's such a stupid oversight. The manufacturing of desktops is such a simple task nowadays. It requires a very simple set of rules. Using only one RAM stick regardless of its size forces the RAM to be in single-channel mode. This severely hinders the entire computer. Having 8 gigabyte of RAM is not a bad thing if it was two 4 gig sticks. But it was one 8 gig stick. The novice user is not going to know that this is holding this desktop back by huge numbers. Needless to say an extra 8 gig stick and bumping it up to 16 gigabytes of memory cost me 40 bucks and is worth every penny. Opened up this computer even more and turned into a little monster. My only other real issue with this computer is storage. I knew what I was buying, so this was not a surprise. Games today are HUGE in size and that little hard drive is not going to hold more than a couple modern games at a time. We know you're making allot of profit on this machine especially since you use your own cut down motherboards and other parts. So throw in a second mechanical 1 or 2 terabyte hard drive! It would cost you next to nothing and make this desktop so much more appealing.. Advertising this computer as a gaming computer but it barely has the capacity to hold any games? I owned a few spare hard drives so I tossed one in on the READY TO USE WIRING THAT CAME IN THE COMPUTER! It's almost as if you were going to do this but then took the hard drive out at the last minute. Overall: 7/10 for beginner gaming computer or workstation. Those two things in the cons would have made this a 9.5/10 for the price. Just saying. In current times for a pre-built I still have to give the go ahead and buy this desktop if it meets your standards. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap DDR4 3200mhz 8gig ram stick and make it the first thing you install even before you power on the computer. You will be much much happier.

I ordered this computer when it was $600 on March 17th. Given the INSANE prices for graphics cards right now (the GTX 1650 SUPER this thing includes isn't available anywhere for less than $400 right now), I knew I needed to snap one of these up as soon as my $1,400 stimulus payment hit. I figured they'd be sold out soon, and (at least for the $600 price) they did sell out within 24 hours of me buying. It has the traditional drawbacks of any big name brand prebuilt PC. It has a proprietary PSU. This means you can't easily upgrade it to power much stronger (but much higher power consumption) video cards in the future. But, I knew this going in. This was simply the best way for me to get a good computer with a solid CPU and GPU for a low price right now. I read that the HP motherboard keeps the RAM at 2667mhz speed, so I bought another stick of 2667mhz RAM to bring it up to 16gb. I also moved two internal hard drives from my old computer over to this PC. Between this and the added RAM, the two biggest shortcomings out of the box (short on memory and storage) are now handled. I don't anticipate having to open this computer for any reason over the next couple of years. If I do ever upgrade the GPU, I realize I'll be limited to a mid-level GPU because of the power supply. If there's something that's a good performance jump over the 1650 Super that doesn't use much more power, I could see upgrading to that in a year or two. Otherwise, I'm quite happy with this PC, and it should see to all my needs for the immediate future. SIDE NOTE: The case for this thing is SMALL. My old PC was one I built, and it has a mid-tower case. This HP Pavilion must use some kind of micro-tower case or whatever the proper terminology is. Getting my fat fingers between what I'm guessing is the hard drive cage and the motherboard to add the extra stick of RAM wasn't easy, but I got it done. It's not really made for working on and expanding both because of the small case and the proprietary PSU. That's OK though. Like I said, this should meet my needs for the next year or two, and by then, hopefully, GPU prices won't be insane anymore, and I'll be able to build something that packs a little more of a punch (and do it in a mid-tower case – I never appreciated how spacious they were before). ALSO: This thing was a REAL DEAL given nutso part prices right now. Think about it; the CPU goes for about $125, the GPU for $400 and up and add in the value of the 8gb stick of RAM and the 256gb SSD and you're already at or over the $600 I paid. It's like I got the case, motherboard and PSU for free, which kinda makes it OK that the case is cramped and the PSU is proprietary.

I bought this PC in June 2022 as my home PC. Upgraded to 64GB RAM max with 2 X 32 GB Crucial RAM DIMMs. Upgraded to a Samsung m.2 NVME 2 TB SSD (primary) + 4 TB Server Class HDD (backup). Kept the base Nvidia graphics card. Added a USB 3.1 PCIe expansion card for more ports. Use Ethernet cable directly to onboard Gigabit NIC. Use an Amazon Fire TV via HDMI as monitor. Upgraded to MS Win 10 PRO aftermarket license for $8 dollars then upgraded to MS Win 11 PRO for free. Added an external usb 3.0 HD webcam. It’s worked fine for me for last 3 yrs.

So i really like the pavilion, I've had it for almost three months now, and a lot of the claims they make about how this pc handles games is true, i’ve played apex, Warzone, GTA and Fortnite on high settings at some good frame-rates, but one small issue with the pc is the ram and storage. You could have maybe one or two large games and a few small applications, and you’re already out of storage space. Mine came with 250 (ish) GBs and with Discord, Spotify, Firefox and GTA 5 downloaded, i really don’t have enough space to download anything else. Another thing, RAM. This only comes with 16 GBs, and while the PC can handle large games, if you put too much on the Ram, you’ll begin to have visible glitches on the top of your screen, But despite these issues, i still recommend the PC. Both of these issues are easily fixable, just buy ram sticks that are still good for your power supply, and maybe buy an SSD or stick drive for extra games you may need, overall shouldn’t be more then 120$ bucks on top of the 600$ (the price i got it for) pc, and for that price, its a damn good PC.

For 599, during this GPU crunch will be about the best you can get if you get stuck in a situation like me. Overall gaming at 1080p will be fine so long as you aren't max'ing out the AA or AF on games, Yakuza Like A Dragon is the newest game I put this card to the test on and 1080p VeryHigh(or ultra) and a mix of High make it an enjoyable 60fps at 1080p. Luckily the card isn't locked so MSI afterburner can help OC it a bit for more frames. This can be upgraded to an 8core/16 thread CPU as well according to HP's website Things I wish I knew before buying but not enough to warrant knocking off a star since I could have googled most of this 1. Only 2 DIMM slots, so if you are upgrading and want to go to 32 you'll need 2x16 2. 1650 for whatever reason has no thermal pads on the memory interfaces, I ordered some for 5 bucks to bring down the temps 3. The PSU is a 400w GOLD 80 Plus card with a 6+2 pin adapter, really only important if you plan to swap out the card later on. It is also bottom mounted, just keep in mind moving forward you're going to be limited to mid range cards for upgrades 4. There is no mounting for a fan on the side mesh panel. I had to super glue a 120mm fan to it and use a usb->4pin fan header and 'hack' it in. This lowered my temps significantly not sure why HP didn't include the screw holes and a mobo header for an 80mm fan. This dropped my GPU temps and CPU temps a bunch 35c idle to 26c idle, mobo and gpu greatly improved too 5. SSD has no real way to install a headsink on so you may want to get creative if using something higher end, the HDD mount does not come with screws or at least mine didn't. 6. You can't slap any intel CPU cooler into the custom cut motherboard, if it can screw in it might work but applying better thermal paste to the CPU was enough to keep it down along with my fan 'hack' Only gripe is that the BIOS is extremely limited even by OEM standards, and there is no way to dim the front light as of the current BIOS that I can see.

My son needed a computer in a pinch and this ticked all the boxes for what he needed. Something to do school work on and play some games with reasonably good quality. If you're a casual PC gamer, this is a pretty good system. Only has two DIMM slots but I had a spare 16GB stick of RAM from a previous machine and poof, upgraded to 24GB of RAM just like that. More than he'll need probably. Since this is an Intel based machined, I wanted to say a word about AMD Ryzen processors. I love them but, and a very BIG but, they are temperamental in my experience. The same 16GB RAM wouldn't work in that machine. In fact, that was a nearly identical HP machine to this one but we had endless blue screens. Multiple OS installs, driver updates, and multiple sets of RAM. Nothing worked. The MOBO could be the issue but this isn't my first time dealing with endless blue screens from a Ryzen-based system. If your machine is set up properly, they're great. Otherwise, go with an Intel-based machine like this one. They seem to be more forgiving with the hardware that you might swap around. That's just my two cents though. All that said, this is a great little machine with a lot of power for the price. Just uninstall all the bloatware when you get it. ;)

This was my first ever PC. I've ran through laptops my whole life. For gaming, this is amazing, really. I can run Fallout 4 with modpacks (200+ mods) at ultra graphics, Skyrim with modpacks (300+mods) at, not ultra, but 1 below ultra. Still pretty damn good. There was this game, Metro Exodus, that came with an Enhanced Edition, and I couldn'r run that, told me I didn't have the required equipment for it, but I can run the regular game. There's not a game that I couldn't run Ultra or 1 below Ultra yet. Killing Floor 2, I mean I just gave you the heaviest games with mods, which can be run at Ultra and 1 below so, anything else will be fine ultra. For FPS, I forgot about that, I measured it on Fortnite and it was 60. But for Skyrim and Fallout 4, I mean I don't have the measurement now but I had no problem with movement, I'd say like minimum 50 FPS. So with work, this is great. I'm working with 2 Monitors hooked to this PC, I can run trading software extremely well and it's quick. I had upgraded the RAM by +8GB so consider that for the review. I would recommend this PC to anyone and everyone, I mean for only like $800, and you can either do like a 6 month or a damn 12 month plan with no interest, can't say no to that.

I've been using this PC for a little over a month now, I've logged about 250 hours of gaming on it (at time of this review) I did make a minor RAM upgrade to this PC (Originally 8GB, Upgraded to 16GB) This machine has been nothing but a workhorse! I've had absolutely no issues playing any games, the list of games I have played with no issues are listed below! 1. Satisfactory (settings @ Ultra Across the board, FPS somewhere around 60 to 120 with minor dips) 2. Forza Horizon 4 (settings at High/Ultra, VSYNC FPS (@144hz) virtually no stutter! 3. Far Cry 5 (Settings at High/Ultra VSYNC FPS (@144hz) 100+ Absolutely no stuttering (none that I notice) 4. Doom Eternal (settings at High/Ultra VSYNC FPS (@144hz) Minor stutter (and I mean very very minor) only when taking on large groups. 5. Titanfall 2 (Settings at High, Mostly Ultra VSYNC FPS (@144hz) Zero stutter, smooth as a fresh stick of butter ❤ As a final note, the monitor I use for my gaming is a 32inch Curved 144hz Refresh Rate. All the games played have been played in 2K quality. I HIGHLY recommend this PC if you are looking for a budget PRE BUILT mini beast!