Buying HP pavillion - good specs?

[phantasm]

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying this HP computer. I'm not building or anything, and I would love your advice on it.

hp Pavilion A1160A Personal Computer.
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor (541) 3.2GHz, 512MB RAM, 200GB hard disk, double layer DVD burner, 256MB graphics, 9-in-1 card reader, 17" LCD screen, limited onsite warranty, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home

I think its a quite decent price. I'm a pretty heavy internet user, download plenty of music, store photos, and play quite a lot of The Sims 2. Would this be good enough? And what do you guys think of HP products? Are they reliable? I'm not looking at upgrading for awhile, so this would have to do for me.

I read the other post on the Dell computer, and I was just looking at a Dell, so your opinions will be appreciated! Cheers!

[saphalline]

Most of us prefer to build our own, but if you must buy a computer then HP's aren't too bad. Dell's are to be avoided at all costs, particularly because Dell's tech support has been in a downward spiral for several years now. You should also be aware that HP bought Compaq, so Pavilion's and Presario's are both made by HP now, which is a good thing. I've had some bad experiences with Compaq's but that's been related to upgrading, so if you never upgrade then a Presario would be fine. Keep in mind that any computer you buy from one of the big OEM computer companies is going to essentially be a "throw-away" computer, but you probably already know that. ;)

In terms of that HP, I'd recommend 1GB of RAM if you'll be playing games. It really does help a lot. Also, the phrase "256MB graphics" tells us nothing. I tried looking up that model number, but everything I saw referenced a 64MB GeForce 6200, so I'm wondering where the 256MB came from? For gaming performance, however, the graphics chipset you pick determines how powerful your system is, not the amount of memory. I can name many 128MB vid cards that will wipe the floor with a few 256MB vid cards, so this part of the computer is important to specify. Remember - the vid card makes the difference between slow gaming and fast good-looking gaming.

All the rest of the specs look good enough. But how much is that system? I couldn't find a definitive price on Google.