HPPavilion 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)

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.

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.

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. ;)