Digital Trends

HP Pavilion a6130n

July 30th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Keyboard & Mouse

What can only be described as thoroughly disappointing, HP supplies the a6130n with a PS/2-style keyboard and old-school ball mouse. HP really should have budgeted an additional $1 or $2 USD for an optical mouse.

Graphics Card

The a6130n comes stock with an integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE video processor. While Windows Vista may set aside as much as 623MB memory for graphics, the 6150 SE uses 128MB of shared video memory. These days, 128MB video memory doesn't scratch the 'wow' factor, but it is quite sufficient for basic applications, watching DVDs, etc.

If you want to have a better video card, the a6130n can be given an after-market upgrade with a PCI video card.

Sound System

The a6130n comes with an integrated 7.1 channel sound with front and rear audio ports. The front ports are hidden under a retractable flap.

Built-in Bluetooth?

No Bluetooth for the a6130n unless you use a USB 2.0 adapter. 

Wired & Wireless

The a6130n comes equipped with an integrated 10/100Base-T LAN port. With gigabit LAN cards offered in computers for several years now, the 10/100 ports are not cutting edge, but they're still the standard. The a6130n comes with no built-in wireless LAN option. You'll need to add a PCI, PCI-Express or USB wireless device to get the a6130n linked to a wireless network. 

Drives

HP gave the a6130n a LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive which burns all types of CDs and DVDs and then etches images or text onto the top surface of the special LightScribe discs.

The a6130n comes with a 400GB 7200rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive (roughly 383GB when formatted). The a6130n's motherboard has IDE connectors, so if you want to run older, slower IDE drives, you can.

Pocket Media Drive Bay

The a6130n has a hot swappable "Pocket Media Drive Bay". Pocket Media drives are proprietary to HP and they're essentially custom-shaped USB 2.0 hard drives. (On the inside of the drive bay is a simple 4-pin USB plug.) These Pocket Media drives come in 80GB and 120GB varieties. They're great for quick external backups but their proprietary nature makes them inconvenient for use with other computers. A consumer's best bet is a hefty USB flash drive or a portable USB/FireWire hard drive. 

The front drive bay, and connection ports

Vista and the "Windows Experience Index"

The a6130n comes with Windows Vista Home Premium, so it’s obviously Vista compatible. One feature of Windows Vista is its self-evaluating application called the "Windows Experience Index". Microsoft's Windows Experience Index is a numeric grading system that rates how computer hardware holds up against the demands of Windows Vista. It's based on a scale of 1 to 5.9, 1 being absolute trash and 5.9 being sufficient for the heaviest tasks imaginable.

The a6130n rated a 3.0 on the WEI scale. The 3GB of RAM rated 5.9 (absolutely awesome), the processor itself rated 5.2 (excellent) and the SATA drive rated 5.5 (excellent). It was the 128MB integrated graphics card that hurt the a6130n the most. It rated 3.3 (bad) for Windows Aero (eye candy) and 3.0 for gaming use. According to Microsoft's rating system, the a6130n is "able to run Windows Vista at a basic level."

The 3.0 score is a bit misleading because the a6130n runs quite fast and handles most applications with ease. It's the video card that tanks the overall score, but it's mostly a technicality. As mentioned earlier, if video performance is really critical to you, get a PCI videocard from newegg.com and you'll probably see the a6130n's WEI score jump into the 5.x range.


Software

The HP a6130n is surprisingly light on junkware. This is greatly appreciated. Of course, users may chose to replace Microsoft Works, RealPlayer and Norton Internet Security with free, open source options like OpenOffice, Winamp, AVG and many other zero-cost but highly valuable programs.

Warranty

Common to most computers these days, the a6130n comes with a limited 1-year warranty and 3-month software support offering.

PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard