This computer's IEEE1394 port makes it easy to connect a DV camcorder.
Released on September 1, 2004, the HP Pavilion a706n desktop computer was aimed at the home-based end-user market. It featured an AMD Athlon processor on an ASUS motherboard with a Via chipset. Befitting a home computer, HP sold it in a package with a multimedia keyboard, scroll wheel mouse and extensive software bundle.
Software Bundle
HP ships the a706n with Windows XP Home and a number of Microsoft applications, including Works and Encarta, in addition to a trial version of Microsoft Office. Pre-installed multimedia software includes iTunes, RealPlayer and WinDVD Creator. A number of utilities including PC Doctor, Norton Personal Firewall 2004, and a trial version of Norton AntiVirus are also put on the computer at the factory. Finally, HP sets the computer up with software so that it can easily connect to a large number of Internet service providers.
Ports
Peripherals can be connected to the computer's IEEE1394 Firewire, USB, parallel and serial ports. Connections to outside computers are enabled by its RJ-45 Ethernet and RJ-11 telephone modem connection ports. In addition, the computer can input and output audio through its microphone input, line-level input and line-level outputs, which are also usable with headphones. Older keyboards and mice will work with the computer's PS/2 ports and a monitor can be connected to its 15-pin VGA connector. Finally, the computer has a nine-in-one card reader that accepts CF, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, MMC, SD, xD and MicroDrive media.
Motherboard
The computer's Asus-built motherboard has a 2.1 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP 3000+ processor with a 400 megahertz front-side bus. It has two slots for DDR SDRAM DIMMs running at 333 megahertz, one of which is filled with 512 megabytes, and the other of which can hold another 512 megabytes. The board also features embedded audio and video controllers which shares up to 64 megabytes of the system's memory.
Drives
HP includes a 160 gigabyte hard drive that connects over Ultra DMA and has platters that spin at 7200 revolutions per minute. The a706n also has an optical drive that reads DVDs at up to 16x speed and writes and rewrites CDs. The CD read speed is 48x while the write and rewrite speeds are 48x and 32x, respectively.
Tags: computer IEEE1394, drive that, input line-level, trial version