stlmapman

It has a PCI Express slot. I ordered a Geforce 6600GT for it from Newegg for 99 bucks after rebate! Beware, it only has a 300watt power supply so you may need to upgrade that as well - depending on the card.

Where do you work? And what retailer would ever allow departmental management to take this week off? Wow.

I went back tonight to the Circuit City where I purchased the HP system. I went to Customer Service first, who told me to go talk to the manager of the computer department. He told me it was a misprint in the ad and unfortunately there was nothing they could do, although he did say I could return it. He also said that they had posted a sign about the misprint. Maybe they did later in the day, but there was no sign at 5am when I was there, the computer was not on display, and no employee there mentioned this fact to me. Anyhow, I told him this was unacceptable - that their ad constituted an offer, which I accepted by purchasing it. I explained that this was no different than if the ad had said the system had 1gb of RAM and it actually had 512mb. Anyhow, I then went over his head and asked for the general manager and phone numbers for the district, region, and corporate. I also asked for their store number and started writing down names of employees I talked to. After waiting for the general manager for about 10 minutes, the computer manager and the general manager walked up together and offered to buy an OEM copy of the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 online for me and will call me once it arrives later this week. I don't really know how they're allowed to do this, but I think it's an acceptable outcome. That being said, I'm certainly going to make sure it's a licensed copy and not some pirated burned-at-home copy. Hope this helps.

K, let me know if you get anything resolved on this and I'll do the same on my end. I'm going to go into the store to talk to the manager this afternoon. I'm going to ask that they discount the purchase by the amount it costs to purchase the Media Center upgrade.

Yes. The ad showed MCE 2005. It's on page 5 of the PDF on Gottadeal's scans. The preloaded OS is Windows XP Home Edition. Edited to add: This is the HP a1206n package with a 15" LCD.

I bought the $549.99 HP Desktop (after rebates natch) at CC yesterday and just noticed after setting it up that it doesn't have Windows XP Media Center installed, just plain old Windows XP. Bear in mind, this PC was not on display and the ad stated clearly that it was supposed to have XP Media Center Edition pre-installed. I'm pretty disappointed because I like the computer otherwise but really wanted to use it as a DVR, etc. What should I do? Ask CC to give me a free Media Center software upgrade? Anyone else having the same issue or is it just me?

Their deals on Friday are a lot better...on some of the same exact items.