A nice machine if you can put up with the noise

Going into the third month of ownership the tower developed a loud hum that changes in volume, almost like a transformer, but a little higher than a 60 cycle hum. I opened it up, stopped all three fans that I could get to and they are not the culprit. Seems to be from the power supply. I thought for sure it was a fan. But it doesn't seem to be the two in the back or the processor fan. I have maybe 15 - 20 basic applications installed that run just fine on xp. BSOD at least 2 times a day and it didn't want to power down 2 out of 3 times, just hanged up on the shut down cycle. So far Registry Mechanic seems to have fixed that. Other than those issues, I'm happy with this machine.

Edit.. The noise was found to be originating from the NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS processor fan. They are sent a replacement, support was helpful. The BSOD may be caused by a conflict with zonealarm. An Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Adapter update was reported by windows to resolve the issue.

Great Hardware and poor OS

The m99040n runs now for about eight weeks. Speed is faster than my old AMD 1600 XP. But not as fast as you would expect from the Q6600 vs. AMD 1600 XP. Everything works well.
The TV media portion shows very low picture quality even if set to "best" in Media Center (reception from welfare TV over the air)at 1900x1200(1080). DVR works as good as the TV. Sound quality is very good. The quiet system allows watching classical music.
The HP wireless mouse was a bit undersized for this very good system and you should really think about a better one. Tastatur is fine.
Video 8400/256MB card can handle media player movies, DVD and pictures easily at 1900x1200 resolution. Remote is not really quick - be patient and it will do what you want.
Vista has is asking just too many annoying question about programs running. It would be good if you could tell Vista what program you want to allow to run once. Many programs under XP won't run well on Vista - Do you really want to buy all programs you own again  more

M9040N Non-functional-Bad technical support-Buyer beware

Purchased HP M9040N end of November 2007. Computer crashes frequently. On start-up computer asks for reboot and select proper boot device. When inserting recovery disks, get error message that HD cannot be found. HP support only wants to reinstall original OS and software which has been done twice. HP will not replace PC. Does not stand behind product. Service support provided in India and Argentina is pathetic and hardly worth the call unless you just want to explain the problem over and over and over again and only to be thanked for purchasing HP (which I will not do again). Spend your money and take your chances. Next computer will be a Dell or Sony or any other brand. HP Pavilion M9040N Elite Desktop PC (Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, 3 GB RAM, 640 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)HP Pavilion M9040N Elite Desktop PC (Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, 3 GB RAM, 640 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

GREAT!

It arrived on time, and is working great. Hardly makes any sound (unlike my old PC). If i'd HAVE to criticize ONE thing it would be Vista. But you can always install XP on another drive. (which is NOT as easy as one would think. Have to search a little bit online first)
Other than that, GREAT product. i LOVE it.

Great Functional Computer

I have spent my entire adult life building computers. I always wanted the fastest, most functional computer I could get. Tired of doing this I decided to buy a pre-built computer. I bought the m9040n. I have had it for about 3 months and really like it. I really like the personal media bay in the front. I bought 2 750 GB personal media drives and back the machine up to those. Works great.

Great Machine . . . but no RAID Capability

After three weeks working with HP's Total Care service group, it was finally concluded, after many decision reversals, that this product is not RAID Ready capable. Total Care has suggested looking at the m9040n, which does have RAID capability. Also look at the customizable HP m9000t and m9000z models which are said to be RAID capable.

Hopefully, I have cleared up a confusing area. The machine itself is extremely well designed . . . a thing of beauty. All in all, I was sad to have to return this beautiful machine!