New York — Hewlett-Packard joined the growing list of PC vendors that allow consumers to personalize their computer by offering aftermarket colorization kits for the company’s new higher-end models introduced at PC Expo in late June.
The kits — which have a street price in the $30 range — allow the end user to swap the stock faceplate, the top of the minitower and the upper part of the keyboard with cobalt blue, krypton green and xenon purple replacement parts, said Tom Anderson, HP’s product marketing manager for the Pavilion desktop PC line. The kits have been available for the 9780C and 8770C Pavilions online at hpshopping.com.
HP this week will start shipping those two high-end PCs, and in mid-July three entry-level models will hit stores. In addition, five notebook models will join the PCs.
The higher-end PCs will carry estimated street prices of $1,849 and $1,599, with the more expensive model being powered by the AMD 1GB Athlon processor and featuring DVD-ROM, CD-RW, 128MB of RAM, DSL modem and network interface card.
The entry-level models start with an Intel Celeron 600MHz processor, with a $599 estimated street price, and jump up to a Pentium III 667MHz for $1,049.
HP also expanded its Pavilion notebook line, which was first introduced to retail in October 1999, with the five-unit 3300 Series.
The series leads off with the N3310 — a $1,199 model featuring an AMD K6-2 500MHz processor and 64MB of RAM with a 13-inch LCD.
The line steps up to the $2,399 price point with the N3370, which uses an AMD K6-2 550MHz mobile processor that contains the just-introduced PowerNow battery-management technology. The N3370 also has a DVD-ROM drive, 10GB hard drive and a 14.1-inch LCD.
