Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

2017 update: If you still have this PC and want to add more versatility, HP laptop cables work fine for adding a 2.5" drive in the empty HDD bay. Search for "HP Envy DW 17 cable" on ebay for used cables and they go for around $10-20, there is a long and short - get the long. You have to cut off the tiny little round tabs on side of the connector to fit. There is one empty small connector slot on the board so it's easy to identify (opening is on top so the connector slides down into it), there is a that clip lifts off a couple mm and then you can slide the connector in and push the clip back down to lock it in place. I added a 1TB 2.5" drive and it works great, slide the drive into the bay, screw it down on the sides, connect the other end of the laptop cable and everything goes back in nice and tidy. No configuration needed as the system will automatically recognize the drive. Now I have plenty of storage space to store family pictures and videos. Update: The Mini Desktops have been discontinued by HP. At $179 this was a great deal, and likely cannibalized other PC sales so I can't say I didn't see this coming. It seems they are only offering Chrome OS systems on entry level desktops/laptops at this time. Original review/upgrade guide: To save others some time digging for this information (as I did) I thought it would be helpful to put everything in one review. You can upgrade the RAM (up to 16GB), internal storage (to 256GB M.2 SSD, or 2.5" hard drive with the proprietary HP "794966-001 - Cable - Prius SATA, L:65mm PR2", and the wifi card. To get started Unplug everything from the device. Flip over and lift the black rubber cover/flap. Remove the 3 black screws. Pry or lift the blue casing off, it should pop right off but you may need to tug a little. There is a metal frame covering the board, this is actually the 2.5" drive housing, but it's empty on the Stream mini, but it's where the drive would be on the Pavilion mini. Remove the 4 screws holding down the metal frame. Now you have access to the RAM slots, and the two M.2 Slots. Both of the M.2 slots are keyed differently (the divider between the pins are in different locations), so one is for the internal storage and the other is for the wifi. The first and easiest is the RAM, you need DDR3 1600 MHz PC3-12800 SODIMM 204-Pin notebook memory. It uses low voltage or 1.35v sometimes designated as DDR3L, or dual voltage 1.35v/1.5v seems to work fine as well. It has two slots that are stacked (slightly staggered) on top of each other. There are two spring clips on each side that hold each memory module in. Comes with a single 2GB module, so you can replace both or add one to the other slot. They don't have to be matching. I'd say the sweet spot is upgrading with an extra 4GB module for a total of 6GB. I added an 8GB module for a total of 10GB but the processor is the biggest bottleneck and I've monitored the system and frequently see the processor maxed out but the RAM never even close YMMV depending on the programs you use. After popping one in there is really nothing else to do, the system recognizes the extra memory and is ready to go. The internal storage is on a 32GB M.2 SSD 42mm - NOT Micro SSD or mSSD Max capacity is 256GB. These are tiny, about half the size of the RAM modules, they come in different lengths, so make sure to get the 42mm length. There seems to be only four brands that I could find that makes them in that size: Transcend, MyDigital, ZTC, and Intel. Reviews seem to be mostly positive, but mixed on all brands, so hard to recommend one over the others. I've replaced many drives on many computers and usually "cloned" drives, but I ran into issues trying to clone the drive on the Stream Mini, I think it may have to do with the version of windows being a "Bing" version, and requires the windows operating system license to be backed up and restored on the new drive. The easiest way seems to be by creating a recovery usb drive, which you can do from within the version of Windows that comes with the Stream, so no need for other backup software, or an external drive adapter. Creating a recovery usb drive: You do need a dedicated usb drive, though as it needs to be formatted make sure there is nothing on it that you want to keep. I recommend a 16GB capacity flash drive, and I'd buy and extra one for this purpose to keep just in case you need to restore your system in an SSD failure (which seems to happen by reading the reviews). Put your USB drive in any open slot. Then move your mouse over the bottom right of the screen to reveal the "Search" and click on it to open the search box. Type in "Create a recovery drive". You should see a computer icon with the the "create a recovery drive" words next to it as the first option, click on it. A windows pop up will ask if you want to make changes to the computer, click yes. Then it will search your computer for all the drives. Make sure to choose the drive for the USB flash drive you inserted. If you're not sure open the file explorer and look for your removable drive letter. Then just follow the instructions to complete the backup recovery drive. When it's done, turn off your computer. Restoring from the recovery USB (flash) Drive: Take the cover off and remove the old SSD from the M.2 slot (by removing the single screw) and put in the new SSD. Put everything together, plug the USB (flash) drive in and boot up. It should boot from the USB drive automatically and begin the recover process, which restores the operating system to the factory default onto the new SSD. The first menu in the recovery mode it will ask for language, choose yours. The next screen will be another set of options, click on "Troubleshoot". On the following screen click on "Reset your PC". The system will ask to confirm if you want to reset your PC, just click "next". The next screen will list available operating systems you can restore, if you properly backed up your system onto the flash drive it will say "Windows 8.1", and you can click on it. The next screen asks if you want to repartition the drive or keep existing, if you are installing a larger capacity drive choose "Yes, repartition the drives" and it will automatically partition the drives maximizing your C: boot drive and create a minimal restore partition. The next screen asks if you want to "Just remove my files" or "Fully clean the drive", full clean is the better option, but it takes longer, if your replacement drive is new you will probably be fine by choosing just remove my files. The next screen is a confirmation to reset and everything will be removed on your drive. Click on "Reset". After the reset is done the system will reboot into the recovery menu again. Remove the usb drive and click to "continue exit to windows 8.1". Then windows should boot from your new SSD drive installation and you will have to go through the same setup process for windows as you did when you first got your computer. (Note: Just in case it doesn't boot from the USB you can enter the boot menu by pressing "Esc" continually at boot up, which will take you to a boot menu where you can choose the boot options.) The wifi card has M.2 NGFF connector - NOT Mini-PCI-E There is a lot of information on the web about "white lists" for acceptable wifi cards, though from what I can gather HP discontinued white lists for desktops just in the past couple years, and Stream Mini can be upgraded. Look for a combination wifi/bluetooth card with the M.2 connector and two antenna connectors. The Intel 7260NGW 802.11ac wifi + bluetooth works with the stream. The wifi card unscrews just like SSD, but it also has two wires connecting to the antennas. There is a piece of tape covering them, after removing the tape they just pop off one by one. Be careful as they take more force to pop off than you would think. Connect the antenna wires to the new card and reinsert into the slot and replace the screw. Windows 8.1 has drivers for the intel card and will install by itself, you don't need to be connected to the internet to download any new drivers. When you boot up it will take a minute to install by itself and you're good to go, you will need to re-establish your connection to your router when it's done. If you have 802.11ac wireless in your home, you can verify the new connection speed by going to your network and sharing center -- right click on you wifi signal strength meter in your task bar and click on "Open network and sharing center". From there look for "Connections: Wifi (name of your wifi network)" and it'll give you a status report, under "Speed:". Note: You could also download drivers from intel, but I would try to let windows install before trying to install any other drivers. Regarding adding a 2.5" SSD. It seems it would be possible but you need a proprietary cable that seems to be very elusive. The internals of the Pavilion Mini and Stream Mini are basically the same except that the Pavilion Mini has the proprietary SSD cable that connects to the board and leaves the SSD M.2 slot empty. Vise versa the frame that would hold the 2.5" SSD in the Stream Mini is there but empty. Finally, is it worth it to upgrade. From what I can see based on benchmarks on various sites, the Pavilion Mini (Pentium) costs about $330 and performs generally slightly better than the Stream Mini. However, because of the SSD on the Stream Mini, some things like booting up and opening some programs will be faster on the Stream. Also, the Pavilion comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse and a higher capacity hard drive. If you factor in cost vs performance for a basic upgrade: HP Stream Mini $180 4GB RAM $30 128GB SSD $60 Total: $270 Pavilion Mini (Pentium) $320 I'd say the Stream Mini would probably be the better option with a basic upgrade. Comparable upgrade for both systems: Stream Mini $180 256GB SSD $120 8GB RAM $60 802.11ac/bluetooth $40 Wireless Keyboard/mouse $40 Total: $440 Pavilion Mini (Pentium) $320 4GB RAM $30 802.11ac/Bluetooth $40 256GB 2.5" SSD $120 Total: $510 Pavilion Mini (i3) $450 In this scenario I'd say it would be a tougher choice because the much better processor in the i3 might outweigh the advantages of the Stream Mini even if you upgraded it. In my experience the biggest bottleneck of the Stream Mini seems to be the processor and maxing out the upgrades on it is almost a waste and defeats the purpose of the this being a cheap desktop. On the otherhand on bottle neck on the Pavilion i3 would be the hard drive, and once you start upgrading the i3 then it starts to look like a better option to get an intel NUC. I think the best buy out of all these devices is to get the Stream Mini and make some modest upgrades and you have a capable pc with a very small footprint and for not a lot of money. Update: I thought it would be useful to give a brief analysis of the benefits of the upgrades. RAM: I tried using the device stock before I made any upgrades even though I had the parts ready to go. I was very surprised that it handled everything I threw at it and was fine as is. I didn't install any programs other than Chrome and antivirus so I didn't try it with any graphic intensive programs, but as far as basic web browsing and streaming it was fine. Anyway I upgraded the RAM with a single 8GB module, and left in the 2GB for a total of 10GB with the reasoning of having the ability to add another 8GB module in the future. The system ran fine and frankly couldn't tell a huge difference, maybe if I had two systems side by side or by running benchmark test I could see a difference. After upgrading the SSD and installing more programs and using for a few days and monitoring the system I noticed I didn't really need all that RAM, and definitely would be fine without upgrading to 16GB. I had another thought though. The system can run dual channel memory and automatically assigns it, so that in my case since I had 2GB in one and 8GB in the other it was running 4GB in dual channel mode and 6GB in single. So I thought what if I try 2 4GB Kingston HyperX Impact CL9 and with those running dual channel with lower latency (CL9 vs CL11) would that make any difference? Anyway, I had another computer that only has a single DIMM slot, so I could put that 8GB into it. Well, I installed the Kingston's, and to be honest I can't tell a difference. It all seems about the same or close enough that it doesn't make any noticeable difference. I guess if I used more graphic intensive programs I might. So, I would say for 80% of users just adding in one 4GB module into the blank slot (as I originally presumed) would be more than fine, and I'd actually go further and say even just adding 2GB for a total of 4GB would be fine for most people. Regarding the SSD drive. Performance wise there is no difference. The only issue is if you're going to be installing more than just a handful of programs and if you use Dropbox or similar cloud sync. After installing just a few programs I was out of space. I installed a 128GB SSD drive and was able to install more programs and my dropbox. Apparently dropbox will not work (properly and safely) unless it's on your system drive C:\. I think there are some workarounds but they come with risks of all your stuff being deleted. Anyway the upgrade was simple and 128GB was fine for my use. Anything more and I can use my external drives. I suppose some of the drives have different spec's as far as read and write times, but they'll be close enough that again, like the RAM there won't be much noticeable difference in performance. WIFI/Bluetooth Card: Unlike the other upgrades, upgrading the wifi to 802.11ac made a huge difference. With the stock wifi card I was getting in the single and low double digit Mbps speeds. Granted you have to have the right matching wireless router, and choose the appropriate wifi card, but I'm now getting around the manufacturer's advertised 800Mbps speeds with the upgrade. Youtube 1080P videos load instantly, Amazon instant video streams in HD, I can stream hd video files on my network drives smoothly. File transfers are like I'm on a wired gigabit connection. If you have an 802.11ac router at home then the wifi card is a must have upgrade. The last upgrade I made was a wireless keyboard and mouse. I chose the HP wireless elite desktop v2, because it has a minimalist look to match the stream, it has the matching HP logos, it uses a micro sized unified usb receiver, and it's moderately inexpensive. All told I have invested: HP Stream Mini $165 (I bought it when it was on sale on HP's website) 8GB RAM $60 128GB SSD $60 802.11ac/bluetooth card $40 Wireless Keyboard/mouse $40 Total $365 Which I still think is a better value than going with the Pavilion Mini, because if I go with the Pavilion I would still have to upgrade to an SSD, the wifi card, and add more RAM to come close to a similar configuration. Also apparently according to popular opinion the wireless keyboard and mouse that comes with the Pavilion is not that good and the receiver is huge. 2nd update 5/19/25 I just got an email from Dell announcing their competitor product for this Stream Mini Desktop which they call the Inspiron Micro Desktop. While I don't have that exact product to compare, I do have the Dell Small Inspiron with the same Intel Celeron J1800 processor (which I bought at the same time I bough the HP Stream Mini). I was meaning to do a comparison anyway and thought this would be a good time in case someone wanted to compare the new Dell Micro desktop. The Micro and the Small inspiron have the same processor but the Small Inspiron Desktop has more memory (4gb) with a spinning hard drive, whereas the Micro has only 2gb but it adds an SSD and better wifi (ac vs n). I feel I have a good impression of the potential performance because I upgraded my Small Inspiron Desktop with a Samsung 128gb SSD, 8gb of memory (see above where I reference I had another computer that I could use the 8gb stick), and it's connected by LAN wire to my router. So if anything my setup with the Small Inspiron should perform as well or better than the new Dell Micro Desktop. Just by looking at CPU passmark scores the Stream Mini's Celeron 2957u (1,498 score) pounces the Dell's J1800's 1,054 score. I can tell you from real world experience as well that I could tell a difference even before looking up the cpu scores, I only looked up the scores to try to verify what I was seeing made sense. I originally thought that it would be close or the Dell might be a little better, but the HP is noticeably quicker, smoother, video plays without flicker, just better every way around. The only reason I got the Dell Small Desktop was that I needed a small form factor with a dvd drive to connect to a projector at work and that was the least expensive I could find with an attached dvd drive. The Dell doesn't perform up to par with the HP. While the HP is definitely no speed demon, I would say that most of the time it's adequate and occasionally surprisingly quick. Sometimes there is a slight pause while it's processing something, but the pause is just at the point of being tolerable and acceptable. The Dell on the other hand just misses the mark of being almost acceptable and is sometimes a little annoying. Also, video doesn't play as smooth, and I notice flickering or stutter when streaming youtube or other video content - which is disappointing because I got it to use exclusively with a projector. I have to say though I'm very impressed with the HP, especially for the price. I have other computers that are faster but they are bigger, cost more, and the fan noise is awful. The HP is cheap, tiny, quiet and works quite well. If you are comparing the two get the HP Stream Mini and not the Dell Micro Desktop. Update 06/10/15 I received a comment that the SATA cable for the Stream Mini was available in Japan. I don't know Japanese but with the help of google translate I looked around and saw that a Japanese version of the HP Stream 200-010JP comes with a "SATA Expansion Kit" that includes the SATA cable to attach a 2.5 inch drive and a set of screws to attach the drive to the casing. It looks like the Japanese version also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse and the whole set is about $200 USD. I'm hopeful HP will sell either the SATA cable or even a model that comes with all the same components as the Japanese version here in the US. Unfortunately for the time being it seems it is still not readily available.