HP 500B - Back to Home

Earlier this June, I bought this HP 500B desktop for only 20 dollars, which was arguably 20 dollars too much. It's a very cheap late 2000s desktop, very similar to the Compaq Presario I've made so many articles about.

Unlike the Presario, this machine is Intel based, not AMD. However, it still uses the same case design (the front plastic bezel is the only difference) and motherboard layout. HP even made the exact same model with the Compaq branding instead of the HP branding.

Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93GHz
2GB DDR3 RAM
300W PSU
LightScribe DVD-RW Drive
No HDD

Also, the rear I/O on this PC is somehow even more lackluster than the Presario. 4 USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, audio, and that's it. At least the Presario has PS/2.

The internals weren't too dirty; it only took me a couple minutes to blow all the dust out.

The empty space where a floppy header should be.

Despite having settings in the BIOS for floppy drive setup, the motherboard has no floppy header. The space where one should be remains, though.

After I got it on the bench, the first thing I did was run Hiren's Boot CD and take a look around. One thing you might notice is that the power button is on the side of the machine instead of the front, which is a bit awkward.

The terrible SATA cable this machine had.

This thing also came with the shortest SATA cable I've ever seen. It also has a really annoying locking mechanism, so I threw it out for a better cable.

The internals of the 500B, with the 40GB Seagate HDD in it.

After I was done with HBCD, I installed a temporary HDD in it, a 2.5" 40GB Seagate that I also used in the Cisco Wave desktop. I'll probably swap it for a higher capacity HDD eventually, or maybe even an SSD.

I found the original restore CDs for this PC on the Internet Archive, but all of that will be in a sequel to this page, since there's quite a bit I want to look at. Until that day comes, the 500B will sit under the workbench with every other old PC I've found.