HP e-Vectra : a closer look

According to this CNet article, the e-Vectra began shipping around April 2000 and was targeted as a low-cost, easy to maintain corporate PC solution starting at $549. It seems one of the main reasons for the external power supply was for "easy support", making it easy to identify power supply failure and easy to replace.









The AC brick that came with my e-Vectra has a 19v 3.16A output, or approximately 60 watts.













Here is a view of the back including a standard collection of ports/connectors. The circular power jack is located on the very left. The key is for locking the hard disk door at the top of the case.




Sliding back the hard disk door reveals the 3.5" HDD inside. From HP's manual, I believe there should be a cage that installs around the HDD before being inserted, however this was missing in my machine.










There are two rubber grommets at the bottom of the hard disk bay, it seems that HP was paying attention to vibration reduction/silencing when they designed this machine.










The case cover slides forward revealing the single 80mm fan on the right.













Directly below the fan is the CPU heatsink, which is grounded to the chassis by a wire and two screws. The slim optical drive on the left slides out easily with the locking tab pushed down.






Removing the heatsink reveals the Mendocino Core Celeron 533 underneath. So this what thermal compound looks like after 6 years!










The single SDRAM slot is accesible from the front.







Here is a look at the motherboard after being removed from the chassis. It measures roughly 21 x 21cm, slightly smaller than mATX and a little bigger than mini-ITX. All caps and other components still look to be in good condition.








A sticker inside the chassis reveals the real age of this tiny machine, 6 years and 4 months.









A nice family portrait, all the components of the e-Vectra stripped down. The chassis is made from steel and actually makes the machine quite heavy for it's size, but this should also help with sound/vibration dampening. The plastic panels have been detached from the chassis for cleaning and repainting.




You can see here the original color of the plastic panel where I removed a sticker. Unfortunately the yellowing does not scrub off with detergent, so looks like a new coat of paint is in order.






Some closeups of the various components inclulding the CPU, RAM, fan, fan mount, hard drive and optical drive.











Overall the tiny PC is not very loud, but not quiet enough to qualify as a silent PC. However with it's heavy steel chassis, single fan, and relatively low power consumption, it does have good quieting potential. The old 10GB Quantum Fireball HDD does have a whine that can be heard even with the drive door closed, so that probably will need to be replaced. I am trying to get hold of some metallic paint to redo the panels before putting back together this tiny machine.

Go to HP e-vectra : makeover

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