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Compaq Presario $299

If you're a gamer. This machine might be way too slow. It will be fine for school work though.
 
Slava said:
If you're a gamer. This machine might be way too slow. It will be fine for school work though.
Click to expand...

yes but compaq's are known to have a plethera of problems with there computers, so if you want to have it dieing on you every other day or something screwing up on it. Go for it! :rolleyes:
 
darkmyth said:
yes but compaq's are known to have a plethera of problems with there computers, so if you want to have it dieing on you every other day or something screwing up on it. Go for it! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
could you link me to a company that produces error-less computers? :rolleyes:

For $299 it looks like a nice value for a student/parent/grandparent looking to do basic email/office/internet work.
 
I have to say, for the grandma / interenet box thing Dell's are a better box.

I know about 10 people with Compaqs and every one of them has had major issues. We had one that loaded cnc programs for a machine in our shop, but it crapped out (booting to some Compaq restore utility that hardly restored, somehow the whole OS got fubared).

Honestly, I don't know what corners Compaq is cutting to compete, but from what I've seen I'd invest the couple extra bucks and get a Dell if that's what you want need.
 
dell has problems, for example, i was fixing a teachers computer, reformated and had to reinstall the modem drivers, the modem came with the computer but the drivers wernt on dells site
 
Yeah, I don't know what it is those cheap soft-winmodems, but Dell's not the only one. I've had that issue with several boxes, Dell, HP and Compaq.

Funny thing is, for the Compaq I tried to fix, the only thing they offered for online manuals was the paperwork for the modem - no mobo jumpers, pin headers or even what speed ram it needed. Compaq/HP gets my vote for most useless support site.

[edit] Bonus points if you can figure out how to get the damn boxes open to swap out parts. freakin things are like a rubics cube.
 
for the price its not bad, yeah its a compaq with XP home, so your going to have to mod it a little, upgrade the os, and get the drivers back, but for a folding, home fileserver, DL/p2p, 2nd gaming rig so you can kick your friends ass in cod and have them bitch about it being the pc and not them sucking (needs more ram and vid card), there is a bunch of shit you can do with it. Im not gonna get it b/c i have a file server/2nd gaming rig, (and a stack of P2s and nothing to do with them) but its not pointless,

thanks for the link
 
darkmyth said:
no offense but no one is going to go for this deal, compaq blows. (no flameing it's just the truth)
Click to expand...

I really don't understand why people seem to think that compaq blows. At work we run all compaq's. they work perfect. I personally have had 2 compaq desktops and 3 compaq laptops. they all, (except the deskpro 2000) work today. I have dropped most of these computers down the stairs, swapped out parts left and right, no problems. am i really just that lucky, or is this issue just blown out of porportion. I really hate that people flame on compaqs, they have always been good to me, an I even reccomend their AMD offerings.

edit: the deskpro stopped working because i fried the bios after putting a bad cpu in.
 
It isnt really worth it for a gamer. It would cost a bunch of money to make it run games and even more to get it to run well.
 
I personally have had a compaq presario 5202 that I still run but I've had to reload the OS to many times, had to replace the hdd, had to upgrade the ram, had to put in a new graphics card, replace there monitor, replace there printer etc etc etc etc. :mad:

There products suck. Basicly the only thing that is still running stock would be the floppy, the mobo which has it's problems, power supply, and the case. Everything else has had to be replaced or upgraded. It is not worth getting a compaq because for the most part they are a large pile of foobar.
 
Gov't Inventory Manager here, I've got 475 Compaq Laptops, most of them deployed, and the failure rate is well above 10%, they're truly horrible machines. Don't even get me started on the port reps, one out of every twenty comes broken out of the box. In fact I registered just to moan about them upon reading this post.

To be fair our Compaq Desktops have a remarkably low failure rate but our users don't ask very much of their PC's which makes that huge stack of Latops I have down the hall waiting for RMA look even worse.
 
darkmyth said:
yes but compaq's are known to have a plethera of problems with there computers, so if you want to have it dieing on you every other day or something screwing up on it. Go for it! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Hmmm, actually I have that one on my desk at work. It's perfect for that. Do me a favor. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but don't post some bullshit like that unless you state it's from your own personal experience. We've been kicking ass all over the desktop world, and enjoying the fall of Dell. I've worked on quite a few HP and Compaq desktops for co-workers who bought them for home use. I've been very impressed with the massive change in quality over the past 3 years of our stuff. True, they aren't high end gaming machines, but show me a high end gaming machine for $300? Do some research into the recent industry results. You'll see HP at the top across the board. Not every company makes every computer work perfectly, but if you do some research you'll see ours rated at the top. Gateway? Don't make me laugh.
 
I've been using a Compaq for a couple years. It hasn't been that bad and hasn't had any major problems. It's a total pain in the ass to install any new hardware though and I'm happy to say I'll be giving it das boot within a week or so when I build my new computer. :)
 
Business I work at run all compaqs and they run just as good as any other major retailer machine, especially around this price point, you dont have much room to complain. I say if it fits anywhere in your needs, you can't really go wrong at that price.
 
darkmyth said:
I personally have had a compaq presario 5202 that I still run but I've had to reload the OS to many times, had to replace the hdd, had to upgrade the ram, had to put in a new graphics card, replace there monitor, replace there printer etc etc etc etc. :mad:

There products suck. Basicly the only thing that is still running stock would be the floppy, the mobo which has it's problems, power supply, and the case. Everything else has had to be replaced or upgraded. It is not worth getting a compaq because for the most part they are a large pile of foobar.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, obviously your machine is representative of all compaq machines ever made, so therefore all compaq computers suck. I see. I'll stay away from them then. Nothing to see here, guys. Somebody had a bad experience with Compaq so we shouldn't buy this computer.
 
I don't think that compaq is as bad as it used to be, at my school compaq won the bid for all our computer systems, we have over 250 P4 2ghz systems and celly 2ghz systems and in the past two years out of 250 systems being used everyday we have had 4 montherboards replaced and 2 of them were because of the PSU and a power spike so in my eyes compaq isn't too bad.
 
CodeWaste said:
I really don't understand why people seem to think that compaq blows. At work we run all compaq's. they work perfect. I personally have had 2 compaq desktops and 3 compaq laptops. they all, (except the deskpro 2000) work today. I have dropped most of these computers down the stairs, swapped out parts left and right, no problems. am i really just that lucky, or is this issue just blown out of porportion. I really hate that people flame on compaqs, they have always been good to me, an I even reccomend their AMD offerings.

edit: the deskpro stopped working because i fried the bios after putting a bad cpu in.
Click to expand...

There's an INFINITE difference between the Compaq home line and the Compaq business line. I'm a network admin and I oversee 50+ Compaq and HP/Compaq machines, which all run flawlessly. In almost two years in my current position, we've had one workstation HDD fail, and one server UPS fail. That's ALL! Their business line is rock-solid, with incredible technical support and high-quality products.

But....they also have a dark side. Their home line is so unbelievably awful, it's rediculous. I've fixed and configured countless home Compaq machines through my personal contracting business, and every one of them has been trash. Some of their higher-end home PCs are excusable, but anything below the $600 range can be discarded entirely. To name a few problems:
-90% of those I've worked on HAVE NO AGP PORT! In today's day and age, that's inexcusable.
-My mom's 2.8Ghz Compaq has performed like a Pentium II since the day she bought it (with a clean install of XP Pro)
-They load so much crap on their computers, the only way to make them usable is to purchase your own copy of XP and start from scratch. We're talking 30+ completely pointless programs, many of which give you great pains while trying to uninstall.
-The last Compaq I worked on takes a full 5 minutes to load XP ever since it was purchased.
-My boss's daughter's home Compaq just had a complete hard drive failure (after only being 13 months old). Compaq wouldn't provide a replacement - 12 month warranty only

While I wouldn't ever use anything but a Compaq in a corporate environment, you'd have to fry my balls to get me to store a single document on a home Compaq.

Want a high-quality, reliable, cheap, home computer solution? Buy an eMachines computer. While they had a few hiccups during the first year after starting their company, they've since become a rock solid company. I have set up tons of small businesses and home users with eMachines over the past several years, and have NEVER encountered a single problem due to the computer itself. In addition, they put almost no third-party programs on their PCs, save for the obligatory Money2003 demo and MS Works (both easy uninstalls if necessary).

Take the advice of someone with a very great deal of experience with Compaq, save yourself hundreds of headaches (and future dollars), and STAY AWAY FROM COMPAQ'S HOME LINE!



EDIT: note how the majority of people in this thread are posting success with their WORK Compaq machines. Their Evo workstations (especially the newer variants, like the D530's) and their ProLiant servers are incredible. Everything else is pulled entirely out of their asses. Do everyone a favor and don't encourage purchasing the crap they produce on the home line.
 
EDIT: note how the majority of people in this thread are posting success with their WORK Compaq machines. Their Evo workstations (especially the newer variants, like the D530's) and their ProLiant servers are incredible. Everything else is pulled entirely out of their asses. Do everyone a favor and don't encourage purchasing the crap they produce on the home line.
Click to expand...


-90% of those I've worked on HAVE NO AGP PORT! In today's day and age, that's inexcusable.
-My mom's 2.8Ghz Compaq has performed like a Pentium II since the day she bought it (with a clean install of XP Pro)
-My boss's daughter's home Compaq just had a complete hard drive failure (after only being 13 months old). Compaq wouldn't provide a replacement - 12 month warranty only
Click to expand...


Yeah, and how many Gateway/Dell's have you seen with perfect tweaker software loads and AGP slots? No replacement on the harddrive? So? The manufacturer warranty on the drive itself wouldn't have been any longer than 1 year anymore anyway... eMachines?!? Granted that I'm biased, but sorry, I've yet to see an eMachine with more than a 150w PSU, and THAT is inexcuseable in my book.


I personally have had a compaq presario 5202 that I still run but I've had to reload the OS to many times, had to replace the hdd, had to upgrade the ram, had to put in a new graphics card, replace there monitor, replace there printer etc etc etc etc.
Click to expand...

And just becuase you didn't buy enough power and/or blew up windows doesn't mean their product is bad. Repeat after me: Onboard graphics is bad for gaming, Onboard graphics is bad for gaming...


I'm not trying to justify or completely defend anything, BUT to sit there and spout utter BS about 1 brand when ALL of them do the same things is just irresponsible posting. Ever look at stock Gateway/Dell loads? Hmmm... let's see, spyware, Wild Tangent, MASSIVE amounts of misc. crap software. Just like Compaq... They ALL do the same thing. And up until recently, only Dell had indian call centers, which would be a HUGE vote for anybody else, but now HP/Compaq have centers there too. So, ultimately, 6 of one, half a dozen of the other...
 
jpmkm said:
Ah yes, obviously your machine is representative of all compaq machines ever made, so therefore all compaq computers suck. I see. I'll stay away from them then. Nothing to see here, guys. Somebody had a bad experience with Compaq so we shouldn't buy this computer.
Click to expand...
lol....
 
Slava said:
If you're a gamer. This machine might be way too slow. It will be fine for school work though.
Click to expand...

Dont forget the important use of having a sturdy surface to bash your head against when you finally realized what you bought!
 
Nate7311 said:
Yeah, and how many Gateway/Dell's have you seen with perfect tweaker software loads and AGP slots? No replacement on the harddrive? So? The manufacturer warranty on the drive itself wouldn't have been any longer than 1 year anymore anyway... eMachines?!? Granted that I'm biased, but sorry, I've yet to see an eMachine with more than a 150w PSU, and THAT is inexcuseable in my book.




And just becuase you didn't buy enough power and/or blew up windows doesn't mean their product is bad. Repeat after me: Onboard graphics is bad for gaming, Onboard graphics is bad for gaming...


I'm not trying to justify or completely defend anything, BUT to sit there and spout utter BS about 1 brand when ALL of them do the same things is just irresponsible posting. Ever look at stock Gateway/Dell loads? Hmmm... let's see, spyware, Wild Tangent, MASSIVE amounts of misc. crap software. Just like Compaq... They ALL do the same thing. And up until recently, only Dell had indian call centers, which would be a HUGE vote for anybody else, but now HP/Compaq have centers there too. So, ultimately, 6 of one, half a dozen of the other...
Click to expand...

dont forget about sony! I was helping a friend fix up their comptuer, and i did a clean format and reinstall of OS. When you boot up....sony has about oooooh....30 id say items in add/remove programs.....when you do a clean OS install on a home built comp, i think its 0, 1, or 2 items. God damn I hate how stupid OEM comps are, and they wonder why people wonder why their machine is slow as shit. I thought they DONT LIKE getting so many calls to tech support :rolleyes: ....

When I called dell because my DVD-Rom wasnt working...it was fucking hilarious! For an hour I spent time playing "who can speak fucking english" game as the guy spells out a 30 character web address using h as in hockey, t as in testicle, t as in testicle, p as in pathetic retard that should not be doing tech support for americans.
 
djnes said:
Hmmm, actually I have that one on my desk at work. It's perfect for that. Do me a favor. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but don't post some bullshit like that unless you state it's from your own personal experience. We've been kicking ass all over the desktop world, and enjoying the fall of Dell. I've worked on quite a few HP and Compaq desktops for co-workers who bought them for home use. I've been very impressed with the massive change in quality over the past 3 years of our stuff. True, they aren't high end gaming machines, but show me a high end gaming machine for $300? Do some research into the recent industry results. You'll see HP at the top across the board. Not every company makes every computer work perfectly, but if you do some research you'll see ours rated at the top. Gateway? Don't make me laugh.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that shit. I know many many co-workers, co-workers of my dad, and friends....NONE own an HP...many own compaqs, and majority own dells. I highly disagree, and I always hear about comments such as Dells support is great...NEVER heard anything like this about HP. Show us this "research" before you go around with all these claims.
 
My experience with Compaq is somewhat limited, as I've only had 2 of their home PCs, but I still don't think they are worth it, cheap or not. My first Compaq, which is still running - now as my home Linux server, is actually great. I added an AGP video card (it had an AGP slot thankfully), and more RAM, and changed the OS from Compaq's shitty Windows ME (as if WinME wasn't crappy enough, the Compaq version was hell) to Windows XP. The first couple of installs of XP it would reboot itself every single day at least once. The second install slowed down the pace a bit, and by the third install it just didn't do it anymore. Have no idea what changed, as this was before I ever installed SP1. Anyway, after that it ran like a dream for its age. It allowed me to play pretty much every game I wanted without being too slow (thanks in part to my video card of course). Now it runs RedHat 9 as my local webserver, fileserver, ect (going to change to either SUSE or Fedora soon). It performs flawlessly there.

On the other hand, the second Compaq, which isn't mine - I maintain it, sucks. It has the slowest hard drive I have ever used. All of the other hardware is fine, but they crippled the damn HD. Then the OS.. my god what a mess. It's WinXP Home, and thats fine, but all of the CRAP they put on it. It had a virus at one point (someone clicking shit they shouldn't have been) and I opted to just reformat. So I tried to use the Compaq restore feature, which keeps all of the restore stuff on an HD partition. It had errors. So it made me burn MY OWN recovery disks. That would be fine if it would have been one or two disks, but it was FUCKING 5 DISKS. Windows XP requires one single disk, Compaq's version should not need 5. So anyway, I burned the disks, and did the restore. It was supposed to have reformatted the drive, but instead it used an old Windows restore image AND put all the Compaq crap back on it. Well the virus had put itself in the restore image, so all I did was waste my time. Didn't get rid of the virus and ended up with all of the useless Compaq bullshit back on the comp. Finally I just tired of it, got rid of the virus, and uninstalled all crap again. I also added an old GF3 Ti 500 in it recently and that helped speed it up a bit. Luckily it too had an AGP slot, though I was surprised.

In any case, despite having a good run with one, I too still think home Compaq's are crap(I feel the same way about HP, Dell, Gateway). A lot of their parts are sub-standard obviously, thats how they cut costs. Just learn how to put your own PC together, it is not that hard. It may cost a bit more because you have to buy the OS yourself (if using Windows) but the performance boost you can get from using quality parts and not having a bunch shit installed from the start is worth it.
 
Dethtoll said:
There's an INFINITE difference between the Compaq home line and the Compaq business line. I'm a network admin and I oversee 50+ Compaq and HP/Compaq machines, which all run flawlessly. In almost two years in my current position, we've had one workstation HDD fail, and one server UPS fail. That's ALL! Their business line is rock-solid, with incredible technical support and high-quality products.

But....they also have a dark side. Their home line is so unbelievably awful, it's rediculous. I've fixed and configured countless home Compaq machines through my personal contracting business, and every one of them has been trash. Some of their higher-end home PCs are excusable, but anything below the $600 range can be discarded entirely. To name a few problems:
-90% of those I've worked on HAVE NO AGP PORT! In today's day and age, that's inexcusable.
-My mom's 2.8Ghz Compaq has performed like a Pentium II since the day she bought it (with a clean install of XP Pro)
-They load so much crap on their computers, the only way to make them usable is to purchase your own copy of XP and start from scratch. We're talking 30+ completely pointless programs, many of which give you great pains while trying to uninstall.
-The last Compaq I worked on takes a full 5 minutes to load XP ever since it was purchased.
-My boss's daughter's home Compaq just had a complete hard drive failure (after only being 13 months old). Compaq wouldn't provide a replacement - 12 month warranty only

While I wouldn't ever use anything but a Compaq in a corporate environment, you'd have to fry my balls to get me to store a single document on a home Compaq.

Want a high-quality, reliable, cheap, home computer solution? Buy an eMachines computer. While they had a few hiccups during the first year after starting their company, they've since become a rock solid company. I have set up tons of small businesses and home users with eMachines over the past several years, and have NEVER encountered a single problem due to the computer itself. In addition, they put almost no third-party programs on their PCs, save for the obligatory Money2003 demo and MS Works (both easy uninstalls if necessary).

Take the advice of someone with a very great deal of experience with Compaq, save yourself hundreds of headaches (and future dollars), and STAY AWAY FROM COMPAQ'S HOME LINE!



EDIT: note how the majority of people in this thread are posting success with their WORK Compaq machines. Their Evo workstations (especially the newer variants, like the D530's) and their ProLiant servers are incredible. Everything else is pulled entirely out of their asses. Do everyone a favor and don't encourage purchasing the crap they produce on the home line.
Click to expand...


You make some excellent points about their home line of PC's, however I think it may be a little over simplified. I will admit that all but the deskpro 2000 I had were amd systems, not Intel ones as most people seem to have had a problem with.

The AMD systems are rock solid with good parts. I reccomended a compaq to a friend about 2 months ago. It had an athlon 2800+, nforce 2 mobo with 8x AGP, USB 2.0, ATA 133 and firewire. The onboard video was a gforce 4 mx 440. This thing has been a champ since he bought it. True the PSU was only a 250 watt, but it had alot of amps and was solid enough to put a 9800 pro in there, we might try a 6800GT just for shits and giggles.

I guess the point im trying to make is no pre built PC will ever hold a candle to the quality of a home built system like many of you have, so its really pointless to expect them to. If OEM's did, the cost of those computers would be twice what they are now, and you would have everyone and their cousin coming over to use your machine.
 
highly doubt that shit. I know many many co-workers, co-workers of my dad, and friends....NONE own an HP...

NEVER heard anything like this about HP.
Click to expand...

could it be you've never heard anything positive about hp/compaq's cuz you don't know anyone that owns one?

i'm considering buying one of these for my mom/sisters... and yeah... i don't think anyone expects to be doing any gaming on one of these.

use them for what they're made for... NOT gaming. NOT enthusiast systems. super basic home user systems.
 
Jozone said:
I dont believe you seeing as its better then your second rig
Click to expand...


But my second rig will not break down, that compaq is a dice roll

:p :rolleyes: :D

{EDIT} I had a compaq that I only used for microsoft word, It wasnt even connected to the internet, after 4 months I decided to purge out old documents and defrag because it was running slow, After the defrag it crashed! hahaha :D
 
thujone said:
could it be you've never heard anything positive about hp/compaq's cuz you don't know anyone that owns one?

i'm considering buying one of these for my mom/sisters... and yeah... i don't think anyone expects to be doing any gaming on one of these.

use them for what they're made for... NOT gaming. NOT enthusiast systems. super basic home user systems.
Click to expand...

No shit its not for gaming, but even still it cant handle simple tasks of running an anti-virus setup, browsing the internet....they are just all around pathetic, and i dont mean that from a gamers standpoint.
 
Nate7311 said:
Y
eah, and how many Gateway/Dell's have you seen with perfect tweaker software loads and AGP slots? No replacement on the harddrive? So? The manufacturer warranty on the drive itself wouldn't have been any longer than 1 year anymore anyway... eMachines?!? Granted that I'm biased, but sorry, I've yet to see an eMachine with more than a 150w PSU, and THAT is inexcuseable in my book.
Click to expand...

I never once mentioned Gateway, Dell, or Sony. I was talking specifically about Compaq (which is still much worse than the aforementioned brands, IMHO). Each have their ups and downs, but ALL are more reliable than Compaq's home line and NONE have the same level of crap installed (not saying there still isn't a gratitous amount, especially with Sony).

As for the eMachines power supplies, it has been my assumption that a name brand computer in this price range would be used as a generic home user machine, not a gaming powerhouse. The majority of eMachines I've installed have enough juice to happily support two optical drives, two hard drives, and a Geforce 2/3/4mx video card. with the default hardware, which is more than enough for any small business user or internet surfer/e-mail user/casual gamer. If you want above-average gaming quality (for modern games), or additional hardware beyond what I stated, it's a given that you will need to replace quite a few components in ANY machine in the <$500 price range. Despite this, many people will want an AGP video card for use with some slightly older games, as the default cards tend to be crap. Skipping the AGP port is an awful corner to cut, that probably wouldn't raise their costs $5.

Any serious gamer or computer user would build his own system (excluding Alienware, high-end PC's, laptops, etc.), and would never look twice at any pre-build computer under $500.
 
my dell ran fine for 3 years...i only replaced the graphics card, added ram, added two harddrives, added a tv tuner card, bought an lcd monitor, and added a burner in that amount of time.

..and then i just decided to replace the motherboard, cpu, ram and case....
 
Nice machine for the computer-illiterate. For the average [H] user, no chance. :D
 
for the computer-illiterate I would go with an E-machines, less pre-installed b.s.
my dad and mom both have dell 4100 p3s they still run well.
 
lorcani said:
Nice machine for the computer-illiterate. For the average [H] user, no chance. :D
Click to expand...

well put.


And to answer whoever said that oh so you've had a bad experience, ever other computer by this company should be bad lets not buy it because you've had a bad experience.
I only stated my horrible experience, and I've known, and worked on several compaq's and found them to be a huge pile of fubar. :rolleyes:
 
Dethtoll said:
Any serious gamer or computer user would build his own system (excluding Alienware, high-end PC's, laptops, etc.), and would never look twice at any pre-build computer under $500.
Click to expand...

I Agree and that's the only point that we're all trying to make. Besides, if any relative really did buy that, you'd all reload it from sctatch for them in a heartbeat anyway :D
 
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