...compaqs, hps, gateways, etc

[EpyonMelee]

i had windows 3.1 on a compaq and even then it sucked

[John Prophet]

oh, by junk I mean stuff like all sorts of little "internet connection wizards" and junk like that...free software offer links blah blah.

I strip em down b4 I sell em.

Dell puts all these icons for "help and support" and the desktop and other junk in the startup folder....so that the comps are dog slow from the factory.

[embj]

Quote:

Originally posted by engineuity
What do you HATE the most about them?
Currently own an older compaq "pos" presario. First off it had a 145W PSU!!

I hate HP.....in one of my older computers which was a 733mhz Celeron...the HP had a 110 watt PSU...they had the smallest f'ing cases back then, too. You couldn't add an extra hard drive or CD-RW (and etc)....you couldn't even change out the CPU because the stupid bracket was blocking the way for putting on a different heatsink.

I did change the CPU out on that computer to a Celeron 1.3ghz but, it had a loud frickin' Volcano 6 CU+ which you can't adjust...it was louder than what my Athlon XP 2600+ box that's overclocked and has like 8-10 fans running inside of it to keep various things cool.

So I had that on there for about a year and finally got a new case for it. Then I bought a Volcano 12 Extreme and put it on my Athlon. I took my old Volcano 11 and put it on the Celeron. It's quite as can be now. With the new case there is a possibility that you can actually upgrade someting....

Another bad thing about that thing was that there were actually two USB ports on the back of the computer....dumb ass HP only put an I/O shield on it that allowed you to use one!!! What's the sense in that???

The technicians are really dumb, too. I had another HP that had an Athlon T'bird 1.4ghz in it. I upgraded the RAM to 768mb and wanted to upgrade it to 1gb. I asked a technician if it would be possible to put a 1gb stick in it as I told him i already have 768mb of ram in it. He told me that I couldn't put more than 512mb in the machine...I was like WTF?!? How come it says you can on the product specs on your site and how come I have 768mb working properly in there? He was like we don't reccomend you installing more than what we say you can put in the machine.

So I explained to him that it is not going to hurt anything...if the motherboard didn't support more than 512mb it would not have booted and recognized the 512mb dimm that I had in there. He wouldn't listen of course. I just got mad and said yeah...whatever and hung up.

EDIT: Also, I just remembered having this problem...that board that was in that Celeron machine was such a piece of crap, too. It didn't have an AGP slot first off. So I wanted to put in a Radeon 7000 64mb DDR PCI graphics card. I tried installing it in all of the PCI slots and none would work. So I tried installing an older Xpert 128 4mb because that's better than the standard 1mb graphics that was onboard. It wouldn't work either. I couldn't get any other PCI card to work in it either...no USB card...no nothing except a Kingston network card. It only works in one out of the four PCI slots, though. That's the only thing that I have been able to put in it that actually works.

[Siliconjunkie]

Well, I will be biased here because I work for one of them.

But, users here are not exactly the target audience for them. They want "ma and pa kettle" types that don't know/understand that you can install your own apps, and that it really isn't that hard to setup a dialup connection, yadda yadda yadda.

The whole propriatary thing is long gone. I striped down and reused every bit of a PC that I had, everything was standard.

And no, they don't put a 1KW power supply in them, but they also don't put 10 feet of neon, 4 CD-ROMs and 9 HDDs in them. They are sized to power what they came with plus a second CD-ROM/HDD. And, no they are not too small. They all work very closely with Intel/AMD to insure that the supplies are adequite to meet the needs of the machine.

That being said, I just got a brand new laptop at work. Ran it for a day as it came out of the box to insure all was well, then blew it away and built it myself. Mostly for the reasons mentioned, I don't want/need most of the helper type apps they install. But 99% of the folks that buy these, just want to run office and IE and they work just spiffy for them.

[Siliconjunkie]

See, embj is a perfect example.

Let me illustrate:

Quote:

I hate HP.....in one of my older computers which was a 733mhz Celeron...the HP had a 110 watt PSU...they had the smallest f'ing cases back then, too. You couldn't add an extra hard drive or CD-RW (and etc)....you couldn't even change out the CPU because the stupid bracket was blocking the way for putting on a different heatsink.

And your point is? Will Ford/GM support you putting the latest and greatest motor in your 84 Citation so you don't have to buy a new car from them? They exist to sell PCs.

Quote:

The technicians are really dumb, too. I had another HP that had an Athlon T'bird 1.4ghz in it. I upgraded the RAM to 768mb and wanted to upgrade it to 1gb. I asked a technician if it would be possible to put a 1gb stick in it as I told him i already have 768mb of ram in it. He told me that I couldn't put more than 512mb in the machine...I was like WTF?!? How come it says you can on the product specs on your site and how come I have 768mb working properly in there? He was like we don't reccomend you installing more than what we say you can put in the machine.

[PresterJohn]

i am admittedly not a big fan of the early compaq's, particularly the presarios but if you buy their business class machines, whether it's dell, hp, or compaq...they are generally rock solid.

no, they don't have very big power supplies...but then again, they don't need to be. PC enthusiasts and gamers won't be happy with them - mediocre video, small disk space (20-40gb), no over-clocking ability,etc...but i have found the HP's to be the most reliable in terms of compatibility.

i'll take a rock-solid machine that never BSOD's and works quietly 24/7 over a souped-up cpu in a flashy, neon tower with mega fans, any day of the week.

[engineuity]

Silicon, I understand tta they are meant for ppl that dont know much about comps, but i know alot of ppl that buy them because they dont know how to build their own pcs and the prebuilts are prob cheaper all around [performance too] (buying with printer, moniter, etc). I mean they sell PCs at Target...granted they are Emachines, but ive seen them with everything for like $300. Theres almost no room for upgrade from what they give you. If you wanted to add a drive you prob also have to upgrade PSU. I wouldnt expect them to go as far as a new mobo or processor, but another cd drive (probably burner) and another HDD...thats at least an addition 40W load. Then they think their PC is screwed up because it locks up or lags when its the power supply. And not to mention the compaq certified RAM. How many problems are you gonna get from a normal pc100 stick NOT made by compaq?

[Siliconjunkie]

Quote:

And not to mention the compaq certified RAM. How many problems are you gonna get from a normal pc100 stick NOT made by compaq?

0 on paper.

But, it goes back to supportability. If you go buy a cheapo stick of pc-100 from Joes Add-A-Ram, and have problems, should they have to pull their hair out fixing it.

I have put non-Compaq ram in many times with no problems.

[engineuity]

Quote:

Originally posted by Siliconjunkie

0 on paper.

I know it doesnt affect all of them but if you have one of those comps that it does affect its aggravating.

[Gilthanaz]

As far as the issue of being loaded down with extra junkware, i'll have to agree with John Prophet. At home i have a system with an Athlon XP 1400, 256 megs of RAM with win98, and it runs solid and speedy because i keep it immaculate at all times. On the other hand, I use our school Dell computers with 2.8 ghz P4s, 512 megs of ram, and winXP, and i can honestly say my machine peforms twice as fast.