Buy Compaq?

[kaydville]

Hi,
I need a new computer. My 5yr old compaq laptop running WinMe is about ready to retire. The only problem I had in all this time is the hinge went bad. But since I mostly used it as a desktop it wasn't a big deal.
I ended up with a compaq when the hp that I bought turned into a lemon within 2 months. Now that compaq and hp are one big happy family I'm a liitle nervous about the quality.
I have a budget of about $700us so I'm going with a desktop. I'm not a gamer but I run some graphics programs like photoshop and painter so I need a decent processor and graphics card and I wouldn't want less than a gig of ram. I don't need a monitor.

Your opinions about compaq or possible alternatives would be appreciated. Also, is there any difference between the hp and compaq lines?

Thanks,
kay

[naptownman]

Compaq and HP make decent budget computers but they typically use on-board graphics and often with motherboards that don't have a graphics card socket at all. Make sure you ask about whether the specific model you're interested in does have a socket for a graphics card and double check on your own just to make sure someone doesn't tell you it does just to make a sale.

The stores I've seen lately show that HP seems to be focusing on media-centric pc's and Compaq is focusing on the "family pc" market. The HP's have definitely gotten more expensive with this change in market strategy. I think both are similar quality-wise - neither is outstanding. But they're not bad, either. They are limited by their expandability.

[dajogejr]

I think Compaq and HP make pretty good offerings for consumers. Dell systems IMO are even worse when it comes to upgradability...between RAM and no space to add a second HDD on their lower priced lines (in the price range you mentioned, ayways...) from the models I've seen and worked on.

This isn't a bad model, but...it does come with a 17LCD. Figure a stick of RAM to double it up to 1GB would run another 50 bucks or so....

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/nav...2&pCatg=5394#A

[dajogejr]

If you use the configurator, step down the processor, up the RAM and the Video Card...this one comes in at about 750....

http://www.costco.com/CTO/HPConfigur...=EK467AV%23ABA

[kaydville]

Thanks for the quick responses. I was looking only on the Compaq site. I have quite a few options. Which of course raises more questions.


Upgrading to a NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE w/TurboCache 256MB support graphics card-- does that sound sufficient for running photoshop and painter (paint program)? It was the middle upgrade.

Also, question about processors and memory speed:

I don't know the difference between the various processors and memory speed and how they effect performance. How do these compare?

Intel Pentium 4 processors up to 640‡ with HyperThreading (3.2GHz) with 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM

AMD Athlon 64 processors up to 3500+ (2.2 GHz) with 400Mhz DDR SDRAM

AMD Sempron processors up to 3500+ (2.0 GHz) with 400Mhz DDR SDRAM

AMD Athlon 64 processors up to 3500+ (2.2 GHz) with 1.0GB PC3200 DDR


Again, your help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Kay

[dajogejr]

PC3200 is the same as 400MHz DDR RAM.

I only said get the ATI Video card because it was the best of the bunch...and get a cheaper processor. Any of those will run what you want. Spend the money on the video card and RAM....as you said, 1GB.

[kaydville]

Thanks, dajogejr. Appreciate the help.

[Davermonk]

I'm not sure that the graphics card is all that important for running photoshop or the other adobe programs. My laptop (1 year old Toshiba Satellite w/ ~1.4GHz Pentium-M chip) has onboard graphics. It actually ran photoshop & illustrator CS2 pretty good with its base 512MB RAM. Since I upgraded it to 2GB, it flies through just about anything I throw at it with any of the Adobe programs.

In my opinion (and based on my experience), the more RAM you can get into your photoshop computer, the happier you'll be.