**I apologise for the length of the review, but I wanted to give a thorough, honest account of most (if not all) major components to this laptop.**
I received this laptop as a Christmas present back at the end of 2006, and it was purchased for £450. I've been using it almost everyday since ... Read review
(+) cool and quite robust trackpad, good display,64-bit windows 7 (-) few connectors,dell drivers only, not realy for gameing (most models), finger print prone!
Advantages: Good processor, high quality display, robust system overall Disadvantages: Heating issues, dvd drive noise, lack of on board usb ports
**I apologise for the length of the review, but I wanted to give a thorough, honest account of most (if not all) major components to this laptop.**
I received this laptop as a Christmas present back at the end of 2006, and it was purchased for £450. I've been using it almost everyday since it's purchase, and it has both it's benefits and faults about it.
First of all, I cannot comment honestly on portability and battery ... ...I only ever use my laptop where there is mains power, and I most certainly don't carry it everywhere with me.
However, when travelling to and from my flat to my parents it has been no trouble at all as far as weight's concerned. When closed the laptop is no more than 1 1/2" in height, and without the battery, while it surely isn't the lightest and most portable around, it's certainly not going to cause arm ache after prolonged carriage. more
**I apologise for the length of the review, but I wanted to give a thorough, honest account of most (if not all) major components to this laptop.**
I received this laptop as a Christmas present back at the end of 2006, and it was purchased for £450. I've been using it almost everyday since it's purchase, and it has both it's benefits and faults about it.
First of all, I cannot comment honestly on portability and battery power, as I am yet to even connect the battery- I only ever use my laptop where there is mains power, and I most certainly don't carry it everywhere with me. However, when travelling to and from my flat to my parents it has been no trouble at all as far as weight's concerned. When closed the laptop is no more than 1 1/2" in height, and without the battery, while it surely isn't the lightest and most portable around, it's certainly not going to cause arm ache after prolonged carriage.
Aesthetic wise, as with everything to do with this laptop it's not the best, but it's more than enough. What you cannot see in almost all images of the product is that the outer shell is a practical, deep blue, matt finish plastic, which is much harder wearing than the attractive silver finish in the inner sections. However, saying that I managed to leave some nasty scratches on the top side by dragging the rough side of velcro along it, but it came off better than the silver surfaces would have.
The keyboard has resisted a lot of use, and while I don't use the mouse touchpad anymore, it was very accuracte when I used to use it, along with the very convenient scrolling borders to it. Unfortunately though, through use the silver colour has been tarnished a little by skin oils, so in some lights the touchpad goes a duller colour, as does the silver plastic where your wrists typically rest when typing. While it's not a big deal, if you're a bit of a perfectionist like me you'll find it annoying.
The screen is a brilliant size and anybody unsure about the widescreen format shouldn't be worried- the only problems I get are with games that don't support widescreen resolutions, and overall it takes very little getting used to. In fact, the extra width comes in very useful for various things, such as having two or more windows display side by side. As opposed to normal LCD screens, the display on the C300 is a "crystal" surface, as opposed to the normal matt-type surface to most LCDs. While this doesn't make a massive amount of difference the display does seem to be slightly crisper than a typical LCD, and although I may be wrong in saying this as fact, to me it seems that the screen performs better on lower brightness settings, giving your eyes a good break from the constant glare of bright, pure white. The crystal screen does have a drawback though, with reflectivity. If there is a strong light source nearby- be it a light above or behind you, or sunlight in a bright room, you will no doubt struggle a little with the reflectiveness. Of course, there are easy ways around this, but it can be a problem nonetheless.
Now for the computer as an actual computer. Performance wise it is great- while the processor isn't the fastest on the market, this particular Intel (T1300) has a 2mb L2 cache along with it's 1.66Ghz processing power. I'm not an expert when it comes to these things, but I've been told that a larger cache allows for more processes to be temporarily stored, and be recalled quicker, which improves the system's performance in comparison to processors with smaller caches.
You will find that 1gb of DDR2 RAM is brilliant in the set up, although it is quite easy (and cheap) to upgrade to 2gb of DDR2 notebook RAM, should you really want or need to... but for a medium-heavy user like me, who doesn't use the computer for high spec gaming, the 1gb installed will do you just fine!
Same can be said for the 80gb hard drive- however, you technically only have 60gb to play with, as the system comes with a readily partitioned disk, where approximately 20gb is set aside for backing up. Unless you truly know what you're doing (unlike me), you are probably better off leaving the backup partition alone, and getting on with the 60gb available to you. Do take into account that the operating system and software eat into this 60gb however, leaving you with approximately 55gb from the start. Still, quite sufficient unless you have an awful lot of music/movies/documents. The hard drive is nice and quick, and I have had no performance problems with mine to date.
The graphics card comes in the form of a 128mb shared Intel chipset, which means that, like 90% of computers, it utilises a portion of the RAM on your system, as opposed to being a standalone graphics processing unit. To cut to the chase, this means this laptop cannot handle a fair deal of modern games - don't even THINK about playing Crysis - but on the other hand many of them can be handled at lower graphics settings- Civilization 4 for instance, works like a dream in the low end settings. The detailed graphics are a sacrifice that must be made for smooth gameplay, I'm afraid.
The wireless card preinstalled into the laptop doesn't seem to have the strongest receiver, but it does work very well on the whole- for the past year I have been using this with a wireless connection coming from the floor below, and only recently did I notice issues with staying connected, as I had to move away from the router. But, with a router in the same room, or I daresay on the same floor as you there should be no issues.
The combi-CD/DVD writer drive is excellent at writing CDs, and reading both CD and DVDs, but seems to fall over at writing DVDs. I've no idea on the technological benchmark for DVD writing drives and their speeds, but I think it's a slight problem that, to write a DVD your system becomes almost unusable for at least an hour. This may be typical of DVD writers however, this might not be an issue just with this laptop. The other problem with the drive is the noise it creates when reading or writing- with the speeds the reading gets to, at times it sounds like your laptop is preparing to take off!
One main issue I have with this laptop is it's ability to get quite hot. You will find that you have the Microsoft certificate sticker on the underside of the laptop, and my laptop has demonstrated the heats it gets to by partially MELTING this sticker. It also gets to temperatures where it can begin to irritate your skin should you work with the laptop on your lap, and the heating issues don't stop if you use it on a hard surface either- however, it doesn't get quite so hot. Because of this, I would strongly recommend purchasing a laptop stand that has either cooling vents, or additional cooling fans built in, to allow greater air circulation to the bottom of your laptop. If you do this you will find that the secondary, noisier fan won't have to start up anywhere near as often!
Finally, an overview of some other parts of the laptop... There are only two USB ports, which I find to be a problem with a USB mouse and a USB-power cooling fan on the laptop stand. Luckily though, the laptop does have a PS/2 port for mice, and USB splitters are very easy and cheap to get hold of. The in-built speakers are good quality, although some tones in music create a nasty vibrating noise from within the laptop that taints the quality! The lack of floppy disk drive isn't a problem at all, since all modern PCs and operating systems can boot from CD in the event of issues, so don't let this factor in.
Even including the faults I have identified, I am still more than happy to give this laptop a 5 star rating, due to the fact that it is a very robust system. Over the time that I've had it and been using it, I have had no hardware faults or failures, only faults induced by the user (myself!), or by forced, incorrect driver downloads by Microsoft. A very useful system that can handle a lot of what you throw at it, and to be honest, only now are most laptops at similar specifications for a similar price.
Advantages: So easy to use, reliable, sturdy Disadvantages: No bluetooth, heavy, battery time
I've had this laptop for a few months now and except from one little hiccup (though apparently that wasn't a fault with the computer, but rather the software installed on it-had to do a full system restore), it's been fine.
This is pretty much your run of the mill laptop, and i'd definitley recommend it if you're looking for a basic package, or simply looking to make the transition from a PC to a laptop.
Now admittedly, i'm hardly computer savvy...i ... ...technical scrutinising report then i'm very sorry. If however, you're anything like me and simply no the basics then...well...yay!
(Just a quick note-the odds are that if you are completley computer savvy {last time i say 'savvy'...promise} then i wouldn't recommend investing in this product. I'm going on the logic that you'll probably be using it for a little more than coursework, research, filing and keeping in touch).
For what you pay, this ...
peace1989 03.04.2007
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
Advantages: Great for music, videos and pictures, Disadvantages: Not so good for DVD games
In summer 2006 i went with my dad to get a laptop as a birthday/christmas present. I had seen reviews and adverts for this laptop in newspapers and on the internet. We decided to go into PC World to have a look. At the time we werent in our home town and were visiting family and the store we went into was out of stock. I knew that in comparison to many other products of similar spec. it was very good value for money. We went to the store in my home ... ...a quick demo we bought it. I primarily use this laptop for surfing the internet and managing my music... oh and occasionally homework :( it has been very good for storing my HUGE amount of music, and has only crashed once after i tried to upload somebody elses entire 20GB music collection, (which ive found doesnt fit onto 7GB)
Aside from this it has been very reliable and great for watching films or listening to music. Ive also got wireless internet, ...
sean1234567890 19.08.2007 (27.09.2007)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
Speed
Look & Feel
Comfort & Portability
Robustness & Durability
Value For Money
Quick review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
I actually bought mine second hand about a year ago and it's the best computer that I have owned as to date it's never given me any issues like freezing and the best part of all is it never gets hot, it gets a little warm after extended periods of use but not hot like my last one did which was a Toshiba satalite I ended up paying under $100 for the one I have now and it's served me the best . ...
CaAngel 31.05.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
Quick review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
Value for money. like the layout. if only it was lighter and the battery lasted a wee bit longer.
Had it for half a year and it still works fine considering i do worksite visits. ...
hubert88thong 19.04.2008 (18.04.2008)
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
Advantages: Speedy processor and very robust Disadvantages: No inbuilt webcam
i love my compaq - even though its probably a little out of date now. My compaq runs windows xp - which is ideal as i'm not turned on to vista at the moment. The mouse pad is very ease to use and you can amend its sensitivity to suit you. The laptop does not have an in built webcam - as this was not available until later models. i try to keep my laptop free from unecessary software, downloads so my laptop continues to run very quickly and process ... ...So the durability of the compaq is also impressive. My compaq was £400 2 years ago which is a reasonable price as it came with free norton security and microsoft works etc. i'm reluctant to update to a newer model as this one has been so trusty. I will keep this one until it falls to bits and if I do replace it - it will only be with another compaq. ...
sapphire-74 26.07.2009
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU
Product Information for "Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU" »
Video
Graphics Processor / Vendor
Intel GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0
Max Allocated RAM Size
128 MB
Audio
Audio Output
Sound card
Features
Altec Lansing speakers
Compliant Standards
Sound Blaster Pro
Input device(s)
Type
Keyboard, touchpad
Operating system / software
OS Provided
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Software
Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Windows Media Player, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, Microsoft Works 8.0, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus, Adobe Reader 7.0, HP Photosmart Premier, Norton Internet Security 2006 (60 days subscription)
Manufacturer's product description
The Compaq Presario C300 series comes with a powerful processor, which allows multi-tasking. Surf the Net, tackle a project and read email - all at the same time. Enjoy the clear 15.4-inch display, with optional BrightView technology.
Related tags for Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU »
Similar products and search queries by other users »
Presario C300EU, Media C300EU, Center C300EU, Presario Media C300EU, Presario Center C300EU, Media Center C300EU, Presario Media Center C300EU, C 300EU, Presario C 300EU, Media C 300EU, Center C 300EU, Presario Media C 300EU, Presario Center C 300EU, Media Center C 300EU, Compac C300EU
Are you the manufacturer / provider of Compaq Presario Media Center C300EU? Click here