Probably not everyone’s first choice when purchasing a new computer, but as you will see if you read on Compaq computers are surprisingly good. The only draw back I feel is that they are a tad on the expensive side.
** My Experience ** Over the last year the company that I work at has gradually started to buy Compaq computers. At first I wasn't sure about them as for as long as I have worked there they have always bought Dell computers and I was quite happy with these. When we go the first Compaq I thought they looked a bit strange as I was used to the look of Dell computers.
My first impression was that they looked quite fidley to service and were a lot heavier than the Dell computers, which we had. But over the year that we have had them I have found them to be very easy to work with. The design of the cases has improved a lot and the insides of the PC I feel are very easy to get at, which is a bonus. The cases are also very easy to open unlike some computers, there are just two buttons on the side of the computer, a desktop version, and you pull back and hey presto the case is open. Once you can the case off the PCI slots were easily accessible and the hard drive and floppy drive were mounted on a frame which could be lifted out. Extra drives such as CD-ROM drives were also very easy to install, all they required were four screws attached to them on the side and they would slide and lock into place. All of the hardware inside the computer is very easy to get at, which is very good because the last thing you want to be doing is struggling to get at something when servicing a computer.
When you come to reinstall the computer this is also made very easy. With each computer you get a restore CD, this you put in the CD-ROM Drive and the computer will boot off the CD. All you need then is either Windows 9x or NT. All of the drivers for the computer are installed automatically and you don’t have to do anything, appart from fill in a few details about the owner etc… This is a break to scrambling around looking for the individual driver disks, which we lost a lot of the time.
You have to be careful though to keep the restore CD if you have a Compaq Laptop as the CD you get with it is the only one that will restore your laptop. To get this fixed without it is then a very long drawn-out experience with a lot of time spent on the phone convincing Compaq that we did own that particular Laptop. Eventually we got a new restore CD sent out to us.
** My Thoughts ** Generally it is my view that I wouldn't buy a brand computer for home, as I don't have a problem fixing it myself. But if you want some comfort from the fact that your PC has a good warranty these computers are good, if a little pricey. But then the extra that you pay in the price goes into testing the computers, so generally you should get fewer problems with them.
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Jan 2nd, 2001
(Jun 7th, 2001)
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