Traditional desktop expandability in a sleek, small size, the HP Compaq dc5100 Small Form Factor delivers all the mainstream features of a full-size PC.
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Fast, Good customer services, Quiet, Reliable, "Cheapish"
Disadvantages:
Not top of the range (but not far off), Small memory, No DVD - RW drive
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
So somebody stole my Evo from yesterday, and then I noticed this hp Compaq and thought to myself..."Why not review this one too?" So here it is, a review on the HP Compaq Business Desktop dc5100.
The design is similar to the Evo but not quite the same, with the USB slots being more visible, and the fan being slightly different on the external. I haven't opened up either case though, so there maybe some drastic internal design differences (don't think the university would be too happy if I opened it and fidgetted with it in the library).
The speed is faster than the Evo (which I was very happy with overall)and it managed to open up I.E in rather quick time considering the unit is networked with around 1500 others at the uni. BTW I.E. Is my "Speed" test as most of the computers here lack the options of Firefox and Opera browsers, so I'm not just picking I.E. and saying it's the best, it's a mandatory choice.
The layout like I mentioned earlier is similar to the Evo with a floppy drive, headphone jack, speaker jack and 2 usb's. The key difference to you tecchy people it the CD drive has been improved to a CD-RW, so you can now do you own "mix CD's"/"Pirated music" (yet again I must stress I'm not advocating it, just stating that the drives are often used for it).
The reliability of the machine seems superb, I've never seen anyone in here have any problems with it at all. The again even if they did hp are well known for good customer support and excellently detailed manuals.
However for all it's advantages it does have the odd gripe, there's only a small hard drive (like the evo), so don't expect to be able to store an infinite amount of music and videos. Theres again enough for a "normal" user, but I have friends who'd fill up the hard disk in a month due to it's size. Sure getting a bigger hard disk wouldn't drive up the cost too much, but thats not the point, I'm reviewing whats in front of me, not what could be infront of me.
The graphics card again would seem limited (again it wouldn't be impossible to upgrade that) which is a shame as the computer is running incredibly quickly, which would allow most games to be played if you had the right cards.
The machine is very easy to use, literally turn it on, log in and your ready to go. Brilliant really, no messing about with this or that, just does what it needs to.
And the price, the final thing I will mention, is amazing, it's less than £300, it's basically a bare bones gaming PC just needing a new hard drive, a DVD drive and a graphics card. In other words you'd have a very good gaming PC for less than £400, thought very good isn't mind blowing it is far better than you'd expect at the price.
In summary, a brilliant machine, it's ready to go for office work, but would need a little bit of tinkering if your a gamer. Would fit will in any office and I'd have to say it edges out the Evo from yesterday's review due to the faster processor and the RW on the CD drive.
More details
Reliability
Excellent
Memory / capacity
Satisfactory
Range of Extra Features
Good
Instruction manual
Very useful
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