Compaq/HP D315 AMD Desktop
Written: Jan 28 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: - great price/performance
- no pre-installed OS
- service warranty
Cons: - poor documentation
- minimal BIOS (Compaq)
The Bottom Line: The price is right and the performance is great.
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| wrwadley's Full Review: Compaq D315 Business PC (470036-895) PC Desktop |
I'm very please with my purchase of the Compaq/HP D315 AMD desktop computer. I paid $634 S/H tax ($715 total) for:
- Nvidia motherboard
- AMD 2000 CPU
- 512Mb DDR RAM
- 80Gb IDE hard drive
- Nvidia Geforce 2 w/32Mb VRAM
- sound card
- ethernet
- CD-ROM
- keyboard, mouse, USB, etc.
Upon arrival, the styrofoam was broken and the computer was left unprotected, but neither it nor the box appeared to have suffered drop or collision damage.
Pros:
While I could put together a system from http://www.mwave.com/ for about $150 less, I appreciate the service warranty for machines at the office. If a warranty is necessary, then no other vendor can match this price.
I was also resistant to paying the Microsoft tax (since I am installing Linux on this machine), and quite pleased to get a machine with no OS pre-installed. They do offer a Microsoft operating system if you think you want one.
The warranty is 3 years part and labor on-site, which I like.
Cons:
My biggest problem with the unit is the lack of documentation regarding the ethernet, video, and sound cards. I need to know which brand and model they are so I can install their drivers, but the pamphlets shipped in the box give no clue, and a call to Tech Support was of no help, either, apparently due to the fact that the Microsoft database software had another virus and was down for the count. Google came to my rescue, mostly, but why did I have to go to all that trouble?
After purchasing an ASUS motherboard recently, I've become accustomed to a feature-rich BIOS, but the D315 with the Compaq BIOS is a little spare. I can't say I'm missing anything in particular, though.
You should know that I upgraded from a 667Mhz/192Mb/7Gb machine, so when I say I'm very happy with the performance of the D315 you will know where I'm coming from. I've got quite a few things running on this machine at the same time (X, Mozilla, StarOffice, JBoss, PostgreSQL, javac, etc.) with no effect on the response time. Oh, and my resolution is 1600x1200!
Overall, I am quite pleased. I just wish HP tech support was as good as Dells.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 634
Operating System: Linux
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
wrwadley
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Reviews written: 1
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