Is this Compaq worth it?

anders · July 5, 2003 6:59AM

The girl renting a room in my apartment is about to buy a Compaq and it looks like a great buy (and no I will not be able to convince her about getting a Mac)

Limited to Wintels how good is this computer?

Compaq Presario 2151

15" XGA TFT

Mobile Celeron 2.0 Ghz

512 mb

20 Gb HD

Combo drive

Radeon mobility w/up to 64 mb shared memory.

XP home + Word 2002 + Works 7

The price is a bit below that of a cd-rom iBook.

My take: Its a fast processor BUT its a celeron.

Good GPU BUT with shared memory.

How will it feel? What about the general quality of the unit?

anders · July 5, 2003 12:19PM

Ahem

paul · July 5, 2003 12:20PM

A picture is worth a thousand words...

anders · July 5, 2003 12:26PM

Is that really that importent?

But here it is

paul · July 5, 2003 12:54PM

doesn't look bad at all for a grand.... with a screen that big-it seems like a good deal... but who knows what kind of battery life it will have

anders · July 5, 2003 1:13PM

Compaq claims 1.5-3 hours

The screen is 1024*768 btw

Shared memory? If the memory isn´t next to the GPU won´t´it have an impact on the graphical performance?

bioflavonoid · July 5, 2003 1:43PM

Too bad she can't get an iBook...

Looks good to me...

Also looks like a Pismo.

cwedl · July 5, 2003 4:44PM

Hi there I work in Currys Electrical superstore! We sell that Model.

It is a good buy, the screen has a good display for a laptop, the displays on the compaqs seem to be more refined than even the sony vaios.

The RAM is plently for Windows XP the recommended amount is 128 Mb, Thats what I have and depending what it will be used for 512 MB will really speed the operating system.

20Gb Hard Drive well that is a bit lower than what would be wanted, but will be okay for storing word documents.

Combo Drive - you don't know help there? do you?

Radeon mobility w/up to 64 mb shared memory. w/up to 64 Mb, this means that it uses the main system RAM for the Buffer. This is okay in the fact that the computer has plently of RAM, but it also means that it will be slower, Okay for DVDS but for gaming, well it depends what ones are going to be played. The reason for being slower is because the info processed will have to sent further to its source.

Celeron processors are fine, they are fast enough for what girl would use it for, I know this because if she used it for anything that required the machines to do work, she would have a MAC Yeeeee HEEEEE!!!!!!

cwedl · July 5, 2003 4:49PM

sorry just to add, The Compaqs are the thickest laptops like 2 inches or something, I like the fact that you can disable the touchpad by pressing a button, They also Blue Lights. They are about 3.5 kg and the battery life is 2 Hours.

cwedl · July 5, 2003 4:53PM

for 999.999 you can get this spec

the compaq 2529

Features

? Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz Processor

? 256 mb RAM

? 30 Gb Hard Drive

? DVD/CD Rewriter Drive

? 15" TFT Display

? 64MB Int ATI Mobility Radeon Graphics

? 3 x USB connections

? 3.4 kg Weight

? Windows XP Home Edition

? 1 Year FREE Warranty

aquatic · July 6, 2003 1:44AM

You'll need that warranty. My roommate had a Compaq, didn't install too much on it or use it much, never left his desk. it broke in a few months. It had no trackpad just a stupid eraser thing. And speakers on the wristrests so music kept going from quiet to REALLY LOUD to quiet to LOUD. Great design.

Quote:

Compaq claims 1.5-3 hours

macusers · July 6, 2003 9:30AM

so in other words... 30 minutes

i would never buy this... ever

anders · July 6, 2003 10:05AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MacUsers

so in other words... 30 minutes

i would never buy this... ever

Well she did

I am gonna see if its so bad. I have to install an 802.11 card on it so I´m test it.

aquatic · July 6, 2003 3:46PM

You couldn't get her to buy an iBook? The force is not strong with you...It should have went like this: "These are not the computers you are looking for." OK I just read about the "Star Wars Kid" so I had to.:P

stratosfear · July 6, 2003 4:33PM

Stay away from Compaq. We had one old model at work and only OS which worked was Linux. We tried Windows, but we couldn't get it working. I have heard horrible stories about Compaq. Compaq system hardware is non-standard.

If she need PC laptop, she should buy IBM Thinkpad. Most models are quite good. Still I prefer iBook or PowerBook. Some PC laptops are really bad. It's safety buy iBook or PowerBook, but not so safety buy PC laptop. Some PC laptops are really good, but some are really bad. You have to just know, which model is good.

minkis7 · July 6, 2003 10:46PM

I think that she would be happy with anything that isn't dell. of course, mac would be best.

o-mac · July 6, 2003 11:32PM

It sounds like you really want people to convince her to buy a Mac.

Well, try harder!!!

I've been working with PC laptops forever and all I can say is that they ALL suck....

I've had my Ti powerbook for about 4 months now and I have had NO problems withn it...I have it on almost 24/7 and have created videos worked on images, done email, surfed the net, etc etc...still no problems!

Stay away from the PC laptop!!! They have the shelf-life of a jean claude vanne damme movie...

gizzmonic · July 8, 2003 4:11PM

Compaq laptops are notoriously fragile. I used to work as a tech when I was in college (late 90's) and I saw many of them break down after about a year from normal use.

My sister has one (mandated by her school

) and it's been broken more often than not, it's got some rough treatment but that's no excuse. It's also slow as hell with a cacheless Celeron.

Hopefully your friend will beat the statistics...in my estimation, IBM and Toshiba are the best PC laptop makers out there. You might pay a little more-but the extra cost means extra durability.

stratosfear · July 8, 2003 4:25PM

CNET Notebook buying guide

Is this Compaq worth it?

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