I am considering purchasing a COMPAQ Presario series PC with either an INTEL Celeron or an AMD K6-2 Processor. Some of my coworkers have advised against this because COMPAQ tends to be more proprietary and won't always accept standard software and maybe hardware, too. The opinion on AMD is that it works most of the time but that I might experience more lockups and other gliches. The pricing on these machines is very attractive and therefore tempting. Have any of you had experiences negative or positive?

 

The last two notebook computers that I have purchased have both been Compaq Presarios. I have puchased them both directly from compaqworks.com, as refurbished units. The first one ran flawlessly, and lasted me about three years. I have now sold it to a coworker who is still using it. The latest unit that I purchased, does have an AMD processor, and I have used it for approximately eight months without any major problems. Once in a while I do experience some quirks, but I am not sure if these are attributable to the AMD chip, or the windows environment. The thing I like about the Presario, is that they are fairly rugged, and cheap. Other people at my company have paid almost three times as much for their machines. For what I do, PLC programming etc, the Presario is fine. I can't remember the last time I was at a customer site and needed to watch a DVD on my lap-top.

 

> I own a Presario desktop (Celeron550), the firt presario which I have purchased gave me hell of a trouble. After some 'tough interactions' with Compaq I have got a replacement for my system. Basically Compaq quality is very good, both hardware and software. Especially the diagnostic tools. Due to initial harddisk failures I have included an isolation transformer for the last one year I had no any problem.
But if you are buying Compaq please note that they will not supply driver software or any hardware details such as Modem Motherboard etc. you will face problem when you want to augment the system of your on or when U install Linux