TubeNet

Bloke, you can call up Dell, give them the model number and serial number of the box, and tell them you've lost ( ) the restore disk for it. They'll send you (for $10 or so) a disk that will literally restore it like new. I did this when I lost my Compaq reload disk, and the replacement was XP (the original was Windows 98 ); you would probably get the same benefit from Dell.
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Joe Baker, whose Compaq was still crap, and died a few months later.

I must stand in and stand up for Compaq. My 1st computer was a Compaq Presario bought in Dec. 1997. It is still running today at my son's house with the original motherboard and processor, power supply, and hard drive Only thing replaced was the cd drive (I replaced it with a cd burner). By the way...my current machine is a Compaq Presario S6900NX.

Here are some links to highly reputable sites that sell it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6837102151

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6837102153

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=604614

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=604631

You only need professional if you have a server, multiple processors, or a Pentium 4 hyper threading processor. Make sure whatever you buy, it has at least Service Pack 1 (a series of updates and fixes). If it doesn't, you won't be able to use Windows Update. Service Pack 2 would be ideal, but you can download it for free or order a free disc from Microsoft. If need any help with, feel free to email me. I build PCs as hobby of mine.

Bloke:

Go to www.pricewatch.com, click on the software section and operating systems. Choose Windows XP Home and search for someone selling the COA with serial number from a system pull. You can then use your restore CD from another copy of XP Home. It's a bit cheaper - around $40-$50. I've had OK luck with the folks from California and Jersey.

Those Dell machines actually run faster with XP and 256 or 512mb of RAM than they ever thought of running with Windoze 98.

NewEgg is great if you don't have a lot of trust in the bargain basement guys.

Compaq's like a lot of other companies. There are the high-end machines made for business and then there's the stuff for the home user.

I've been using Compaq Deskpro P3 system here as a Linux server for a few years. Built like a battleship and easy to get into if you have the need.

The system I'm sitting in front of now is a 1.0 GHz P3 HP Vectra made for corporate use (the bootup screen says "HP Corporate Systems". Quiet as the grave, easy to service, not a lick of trouble in years. OTOH, I've got an HP Pavillion that's a POS.

Chuck(G) wrote:Compaq's like a lot of other companies. There are the high-end machines made for business and then there's the stuff for the home user.

I've just heard quite a few people describe the same experience I had with my home system from Compaq -- problem-prone and short lived. In three years, I had to replace an IDE controller, hard drive (separate instance), and finally balked at replacing the motherboard. The E-Machines we bought a few months after the Compaq is going strong five years later, with ZERO problems. We just took the drives and memory out of the Compaq and slapped 'em into the E-Machines, and it's become our family's print- and file-server, in addition to being my son's desktop.

Actually, my more recent experience with Compaq has been pretty favorable. My wife has a Compaq laptop that we've had for a couple of months now with nary a problem. It's been better in every measurable way than the Dell it replaced -- better performance, of course (Moore's law saw to that), but also a larger, clearer display, sturdier case, internal wireless that works MUCH better than any of the three external wireless solutions we'd tried with the old system, much longer battery life, DVD/CDRW -- and about $300 less, to boot.
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Joe Baker, who is considering purchase of another laptop, and leaning toward another Compaq.