I wonder how they’d do a 3 year warranty on something this old. Most of the components are already a few generations old and I doubt they would even have them in stock. Do they even make CD-RW/DVD-ROM’s anymore? I bet the motherboard for this thing hasn’t been available for a couple years…
They way I read the specs here and at the Compaq site:
This has a 3800+ AMD processor, NOT to be confused with the 3800X2 processor.
The former has 1 processor, the later 2 processors on one core.
The 3800X2 is much more desirable than the 3800+
Just checking, I have machine with both processors, the 3800X2 is very good when you have long-running tasks in the background. The 3800+ is good for general things.
Soneone please tell me that I am wrong.
I wish it was 3800X2…for my uses.
It’s not a powerhouse, but still a great deal. If you try to configure this on HP’s site, it runs about $800 with XP Pro (they don’t offer XP Home). It’s a business machine with a 3 year business warranty. If you just need to get on the Internet and do some word processing, this is a steal!
I don’t see why they wouldn’t work, assuming the machine has a 16x PCI Express slot for the card.
I can’t recommend getting a GeForce 8/9 series with less than 512mb of video memory though; the memory capacity is one of the major performance bottlenecks on those cards. You’d be better off going for a 9600GT for the same price.
A quick check of the price difference between a
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ $37
AMD Athlon 64 3800 X2 $46
(Based on a very quick check)
I’m guessing it WILL NOT work… This will come with, at best, a 250 watt PSU and more likely a 180 to 200 watt PSU and a GeForce 8/9 series will require around 450 watts. By the time you upgrade the memory, video card and power supply unit you will have a couple hundred dollars invested in a crappy computer. For the cost ($250) of the unit plus upgrades and monitor you could go buy a cheap dell that comes with the back-up CD’s and newer components like Blue-ray.
This computer would work well for a Linux machine or a computer for grandma to get e-mails and that’s about it considering you’ll still need to pick up a monitor for it.
I agree that this isn’t really a great system if you’re dropping several hundred more in it but the previously posted message for some more RAM and a video card $70 and there’s no need to upgrade the PSU for a GS card. GT, GTS, GTX yes but a GS doesn’t consume power like the the higher end cards and is made for these kind of reasons.
There’s no reason I couldn’t place this on its side in my computer area is there? I have plenty of ventilation, just not a lot of vertical space.
edit: and the spec sheet listed on page 1 says it’s a 300 watt power supply
Keep in mind many corporations are perfectly content with Windows XP, and 90% of the users do not need dual core, dvd burners, or high performance graphics.
A solid, no-fuss machine that has the basics is all that many companies need.
3 year warranties are standard on business desktops; hell we used to do 5 year warranties.
All of these parts are still very common in the OEM sector, especially spares. And best of all, if the machine is under warranty and they don’t have a replacement part, more often than not they will give you a newer version of a part.
I remember back in the day, when 20gb hard drives were the largest you could buy, a friend had a drive someone gave him that was dead. The drive was like 200MB or something really small, it was under the 4th year of the 5-year warranty. Seagate or whoever didn’t have any, but honored the warranty by sending him a 10gb drive or something. At the time, that was worth several hundred dollars.
where exactly are you seeing the listing saying it’s a 300 watt power supply? thanks.
Awesome! I learned something today. Sounds like it would work pretty well then. Also, a different post says the specs list a 300 watt PSU so that should be fine. I quickly looked through them and didn’t see it listed. I bought an Acer AMD 3800+ from Woot awhile back and it had the most light weight 200 watt power supply I’d ever seen so I assumed this would have the same.
MEH…
might as well spend an extra 50 and get a system that wont be obselete as fast.
for a basic computer, you cant get much more basic than this.
dell sells pentium dual core with HUGE HDDs (320gb) and many other features for around 300.
the warranty is much better too.
hahaha
that’s hilarious
for that much, you can a INTEL QUAD CORE gaming rig
in the pdf document given below:
what do you have, a quad core?
or a high grade intel core 2 duo?
Acer Aspire AM1610-U1201A Desktop /Pentium dual-core E2140/1GB DDR2/250GB SATA 7200RPM/Super-Multi drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM)/9-in-1 card reader/ Windows Vista Home Premium/Factory Refurbished - AM1610U1201A - Limited Stock!
This product qualifies for Free Shipping. Click for details.FREE SHIPPING
Reconditioned
List Price: $599.99
Our Price: $269.99
Shipping: FREE
If I get this PC, add a gig of RAM and put in a ~$100 PCI-E graphics card, will it run new-ish games? Think it would run Sim 3, when that comes out next year?
Okay I just dove in and bought one, my current PC’s motherboard is crapping out and I’m lucky that I can still get on the internet and post on Woot.
So can I install Windows XP Pro on this? I have XP Pro discs but it is the 2002 edition so it doesn’t even have SP1 on it. Not sure if that’ll interfere with installing Windows on the hard drive? I know I have to pop in a floppy disc(lame) on an Asus K8V Deluxe motherboard to install “3rd party SATA hard disc controller” or otherwise the XP disc won’t see the hard drive at all.
This system may require a BIOS update to fix this…
SUPPORT COMMUNICATION - CUSTOMER ADVISORY
Document ID: c00868851 Version: 1
Advisory: HP Compaq dc5750 - Systems Having Dual-Core 3800+ Processor Hang Or Restart During Startup Or When Resuming From Hibernation
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00868851
On the other hand, if you want a basic name brand inexpensive system with a 3yr warranty, this seems to be a pretty cheap way to get it. And DVD writers, hard drives or RAM upgrades can’t be too expensive if you shop around and know what you’re doing.
But if you are willing to get into the $500 range you can probably get something “similar” straight out of the box with the upgrades already there.
We have the DC5700 at our office. (Intel model). They’re excellent workhorses. With this warranty, it can’t be beat for the going price.
That being said…
The included PCI-express x16 port will NOT work on these machines with a standard PCI Express video card. They’re using some sort of modified PCI-Express port. REPEAT Normal PCI-express cards will not work with the board. Even if you throw in a 1000W PSU. It’s not the power, its the limitation of the port.
Use a PCI graphics card.
Note: you can run 2 monitors off the onboard graphics display using both the VGA as well as the HP DVI add in card (sold separately) which will be able to utilize the PCI-express port. It will only be useful however, for office productivity applications.
Don’t even expect to be able to run any game more complicated than StarCraft on these onboard GPUs. IF THAT.
Cheers,
-Cyberstraz