Okay -- we have a potential deal here at work where they set up a purchase computer plan -- because they purchase computers en masse, they must get a great deal. So we're trying to get it so that the employees can get on a computer purchase plan with reductions from our paychecks which are all direct deposits anyhow.

The only problem I have with this, is the computers they purchase, are Compaq's. Now, the only thing I'm looking at getting a computer for really, is for internet usage and Microsoft Office. I don't need anything else really, a CD burner would be nice, and a lot of hard drive space to download mp3's.

I'm very wary of buying a compaq though, and the irony is because I've known so many people who have had so many problems with the damned things, that I have always sworn I would never buy a compaq. But considering I don't need it for super fancy graphics work or anything, and these computers are quite decent (the ones at work anyhow) I'm thinking about it..

Tips anybody?

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Hardware Reviews at CNET has some good ratings on the compaq's below, might be worth looking at:

http://hardware.search.com/search?&q=compaq&tag=srch

Ahhkay... that link didn't work btw -- but I did hear one thing that the reason Compaq's aren't as bad as they used to be is because before you couldn't interchange parts or something, and now you can do that with the new Compaq's... *laughs* I dunno though... I'll see. ~smiles~ If the deal is good, then I'll probably go for it... because I really do need a computer, and well, these ones work okay so far... *shrugs*

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Compaq's are nice for corporations, because they are so standard... Like, you have only so few spare parts needed to service -all- systems. Comes in handy.

For home use, well... Compaq's are generally stable if you run only the stuff on it they are intended to run on. At my company, we run a network that is 95% compaq systems... Apart from a Deskpro series with extremely bad harddisks (which we are replacing) there is not much bad I can say about em. Just have someone who can service them: Their support branch is far worse then their hardware.

A CD burner and an USB webcam should be no problem... Just don't go installing exotic hardware like TV tuner cards, vague SB Live! "compatible" soundcards, etcetera.But internet use, yea, you can use a Compaq for that

If you'd give me the model number of what you intend to get, I could lookup the hardware in it, perhaps recommend likely upgrades...

I don't know the model number, they haven't set it up yet... it's just being looked into as a possibility -- however MSN is the main thingy backing this section, and they also have an agreement with Dell, so if that is even a possibility, then I'd be all over a Dell far before I'd be all over a Compaq. LoL

Thanks guys.

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