Compaq Presario 6400NX Desktop PC (1.53 GHz Athlon XP 1800+, 128MB RAM, 40GB hard drive)

Rating:
Summary: Slow At First!
Review: First off this computer is very very slow at first.We bought it about one month after it came out.It comes with 128MB of ram which I don't know why they didn't add more since Windows XP at the very least needs 256Mb's.I've added 1GB of ram which makes a tremendous difference to this computer.The 32MB integrated graphic chip will be a horrible experience if you want to play 3-D games.Good thing it has an AGP slot to put in a video card. I've put in a ATI Radeon 9000pro 128MB card which works fine for me.Also the 40GB 5,400rpm Hard Drive is a little slow and will get eaten up fast if you work with multimedia.Which is fine cause you could get another one but then you find yourself doing alot of upgrades for this machine!Anyways I would say that if your not going to upgrade 2-3 hundred dollars worth then invest your money into something better then this system.

Rating:
Summary: Nice computer at a great price
Review: I purchased a Presarrio Athlon 1600+ this summer and was impressed by its speed so I when I saw this one I recommended it to a friend. Computer was easy to set up. Paired it up with roadrunner high speed internet access and web surfing is super fast. Compaq seems to have worked out the kinks with java windows. Compaq has also added some nice desktop themes. Set up was easy without any calls to technical support. The only disappointment was that it came with a black keyboard with grey keys instead of the silver internet ready keyboard with black keys, which much nicer. Also Compaq now requires you to make your own restore disks - however the process was pretty easy (provided you have some blank CD-R disks on hand) and seemed pretty fool proof. Computer also comes with a very readable user's manual. All and all a great computer experience at a nice price.