Customer Reviews

Compaq CQ5210F Black Desktop PC (Windows 7 Home Premium)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had a dell that was 8 yrs old and it crashed. I need a tower that was less than [...] bucks and looked at alot. Umm, wow. Very easy setup and user friendly to anyone. I know i had a pc that was 8 yrs old but the pcs at my work and at friends houses where about like my dell with the high speed internet. This pc is fast,fast, fast. Dual processors, 3 gigs, dvd..For less then 400 you cant go wrong. I paid [...] for it. Saved a bunch and its a great pc

Bought this PC for $299 and added a dedicated PCI express video card and it works terrific. Very fast, stable and well built. This is an excellent general purpose PC and considering the price and that fact it has Windows 7, it's a excellent value.

Got this machine a couple of months ago. Added a PCIe video card, an additional 1GB of RAM and a second hard drive. With Windows 7 64 bit edition, this machine is FAST! You really can't get any better hardware for the price. I've even done some heavy "processor crunching" video capture and editing and it hasn't crashed yet. Very satisfied with this unit. Don't be discouraged or turned away because it's a Compaq...all of your support comes from HP.

This is my 4th desktop, and it was very easy to set in motion. With 3gb ram, and 500gb hard drive and Windows 7 it is an excellent buy. I actually paid $299 at one of the Depot's. The machine is super quiet, and is very fast.

This PC was very easy to set up. Pretty much plug it in and turn it on. I had to go through some registry info at first. But that's usually the case with almost anything you buy new. So that was really no big deal.

I hooked up a 40" HD TV to use as the monitor, which definitely seems like the way to go. It's nice to finally have a fast computer for surfing the net. The processor, memory, and video card work great together and will be more than adequate for anything resembling a system hog. Sitting in a reclining lounge chair and streaming Netflix movies right to my computer is nothing short of heaven on earth!!!!! No more waiting 3 days for videos to arrive in the mail.

This Compaq computer is so quiet I had to do a double-check to make sure I heard the cooling fans (which I did). Windows 7 makes using all the basic things so much simpler and intuitive to find and set. It's only taken 20 years but Microsoft finally go it right.

I'm very happy with this purchase and would certainly recommend buying this PC to someone in the market for a new computer.

Good luck

I've got three weeks into this machine and I love it. Everything everybody else has said here is true. And amazingly, MicroSoft seems to have made a stable, understandable, intuitive operating system. Well blow me down.

Update: I've now got about two months into this machine and I still love it. And if you want to be blasted out of your seat with speed, try using a flashdrive together with the Windows 7 ReadyBoost feature. I thought this machine was fast on it's own, but adding extra cache with a flashdrive should be illegal it's so fast.

Update #2: I've now had this machine for a little over 3 months and still love it. However, my HP LaserJet 1000 printer and my workhorse Nuance Paperport 9 software and my old Parson's address book had to be replaced because they would not work with the 64-bit OS. Shame on HP and Nuance. The compatibility mode didn't help at all and I've never found that it has been helpful at all, so don't plan on using it for your old programs; make sure your programs and drivers will work by looking at the producer's websites. This added about $120 to the price of the machine which I paid $325 for at Office Depot, so I still have a bargain.

Windows 7 is very stable with lots of great features. Also, don't expect the HP customer support people to speak English. They don't. Also, be aware that this machine only has a VGA outlet, so you can't use a fancy high definition monitor with it.

I purchased this desktop for my home office. All of my other computers are running XP Pro and I have intentionally dodged Vista altogether. Windows 7 has some neat features and is much improved from the Vista machines I have operated, but being most of my software and printers were designed for XP. I am fairly computer savvy, but I had to have my IT guy come in to get this computer up and running on my home network as the problems were beyond my experience and knowledge level. I know this review is for the computer, but the OS is central to the computers use, so I will give a quick run down of both Windows 7 and the machine.

I purchased the Windows 7 Professional upgrade only to be able to download the virtual XP mode. That was a total waste of time and money. In my opinion, the advertising of XP Mode is not quite accurate as it does not function in the sense one would believe. It operates more like a software program, rather than the actual operating system. I couldn't find any real use for the virtual mode and in my opinion it was a waste of memory. I had difficulties installing any software while operating XP mode and I ended up removing it altogether. My first problem was was no print driver was issued for Windows 7 for my HP Colorlaserjet 3600n. That was worked around with a generic print driver. Most of the programs of Office 2003 appeared fully compatible with Windows 7 except for Microsoft Document Imaging, not sure why but it is a problem for me. Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is not compatible either, although I am sure newer versions of Acrobat are. Most of the programs I use were compatible with minor changes. Nearly all of the issues were resolved, but some such as font problems with the monitor took a significant amount of time and effort to cure.

Now about the computer. I have always received excellent service and performance from Compaq even after they were bought by HP. This is the fourth new Compaq I have purchased. The tower appears well built and the fit and finish are excellent for a $400 computer. The dual processor is quick and the 3GB of RAM is great. The dvd drive functions and writes very quick and the machine has yet to crash, even with the many aforementioned software difficulties. The graphics are great, much better than any previous model I have owned, even with a cheap 17' lcd monitor. You will enjoy a better quality monitor, preferably one that is Windows 7 certified. The included mouse and keyboard are adequate, but appear to be very basic and lower quality.

The bottom line is if you are buying this computer for home use, you could not ask for more, especially considering the price. If you are purchasing it for home office/business needs, be aware it will likely take some time and effort to get it to function for some specific software and devices.

This PC is everything that it says it is. It was very easy to set up and works great.

I bought this for my wife to replace an old HP that was bogging down with any task.This is much faster and she is happy with everything about it,which makes me happy.Windows seven takes awhile to get used to,but other than that a great product.

If you can get it for $300, this is an excellent way to go to Windows 7.
With 3G RAM and 500 Gbytes of storage AND a dual processor, it's a bargain.
Does not come with a wireless card, if you need one, not all work ok with
Windows 7. The Netgear WN311B does, pretty well. Other Windows 7 caveats
apply: it's very different from XP, does not come with Outlook Express
or Acrobat Reader; you may need a book, etc.