Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario 5000 Series Desktop Computers (5423US)

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

 

 

Aside from the fact that it's difficult to find a way to remove the drives - no screws that I've found, I got a run around when trying to obtain tech support. It seems that a common problem is with the CD drive door eventually opening and closing non-stop without being able to read a disk. Compaq wouldn't even send me a restore disk that wasn't included when I bought my computer new. Of course, they would let me buy one which I didn't. My extended warranty is basically worthless, and all Compaq and HP did was try to get me to pay even more money for additional phone support. It looks like I'll have to pay for a new CD drive myself or fix it. I'd never buy another Compaq or HP product. To me, service and reliability go hand in hand.

This is a comment from mid-2006, so understand that the four stars are kinda relative: I'm saying this can be a good PC for the kind of user who wants to run serious office-type software, get on the Internet and maybe do a bit of amateur photo editing on the side. I'm not recommending a 5 year old machine for state-of-the-art gaming or for pro level graphics and photo manipulation! (This should be obvious, but I thought I'd better say it anyway.)

My review is based on a Presario 5000 with a 933 MHz Pentium III, 256K L2 cache. Be aware that there are many models in the 5000 series and a lot of them are much lower powered. The Athlon and PIII models are the best, though, and came in the highest speeds.

My example came from a thrift store, in like new condition and with exactly its original equipment; it was priced a bit high at 80 bucks in August of '06... but I think it was worth that and more.

Running Windows 2000 Professional SP4 (instead of the unloved Windows ME system it came with), this is a fast Presario on MS Office, Quicken, etc., even with the marginal 128 Mb of PC100 3.3 volt RAM it originally had. But since "obsolete" PC100 memory can be had now for next to nothing, I recommend stuffing the machine with two sticks of 256 Mb: That will give it a total of 512 Mb - the max my example will accept - and with it I have run even Photoshop quite successfully.

All in all, a lot of bang for the buck, and pretty respectable performance for most of us who just want to surf the 'net and occasionally run something from Office. Of course, I'd prefer that $10,000, build-it-yourself gaming computer they just wrote up in <U>Maximum PC</U>... Sigh.

I bought this computer in March. It is the worst computer that I have had. The CD- Writer, only works half the time. I have the 40 gb hard drive and every time you go over 10 gb, you have to restore the computer. The CD-ROM drive does not close anymore, you have to push it in. There is a short on the left speaker, it does not work anymore. The computer has many lock-ups and freezes. Some times windows does not even start-up. I would recommend Gateway or Dell, they have a lot more opitions, and better value than compaq

I got the Compaq Presario 5000 series model # 5BW160 as a Birthday Present from my Aunt. It is the best computer I've ever used! It has:

1. Intel Pentium 3 700 MHz
2. CD-ROM drive
3. CD-RW drive (perfect for music)
4. 56k Modem
5. 20 GB Hard Drive (plenty of storage)
6. Floppy Drive
7. 128 MB RAM of Memory (11 allocated for video chip)
8. Cool Internet Keyboard!
9. And L O T S more!

This computer was built for the true computer user. It has everything you need to get started. It even comes with Windows 98 Second Edition, the best-selling Operating System in the world. With Windows 98 Second Edition, you can do the following:

1. Surf the net (my favorite feature)
2. Use programs like Wordpad, Notepad, Internet Explorer,and more!

Do yourself a favor and get this Compaq Pesario today while you still can! You won't regret what it can do!

I bought this computer not so long ago, and I can say only one thing about it - it's AMAZING!!! I paid $2,999 and I don't regret it. It's the best computer I have ever had, which never gave me any kind of problems. I can do word processing, programming, graphics and surf the Net, all at the same time, and it will never freeze or slow down. As a computer programmer, I can say that it has a wonderful internal structure and integrity. When you work you can hardly hear any fan noise, it boots up, shuts down and hybernates really fast saving all your important settings and work for the next session. It contains marvelous internal parts from the leading most trusted hardware companies. It also comes with awesome software titles. Compaq and HP have done a tremendous job on building this great "baby." I would recommend this computer to everyone!