Compaq Presario S3000NX Desktop PC (1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW Drive)

by Compaq

Product Details

Product Manual [7.74mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 29.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008SCF3
• Item model number: DC475A#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,691 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 2, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

You can look long and hard and chances are you won't find many more affordable brand name computers than the Compaq Presario S3000NX Desktop PC. Not particularly powerful and bereft of some of the features found in today's mid and high-level systems, the Presario S3000MX is nevertheless a wise choice for budget-conscious individuals requiring a secondary or light-duty PC.

Powered by a cost-effective 1.67 GHz AMD Athlon XP processor 2000+ with QuantiSpeed architecture, 256 MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM, and a integrated ProSaveageDDR KM266 graphics card with 32 MB of shared (not dedicated) memory, the system is clearly not intended for extreme multitasking, heavy-duty gaming and animation or complex business tasks. It is, however, all you need for Internet surfing, contact management, home office duties, and most 2-D games. HP has included an adequate 40 GB hard disk for permanent storage of your programs and files, a 3.5-inch diskette drive for older or smaller applications and backups, and a CD-RW drive through which you can burn and listen to audio CDs and archive your data to digital media.

The Presario S300NX system is not equipped with a DVD player or writer, nor does it include a monitor or external stereo speakers, though all of the above may be added at your discretion. The unit does feature a variety of amenities to enhance your everyday computing, including six high-speed USB 2.0 ports for plug and play peripherals, a Presario keyboard and a PS/2-style scrolling mouse, serial and parallel "printer" ports, an integrated 56K modem for basic Internet and email access, and a 10/100 Base-Y Fast Ethernet port for fast network and e-communication interaction.

To help get you started, Compaq has pre-installed a variety of software applications, including Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition operating system, Microsoft Money 2003, Microsoft Works 7.0, and Quicken Financial Center.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent bang for the buck!, May 7, 2003

By 

tdyji mommude (New Haven, CT usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Compaq Presario S3000NX Desktop PC (1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I bought this computer a month ago and have had nothing but
excellent results. The Athlon XP 2000 processor blows away
the Celerons (2.0g, 2.2g)-How do I know? because thanks to
Circuit City's way cool return policies I've been able to try
out the bargain basement computers, then take them back and
keep the best one.

I use photoshop 6 , autocad inventor 5, cakewalk pro audio,
frutyloops, etc .. on a regular basis. the HP and Emachines
computers ... with the celerons couldn't keep up with
the compaq s3000nx. - same 256m ram- but they both locked up
continually when running autocad, downloading from the dsl,
and burning audio cds.....not the compaq! it hasn't let
me down.
okay, so the other computers had a dvd player and firewire
ports. big deal. I bought a FW card for 13 bucks, and don't
care about watching movies on a 20 inch screen.
also, the audio is way quieter- the compaq has true
headphone\line outs to drive my stereo amp (NAD 2100)
wheras the other two had speaker level outputs i could not
get to clean up no matter how low i set the volume.
i recommend this machine
(beware of "reviews" by "authors" who don't know the actual
equipment or "have used a similar model and were unimpressed"

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good price, not a high quality system, April 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Compaq Presario S3000NX Desktop PC (1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

If you are looking for a high-end system - this isn't it. If you are looking for a decent computer for light computing task (internet, a few games, doing your taxes) then this is a decent option. The features are fine for a home user who doesn't need a lot of computing power and needs a bargain system.

Still there are some things you should know:

Because of the slow memory system and low-end embedded graphics this system is not suitable for a serious gamer (though there is an AGP slot for a video card upgrade) or anyone who needs cutting edge performance. The system is also not very rugged so don't plan on moving around too often (i.e. no LAN parties).

One other downside - it has a an old AthlonXP cpu. What's wrong with that? The heat-sink retention mechanism is flimsy and can fall off. These old Athlons and AthlonXPs don't have any temperature cutoff circuitry (unlike Intel Celerons P3s, and P4s or AMD Opterons) so the CPU catches fire and burns up in a few seconds. I know several people this has happened to and it's well known risk with Athlons.

So beware - it's cheap for reason.