Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario SR5710F Desktop PC

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This computer is a great value, I actually have purchased two. It has fit my needs exactly. I use them as Home Theater PC's connected to my 47" and 52" Flatscreens in different rooms of the house.

But potential buyers would probably appreciate knowing certain things ahead of time, so I would like to share some of those with you. A couple things I noticed, which are not things they neglect to include on spec sheets, were no extra Serial ATA connections on the mother board, thus no extra SATA Hard Drive, or Blu-ray Burner with SATA and things of that nature.

The good news is it does have two open IDE connections, which in my case worked out perfectly.. I had an old Seagate 250GB IDE, set the IDE as master on the jumper settings, connect it to the blue IDE connection on the mother board, boot the computer, enter bios, simply change the boot sequence in the BIOS because it will default to boot from the IDE Hard Drive when it is added(so if you get a OS not found message at first don't freak out).

Also, (this is stated on the spec sheets) there are only 1PCIx16 and three regular PCI slots.

So choose your upgrades wisely. Other than the added IDE HD, i've added the PNY - NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB PCI Express DDR3 for Graphics, and a Swann PCI DVR 4 Camera input security card with software. I plan on using the other PCI slot for possibly a sound card, or wireless card if the PC ever gets moved away from the router. I'm not saying the computer comes up short on any of the specs, just that some of the things that they don't mention, and you find out after you purchase it. Just thought I would share what i've noticed after buying a couple of them.
Sorry for the long review, but I figured the more the better in this case.
Cheers

I did a lot of research for a new computer, name brands, disk space, RAM, OS, capabilities, etc. I compared what I could afford and what I wanted, this computer tops out for the price! I was wary of Vista, but it seems to be ok so far. Microsoft has had the last 2 years to get it right! This is my 2nd HP, the first one from 2004 (XP Pro on it) is still working great and is in another room for my teenage daughter. I love the quickness and capabilities that this pc has! I have more hard drive space than I will ever use! The 3 gig RAM and the processor are extremely fast and programs load in seconds! The internet is superbly fast with this PC too! My opinion- if it's time to upgrade, this is the computer to get! I finally have left XP and am glad that I took the chance and I am ecstatic that I went with HP (Compaq)!

I agree with the other reviews already written here. Don't buy this computer if you are looking for a computer with dozens of upgrade options. Buy it if you are looking for a fairly fast, stable, small, quiet, inexpensive, name brand computer. I bought it for my daughter to use for PC gaming, WOW, etc. She loves it. I did install an ASUS WM8500 GT Silent (passive cooling) video card into the PCI Express 16 slot, it works great. Admittedly, the graphics seemed pretty quick without the upgrade. There are no case fans in this computer, but there is a pre-drilled attachment area for you to install one on the case exhaust area if you feel the need to add one. There is a large fan cooler on the CPU that seems to do a good job on much of the case, and a fan on the somewhat small power supply. Even with the passively cooled video card, the computer seems to be running nice and cool so far. Very quiet. Thinking of buying another one.

Yes, it has the typical HP/Compaq bloatware, but it's easy to uninstall anything you don't want.

Activate the Sleep Mode and it's almost impossible for the computer to revive. Rolling the mouse is a joke, so is pressing the power switch, and hitting the sleep key. The only way is to pull the plug out, not once, but several times. Following the trouble-shooting instructions didn't solve the problem, on-line help only made me repeat the process. Phoning HP's support group was almost insulting. They told me to simply DON'T USE the Sleep Mode!! Well, that's a lot easier than trying to fix the darn thing and it's a brand-new computer. Maybe if Compaq manufactured autos with defective brakes, they'll fix the problem by telling you not to use the brakes! Unaccepatable.

I could not be happier with my purchase!! Was told it would arrive in about a week. It was here in 3 days. All I had to do was plug it in and I was in business. Was a little worried about windows vista because I was used to windows xp but it is so easy to get around. I am very happy with all my purchases from Amozon and would highly recommend doing business with them. Beverly Bailey

Okay, it's always annoying when people let other things get in the way of their review of a product, such as the morons who give a good product only one star because they had a problem with Amazon's customer service or something else.

So I'm giving this computer only four stars because, frankly, 10+ hours of dealing with Hewlett Packard's inept tech support staff warrants a slightly lowered rating.

My good ole Gateway p.c. finally died, so I needed a replacement quickly -- and I didn't have a lot of money to spend. I had done test drives of Vista on friends' computers and wasn't thrilled to have it forced on me, but XP is unfortunately a thing of the past. The good news is that I got Vista configured so it looks similar to XP. The bad news is that some of my older software took a bit of work to get Vista to accept it -- for example, I had to contact HP to get updated drivers so my printer would interface. This was very frustrating, because I'm just not tech savvy enough to know what to look/ask for -- I'm a whiz at operating computers, but I know little of how they run.

There were numerous times I had to contact HP's Compaq tech support, and although those people in India are very nice and courteous, they are not in a hurry to get anything done -- every time, what should have taken ten minutes at most took upwards of an hour. One of these times was buying the extended service plan -- good lord, how long can it take to notate my choice, run my credit card, and issue a confirmation number? And a HUGE warning -- always, ALWAYS have the model number, product number, and serial number handy if you have to call tech support, because even after you register as a customer, they will ask for all three numbers every time you call. Evidently, their database technology -- perhaps in use since, say, 1490 -- can retain your name and contact information, but God forbid they actually log your product information. Needlessly frustrating. Fortunately, everything seems to finally be "smooth sailing."

I was greatly relieved when, after initially hearing some negative reports, it turned out that Vista easily reads older Microsoft products -- my Office 2003 stuff loaded effortlessly. This was a big deal to me, since a lot of my computer usage involves Word and Excel.

After two months, I'm still learning and streamlining things. The infamous Vista pop-ups are not as annoying as I thought they would be, but maybe some of the updates from Microsoft have curtailed the pop-ups. For what it's worth, I really dislike the Windows Media Player 11 -- I think I had version 8 on my old computer, and it was easy to use, but this version 11 monstrosity is unpleasant to navigate and eats up a fair amount of RAM while in use. If you know of an excellent alternative that can play stuff and do CD ripping/burning, please post a comment to this review.

One of the things I like about this computer is that it runs so quietly and doesn't put out heat -- my old Gateway was a thermal nightmare. The only real drawback to the computer itself is that I can't figure out the sleep and hibernate options at all -- I've tried them all, and the computer will jump to life on its own after a minute or two. Naturally, I'm loath to yet again call India to try to find a solution to this dilemma, but I'll have to soon -- I use the computer several times a day, and I don't like having to completely power it up and down each time. [Suggestions?]

I've rambled, but I thought it important to mention all the stuff about HP's tech support and the Vista interfaces for anyone thinking of buying this [or another] HP/Compaq that uses Vista.

I bought this for a PC Client at another retailer but I often buy from Amazon - they are great. The first one I bought would not boot, it was giving me a HAL error (Hardware Abstraction Layer) suspected a bad hard drive - could not reinstall OS from hard drive either, so back to the store it went.
2nd. computer is working great so far. You can't beat the price (I paid $299), but the reason I am writing this is because there isn't a spot designed for mounting a second hard drive, but I found a good one.
You can add a second IDE (PATA)drive. Use the standard ribbon cable, plug into the blue port on the motherboard, set the drive to Master. Upon reboot go into the BIOS and set the original drive BACK to being the BOOT drive, otherwise it will try to boot from the IDE drive. I "mounted" the 2nd drive above the DVD drive. You can't access it from the front, even if you pull the plastic front off. I had to pull the power supply, but that was easy (look for the tab at the front that you need to push down after removing the screws. The 2nd. hard drive fits very snug on top of the DVD drive. I didn't put any screws it and it's running very quiet. Now no guarantees here, do this at your own risk. It could get hot up there, but I think it will be ok. This method reserves the second DVD drive bay if you want to add another burner. Keep in mind that this has a small power supply so adding anything could be pushing the limits.

A great computer for the bucks. You can't go wrong here. Love it!

FYI-----250 watt power supply
In case you read other reviews and wanted to upgrade the video card. Some say they added the video but don't say if they upgraded the power supply. You might be wasting your time AND MONEY!!!!! Question to the other reviewer's, did you have to upgrade the power supply?

June 27, 2009 update: I'm adding an EVGA 7200GS PCI-E video card. Technical support @ EVGA said this card with 512 megs should work, even though the product box says it needs a 300 watt power supply. I'll update if anything bad happens! after I install it.

Update June 28, installed and works great, for dual monitor support.

This computer is excellent for the price. It comes with a ball mouse instead of an optical mouse, but that is a small complaint compared to everything else about this unit. I highly recommend this Compaq Presario.