Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario Media Center SR1750NX Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer Drive)

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

 

 

I'm not a computer "junkie", just a normal guy that was due for an updated CPU. I'd been used to my old IBM with Windows 98 (go ahead and laugh), which I'd bought in 1998 - so I'm very well satisfied with the speed, capacity, everything is great, at a fair price ($549 CompUSA) after rebate.

For a computer that bills itself as a Media Center you would think there would be some way to connect to video Media. I had to buy a separate video capture card for $70. Also, Amazon says there is a second CD drive. At least on the one I got there is only one CD/DVD drive.

I never have been able to afford a top-of-the-line computer, so all my experiences have been with models that come with a complaint or two. This is my second Compaq Presario and as with the first one, it's about what I expected. It is the first Athlon processor for me, and it seemed slow to me. I check and the computer systems said it was under 1 GHz. That confused me, as this 3500+ is supposed to be approximately 2.2 GHz. I called the 24/7 support number(which is great btw. No more website FAQs if you don't want to spent an hour searching and not finding what you're looking for!) and the tech explained to me that it was program driven, meaning it speeds up on demand. He had me turn off the energy saver and there it was, 2.2 GHz! So things are starting up faster and the small delays on the internet are gone. I don't know if "delays" are characteristic of Athlon processors or not, but apparently there are things you can do about it.
Physically, the front cover design is a pain. It's hard to remove. The covers to the Disk drives bother me. Yes, they look nice, but once they're open, there's no way to close the drive without just pushing on the tray. That increases the chance it'll jam or break, but oh well...
All in all it was a good value for the money.

This isn't bad for the price but I think it should have been better. The ram memory was mis-matched and I've noticed that with some games it will crash on occasion and I think it's because of this. MS office is only trial vs so if you need to write documents your stuck with only notepad. I've not run into to many problems with it other than these minor problems and I'm sure I'll have some when the service warrenty expires. Everything else seems to function as described.

I was very pleased with the service from the vendor. The package arrived in a timely manner intact. The computer is everything I wanted it to be.

Okay, it has been 48 hours since I purchased the first one from Best Buy and now I am preparing to return the 3rd one to Circuit City! First one had a broken dvd drive, would not recognize any disk, 2nd one windows would not work, third one has a bad modem. DO NOT BUY! I can't believe how much time and effort I have wasted, not to mention money because of having both stores do the set up and adware removal, only to go through this. In addition to all the faulty manufacturing, I found it to be REALLY slow, more so than my current 4 yr. old model and the graphics are very low quality and antiquated looking. Save yourself the trouble.

Like others have said, you really got a lot for the price, I got mine for $499 with a 17' flat panel CRT monitor! (This was after $250 in rebates.) Great deal! It's amazing to me that the 1710NX was selling for $419 for just the CPU and only has 256 MB of RAM 100 Gig hard drive and no DVD Burner or Lightscribe! Also no monitor included! Also, this was has an AMD Athlon 64 3500 versus a Sempron on the 1710NX model. Also has a better keyboard. (No flat hard to type on keys.) I am very happy with this product.

My Compaq came very quickly and worked great right out of the box,I can't say enough good things about it, everything works just like it says it would (very satisfied) Eric

I bought this computer from Bets buy out of desperation. My six year old desktop decided to melt down just before I had to finish several projects. Instead of waiting for shipping, which I couldn't, I decided to just buy a new desktop from a local box store even though my plan had been to build my next computer. Anyway, this is the one I picked. I run fairly intense design and programming applications. This thing handles them with ease. The video is shared memory but the 1GB is plenty. And, if you are really bent on running big time graphics there is always the PCIe slot.
My only gripe is all the crap from AOL and COMPAQ that this thing ships with. If you're like me and you just can't deal with having a bunch of "free offer" or "3 month trial" crap on your computer, then plan for the first couple of hours with this machine involving a bit of uninstalling and cleaning. Once that is done, it's smooth sailing.

I guess I'm just unlucky. First off, it would not turn on. Then it did, but kept turning off by itself. If I moved the tower, it went off. Called Compaq they reset power options but it still went off one other time by itself. Good luck being able to understand what the support people are telling you. They have very strong Indian accents. Next, VERY NOISY vibrating fan. So bad it vibrated my whole desk and drove me nuts. I thought these were whisper quiet fans? Well, the fan obviously has problems. Also, noisy DVD/CD drive. I actually exchanged the 1710NX model because this was a better deal with better processor, hard drive and memory, but the other model I had no problems with mechanically. It was very quiet. I usually did not even hear it working! I will be returning this to Best Buy for a replacement of the same model. I'm not taking chancing with them "fixing it" and then it becoming a problem down the road. Pain in the butt. I will have to reinstall all my progams. *Sigh*. When it does work, it's a good PC. But it's every disappointing to get a new computer and have problems as soon as you get it home.