Comment on Compaq Presario SR5122CF CTO Desktop PC

[firefly]

Quote:
Originally Posted by The_YongGrand
Hello and welcome!

Well the Celeron 420 (note the absence of D - it's for the older Cedar Mill and Prescott cores only) is quite a good buy if it's much cheaper! Yes the Celeron 420 is a very ideal one for HTPC and BT rig since it involves only a mere 35Ws. If you don't believe it - the heatsink of Celeron 4xx series are 1/2 of the size of the original stock 775 heatsink. But the thing is, the price of AMD X2 3600+ (not sure whether it is still sold!) looks tempting enough for you to buy that one instead of the Celeron 420. And the Athlons are also equipped with Cool and Quiet, so the throttling of speed will be even less than 35W for the Athlons. The Single-core Athlons are equipped with the same feature too, and it'll not be a worry for you since the performance of both 1-core Athlons64 and Celeron 4xx are almost the same.

The performance of Celeron 420 is comparable to Pentium 4 531 - I tested it. So it'll be a small outline of which one should it be belong to. Too bad it doesn't have a Speedstep, only C1E is supported. If speedstep is available, the Celeron 420 could have reach even lower wattages! Maybe it'll fall a little bit behind in terms of multitasks because the absence of HT.

For the Aero interface, a newer Intel GMA should work (I think it's the 9000 series!) or any cards equivalent or better than Geforce FX5200, which is the minimum one.

Hope that helps!

For the lightning arrestor - try the Cal-Lab. For the PC - you might need a UPS or a AVR.


Hi YongGrand,

Thank you so much for such a prompt reply and those useful info. Truly appreciate your input ...

Actually, there is this promo between Citibank, HP and TMnet .. and HP is giving this Compaq Presario SR5122CF CTO Desktop PC for the RM99 per month package.

Below is the full spec of this PC.


Model Number SR5120CF
Product Number GN672AA
Sku Status
Microprocessor Intel® Celeron® processor 420
1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, EM64T, Execute Disable Bit, 800Mhz FSB
Processor Bus Speed 800MHz
Cache 512KB Advanced Transfer Cache
Chipset Intel® 945GC Express Chipset
Memory 512MB DDR2
Expandability expandable up to 2.0 GB with discard
Memory Speed PC2-4200 / 533MHz
Total Memory Slots 2 DIMM
Available Memory Slots 1 DIMM
Audio Integrated Intel High Definition Audio, 5.1 Surround Sound Ready
Hard Drive 80.0 GB * Serial ATA hard drive at 7200RPM *Gigabyte(GB) is defined as 1 billion bytes
Optical Drive 1 CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive (48x32x48x16x)
CD: 48x write; 32x-rewrite; 48x read max speed
DVD: 16x read max speed
Optical Drive 2 None
Video Graphics Intel® GMA 950 Graphics
Video Memory Up to 64MB shared memory
Communication None
Wireless LAN None
Tv Tuner None
Remote Control Module None
Networking Integrated 10/100 BaseT network interface (Broadband Ready)
Digital Media Reader None
Front Access None
Rear Access 2 USB 2.0, 2 PS/2, Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, LAN
Keyboard Compaq Multimedia Easy Access Internet Keyboard
Mouse Compaq Optical, 2-button PS2 scroller mouse
Total Expansion Slots 1 PCI Express (x16), 1 PCI Express (x1), 2 PCI
Available Slots 1 PCI Express (x16), 1 PCI Express (x1), 2 PCI
Total Drive Bays External (2) 5.25", (2) 3.5"; Internal (2) 3.5"
Available Bays External (1) 5.25", (2) 3.5";
Service And Support 1 year (onsite) limited warranty with up-and-running phone support for first 30 days
LOGO
Vista Logo Free DOS Operating System
Platform brand (Intel Viiv or AMD Live) None
OS & SOFTWARE None
Operating System None
Productivity & Finance None
None
Encyclopedia None
Home Entertainment None
Entertainment None
None
None
Games None
Media Burning & Video Editing Software None
Digital Photography None
Video Editing Software None
Video Editing Software None
Internet & online None
Anti-Virus Software None
PC Help & Recovery PC Doctor
PC Help & Recovery None
PC Help & Recovery None
PC Help & Recovery None
PC Help & Recovery None


Umm .. what do you think about this spec? Any good?

Honestly, I am OK with it .. except the casing doesn't come with a front panel, i.e. I won't have any USB ports in front of the PC. Gosh .. this will be so inconvenient for me .. coz my room is small .. and the CPU is planned to be hidden underneth my table. Imagine I will need to take the CPU out each time I need to use the USB port at the back. Oh boy .. it's not going to be pleasant!!!

Don't know why HP is so cheapskate to remove the front panel. My friend got his HP PC through the TMnet promo in June .. and his model comes with a front panel ...

So, I was wondering .. is there a way to add the front panel later .. through DIY? I understand the front panel comes with the casing .. hmm .. do they sell separately on this? Is it difficult to install? Care to advise?

Also, was thinking to install Windows Vista Home Premium on this PC. Do you think this will be a wise move? Or, I shall stick with Windows XP Pro SP2. Hmm .. but kinda bored with XP and wish to experience the new Vista. But .. heard a lot of bad things about it wor ... ummm ...

Any comment?

[Chai]

I think you can buy one of those front panel bay, much easier than modding yourself especially when these type of casing normally doesn't come with additional USB ports on the motherboard.

With only 512MB RAM, you better stick to WinXP.

[firefly]

Originally Posted by Chai

I think you can buy one of those front panel bay, much easier than modding yourself especially when these type of casing normally doesn't come with additional USB ports on the motherboard.

With only 512MB RAM, you better stick to WinXP.

Hi Chai,

Thanks for the info. But .. what is a front panel bay? How is it like? Do you have a picture to show? Hmm .. care to enlighten me on this?

By the way, will be upgrading the RAM to another 1GB, making a total of 1.5GB. So, should be able to run Vista .. right?

Also, will be getting a DVD writter .. since it only comes with a CD writer. My question is, if I were to install Nero, will I be able to choose the CD writter for buring CD and the DVD writer for buring DVD? Will Nero be able to let me select which writer I want to use? Care to advise?

[zy]

Originally Posted by firefly

Hi Chai,
By the way, will be upgrading the RAM to another 1GB, making a total of 1.5GB. So, should be able to run Vista .. right?

Also, will be getting a DVD writter .. since it only comes with a CD writer. My question is, if I were to install Nero, will I be able to choose the CD writter for buring CD and the DVD writer for buring DVD? Will Nero be able to let me select which writer I want to use? Care to advise?

1.5gb should be enough.

nero lets you select which writer you want to use.

[Chai]

Something like this.

http://www.aerocool.us/p-peripheral/...owerpanel.html

[The_YongGrand]

Originally Posted by firefly

Hi Chai,

Thanks for the info. But .. what is a front panel bay? How is it like? Do you have a picture to show? Hmm .. care to enlighten me on this?

By the way, will be upgrading the RAM to another 1GB, making a total of 1.5GB. So, should be able to run Vista .. right?

Also, will be getting a DVD writter .. since it only comes with a CD writer. My question is, if I were to install Nero, will I be able to choose the CD writter for buring CD and the DVD writer for buring DVD? Will Nero be able to let me select which writer I want to use? Care to advise?

Hey there,

Sorry for the late reply! Hope you don't mind too much about it!

Okay, nowadays, many new computer casings do already come with USB front panels, so there will be nothing that you will worry about. The front panels will have 2 audio jacks and usually a few USB slots shown. Or sometimes it is in the side of the casing.

For the Vista, the Aeroglass thing will look nice, but you might get bored after looking at that. (it depends!! ) And, many drivers aren't optimized for Vista too - one good example is my DLink Network adapters (the software REFUSES to work at all there) and my motherboard drivers. And sometimes, it hangs a lot in (even) my Pentium Dual-Core PC - apparently not really much support there.

RAM? 1.5GB is good, but 2.0GB will be better for Vista. In case if you have a very tight budget, go with the 1 stick of 1GB RAM and use Windows XP. Vista drinks a lot of RAM and even 1GB will suffer in gaming.

DVD-Writer? Go for Lite-on, I heard that it's the nice and reliable brand. LG too, it's great. Benq and Samsung aren't one of my favourites, and my Benq CD-RW killed itself by killing my empty CDs while burning. Maybe I am unlucky, or maybe it isn't good.

Worry no more about the DVD-writing software since it is usually bundled into the DVD-RW package. My Lite-On DVD-RW contains Nero and it's good to use. Not sure about LG, but my LG DVD player contains PowerDVD. If you are buying OEM DVD-RW, you might need to purchase another burning software and it isn't economical at all.

Also, what are you planning to do with the PC? If you are using it for overall usage (gaming + multimedia + internet) you need to have a little bit something more than a Celeron 420. Pentium Dual-Cores E2140/2160s are very interesting processors and can be much more suitable for the usage.

If you are using as a torrent rig, you might as well as build it in your own - torrent rigs are slightly 'different' - especially with the HDD (the more the better!) and a more effective noiseless PSU. The rest of it you can improvise.

hope that helps!

[firefly]

Originally Posted by Chai

Something like this.

http://www.aerocool.us/p-peripheral/...owerpanel.html

Hi Chai,

Yes, this is definitely what I need! Thank you so much for the info and pictures ...

Hmm .. can I get this in LowYat? How much does it costs? Roughly .. do you know?

But .. how to fix it? There are so many different cables for different devices in the pictures. Umm .. do I need to fix each cable to some port or slot in the motherboard? Or, just need to hook this powerpanel into an existing cable .. like in the case of CD ROM or harddisk? I am a hardware dummy and I would definitely lost after opening the casing ...

Care to advise? Thank you so much!!

[firefly]

Originally Posted by The_YongGrand

Hey there,

Sorry for the late reply! Hope you don't mind too much about it!

Okay, nowadays, many new computer casings do already come with USB front panels, so there will be nothing that you will worry about. The front panels will have 2 audio jacks and usually a few USB slots shown. Or sometimes it is in the side of the casing.

For the Vista, the Aeroglass thing will look nice, but you might get bored after looking at that. (it depends!! ) And, many drivers aren't optimized for Vista too - one good example is my DLink Network adapters (the software REFUSES to work at all there) and my motherboard drivers. And sometimes, it hangs a lot in (even) my Pentium Dual-Core PC - apparently not really much support there.

RAM? 1.5GB is good, but 2.0GB will be better for Vista. In case if you have a very tight budget, go with the 1 stick of 1GB RAM and use Windows XP. Vista drinks a lot of RAM and even 1GB will suffer in gaming.

DVD-Writer? Go for Lite-on, I heard that it's the nice and reliable brand. LG too, it's great. Benq and Samsung aren't one of my favourites, and my Benq CD-RW killed itself by killing my empty CDs while burning. Maybe I am unlucky, or maybe it isn't good.

Worry no more about the DVD-writing software since it is usually bundled into the DVD-RW package. My Lite-On DVD-RW contains Nero and it's good to use. Not sure about LG, but my LG DVD player contains PowerDVD. If you are buying OEM DVD-RW, you might need to purchase another burning software and it isn't economical at all.

Also, what are you planning to do with the PC? If you are using it for overall usage (gaming + multimedia + internet) you need to have a little bit something more than a Celeron 420. Pentium Dual-Cores E2140/2160s are very interesting processors and can be much more suitable for the usage.

If you are using as a torrent rig, you might as well as build it in your own - torrent rigs are slightly 'different' - especially with the HDD (the more the better!) and a more effective noiseless PSU. The rest of it you can improvise.

hope that helps!

Hi YongGrand,

It's really good to hear from you again. Thanks for all the useful info. Truly appreciate your input ...

Honestly, I also thought all HP desktop comes with a front panel. Even the HP authorized sales persons told me the same thing. But .. according to the spec :

Digital Media Reader None
Front Access None
Rear Access 2 USB 2.0, 2 PS/2, Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, LAN

Had confirmed and reconfirmed with the HP pre-sales person that handles this promo. The answer was a definite "NO". She sounded a bit pissed when I asked for a reconfirmation.

Actually, you can do an upgrade by adding another RM 63.90 on top of the RM 99.00 PER MONTH to get a Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHZ ... but I use the PC merely for surfing net, watching movie, listening to mp3, BT downloading and some word processing only. Thus, I feel a Intel Core 2 Duo 18GHZ it's kinda over-killed .. hmm .. don't you think?

Lite-on DVD writer? Friends recommend Imation wor. Hmm .. what do you think? Any good?

A more effective noiseless PSU? Are you referring to power supply unit? Hmm .. doesn't the noise come from the fan? Care to enlighten me further? Coz I really wish to learn more from you guys ...

Build our own? My friends and I have had too many bad experiences with clone PCs and we had decided no more clone PC for us .. Hmm .. perhaps we are not as technical savvy as your guys ... hehehe ...

My friend that got his PC through the TMnet promo in June is a Intel Celeron D 3.2 GHZ. He PC is pretty quiet .. and not much of heat generated .. and he is putting it into his room too ...

By the way, you had mentioned you were having problem with Vista? Just want to share a review that I have read earlier. Perhaps .. you should turn off those problematic features like what the guy had mentioned like:

1) turn off UAC
2) turn off indexing for searching
3) turn off (oops .. can't really recall) .. something about information/application stay in the RAM for faster data retrieval later .. which will clog up all your RAM

Saw this review on:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...eviews.start=1

However, cannot find it anymore. Don't know why .. the review from August 5th to August 11th are gone.

This guy did a very good review on Vista. I should have saved it when I read it. Hmm .. guess there must be a crashed or something .. and the information is gone. Umm .. guess we can't take it for granted that the same information will always be availble for future access by just saving the URL ....

[firefly]

[quote=The_YongGrand;312550]

For the Vista, sometimes, it hangs a lot in (even) my Pentium Dual-Core PC - apparently not really much support there.


Hi YongGrand,

Finally, I managed to located the review over the Google cache. Thanks to Google .. for doing such a great job!!

Below is the review, enjoy ...


Not Bad, But Needs Work, August 17, 2007
By kindasorta (earth) - See all my reviews

Let me preface this by saying that I have used both Mac and PC extensively the past few years, and Vista represents my first switch back to Microsoft as my primary OS in about 2 years. I like both OS's and am not a fanboy of either one. That said, here's my take on Vista Home Premium.

First, its not all that bad. Alot of the negative comments seem to come from people who's computer cant run it, or from Apple fanboys, or from people who are just so used to XP that they never want to change (kind of like those dedicated Windows 98 users that always seem to be lurking around). Granted, I got Vista pre-loaded on a pretty powerful machine (HP 6130n - Dual Core AMD with 3GB RAM) so I havent experienced any of the hangs, crashes or hard reboots that others have. All of my devices and peripherals installed fine (though admittedly they are all less than 2 years old). As far as software, I cant honestly be the best person for this...I have mostly new software, but a few of the older apps I installed seem to be OK.

My first imrpession was that this really was a glossy version of XP. The taskbar, the clock, and most of the icons looked about the same so I was initially disappointed. But, as you start discovering features like the Window flip viewer, live taskbar thumbnails, and document icons that are small previews of the item they represent, you realize that maybe they did put a little effort (or stole alot of ideas) into it. I like the collapsable Start menu as opposed to the old expanding one, and I actually now like the gadgets. Yes, its a rip off from widgets on a Mac, but I actually like having the sidebar always on and availble to access. On my mac, I'd have to hit F12 for the dashboard, and it would take about 10-20 seconds to load all the widgets from RAM. Here, if i want my calculator or weather, its always right there ready to go right in front of me. The folder structure is a bit more cluttered, but I like the addition of the 'Public' folders, which allow easy sharing of stuff like music, photos and such between users.

Also, Windows has kind of adopted their own 'Command' key like on Macs with their Apple (command) key. Here, you use the "window" key as your command key to flip through windows, switch applications, change users etc. As a mac user addicted to keyboard shortcuts, this actually is one of my favorite feature of Vista as I dont always have to click everywhere to get at something...I always have stuff right at my fingertips.

Suffice it to say there's a lot of new features I wont write about here so as to not have a 20 page review...but those are my favorites.

Now, onto more technical stuff. MS touts this as a faster, more secure system. Ironically, I've found that it is much faster once you turn OFF all the new features that supposedly make it faster!

First: Windows search. While not quite as good as Spotlight on Mac, its fairly decent and quick. The drawback? CONSTANT indexing and accessing of your hard drive. I let it index the first couple of days, fine. Then, as I add more files to the system it has to index them. Very slowly, I might add. They claim it runs in the background while the computer is busy, but it irritates me to always have the hard drive spinning when I'm doing work because it slows down access to other programs. So that got turned off. You may want to try Google desktop, but I find the whole search thing meaningless anyway as I store all my files into like 4 different folders.

Second: User Account Control. This is the dumbest feature in Vista. IT basically asks your permission to do ANYTHING. For example..."you are opening file type (insert common extension like .doc, .mp3 here)...are you sure you want to proceed?" Installing programs is a nightmare because every step of the install process it basically locks your computer until you say "yes I want to do this". Again, slows you down by having this thing constantly babysit you when you do anything. "Are you sure you want to install this Norton Antivirus Program?" Please. That also is off now.

Third: Superfetch (and ReadyBoost). Supposedly the advantage of this is that it caches info from your most commonly used programs to speed them up. Sounds good, except it clogs half of your RAM with programs you are not using. So if you're gaming, your performance suffers since the RAM is clogged with stuff you're not using. This feature also seemed to make the hard drive spaz out, especially after booting up so I turned this off as well. That and the fact that Superfetch has crashed on me about a half dozen times already. I dont mind waiting an extra 3 seconds for a program to fire up.

Last: Windows Defender. I didnt find one use for this thing that any decent on-demand spyware or firewall like Ad Aware couldnt do. I turned this off as well, since I dont really need constant spyware protection clogging up my resources. If you do, the yahoo toolbar has a built-in realtime spyware tool that only runs when youre browser is up. So I use that.

So there it is...now that these so called time-saving processes are disabled, my hard drive can actually rest and my RAM is free. When idling I am only using about 563 MB RAM, and thats with Aero and all visual themes cranked to the max. All of these services can be altered by going to Start, and in the search field type "services", then you are taken to the services manager that lets you enable or disable these things. The nice thing about Windows is that even if some features dont work quite as well as advertised, at least you can turn them off!

All in all, its a decent OS with some tinkering. They integrated enough ideas from Linux and Mac fairly well into their own scheme of things. For a Mac user like I was, its nice to have the sleekness and mountain of keyboard shortcuts of a Mac combined with the universal compatibility of Windows...kind of. Vista still doesnt work with a lot of stuff, but its a good start. Thats what drove me away from Macs, and if you are considering a Mac take this point to heart: Apple's stuff is very good, but its basically all you have. They use a very closed system, so basically only Apple and Apple-approved companies (of which there are few to none) can develop for it. So thats why they pack so much stuff in the box, its basically all you can use. Try even finding a Mac compatible mp3 player that isnt an iPod! Its a very closed off gestapo-like state, with no room for non-Apple products or customization. As I said earlier, with Windows, if you dont like something you can turn it off or customize it, not so with Apple. For example Google desktop has their own Sidebar. No one makes a dashboard interface except Apple. And don't be fooled...Macs crash too. Try turning off a network computer share without ejecting the share from the finder. The whole Finder freezes for 5 minutes until Mac realizes the computer is gone! Point is they all crash at some point, and the security vulnerabilities they are finding in OS X are starting to become embarrasing. Anyways...

So in sum, its good and reliable so far. If all of your software is XP, I'd recommend holding off as I'm sure alot of it wont work. If you're starting fresh, or switching back from Apple (like me!) its cool to start from scratch with a new OS. Again, it has enough of everything to keep just about anyone happy. Its not perfect but no OS is. However if they actually could get those aforementioned process to run without dragging everything else it would be fine. Im sure more refinements are to come. Until then it just is...three stars.

[The_YongGrand]

Hi there,

To answer your questions, let me answer 'em one-by-one.

Lite-on DVD writer? Friends recommend Imation wor. Hmm .. what do you think? Any good?

I'm not sure of Imation but I think they are okay as well too. Make sure the Nero or any burning software is included inside the package.

A more effective noiseless PSU? Are you referring to power supply unit? Hmm .. doesn't the noise come from the fan? Care to enlighten me further? Coz I really wish to learn more from you guys ...

Not to say really noiseless, but a 24/7 operating computer needs a little bit better and stable PSU. Check the Antec and Enermax, they have those good stuff brands. But be reminded that they are very pricey but worth every cent - you don't want the other parts of the comp to get fried right?

Build our own? My friends and I have had too many bad experiences with clone PCs and we had decided no more clone PC for us .. Hmm .. perhaps we are not as technical savvy as your guys ... hehehe ...

Don't worry, now it is the 21st century, not 20th. And now isn't the 90s, it is the new millenium. Computers have improved over the years and now it is EASY to build up a computer, and it take even 1 hour to fully set up the CPU parts-by-parts. Now, clone PCs are not called that way anymore - it's called self-built instead.

If you worry about breaking the parts, you might consider letting a shop to build one for you. The thing is, make sure you choose the components and do some homework before that. Still, if you are really really worried about getting cheated or whatever, get a simple Dell computer - they have the Pentium Dual-Core desktops over there with some rebates. Any one will do. But if you want to learn something more, try to build one yourself. Anyway, are you a student, or a college/university student or working adult?

My friend that got his PC through the TMnet promo in June is a Intel Celeron D 3.2 GHZ. He PC is pretty quiet .. and not much of heat generated .. and he is putting it into his room too ...

Celeron D is *still* okay, but only 50-70 ringgits more you can get something better than Celeron D. If they only could make sub-100 single core processors...

I used to have a Celeron D 347 (that one I used to push it to 3.8GHz without any thing destroyed) and quite heaty. The Heatsink and fan must be customised by HP or something. And my Celeron D desktop in my bedroom turns it into a personal sauna!! (I remembered I shut off the bedroom windows and the door to dry myself after a bath with that heat of the computer!!)

By the way, you had mentioned you were having problem with Vista? Just want to share a review that I have read earlier. Perhaps .. you should turn off those problematic features like what the guy had mentioned like:

1) turn off UAC
2) turn off indexing for searching
3) turn off (oops .. can't really recall) .. something about information/application stay in the RAM for faster data retrieval later .. which will clog up all your RAM

Yeah, I did that before, but the OS is still freaky, maybe my hardware isn't used to that yet. And I got bored of the eye candy already. It is still quite in infancy stage, so I rather have the good time of having all the drivers ready and 100% support before jumping again to Vista.

Btw, I want to have a 2nd hand Mac too... but not sure where the heck I can get it. The classic Motorola processor one, it's still cool!

Hope my advice helps. Cheers.