Hello? WDTBD, you'd voluntarily buy a f*cking COMPAQ? they have to be the biggest pile of sh!t computers I have ever had the displeaseure to use, and I use them absolutely everywhere now, work (new job), home (dad got ripped of at PC world), and at my girlfriends (her dad got ripped off at PC World).
If I were a thug I'd leave it at that, but I must back up my criticism with evidence. Basically Compaq install Pentium (or AGP, whoever) chips on their motherboards, using their own Cache and memory systems. And that is the problem! Rarely does the motherboard's specs match up to the processor's specs... result? Computers constantly having to access the cache, at an INCREDIBLY slow rate.
EXAMPLE: my old laptop was an AJP 6200, Pentium 200MHz MMX with 32MB RAM. My girlfriend's is Compaq 266MHZ P2, with 64MB RAM. Why does FS98 run at twice the speed on my AJP? Why is the internet connection, using THE SAME external modem half the speed on the compaq?
EXAMPLE 2: this piece of sh!t computer that I'm using now has the most godawful systems software installed on it (Compaq's easy access/ homebase etc) to complement Windows. Why does this 166MHz 32MB RAM machine run at less than half the speed of my mate's laptop, 133MHz 32MB RAM, made by AJP again?
Why, when you double click on the 'My Computer' icon on a compaq machine does it take nearly 3-4 seconds to bring up the directory, when on nearly every other computer in existance the result is damn nearly instaneous?
And why has it taken me twice as long to type this than it would have done on any other keyboard? Why? 'cos it's made by COMPAQ.
Answer: steer clear of Compaq. Buy AJP, or their new subsidiary, Ultra.
http://www.ajp.co.uk/