...like many others here, I am having to upgrade to a newer bigger system to take advantage of P5. I am not one into "building my own" nor do I know anyone trustworthy enough in my area that I would want to go that route. I am not looking for some monster "dream machine" In the past I have purchased through Gateway, but may be able to get a better deal on Compaq....does anyone here have experience good or bad with their systems? Scarab<-sitting by the side of the road, overwhelmed with choices...

I've used Compaq's at work for the last 9 yrs & hardly ever had any problems, we started off with 286 machines & my last machine before I left was a Pentium4, in fact we had to keep one of the 286 machines running dos for a special job & as far as I know it's still going. Rob

I'll let you know, I take posession of my new compaq custom system tomorrow assuming it shipped on time.:) used the Bestbuy creation station. (Warranty? I don't need no thtinkin exthtended warranty, gringo!)

Those of a more technical inclination seem to dislike or distrust Compaq and other off-the-shelf brands. Myself, I have had no troubles with the two Compaq systems I have owned. They both run much better than my Toshiba laptop.... My last three employers have also used Compaq. The only times I saw problems at work was when old, outmoded devices were being overextended through use with newer, more demanding software.

same here Cage, they tried to run NT on Pentium 1's, we had to suffer for 6 months before they caved in & upgraded us to Pentium 3's

Well, that is reassuring. Like Wdupre, I am considering going through Bestbuy here in my town. I see a couple of advantages: 1: No S&H and I get it now 2: there are techs present who, extended warranty or not, I can look at face to face and 3: They probably won't load a bunch of garbage on the system eating up precious RAM and hard space like Gateway did. My last system arrived with almost a gig of unrequested garbage like special browsers for the Disney website, a buch of AOL crap and useless utilities that I could only partially (with my limited skills) remove from the machine. Thanks to you all Scarab

One of the reasons some of the more "techie" type people do not like Compaqs is that they tend to have their own partitioning scheme in which they keep proprietary information in the partition and FAT (File Allocation Table) for stuff like system restore, tech support, and other proprietary uses. When one goes to reformat, it leads to issues with some formatting/partitioning functions making the whole job a lot more complicated. This, BTW, should not be an issue with "normal" end users. As I have never experienced this myself, I am only relaying what I have heard. Gateway, as well, in the past has been very proprietary and has charged more for upgrades, etc, in the past. The last Gateway I owned was a 486, and I hear that they may have changed to a more "open" format, allowing for eaiser upgrades, etc. Most OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) load up new systems with stuff that the majority of serious users can live without software-wise. Many are also using "integrated" motherboards (ie, audio and video build onto the motherboard) thereby limiting your upgradeability. For those of us who like to build our own systems, it is because we can pick and choose the best components for the system ourselves, getting the best our moeny can buy while, 80% of the time, building a similar system for less money. It is all pertinent to your level of experience and usage of the system you intend on purchasing.