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HP to Offer Custom Compaq Gaming PCs
PunkerTFC writes "Announced in the run-up to E3, Hewlett-Packard will offer custom built-to-order gaming machines under the Compaq brand, according to Reuters. The machines will be avalible in June or July and 'offer a range of options with standard, off-the-shelf components.' HP has been selling a Compaq gaming machine on a limited basis through a few select retailers already - apparently, 'Those pilot sales... convinced the company that it could compete in a market where well-known specialty manufacturers like Alienware, Voodoo and Falcon Northwest face increasing competition from mainstream players like Dell Inc'. The X Gaming machines will feature 'a standard chassis from CoolerMaster, known for its work in keeping system noise down while also decreasing heat, and red glowing lights in front and back what will make it stand out in the dark.'"
If I call up asking for a machine to play Marathon they'll build me a Mac? Sweet!
I mean, don't most gamers do all of this already? The only people who might purchase these custom computers would be wannabes, surely? Your average gamer either make does with what he's got or just adapts custom hardware. Besides, there's no fun in a case mod if it comes with the PC.
nigritude ultramarine
red glowing lights in front and back what will make it stand out in the dark... and make it run faster!
So it's odd to see them choose their cheaper brand to be their game box, since game boxes are by definition amped up versions of regular machines.
Maybe they just think Compaq sounds a lot cooler than Hewlett-Packard.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
But any l33t gamer wouldn't be caught dead with one of these. I have the feeling these won't sell all that well.
For crying out loud if I hear of another X-machine, I'll go crazy! Are the nations game players, nerds, and marketers in such an uncreative funk that they can't think of anything more than putting an X on everything and therby making it "radical" or eXtreme?
This country sucks!
...and be done with it.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
Red glowing lights? Must... buy... NOW...
Can't... resist... red glowing lights...
But will they [HP] top AlienWare's commercial that airs on TechTV?
All HP has to do is throw in an AMD Athlon64 into the machine and they'll top *Dull* (err, Dell) since Dell is an Intel-only screwdriver operation, for now.
Speaking of Dell, has anyone seen the commericals to the NetFlix competitor starring the former *Dell Dude*?
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
"red glowing lights in front and back what will make it stand out in the dark"
How can I trust their case mods if I can't even trust their grammar?
(Note: the quoted sentence should use the word "what" in place of "that".)
nigritude ultramarine
Does it run Linux?
For those truly l33t gamer/night joggers. You really aren't an extreme gamer until you've hit the wall at the 30th mile at 3:00 am while fragging.
The Best Buy semi-local to me has them (in Toledo, OH). While I admit the case is cool (shiny polished aluminum), and definitely looks better than the Dell XPS or the hideous Alienwares, it was overpriced as is to be expected. It was almost as much as the Alienware they had (this was a few months ago).
Now, gamers who buy these gaming systems rather than building their own rigs go a lot for cool factor, name-brand recognition, and bragging rights. I think the fact that it's a Compaq may hurt this.
"Yeah, I have an Alienware Area-51"
"Sweet, I just got a Dell XPS laptop."
"Yeah, well, I got a Compaq gaming tower!"
See what I mean?
Ah, gamers, the driving force behind faster processors! Go Frag!
A Compaq with standard, off-the-shelf components? Wow, it will be like before the company was ruined by HP's love of crappy part integration !!
Open Source Sushi
HP has worked tirelessly for the last five years to ensure that their consumer PCs are some of the most unreliable, poorly-supported pieces of Wal-Mart level junk on the market. I should know, I used to sell the damn things. Emachines were actual more reliable for most of the 3-year stint I worked at Orifice Depot. HP has done everything possible to drain any remaining residues of consumer goodwill left. Between not having mobo drivers for many of their PCs available at all, not even shipping a restore CD with their retail machines, and... oh hell I could go on.
Enthusiasts won't pay these prices for a machine from HP. They should at least do like Sony, and pretend to be a different company for their better products.
If you have the time, I highly recommend builing your own. Check out some of the popular tech sites and read the reviews.
A hot gaming system nowadays mostly consists of a $300 video card and whatever hardware will support it. Get the a AMD 64bit chip, a good mobo (Abit, Asus, etc.), some fast RAM (Corsair, etc) and your looking at a system under $1500 that will kick the snot out of their proposed $3K system.
Hecubas
If I can buy it with my choice of video card, ethernet card, etc, I might buy this. If instead they try to make this a Dell lock-up, or it is overpriced, then I will happily build my own box.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Perhaps foolishly, I'll assume for the moment that most people who play the kind of games which need specialist kit are the kind of people who know what kind of specialist kit they need. If they know what kit they need, the chances are that they'll know where to buy it cheaply. I'll also assume that the kind of people who want specialist kit (which, another assumption, would be bleeding edge) will be the kind of people who're likely to upgrade those individual components in need of a little more ooomph. If they're the kind of person who does their own upgrades, won't they just buy the bits themselves?
OK, OK, a lot of assumptions, but what I'm trying to say is that I can't imagine that this'll be popular with real gamers.
So, if this service is not going to be used by real gamers, who will order a specialist games PC? Probably the kind of numpty who would order a PC from the likes of HP/Dell/Whatever anyway. If this is the case, then we're not talking about news of earth-shattering importance. It's just a manufacturer introducing a new range to try to grab new market share. Just like soap powder manufacturers introducing a new powder to try to grab more market share.
So...
Move along, there's nothing to see....
Nick.
There's the gamer nerd. Gamer nerd builds his computer and tweaks the hell out of it. It never runs at the specified bus speed, voltage, and it never crashes. The graphics card is overclocked along with every other component in the computer.
Then, there's the gamer dork. Gamer dork spends $2000 extra for an Alienware. He brags to his friends about how awesome it is. Then, he screws it up with spyware and it runs slow. Then, he pays Gamer Nerd $50 and a 12-pack to fix it.
Perhaps if Compaq offered a real savings over building the computer yourself, Gamer Nerd will be interested in it. However, Gamer Nerd quickly sees that $2000 of the price of the computer is for unneeded software, brand name, and unneeded support.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
I would be dramatically more likely to consider a PC sold under the HP brand than the Compaq brand, if I didn't understand that they were the same company now. Every compaq machine I have ever used and/or owned was crap except my laptop (Presario 1692) which was passable. By contrast, some of the HP Kayak machines were very nice, and most of the Vectras weren't all that bad.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
All it needs now are some "speed holes"
They are the biggest outsourcers on the planet. Go Alienware if you want a gaming PC
I can't figure out if I should buy a package, like this HP deal or a Dell machine, or build a system myself. I'm reasonably technically adept, just not with PC's (my machines are heavily modified, and I've done hw and sw troubleshooting for 15 years on macs). I'm just getting a PC for games, because my MDD G4 is fine for the Photoshop/Illustrator work that's my bread and butter.
So... does someone have a guide to picking components for a game machine? What are the dangers?
Would it make sense to plop down the extra $$ to buy a package?
I've never actually owned a PC, so it might be a good learning experience to put one together... hrm.
Opinions?
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
"Credibility is something you only earn over time"
Nope. You also can lose it over time, which HP and Compaq are notorious for. At this point, I trust the HP mid-to-high-end laser printers... and nothing else they make. I used to swear by HP scanners and calculators, but almost everything they make is going downhill in ergonomics and durability, even when the performance isn't crap to begin with.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
"Credibility is something you only earn over time," he said. "HP with its Compaq brand has a huge advantage in stepping in as a newer player."
No, it doesn't.
Whatever. My HP doesn't catch on fire like eMachines do. (or used to. Have they gotten better?)
Also I got restore CD's from HP. Sure, I had to call for them, but I got them.
My HP has been everything I wanted it to be: cheap, decent, no compatibility problems, and has handled all the "upgrades" I've added into it.
This was my first x86 PC and I just wanted an inexpensive box that worked.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
If only they would stop pushing DVD+R down everyone's throat, it's the least compatible format and the only one HP offers with their machines.
But I want a gaming rig that will smoke the hell out of other people with it's blazingly fast processor power, not it's stylish looks.
:-P
Looks are fine, and I got nothing against case modding. Hell, I painted my Pentium 100 PC's case neon orange back in 1995 or 1996, before weird cases became popular. That's beside the point. A gaming rig is meant for high powered, speed processing for lightning fast 3d gaming. Anything else is just extraneous.
And a pre-bought modded case, stamped out on a line, kinda strikes me as lame as hell. The point of case modding is to make something impressive. Seeing 100 copies of the same thing is no longer impressive. Okay, I might buy parts and mod it, or I might buy a modded case and put it together with some of my own addons, or I might even have somebody else do a custom paint job for me because I lack that kind of expertise or artistic ability... but these are more timesavers than anything else. Buying a whole pre-modded system out of a catalog is just silly and not l33t.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
but isn't it ridiculous to continue using the compaq brand name? What is so different from Compaq and HP machines? We all know that a Compaq machine is an HP one. Am I missing something or am I the only one who finds that this just doesn't make much sense?
It's either Marathon or Photoshop if you want a Mac and not a lot else...
Actually, We have one. Its the Compaq X07 Its a nice machine, specs Intel P4 3.0Ghz 800MHZ Nvidia 5950 256mb 120Gig seagate SATA 512mb DDR 400 Dual Channel Coolermaster Wave case all in one reader. 4X DVD+R Creative Labs Audigy2 Platium The case is alumium, and slide out mobo. Makes it almost a dream to work on. The only thing Compaq is the Keyboard, mouse and badge on the computer. Which was replaced immediatly. We like running it in Linux, and occasionally use the winxp pro it came with.
SimonTek
All these posts are missing something...logic. These companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars seeking markets and figuring out customer segmentation. You all actually think they don't know that truly elite gamers build their own systems? This market is a tiny friggin' niche in the greater scheme of things. "Gamers" does not equal "l33t". Gamers = PC enthusiasts who also probably own Xboxs or PS2s or somesuch, you know, the person who likes to play games, not lose their lives pretending to be some 12th level Elvish rogue mage while cybring some hottie online. It's amazing how many dorks are on here at /. hearing "gamer" and thinking "l33t CS scripter." That is not the market here. People like me, with families and other obligations eating up vast amounts of time, but with an l33t background (yes, I once had skillz, but since have gotten pwned by 2 babies) are the market. We don't have time to screw around building systems -- we're willing to spend money to save time. We also like warrantees so we can return things when the mobo fails or the WIFI card won't work with other components.
There are a ton of once-l33t gamers now growing into adults (gasp!) with much less time to solve component-conflicts and video driver problems. We're looking for the silver bullet solution, and willing to pay extra for it. And our numbers grow with each birth.
-Laetor
... to play Solitaire/Minesweeper/Freecell/etc. I've dealt with Compaqs for a while, and have been very disappointed in the overall quality of both home (of others, not myself) and office computers for hardware and software interoperability with add-ons. I've always gone the DIY route.
Running sweet.
Athlon 64-3400+
1GB RAM
120GB 7200rpm HD
LG CD-RW/DVD Reader combo drive
Cold Cathode light etc.
NVIDIA logo etched on the window
Cool brushed aluminum finish
The Video Card is backorderd, but should be here just after E3.
-Pete
Isn't it the whole "I did it myself and it's different than a `normal' PC" the point?
A Compaq gaming PC? You mean I get to have all the stability of a crappy PC with all the expandibility of a console? Awesome! Sign me up!
It could be worse. Somebody could have tried to create Packard Bell gaming system...
You know its fast when its name has X in it. What happened to cool names.
Will the new HP gaming pc come preloaded with over 200 spyware programs and no oem install disks like a standard HP pc does?
Compaq previously offered (briefly, I believe) custom-built computers. I bought one from them back in 1999 or so. Two weeks in the shop, two visits from techies, and way too many hours on the phone with customer service later, it went right back to Compaq. You'd think they'd actually, oh, I dunno... test to see if any of the components they put in a custom-built machine were functioning before they sent the unit out the door.
-- dR.fuZZo
Hp is "able to use our purchasing power as the world's largest consumer PC company" and they still can't put together a decent gaming system for under $1599? I can go out and make a SWEET gaming system for $1599.
A pretty darn fantastic gaming machine can be built for aroung $800. Why can't HP use a little bit of that leverage of theirs and assemble a machine for us at this price?
...for those who settle for ordinary hardware. But for us with the crawing, there is only one place to go. The dude with faster Processors than the processor makers themselves. Mr. Michael!
It may be a CoolerMaster case, but I'll bet it still uses the Torx screws that Compaq PCs are infamous for.
Chip H.
Don't they mean "offer a range of options with substandard, off-the-shelf components " ?
And expect to spend a lot of time doing your own support. This includes troubleshooting hardware issues, shipping out your own hardware for warranty requests, and waiting with no machine until they return.
I build systems for myself and often for family and friends. When my parents needed a new computer and I was at college I suggested getting a Dell. Big mistake.
According to my parents the computer worked fine for a few days but then they heard a clicking noise when the computer was turned on. Of course they called me and needed help. I could hear the noise over the phone and knew it was a defective hard drive.
After they called tech support in India five times they decided it was a bad power supply. I come home from spring break and the power supply is there waiting to be installed. I asked why they sent a power supply. Now I was stuck calling tech support and begging for a new hard drive. I could tell the people at the other end were reading a script. I finally convinced them after three calls the hard drive was bad and they sent a new part.
The moral of this long story. If you know how to troubleshoot/repair computers build your own. You may save money, you may not. At least you will have some control over the repair/replacement of parts.
Sounds like someone has had a bad experience or two :(
;))
Personally, I'll never purchase a prebuilt desktop again. I put together my own last year, and it's worked awesome. I've never had a hardware problem (I did do a ton of research though - it certainly payed off), and the worst of my software issues was a M$ "security update" that made windows refuse to boot (Safe Mode and System Restore saved my ass on that one). Otherwise it was pretty simple. Putting together the hardware was a snap (almost literally). The worst of my setup nightmares was trying to get my network sorted out. I hate networking and don't have much experience with it, so it took me a little while to get my old computer + router + my computer (with two network cards, firewire, etc) all talking to eachother. No thanks to Windows on that one.
Otherwise its been amazing. I think the best part of the whole thing has just been the experience. You learn so much more about your computer when you put it together yourself. Even as much as I was obsessed with computers before, i'm so much more comfortable with them now. You have a drastically different kind of relationship with your own handywork - something a little more intimate than a $2000 recipt.
So it doesn't have to be all headaches and strife. My advice is to treat your first computer like your first lover: Take things slow, be gentle, ask lots of questions, and never force anything.
(There ya go - advice for computers AND girls in the same thread! If this doesn't get modded up, I don't know what will
This could be a rather large market for those "walmart" families who want a reasonably priced, no hassle computer that johny can also play his video games on. Good luck to HP.
This P.I.G. will walk on the water, This P.I.G. will walk on the sea, This P.I.G. will walk whereever he wants.
All they're going to do is reduce the quality I can get by buying best of breed parts and inflate the price.
Last time I built a gaming machine I speced out a system on Alienware's site, then ordered the parts from newegg.com for a bit under half the price.
Since I paid the $6 more for retail box parts for components I care about (CPU, Video Card, Motherboard) I have a 3 year manufacturer warranty. When my video card colling fan started making a funy noise, I called the folks who made it and got a new one fedexed to me the next day. Dell, Compaq, Alienware and the others would never have done that. I would have had to mail the whole damn box to them or sit on my ass at home until a tech showed up to swap it out for me.
A small amount of self education can save a ton of money when it comes to building home PCs.
...you need to buy the best gaming PC money can buy, overclock the hell out of it and then refuse to play any games on it except CS @ 800x600 with all the gfx options set to the lowest levels. Then, only then are you a 1337 gamer :D
Aside from the fact that whatever system you get from them will be 3 months behind the latest technology and cost 2-3 times more, who knows how compatible it will be.
They should stick to high-end, enterprise level servers.
Fucking ugliest car I ever saw
Also called Evolution's Little Helper, because they make girls seek other gene pools.
I remember back in the day when all Compaq desktops required special Compaq RAM, so you had to buy it overpriced from them (~500mhz era). Oh, and every Compaq I have ever seen has been a skanky piece of crap.
Fools and their money are soon parted.
"...red glowing lights in front and back what will make it stand out in the dark."
yeah, I am gonna got me one off these so I can be alot more cooler than what you are with you're boring PC's, you loosers!
I hope Compaq murders Monarch in the prebuilt arena. I bought a prebuilt from Monarch, and it was the worst ordeal I've ever had online.
They charged my card for the $1500 computer, but they didn't actually ship the system for 7.5 weeks. Each time I called, they'd give me some lame-ass excuse, like "we just moved to a new building", or "our computers were down"-- they even told me it had already shipped, on three separate occasions. There were two whole weeks where they wouldn't even email me back or return my phone calls.
When it came, it didn't turn on, much less boot.
The hard drive inside was unplugged (it was missing the IDE cable completely), and the wires for the front switches/LEDs were not connected. In addition, the case had a gnarly scratch on the front bezel, and one of the feet was missing.
Finally, I had to dispute the charge on my card, because they refused to take an RMA on the "prebuilt system" that was barely so.
My experience may not be *normal* for monarch, but from their resellerratings reviews, a lot of other people have had just as bad, or worse.
I don't understand how companies with such poor customer service stay in business.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
The boxes have been on display in BestBuy for 3 months.
where is the "I feel for ya, but that's some funny ass shit" moderation?
industry standard parts ? HP's high end servers make that claim as well but FAIL to live up to it.
They've even taken to using POWER CORDS that are square vs the standard type, though they are the same load rating. HP server memory is horrendously OVERPRICED and different for each bloody model. HP controllers are unique and system rom coded, and to my knowledge their U320 SCSI drives are wired differently on 2 or 3 channels just to ensure you are required to replace HP with over-priced HP. I'd hesitate to buy a 'gaming' machine from someone who branded other people parts as there own vs using off the shelf components. The HP replacement components are often not EVEN THE SAME manufacturer as the original but this 'months' reseller of choice. Things change and upgrade so fast and it is NOT in HP's best interest to allow you to upgrade the parts, they want to sell you a whole new system.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
i remeber instaling win95 and 4MB of extra ram on to the rig just to be abel to run the damn thing.
it had a realy nice sturdy case and you had acces to all of the components.
only downpart was when i found it it was an sx moddel that didnt let me run quake. i did use that box for more than 1.5 year back then.
and had it for quite some time after that.
hmmm sometimes i miss that machien. 486.
now when did compaq start to get bad? i know that all compaq's and hp's i had to upgrade later were hell. but when did it start?
I am left to wonder if the only "real" big-name gaming PCs are born of Dells.
The only thing non-standard about their systems is the motherboards (and sometimes the power supplies, but I've never found them underspec, anyway). Cases are always nicely laid out to aid maintenance. Usually the latest and greatest connectivity internally.
As soon as they bite the bullet and put together an AMD-64 system, woah nelly.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I don't know how else to express it except that I think they over-engineer their rack-mount equipment.
;)
I witnessed a buddy of mine assembling 20 or so of the 1Us, adding upgrades. And I've gotta tell you, I've never seen boards cut in the shapes or as many varieties of ribbon cables neatly tucked, etc. etc.
It's impressive! (but you pay for it) We usually go for the next cheapest option.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
The cheap Dells are cheap. You can't beat them in price/performance, especially in large quantities.
But you're looking at chipsets/mobos/power supplies that leave you little headroom, especially for gaming.
By the time you've picked a good starting point with a Precision or Dimension, you're looking at $1000 and up.
You're better off buying a bearbones system from Newegg, Polywell, Amax, whoever, which has a nice looking case/power supply/mobo ready to accept your choice of add-ons. You stretch your dollar to get a system which is trying to be expandable.
Only drawback -> you have to support it and install the OS.
Big deal. You'd probably end up doing that anyway with the Dell once you start adding new HDs and stuff.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I've had a Compaq Deskpro convertable mini-tower for 3 1/2 years now, and it has none of these issues.
I've built enough PCs in my time, such that when I bought this one, I didn't want to go through the hassle of collecting the parts, etc. etc. What I wanted to do with it was far more important than the time and effort I could have spent building a similar machine.
It is a business / enterprise machine, so I did pay more for it, however I had a 3 year, on-site warranty, and I got business / enterprise quality.
It's been a pleasure to use, and on the occasions I've upgraded it (new video card, extra RAM, CD-RW, 2 x HDD) it has been simple. The most complex thing involved is unpluggin all the cables - which has everything to do with how many PCI cards I've got in it (I have no room left), and nothing to do with it being a Compaq.
I'm very happy with it, it has the build quality I would expect of a BMW or a Mercedes Benz.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
umm, hasn't Compaq had this one out for like a year or so now? I think this is old news, since we have had one in our store forever. Too bad we only sold 1 out of the half million computers we sold. LoL.
does anyone else get the screaming heebie-jeebies when the new dual xeon DL370's you buy come with an HP sticker on them?
red glowing lights in front and back what will make it stand out in the dark.
I don't know. What will? The lights? That's my guess.
A few years back, I bought a cheapy beige full-tower case. It's not pretty; it's slightly yellowed from my parents' smoking before I moved out (disgusting habit, don't see the attraction, but that's another argument), the bay covers are mismatching, and the case side got slightly bent and doesn't quite go on right. But, having not spent hundreds or more on cases and case bits, the internals are that much faster/better. Rather than buy glass and hack a window into it, I bought another 512 megs of DDR RAM. Instead of a $200+ case, I bought a 250 gig HD with money left over. I suppose people with more money than they know what to do with go for case mods and lights and dials and meters and such, but I'd bet there are a lot more semi-budget gamers who might could afford darn nice computers but don't really care what it looks like as long as it's fast. Kinda like that rusty Nova with a 502 in it ;) Sure, that guy in the Civic with the $5000 paint job and $4000 body work with mega-wing might look "cool", but he's going to feel darn silly losing to a rusty Nova with a $500 junk yard engine in it because he left his drive train stock.