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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*
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?
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"
"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.
Sounds like British grammar: "It's people like you what cause unrest."
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
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?
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
What about warcraft 3, unreal tournament 2k4 or neverwinter nights?
Not to mention Escape Velocity: Nova, which r0x0red.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Or MS Office. Or Nisus Writer. Or Macromedia Studio MX, or UT2k4, or these or these or some of these. Oh, and don't forget about Fink. 3dpong rocks when it's hardware rendered.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Isn't it the whole "I did it myself and it's different than a `normal' PC" the point?
You know its fast when its name has X in it. What happened to cool names.
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?
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.
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.