Do you speak computer? Neither do I (HP Compaq Business Desktop Dx2200)

Member Name: janharper

Product:	HP Compaq Business Desktop Dx2200
Date:	28/08/06 (501 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good business machine

Disadvantages: not suitable for heavy graphics use

I’m not a techie! I know very little about computers, or how they work, but I did do a little research before buying my HP Compaq Dx2200.

This machine is designed for business use and it suits me well. This review attempts to explain the main features of this machine in lay person’s terms. It’s difficult to fathom out what all the jargon means when you don’t have a technical background.

Do you speak COMPUTER?

No?

Neither do I, so I’ll try to explain as clearly as I can, why I chose the HP Compaq 2200 Business Desktop.

First of all I went in PC World and spoke to one of their salesmen. I told him what I wanted and he told me what I needed without listening! I came to the conclusion that all he knew was how to sell, not how to advise.

What I wanted was a desktop machine that was suitable for business use and had the potential for expansion later on if I decided to change things. That meant that I didn’t need to pay extra for loads of memory, fancy video card and super fast processor for heavy graphics use and video game playing.


So, armed with the knowledge of what I didn’t want, I looked at the specifications for a few machines and came up with this one.


This machine was bought from Amazon and cost me £449.99.

It has a Celeron D 336 2.8 GHz processor:
This is as good as the better known ‘Intel’ processor.
What does processor speed mean? Well, it’s similar to the capacity of your car engine. It tells you the potential the machine has. It’s not quite as simple as that though, as you need to take into account other factors as well. Cache prefetch and BUS speed are important here as well.

So, it gets more complex as you progress.


The micro tower is 17.5x 41.6x 35.3 cms
Weight: 9.6 kgs.
(Now that was easy, wasn’t it?)


Data Bus Speed 533 MHz
This is the speed at which the machine can sort its data.

Chipset Type: ATI Radeon Xpress 200
Chipset is the generic name given to the set of circuits that are used by the motherboard.

RAM Installed size 256MB/2GB
This is random access memory which is the bit that does the ‘thinking’ and sorting out.

Memory Speed 667 MHz
How fast does the pc think and select what it needs?

DVD Rom – IDE Read speed 48x (CD) 16x (DVD)
That’s an easy one too. It has CD and DVD facilities.

Resolution: 2048 x 1536 32 bit
This controls your screen size and colours

Integrated sound card: stereo


PS2 keyboard and mouse

Fax/Modem (56kbps)


So, those are the main features of this pc explained in non technical terms.


I am very pleased with my purchase and I find the machine fast and easy to use. It doesn’t seem to have any odd habits! (My previous one had it’s own strange ways!)

This is an ideal business machine and it has the potential for expansion if I decide to change it in the future. It could easily be hooked up to a network in the future. I might also want to upgrade the memory so that I can use it for high quality printing at some point.

This is a basic machine. If you want to play on line video games, or use graphics quite heavily, you won’t get what you want from this machine. It isn’t designed for gaming.

Basically, when you choose a computer, you need to know what you want in terms of performance and what you don’t want. Then you will not end up paying for performance capability that you don’t use or need.

So, for office use, I give the HP Compaq Dx2200 a score of 9 out of 10 for performance as an office machine, but I wouldn’t recommend it for leisure purposes.


Hope you found this interesting and that I managed to explain things in a ‘non-techie’ way! Not so easy when we are discussing the specifications of a complex technical machine!

Summary: Good price for a versatile business machine

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