Compaq Presario SR5310F Desktop PC Computer Review

As a guy who has owned home computers of various brands and makes since 1987, I've learned that (a) it's good to plan ahead in case something goes wrong with my computer, and (b) that I'm not the most patient of persons when it comes to being deprived of the productivity/socializing/entertainment/information-gathering capabilities of my aforementioned computer.

Before I owned this Presario SR5310F, I was using a relatively-new eMachines T-Series PC with an Intel Pentium 4 CPU and Windows XP Media Center operating system which I purchased at Best Buy in October of 2006 after its five-year-old predecessor "died" unexpectedly (perhaps due to undetected malware, viruses, or Trojans not caught by whatever antivirus software I was using at the time).  That particular desktop had already been sent back to California for repairs (a defective video card) after only two days of use, but until early in February of 2008 it ran pretty much flawlessly.

 Now, I'm not sure if it was because I was relying on PC Tools' Spyware Doctor's antivirus component with blind faith or that I opened a file that I shouldn't have, but after February of 2008 my eMachines PC's performance became sluggish.  Where startup had once taken only a minute or two at most, it took anywhere between five to 10 minutes to do so.

Now, I'm not very well-off financially, and as an online-based freelance writer I do depend on having both a working PC and an Internet connection, so being without either for a long period of time is not an option.

So even though I have friends who are computer savvy and could have fixed my computer for free, I was not happy with any of the alternatives before me. 

Choice A: Ask someone to look at my eMachines PC gratis and wait till it could get repaired whenever that person had the time, and in the meantime somehow get access to the Internet from a trusting (and trustworthy) neighbor.

Choice B: Purchase a backup PC, use the ailing one as long as possible, then if my friend had time to see what was wrong with the eMachines computer, hook up the new one till the "sick" PC was repaired.  (Ideally, the backup would then go back to its box till it was needed again.)

 Now, while Choice B was the more expensive course of action, that's what I did...sort of.  The eMachines was diagnosed - it had been infected by a virus - and repaired, but one of my best friends was having problems with her PC, so I decided to send the eMachines to her instead of keeping it.

Compaq Presario SR5310F Desktop PC:

One of the nice things about the switch - I tend to try accentuate the positives whenever possible - was that I wouldn't really need to buy too many of the usual peripherals needed to use a PC.  The eMachines E17T4 TFT liquid crystal display flat panel monitor I own is fully compatible with a Compaq Presario SR5310F Desktop PC, as are the USB-connected multi-media speakers and my Dynex optical mouse. (Yes, the Presario SR5310F comes with a keyboard and a conventional ball mouse, but I prefer optical mice so I keep the Presario's mouse in its box.)  Not needing to buy a monitor and speakers saved me several hundred bucks, which is nice because all I paid was $409.00. (I got free shipping because of Amazon's policy that if you buy something at the site for $25 or more, you can have it shipped at no cost, provided you can wait a tad longer than a week to receive it.)

• Affordable family multimedia desktop PC with 1.80 GHz Intel Pentium E2160 dual-core processor
• 250 GB hard drive, 1 GB installed RAM (2 GB max), 16x multi-format/dual-layer LightScribe DVD drive
• Intel GMA 950 with 64 MB of discrete video memory (251 MB of total allocated memory); 10/100 Ethernet
• Connectivity: 6 USB, 1 VGA, 1 S-headphone/line-out, 1 microphone
• Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities); includes keyboard and scroller mouse

Assets:

Ease of Setup: If you have ever owned a factory-made name-brand PC from any major manufacturer, you no doubt know that it's no longer too difficult to set up a home computer.  Most, if not all, PCs now come with a huge illustrated fold-out "quick setup" sheet that tells you where you need to hook up the basic peripherals (monitor, speaker, mouse, and printer), and all the software you need to run the PC with (operating system, drivers, Internet security, and even basic games and applications) is preinstalled.

So even though my disability somewhat limits my dexterity and it does take me a bit longer to do a few things, in less than 20 minutes I had disconnected my "sick" PC, unpacked my Presario and hooked up everything (from peripherals to my DSL modem) without any mishaps.  

The Operating System:  Although I had hoped not to have to switch from Microsoft's Windows XP operating system to Vista, the fact that Hewlett-Packard (Compaq's owner) had pre-installed it gave me little choice - either I used it so I would be able to work, play and socialize with the new computer, or I could ask my PC-savvy friends to uninstall Vista and replace it with whatever version Windows XP they had handy.  But because patience is not one of my strong suits, I decided to bite the bullet and use Windows Vista without complaining about it.

For the most part, I think Vista Home Premium is all right. On one hand, it is stable and not really all that hard to use.  The user interface is a bit different and some of its features look different from older versions of Windows, but it works well and rarely ever crashes.  On the other hand, it has an annoying tendency to "ask permission" to run program installation or bootup disks (presumably to make PCs a bit more secure), and it doesn't support many of my Windows 95/98/Me/2000 or even Windows XP games.)

The following list is the software that came with my Presario SR5310F.  Those of you who don't like lists may skip this section.

Operating System

Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Media Center (32-bit)

CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD+RW

Windows Movie Maker & Windows DVD Maker

CyberLink DVD Suite 5

LightScribe Template Labeler

Entertainment, Music & Games

My HP Games

Imaging, Photography, Video & Film

HP Photosmart Essential 2

Muvee autoProducer Basic

Productivity

 Adobe Reader

Microsoft Works 9

Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 Trial (I deleted this and replaced it with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2007)

Security

Norton Internet Security 2008 (I kept this, but I had NIS 2007 and the key code to it, so I basically simply renewed my existing paid subscription.) 

Support

HP Total Care Advisor (not available in French Canada)

HP Hardware Diagnostic Tools

Help & Support Center

Online documentation

Recovery

HP Recovery Manager

Recovery Disc Creator

Internet Solutions

Microsoft Internet Explorer (I've added Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers) 

Yahoo toolbar

ISP offers

Snapfish PictureMover (US only)

My Viewpoint:

Though far from perfect - I'm still annoyed that most of my older games won't run on this computer at all because of conflicts with the OS, I'm happy with my Presario SR5310F.  I like how fast its processor runs, its storage capacty and its 1024 megabytes of memory.  I love its multimedia abilities (I can watch a DVD and - in theory, anyway - review it here while doing so because I can either size my screen or switch from Media Center to the Desktop by using the "switch between windows" command on the Taskbar), and it was affordable.

And even though it's being phased out to make way for new Presario models, I still would say that if you are looking for a reliable, versatile and affordable PC and you see a SR5310F model on sale at a reliable store, buy it!  It's definitely worth it!