Would you accept a free HP?

Rob9874

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 1999
3,314
1
81
My company is giving all employees a free PC early next year. (Some of you might remember who I work for.) It's going to be a pretty decent system, keeping current with a $2000 price tag. Whereas we were all hoping for Dell to be the vendor of choice, they announced that Hewlett-Packard will be supplying our computers.

Now I don't want to be picky about the free PC I get, but my current system is a Dell P-II 400, 192MB RAM, 27GB HD, cable modem, CD burner, the works. It does fine for me. Am I going to want to ditch my current system for a 667mhz P-III HP with less RAM (it'll have RDRAM, so I can't use my existing RAM)? I would part mine out and add to the HP, but I'm skeptical about trying to beef up an HP.

Maybe I'll sell it, and build my own. By next year, my 400mhz will be ancient anyway.

Any advice?
Rob
 

Chuffmaster2k

Senior member
Jul 16, 2000
452
0
0
Why would you not accept it? At worst, you have two fully functioning pc's. You could setup one as a server if you wanted. There would be no question in my book. Free is free.
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
HE WORKS FOR INTEL.


AKA CHIPZILLA.


They were giving out Pentium III 667 systems, weren't they?
 

mpitts

Lifer
Jun 9, 2000
14,732
1
81
I have to use an HP PC here at work (not by choice). It is an Athlon 850, and it uses the ASUS K7M motherboard. I couldn't believe it.

I would never buy one with my own money, but if it were given to me I would take it..
 

Rankor

Golden Member
Jul 10, 2000
1,667
0
76
Locutus X

"...I thought Intel used the P3-666..."

Now we have to be pc about this...they're P3-667s ;)



This one's a no brainer I'd take it and probably sell it for the price it was sold, and use the money to buy a better system at a cheaper price.

As long as one's not req'd to subscribe to some ISP for 2-3 years.
 

Henry Kuo

Platinum Member
Mar 3, 2000
2,248
0
0
Are you kidding me? If you can have a free system (no matter what it is) and you are still thinking about whether you should have it, then I think you should worry basically everything...

that get even worse when the HP system will be better than your Dell now... :)
 

JimMc

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,305
0
0
Rob9874-- All these other posters are giving you cowardly advice. Follow your first instincts, Intel has no business forcing that POS HP on you. As soon as it arrives, email me and I'll have UPS come pick it up and ship it to me (at my expense, of course). No thanks necessary.
 

Rob9874

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 1999
3,314
1
81
Sorry, I must have made myself unclear. I will take the computer, duh. I'm just not sure if I should sell it, or sell my Dell and use the HP primarily, or use the parts between the two? Is an HP worth upgrading? Are their motherboards unstable? Poor perfromers?

Rob
 

rahvin

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
8,475
1
0
Rob,

You won't be able to answer most of those questions until you get the system and open it up and look. Best guess I would say that just like DELL, HP will use a standard intel produced motherboard. The video card will likely be crap, but see if they can get you more memory and move your better stuff (burner etc) to the new computer. You should be able to put together a pretty kick butt system from parts from both of them. Then you can sell the old one (remember DELL has one hell of a 3 year warranty, that I don't think is transferable), or you can set it up for your wife/gf.
 

Henry Kuo

Platinum Member
Mar 3, 2000
2,248
0
0
rahvin is right. get it first and have a taste about it and see how much you like it. my guess would be it should be as fast as it should be, just that you won't be able to do a lot of o/c and stuff. and you know there will be a lot of integrated things. beside that, they should be decent systems. my 2 cents.
 

PCAddict

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 1999
3,804
0
0
It may not matter to you, but most programs such as this have restrictions. I got my secondary PC under a similar program from my employer. I am not allowed to sell it, and if I up and quit right now, I gotta pay for it. I have no plans to do either.

A friend of mine works for an Intel-owned company and he is receiving a system just as you are. Intel took bids on this from all of the major manufacturers. HP came in with the lowest bid for the type of system that met Intel's guidelines for the program. Take that for what it is worth...
 

RossGr

Diamond Member
Jan 11, 2000
3,383
1
0
Sure is nice of Intel to give its employees HP computers. Makes me very happy, 'specilly on profit sharing day! Now my question is, if Ford and now Intel are giving their employees HP computers when is HP going to give thier employees HP computers!
 

StanTheMan

Senior member
Jun 16, 2000
510
0
0
Why not just receive it, and if you want you can combine the component of both pc so later you get a 1 powerful pc (eg, move the processor to ur old comp). I'm sure the company won't check.
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
18
81
I know where the HP pavilion series is made. They dont use rdram there. Its all via chipsets and pc133 ram on the p3s and all the athlons use k7ms. HP pavilions are not crap, the video card and motherboards are asus, the case (believe this or not, is made by enlight, technically they even make other faceplates), the power supply is by delta electronics (probably the best you can buy), the memory is pretty much crucial or infineon made, or hyundai if it used 256mb dimms, hard drives are all maxtor, quantum or seagate. I dont get this myth about it being proprietary the case is ATX. Just looks different. Anyways you are probaby getting a brio series or kayak since its rdram and intel wouldn't ever get you pavilions. Just sell it and buy more stuff. It should be pretty good quality but the rdram thing sucks 128mb is not enough.