I say this when it comes to Compaq and HP computers: Compaq, pre-Windows 98 (think 486, first line or two of Pentiums) were great. I worked on a whole slew of machines at my high school, as we recieved tons of various machines from CFS (Computers For Schools Refurbishing Program - Inmates Making A Difference For Kids) damn...sad that I can recite those incepid stickers still today....and the Compaq 486s and Pentium 1s that we worked on, when it wasn't a hardware failure (which was rare in and of itself - as long as you didn't touch ANY 850MB HD - especially Seagates, but any 850 was liable to fall over dead if you so much as looked at it funny) HP's early ones were okay, for the dozen or so we had. They overclocked nicely, from 75 to 100MHz. Gave that portion of the lab a small performance boost, anyway. Once the PII era hit, and we got the new models...the towers...that's when they both went sour. I've worked on a handful of those HP towers...you know the ones...that you can't get the HD rack out, I even ended up leaving the old drive IN the machine (which is still there, to this day, dead) because I couldn't remove it. I'd been told how to get in there - but this one they'd rivited the whole assembly together. Compaqs newer machines - We've got an old PIII Presario. First PIII machine they made. Ran well, and still does, as long as you don't count the copy of Chernobyl that they included in the autorun executable on their Home Networking CD, that they later refuted even EXISTED. Heh. That's when I learned TCP/IP. 1998...age of 13, did my first networking project. The CPQ towers are nice as in access, but a PITA to work with software wise. Oddball drivers, etc. Same with HP. But I digress. HP Printers - Laserjets worked great. In fact, I've got a CalComp 600 sitting not 5 feet from me - running an HP4 engine. Same with Apple's LaserWriters - HP guts. Good, solid printers. I don't see myself ever getting a non-behemoth printer, when I can drop 100-300 for one (used or new) and buy myself one toner cartridge that'll set me back the cost of a inkjet printer and one refill on ink. Besides, the CalComp I got for free. _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list