Cheap Laptop Find: Compaq Presario V3120TU at PhP 29,900

Author: J. Angelo Racoma Category: Gadgets, hardware Tags: compaq, Gadgets, hardware, laptops, presario, v3000 Views: 8280

Monday
Jul 2, 2007

I chanced upon this at a window display in SM Megamall Cyberzone last weekend. It’s the upgrade to my own low-end V2000 (which I bought for about PhP31,000 a year ago). the V3120TU runs on a Celeron-M 420 (1.6 GHz), 256MB DDR-2 533, 60GB hard drive and has a 14-inch brightview widescreen.

It’s not astoundingly fast, but what interests me is how a Compaq V3000 form factor can get this cheap. At PhP 29,900, that’s about US$ 660, which makes it priced on par with low-end branded units in the US.

I would recommend a RAM upgrade immediately, which would cost about PhP 1,500 (for a 512MB DDR2 stick). Reasonable enough. Oh, and models priced this low don’t have an OS pre-installed, so you would either have to: (a) shell out PhP 5,000 for an official copy of Windows XP or Vista Home edition; (b) install a flavor of Linux (I recommend Ubuntu); (c) go the Jack Sparrow way (meaning piracy—either bootlegged copies of XP, Vista or even OSX86!).

One big drawback though, as with the low-end V2000, this doesn’t have internal WiFi card. And don’t count on being able to install an internal mini PCI wireless card either! Compaq’s low-end Presarios don’t have internal WiFi antennae and it is most likely that the BIOS won’t accept the card by default (without hacks, that means).

This model doesn’t have Cardbus support, so your only option is to use a USB WiFi stick (or go wired!).

This could be great for offices/companies on the cheap that want to supply desktop replacements/substitutes for their staff.

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Comments

mr nice ash

July 3rd, 2007 at 1:54 am

a better option I guess is Aspire 3680 1.8GHz with WiFi. Also @ 29,900. I saw at Glorietta.

Kates

July 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 am

Yes, Acer Aspires do pack more than compaqs. And they even look better.

Luigi

July 6th, 2007 at 4:30 pm

I bought a NEO Centrino Duo, 1 Gig, ++ for P36,000. There’s a cleron for P20k and a Centrino solo, 512Mb for P30k. I went to Park Square and found an Asus Centrino Duo, 1 Gig for P32k—too bad the shop did not accept credit cards.

Mario

July 9th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

Thanks for your post.
I was thinking of buying c551(but it was bulky for me) or an acer(good specs, bad design, heats up quickly). Good thing I saw this. I got the last one they have, the one on display. I really like the design. Clean and simple. And it doesn’t feel like cheap. I love compaq designs.
BTW it has a WIFI built in.

c551 now only costs 24900. : )