Compaq Deskpro EN

This is a Review of my Compaq Deskpro EN. I purchased this from my local thrift store for $6.95.

[FrustratedApe]

I had the same type of Deskpro EN, which still survives in a study somewhere! Mine was a Pentium III 866Mhz, upgraded to 512Mb RAM, GeForce 2MX 400 64Gb AGP video card, 120Gb 7200rpm hard disk. The 512Mb limit is due to the Intel i815 motherboard chipset, the older i440BX supports 768Mb.

[TechTimeWithEric]

I also have one of these lovely machines that I got from a Habitat Restore for I think $10.  I also noticed that when I put 3 256MB ram chips in it, it would still only see 512mb.  Mine is the P3 1GHz model, and yeah it is a pretty capable machine.

[Otocrophis]

Might i ask, how did you manage to connect the second cd/dvd drive? The motherboard has only got two ide connectors and ive never seen an ide cable a gap between the master and slave connectors thats long enough to connect those two disk drives on one cable.

[KellySimonsson]

Hey there Mat! :D omf I have four of thouse desktops! :D

[ishtiyaqhussain]

I need to open this PC It's not opening..I tried al options

[robertforeman]

Yours can surf internet! my deskpro en small form factor with XP can just hardly open the start menu! (pentium 3 1ghz, 256 mbs of sdram) I will have to try my 2k disk on this machine.

[yorgle]

Unfortunately Intel wanted to push people to Rambus, and then to the P4, so they never made a good PC133 P3 chipset. They regarded that platform as low end, so the i810/815 had their RAM capacity crippled. It's one of the most irritating things Intel ever did.
To get around the 512MB limit, Compaq would have to use a VIA chipset. Or use a 440BX - 1GB max but each DIMM is max 256MB, and it limits the CPU to 100FSB models. They'd also have to add a graphics chip (i815 has integrated graphics).