• Recommend:
• 0 Comments

Compaq Ships Deskpros With New Intel Chips

New Deskpros are powered by Intel's Pentium II 450MHz and Celeron processors.

By Rebecca Sykes, PCWorld   

Compaq's Deskpro EN series, aimed at business customers, is available with Pentium II and Celeron processors, Smart Ultra ATA 14.4GB hard drives, 32X Max CD-ROM drives, and ATI Rage Pro Turbo AGI graphics cards, according to a statement from the company. Models in the EN series are available in desktop, minitower, or small-chassis designs, and pricing for the PII-450 version starts at $2069.

Compaq's Deskpro EP series, which is designed for small businesses, is also available with Pentium II and Celeron processors and a Smart Ultra ATA hard drive of up to 14.4GB but comes with Matrox MGA-G100 or Matrox Millennium G200-SD AGP graphics adapters. Pentium II models start at $2229 and Celeron 300MHz models start at $1249.

Compaq's Deskpro series consists of the company's former Deskpro 2000, 4000, and 6000 lines, which were folded into two new brand designations earlier this year. One analyst said Compaq has followed Dell's model of designating one line as technologically cutting edge and the other as committed to a certain period of stability, so that corporate buyers will be comfortable making large purchases over time.

A corporate buyer purchasing 10,000 PCs over 10 months wants some assurance that the platform it receives initially will be identical to the one it receives at the end of the purchasing cycle, said Roger Kay, an analyst at International Data Corp., in Framingham, Massachusetts. Compaq's Deskpro EN series serves that role, as does Dell's OptiPlex, and IBM is likely to shortly follow suit with a repositioning of some of its machines along those lines, according to Kay.