HP Compaq DX2300 Business Desktop Review

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Considering some of the budget-busting PCs we've reviewed recently, we wanted to balance the scales with desktops from the other end of the cost spectrum. What could we get for, say, $499? The answer, at least according to HP's Compaq DX2300 Business PC, is "not much."

This surprised us, because other machines we've reviewed have come in at or just above this price, and they proved excellent bargains. But that's not the case with the DX2300, which in the bare-bones configuration we received seemed determined to prove that old axiom: You get what you pay for.

In this case, that included a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 HT 641 CPU, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and integrated graphics (powered by Intel's decent GMA 3000 chip), but not a lot else. This setup is adequate for running the preinstalled Vista Business OS, but is better considered for its upgrade potential: It has a free PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slot for adding a discrete graphics card, two PCIe x1 slots, a PCI 2.3 slot, an available RAM bay, a couple of extra Serial ATA connectors, and two free external bays (one 3.5-inch, one 5.25-inch).

The front panel bears the standard selection of ports: Two USB, plus headphones and mic. In addition to the usual four USB ports, VGA connector, Ethernet, and audio jacks in the rear, you'll also find a nine-pin serial port and a parallel port. The warranty is of the standard one-year-limited variety, and the number of installed software programs is restrained for HP, limited to the latest version of Roxio's CD- and DVD-burning app, a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office, and HP's proprietary backup-and-recovery software.

We hesitate to predict, though, exactly how long such a backup might take. We found the DX2300's performance frustratingly slow for most tasks. Booting up was a tedious process, and we often had to wait upwards of a minute for the Windows Welcome Center to appear on our desktop. Navigating through files with Windows Explorer, running programs, and switching between them with Alt+Tab were similarly tortoise-like. The PC's performance on our standard battery such as Compaq Armada M700 Battery, Compaq EVO N400c Battery, Compaq EVO N410c Battery, Compaq EVO N600C Battery, Compaq EVO N610C Battery, Compaq EVO N620C Battery, Compaq Presario 1200 Battery, Compaq Presario 1800 Battery, Compaq Presario 700 Battery, Compaq Presario 900 Battery of productivity tests, including Windows Media Encoder (14 minutes and 55 seconds) and iTunes conversions (6 minutes and 31 seconds) was also unimpressive.

Of course, as the DX2300's unassuming, boxy design reminds us, this is a business PC, so most office workers won't need tremendous performance for these kinds of applications. (You'll need at least another 512MB of RAM if you want to venture into those areas, and that wouldn't be a bad idea improving the system's performance overall.) But the DX2300's target audience likely won't need to do much beyond checking e-mail, browsing the Web, and using various components of the Microsoft Office suite. As long as these users open those programs at the beginning of the day and keep them open, they should be satisfied with the DX2300's abilities.