This review is part of a group test of Vista-ready desktop PCs.
HP’s Compaq dc5700 looks from the outside to be a pretty conventional desktop PC system, but it has been designed for easy access to the internals, and puts most of the ports where users need them.
Available since October, the dc5700 is designed for low noise and power efficiency. The system will be available with Vista from 1 February under HP’s Top Config build-to-order programme. Vista will be more widely available on PCs from April, HP said.
The dc5700 has the same 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo E6300 processor as Acer’s Veriton and similarly makes use of the embedded graphics functions in its Intel chipset. However, our review unit had a beefier 1GB memory and a 160GB hard disk, plus a DVD-RW drive.
Its higher specification gave the dc5700 a WEI score of 3.6, enabling it to display the Aero user interface. The system also seemed more responsive under Vista than the other two, no doubt due to its greater memory.
A release catch allows the top of the case to slide off. Inside, the system has two half-height PCI slots, one PCI Express x1 and what looks like a PCI Express x16 slot, but is actually a proprietary Intel connector for a digital video output card.
Two of the four motherboard memory slots were occupied and partially hidden beneath the DVD drive. This can easily be removed, however, by pressing a release catch and sliding it out.
The dc5700 has six rear USB ports and three at the front. It also has PS/2 ports for the keyboard and mouse, plus legacy serial and parallel ports. At the front, where a floppy drive might go, our review unit had a bank of reader slots for most Flash memory card formats.
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