Compaq D51 eCS compatible?

Hi,

My test system is beyond repair, and I can get a cheap Compaq/HP D51. Are
these compatible with eCS? I'm particularly worried about the on board video,
slightly less about the onboard LAN. Can one plug in a extra video card if
need be?

Thanks, Mat Nieuwenhoven

Hi Mat

Mat Nieuwenhoven wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My test system is beyond repair, and I can get a cheap Compaq/HP D51. Are
> these compatible with eCS?


Probably.


  I'm particularly worried about the on board video,


Which is?


> slightly less about the onboard LAN. Can one plug in a extra video card if
> need be?
> 


Usually.


> Thanks, Mat Nieuwenhoven
> 
> 


I think you may want to hunt out some specs on the D51 before purchasing.

Regards

Mat Nieuwenhoven wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My test system is beyond repair, and I can get a cheap Compaq/HP D51. Are
> these compatible with eCS? I'm particularly worried about the on board
video,
> slightly less about the onboard LAN. Can one plug in a extra video card if
> need be?
> 
> Thanks, Mat Nieuwenhoven
> 
> 
If this system is similar to my HP Pavilion W5150, I'd look carefully at 
the BIOS before going ahead and making the purchase. In the case of the 
latter, the original BIOS was a pathetic, pared-down affair which 
provided very little in the way of flexibility or system tuning. I had 
to upgrade the BIOS to get the system to function satisfactorily with 
eCS. Another thing to check is the onboard USB, the chipset on the HP 
motherboard was not supported by eCS so I had to install a USB PCI card 
to get USB support. On the other hand,the onboard LAN (Realtek 
8139/8130/810x Fast Ethernet) has worked fine from the outset. I haven't 
had cause to check the onboard video as the system came with a NVidia 
GeForce AGP card (which functions very nicely with the SciTech driver).

Regards,