I just bought a new New Compaq Presario Notebook CQ40-419AU. I am no good any recognizing a computers potential so i have come here to ask anyone whether they can make sense of it for me. These are the specifications. Taken from the box. -Notebook PC -AMD Sempron Processor for Notebook PCs SI-42 (2.1GHz, 512kb l2 cache) -160GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive -2048MB DDR2 SDRAM (1 Dimm) -LightScribe Super Multi 8x DVD+RW with Doube Layer Support -Windows Vista @ Home Basic (32-Bit) with Service Pack 1 -14.1 Diagonal WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800) -ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics with shared graphics memory -802.11b/g WLAN -5-in-1 Digital Media Reader I will be mostly using this computer for Gaming, Internet Browsing, Video Playing/ Burning, Telecommunication, and yeah. I am basically wondering whether i will be able to perform all of my preferred tasks without any trouble. Are there any parts of this computer which are sub-par? Are there any that i should replace straight away? Are there any specs which i have not listed that also help paint what type of PC this is? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank You Very Much. P.S. Please excuse any mistakes i have made when posting this thread. I have searched for similar problems and solutions without luck.
Asking to rate your PC purchase is like asking "Do you think my girlfriend is hot?" IMHO, it's adequate at best. In general, underpowered. The parts that are underpowered cannot be replaced. There are games that you WILL NOT be able to play (with any degree of success). If it fit within your budget, then it's OK. I am buying a new laptop for my ex-wife and I wouldn't consider buying her a single core CPU model. Sorry to sound so harsh, but you probably should have asked for opinions BEFORE you bought it.
The only laptops that can play the latest games are the expensive highend laptops. Any shared memory graphics is not the best for the latest games at best it can play half life 2 and some of the NFS racing games. Your laptop is good enough if you use it for what a laptop is usually used for word processing/internet surfing/simple games. Your only upgrade that will improve performance is getting a 7200 rpm harddrive, but that will also shorten the battery life. The specs are decent enough for a laptop.
I wonder to myself what's the point of asking if a comps any good after you've bought it..lol..ok here's some advice for after the fact,get yourself an imaging software acronis or ghost,if you need help with imaging websearch for "radified forums" without the quotes,if you want performance from that comp you could run linux in dual boot but only after creating back up images of the hdd,also check your programs list to see if you can make a set of recovery disks it should be under "pc tools" or some other wording,make sure you use good qaulity media as those disks can be used to put the comp back to factory condition if the hdd craps out EDIT:Once recovery disk set is made use a burning program to make a copy of them as your only allowed to make one set any attempt to do another will get you a popup saying"recovery set already made"
