should i buy this black friday computer from wal-mart?

November 22, 2007 7:20 PM

Should I buy the Compaq Presario that Wal-Mart is selling on black Friday? Computer nerds please help!

Here's a link to the specks

Here's what I need my computer to do:

1. Browse the internet
2. Play Half life 2
3. Watch DVDs

I have another gfx card from an old computer that I can install (if the included one won't work), the only thing is that I don't know anything about processors anymore because I haven't followed them in forever.

Is this in any way a golden deal? 3 years ago I could say yes or no at the drop of a hat.

posted by allthewhile to shopping (9 answers total)

It's virtually certain that by the time you get there they'll be out of them.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:31 PM on November 22, 2007

It's not bad, really, for the purposes you stated. Given that it only comes with one gig of RAM, I'd recommend "downgrading" the OS to Windows XP (from "Vista Home") to get the most bang from your buck.
posted by SPrintF at 7:39 PM on November 22, 2007

It's a great deal, but each store will only have 15 of them. Like SCDB said, you'll want to get there at 2 am or so to have a good shot at one. Notebooks.com has a summary of the Black Friday notebook deals. (The site was working earlier, it's kinda slow right now.)
posted by agropyron at 7:55 PM on November 22, 2007

It would browse the internet and watch dvds alright, but Vista will be very slow with only 1 gig of memory, the processor in it is from AMDs entry level (read: lowest-end) Sempron line, and the graphics card is one of the lowest end integrated ones from 2 generations ago (its an nVidia 6000 series, they've since moved on past the 7000s, and are now on the 8000 series), meaning half-life 2, let alone a newer game, would be near unplayable.
The only good thing going for this particular package is the included monitor, which you dont see very often anymore, especially not at this price.
posted by baserunner73 at 9:55 PM on November 22, 2007

As baserunner73 said, you're not going to get HL² running at anything but the smallest, most heart-breakingly terrible resolution unless your spare vid card is a powerhouse. That said, the package is a fantastic value.
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:14 PM on November 22, 2007

No. Compaqs are garbage. Get almost anything else.
posted by SansPoint at 10:25 PM on November 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Plugging away from the computer right now! Thanks for all the advice, peeps.
posted by allthewhile at 9:28 AM on November 23, 2007

What time did you get to the store? How many were left when you got yours?
posted by agropyron at 9:34 AM on November 23, 2007

Stood in line at Staples for an hour and still didn't get one of their $299 Presarios, so I am in awe that you managed to snag one.
posted by kindall at 9:41 AM on November 23, 2007