HP Compaq Elite 8200 CMT Review

PC Checker says...

The HP Compaq Elite 8200 CMT Desktop computer is a basic Desktop computer and scores 48.3 % overall. This might seem quite a low PC Checker Score but that doesn’t mean it's not perfect for your usage requirements! Remember that desktop computers nearer the 100% rating are super machines costing £1000s aimed more at serious gamers or professional users.

The HP Compaq Elite 8200 CMT desktop has 4 GB of memory and is ideal for those people wanting to have the absolute best system performance. You should not need to update this computer's memory for many, many years if at all over this computer's lifetime!

The HP Compaq Elite 8200 CMT desktop has a Shared (integrated) Graphics card which is fine for basic computing needs but you might struggle to play advanced games and edit large or high framerate videos.

Operating System (OS)

The operating system runs the computer and allows you to access the information stored on the Desktop computer. Most operating systems come in different versions based on different usage requirements.

Today there are 2 main choices for users: either a Microsoft Windows based OS or an Apple based MAC OS. Windows Vista is Microsoft's latest Windows release and Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard is Apple's current release.

There is also a FREE (Open Source) operating System called Linux which comes in many different versions (distributions) but this is quite different to Windows based operating systems so might take some gettng used to!

Operating systems are majorly updated from time to time (like Vista to Windows 7) but can be easily updated by you, if required, at a later date.

Processor

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) or otherwise known as the processor is the 'brain' of the computer. Modern day Desktop computers can now have more than one CPU unit on the processor chip - 2 CPU computers are called dual core machines and 4 CPUs on the chip are called quad core machines.

The old method of rating a CPU used to be the greater the GHz, the quicker the Desktop computer would run but with multiple core processors (see above) this is now not necessarily the case. PC Checker scores reflect whether the Desktop processor speed is on a dual core chip or more!

The more cache a processor has the better as this is used to reduce the number of times the CPU has to access the computer's memory.

Other Components

The more memory (Random Access Memory) the Desktop computer has the more applications / programs you can run at once and is measured in gigabytes (GB). 1 GB (1024 MB) is considered standard today and 2GB is ideal for Windows 7 based Desktop computers as this OS uses more memory to run.

Graphics cards display the Desktop computer's information on your screen / monitor. A shared graphics card is one that is built into the computer and uses part of your Desktop computer's memory to display things better. Separate standalone graphics cards (which have their own memory / RAM built in) are considered better than shared graphics cards but this isn't an issue unless you are wanting an entertainment or ultimate PC.

The larger the size of the Desktop Hard Disk the more information you can save on it so the larger the better. PC Checker scores reflect whether the Hard Disk is in a Laptop (lower capacities & more expensive) or a Desktop computer!