How far can I push my Compaq Evo?

Here are the specs on my Compaq Evo N620c. It's been with me since 2004 and other than some light leakage from the bottom of the screen at certain viewing angle it's in perfect shape (and is still under warranty much to the annoyance of HP suppport when something goes wrong). However, I'm trying to determine if there is anything I can do to make it run games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Command and Conquer RA3 (or even some older games like Deus Ex: Invisible War). Specs are below:

1.6Ghz Pentium M
1.5GB RAM
60GB HDD (thinking about replacing this with an Intel 80GB SSD)

And then there's the graphics card, which really was a poor effort by Compaq even for the machine's time:

32MB ATI Radeon 7500

This kind of cripples the machine in some ways as far as I can tell. The rest of the specs are fine for pretty much anything, so are there any workarounds that could allow it to run even some older DX9 games? I've tried 3DAnalyze but it crashes my system. I'd really rather not spend the money on an Elitebook 6930p if I can continue to get adequate performance from the old N620c.

 

That is a really low spec machine. I wouldn't bother with an 80GB SSD as it really wouldn't help matters much, and considering the age of that laptop, it might not even support SATA. The 32MB of the graphics card is really killing any chance of playing games, except for ones released in 2001 or 2002 or earlier. So Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever, Freelancer, Freespace, original Aliens vs. Predator type games. And your Pentium M 1.6GHz is probably on par with the Intel Atom in netbooks today.

 

it completely outdated.. ur wasting money upgrading it.. retiring time.

 

2001/2 games run just fine and it does meet all the specs of all but the most graphics intensive games at this point with the exception of the crippling graphics card. I suppose I probably should just go ahead and buy the 6930 (hate the 16:9 screen on the new 8440)...going to a 2.8Ghz C2D and 256MB ATI HD3450 should help matters a bit.

 

Compared to your previous laptop that is a monumental step up. Make sure you understand though, the 3450 is not a gaming card, and you will be playing modern game 2007-present on low settings.

 

Yes, I am aware of that. However I can't really expect too much from a 14.1" thin-and-light form factor business notebook anyway. I'm not looking for a dedicated game machine that weighs 8 pounds. If I wanted that I'd buy an HP desktop workstation.

On a related note, is the nVidia NVS3100M going to be any better than the ATI 3450? The Dell Latitude E6410 offers the nVidia card.

 

Not sure what you're looking for in a business notebook, but the HP Envy 14 is due out soon with HD 5650. It's supposed to be a pretty rugged notebook with good specs, and supposed base release price of $1000, and weight probably only about 5 or 6 lbs.