HP Laptops

[Beth Sweet]

Does anyone have one of these?? Particularly this computer (the one I'm looking at). Before I go out and buy one, I'd like hear from all of you technical people if I am making any big mistakes (like I did with the last one, cough never buying a Toshiba again cough). Thanks guys and gals!

[Joe Matt]

Conor Ryan has a good story about his HP laptop and the "enter" key.

I looked over the laptop and there are three major problems with it (IMHO):

-Bad Proc
-XP Home
-No MS Word

Otherwise it looks "ok". Of course I'm still an Apple fan at heart, so there is the MacBook for more, but you get more (including a better processor, but no MS word).

[Rohith Surampudi]

Well what do you plan on using it for?

[Joel J]

I have one of those zd8000's. Its been a year, it still runs beautifully, but I regret buying it. The short battery life and heavy weight are just more significant than I had originally estimated. Luckily for me, I don't move around much once I get situated. So yea, I don't have a specific computer to recommend, but that extra bit of processing power/screen size probably won't be worth it if there is a significant increase in weight (this laptop is 9lbs!) or a significant decrease in battery life (only 2 hours!).

[Beth Sweet]

Ok, to answer some questions, here are the specifics that my father said to add in:

-XP Home
-Intel Celeron M 380
-14.0" WXGA BrightView Widescreen
-Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900-Celeron
-512 MB DDR SDRAM
-60 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
-Free upgrade from DVD to DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
-54g 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125 HSM/Speed Booster
-12 cell lithium ion battery
-Microsoft works/money (I have office cd's around here somewhere...)
-Norton Internet Security 2006- 24 months

And no, I don't know what half of that means

Thank you!!!

[Edit: Joel, you said that it's really heavy??? It said it was only supposed to be 5 lbs???
Rohith: Just for me, I do all my computer stuff on there]

[Joe Matt]

You don't need Norton, better free options such as Zone Alarm, AVG Free Anti-Virus, Spybot, and Ad-Aware.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

You don't need Norton, better free options such as Zone Alarm, AVG Free Anti-Virus, Spybot, and Ad-Aware.

Norton cames pre-installed on Compaq's/HPs.

The only thing I don't like about the specs you listed, Beth, is the Celeron processor. My mobile Pentium 3 runs smoother than many Celerons I've used.
With almost all major brand PCs you're going to get a lot of bloatware pre-installed on the computer. Spend some time taking it off. It's worth it.

One thing I wold also recommend is going to a store and playing with a similar laptop to this one. Type on the keyboard, see how the screen looks (detail and brightness), etc. Many people have different preferences with those things.

I personally like Thinkpads.
Then again, all notebooks come from almost the same place anyway.

[Greg Needel]

I will chime in and say i have no opinions on that specific laptop but if you are looking for an affordable power house compute i recommend www.averatec.com their notebooks are amazingly priced for what they are and i have had one for 2 years now and it is build solid. If you want them even cheaper you can get one of their factory referbs here. http://www.shopaveratec.com/searchre...sp?search_id=4


hope this helps.

[Conor Ryan]

I'm running a HP ZV6000 without the enter key, I got a great deal on it in September and through rebates I only payed about $350 for a fully loaded laptop with an AMD 64 3200+, 512 Ram, and a 80 Gig Harddrive as well as a few other features.

Looking at the specs for your computer, it's gonna have below average speed for new computers, and probably isn't "Vista-Ready" for Microsoft's next Operating System due out in January.
A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• 128 MB of graphics memory.
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

You'll be able to get away with 512 MB Ram on a Vista running PC, and without the Graphics card, however it's going to be deathly slow. There are a bunch of laptops out there with those specs, however they don't come below $700 new for now.

Here are a few sites that you may want to check out:

• Fujitsu A3040
• There are a Few Here
  
  

Outpost lists a few Refurbished computers, I've never bought a Refurbished notebook, but they do sound like pretty good deals. If you find a notebook that you like, sometimes its worth it to sit on it and see if prices come down, hopefully soon this will be affordable with an english keyboard.

[d.courtney]

I don't know specificly about the V2000, although I have had experiance with the V2000Z , as my girlfriend bought it back in the fall. It works well th weight is good, battery life was about 3 hours max at its max. I would recomend this over the V2000 if only for the AMD processor, but then again thats my personal preference... all in all for its price it is a very good computer.

[GlitterRave113]

We use that kind of laptop at school, and I admit, if youre planning on using it a lot, it does weigh quite a bit (like Joel said)...It also seems to take up quite a bit of (physical) room, but then yet again, thats probably just my opinion! The battery power definitly isnt all that long lasting, but if you must, just remember to keep charging all the time!

A lot of colleges sell Windows XP Pro for $10-$12 with the Microsoft education discount. That really isn't that big of a deal.

3 of my friends bought HP/Compaq laptops before they went to school last fall (Early/Mid August). All 3 of them were completely different models/designs. Around March, all 3 of their exhaust fans burnt out, within about a week of each other. One of them actually lost their processor fan shortly after too because it had to work harder to make up for the lack of an exhaust fan. Although the original manufacturers warranty covered the fan, HP/Compaq refused to let them replace the fans themselves, and they each had to mail their laptops back for about 10 days to 2 weeks while they replaced it and then shipped it back.

Even if the laptop is for general use and homework, I'd still avoid the celeron processor just because of the crummy battery life. It is definitely worth upgrading to a Mobile Pentium or Centrino (except I don't think Intel calls them that anymore...they were just a Mobile Pentium with a wireless card) to get that improved battery life. A friend of mine has an HP pavilion with a "centrino" processor and gets about 6-7 hrs off of a charge. I've never owned an AMD processor in a laptop, so I honestly wouldn't be able to give you any battery life information about that.

After the honor stories I witnessed my friends go through, I'm never buying an HP laptop (once I can get the money, a Mac Book sounds more like it). But don't let my bad opinion sway your decision.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

You don't need Norton, better free options such as Zone Alarm

Don't use that.

And for Word, there's always Open Office.

The only HP laptop I've had experience with indeed had quite poor battery life and the power connector broke off the motherboard, but it was abused.

[Ashley Weed]

Unless you have a highly specific reason to have a laptop, I do not recommend one. You may be thinking that you want to have the mobility and ease of the laptop. However, I would much rather recommend someone putting money into a great set-up for a custom desktop. I have never went into one building at school that did not have 30-50 computers in at least one lab. A very small, mobile word processor may be nice in the future, but for your first big investment getting the most for your money should be key.

To speak specifically on the laptops, I have used them for many years now as my primary machine, and have yet to find one that surpasses another one. Each one has a quality or two that you may like over another one. Don't be afraid to go to a store and get a feel for several different brands. I currently run the zd7000, and just like the replacement zd8000, it is a beast of a machine.

[edit] As for software, I received Office Enterprise and Norton Corporate for free. A long list of additional software was available to students for around $6. [/edit]

[lukevanoort]

I have never used a HP laptop, but I've owned/used many HP desktops. Based on those experences, I'll say avoid HP like the plague, they break and have poor internal designs.(It took me almost an hour to put new RAM into a HP desktop) As for the specs, again, avoid Celerons like the plague, they're super slow, and don't have the power benefits of the specialized laptop processors. AMD tends to have good power efficiency, and the intel Pentium M and Core Duos are very respectable laptob processors too.