HP Laptops

[Ryan Dognaux]

First of all, make sure that what you need is a laptop. Because for the most part, what you see is what you get with them. Compared to a desktop PC, they're incredibly hard to upgrade or even fix. Desktop PC components are much easier to find compared to laptop parts.

That being said, if you want something that doesn't cost a ton of money but still packs a punch, I'd go with an IBM Thinkpad. I don't like HP, especially since the merger with Compaq. I would resonate what others have said - that processor isn't going to do it for you. 512MB of RAM should be fine for any practical applications. I'd just definitely look into getting a decent processor, you'll be kicking yourself later if you don't.

Really, if I were going to get a laptop, I'd be looking into portability and wireless capabilities. I'd go for something around 12 inches just because small laptops rock the house

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by 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.

I too have never used an HP laptop, but have had very good experiences with their desktops. Our first family computer was an HP, but due to lack of virus protection after the free trial ran out, we got a virus, and had to get it rebuilt, so it's no longer an HP.

However, the desktop I use currently, which was bought this past December, is an HP and I love it. It does have an AMD 3700+ processor, and is always cool, quiet, fast, and efficient. I have little need to upgrade any internal parts, since it's fairly new. Also, HP has excellent customer service support. My hp mouse was spazzing out on me, so I called them up, they said that they'd send me a new one, and I received it in less than 2 days. So while I cannot speak about their laptops, HP provides good quality products and customer service, and AMD makes great processors.

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

avoid Celerons like the plague

I am running a Celeron D in my desktop at the stock 2.8ghz and yes it may be the bottom of the barrel but it is by far no where close to being slow. I have 384 MB of ram in the system and it will run inventor 10 perfectly. I have never had a problem.

[Rohith Surampudi]

Supposing that this is just for standard usage as opposed to inventor or 3ds-max usage, the upgrades seem about right, now days 60 gig is on the low end, but you can always buy an external hardrive later on. what i would do is also try and make a comparable computer on the dell website, and compare the prices.

[Joel J]

Originally Posted by 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]

I was talking about the zd8000 I purchased.. I mentioned the weight just to steer you away from the heavier computers. 5lbs is a good weight.

[Tytus Gerrish]

looking this machine up. and searching thorough forums it appears that this machine has an inherent problem with its wi-fi. dropping connections and limiting speed down to 1MBPS on a 54MBPS link. Also my friend at work bought the same model with the AMD Processor and I have been helping him with his problem of the machine lowering its clock speed to 400MHZ while running on batteries. The power management software requires a lot of patching and tweaking to get the performance advertised. According to a review posted on engadget the 2,0ghz 512MB version of the machine has all around good performance for a high workload but suffers from a short battery life of 2h29m. “The HP Compaq Presario V2000 didn't blow us away with its performance, but it is very good at handling heavy workloads, as long as they're not 3D-intensive. Easy to carry around. 80GB hard drive. Standard DVD burner. Poor battery life.” (pcmag.com) in my experience and what I’ve researched about this machine I would suggest looking into Dell. They have a comparable 1.8GHZ machine with 512 of ram and a video resolution of 1366x768 (a bit wider and more detailed than the v2000) for only $150 more. Plus if you go on Ebay you can find coupon codes for dell.com to get 20% off new systems For $0.99 the inspiration B130 comes at a base price of $654. Dell also tends to load their systems with less Corporate-sponsored spam type programs that eat up your memory and processor time. Loading those programs onto computers helps pay for the computer, that’s why they have been getting so inexpensive lately.



Hope that helps,

~Tytus~