Considering an HP Pavilion 9000t

I have a few questions to ask you:

1) What is your price range? I'm guessing it's more than $1500, but we can't help you if you don't give us a real figure
2) Are you certain you need a high resolution on the go? Most people can forgo needing a high resolution screen on the go since they do most of their work at home or in the office where an external monitor will suffice.
3) What kind of battery life are you looking for? Do you need 4+ hours or will 2 do? Will you be near a power outlet? Will everything fall apart if your laptop battery is dead?
4) How often will you be working in sunlight? From the people I've heard, matte performs better than glossy (which is what the dv9000t has) because of lack of glare. But you will give up some contrast.


In general, it's nice to know what kind of things you will be specifically using this notebook for. 1920x1200 is an extremely high resolution which unless you're doing a crapload of things at once, isn't too reasonable. Also, it begs to be used with a mouse, seriously hampering mobility. The dv9000t goes all the way up to 1680x1050, but if you really need a 1920x1200 screen, Dell has their Inspiron 9400/e1705 (depending on country, it's called different things) which has that resolution (WUXGA).

Let me know if you have any questions. Try to fill out the answers and I'll help you the best I can.

In this case, you're probably going to want to go with a Dell rather than an HP. The annoyance of not having a screen with really high resolution will outweigh any differences in build quality, especially since you are flexible enough to afford the pricier XPS line.

Since WUXGA is really what you need, you should look for a laptop that has that first. I'd try posting in the "General Notebook" section so more people can help you.

I would honestly consider an Alienware ALX, although the res isnt as high as most 17in screens, the screen is alot bigger 19 vs 17...also you can get some serious computing power in a 19in case rather than a 17..

I've been happy with Sager for the past 4 years or so.
They (actually Clevo) put desktop guts in a notebook case for the DTR machines.
If you need the support, Dell or HP would be better.
Otherwise Sager is much the same as AW minus the pretty case.

I am a programmer, have the 9000t, and use linux regularly.

As far as programming goes, I went w/ the Ultrabright 1440x900. While you do give up a bit of real estate compared to a 1900x.... I dont know a programmer that programs on such high resolution screens by choice. Spending 6-15 hours a day starring at code, year after year, eye strain is the problem. Running any app at 1900x native is murder for a programmer.

I actually just got a few compliments from other programmers who bought new laptops around the same time I did regarding the immediate inadequacy they felt at seeing the screen brightness, sharpness, and color reproduction of my UltraBright.

As far as Linux goes, the 9000t was very OOB friendly w/ Ubuntu. A couple minor hardware issues aside, webcam, card reader, sound. All other hardware worked fine OOB. Ive learned that alsa has updates fixing the sound issue. And its been a while but I also heard there might be sumthing for the card reader but not sure. The only thing I know for sure had issues was no webcam driver, but I didnt search exhaustively and its been a while so that issue may have been resolved too. All in all the 9000t was very linux friendly!

I just bought a dv9000t cto (custom build) for use as a video editor.

I spent a month researching every notebook I could find (over 20 makes-including all mentioned here) and the dv9000t won on equivalent features-and super price ($1,000. less than it's nearest rival).

I love the notebook-but hate vista (which it came with).

Only problem I can see with your use (outdoor) for a dv900t is the screen glare-you might want a matte screen (not glossy) as the glare is an eye strain for text.

You might want to check out the top of the line acer:

AS9810-6829 $2851. LX.AF60U.015 Genuine Windows is authentic Windows software that is properly licensed and legally installed. Learn more about the special benefits reserved for genuine Windows customers by visiting www.microsoft.com/genuine.
Genuine Windows Vista™ Ultimate; Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7200 (4MB L2 cache, 2.0GHz, 667MHz FSB); 2GB (1/1) DDR2 667 SDRAM; 320GB (160/160) SATA hard drive; integrated HD DVD-ROM drive; 5-in-1 card reader; 20.1" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) TFT display, Acer® CrystalBrite Technology; NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7600 graphics, 256MB VRAM; 802.11a/b/g WLAN, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth® VoIP phone, gigabit LAN, V.92 modem; Acer® OrbiCam camera


-it was a close runner up-but lost because of it's 5400rpm harddive and 4x dvd burner. The acer has a 20" display and a super price for what you get.

I'm real comfortable with 1680 on a 17" widescreen. Don't want to deal with 1920.
Haven't worked in *nix for a few years but when I did I loaded a version in a virtual machine.
VmWare is beta-ing version 6 for Vista. I've found their virtual machine is a good platform for testing any configurations very different from my dev machine.

Not wanting to sound like an evangelist... but... I look into Hp & Dell periodically since Clevo takes about 2 years to come up with a major improvement on their top end. I can never configure a machine from them that gives me what I have in the older Clevo. Right now a maxed out Xps approaches 6K, with less capability than a 3K Clevo. Ok, I'm done.

Well i basically have the same taste as yourself with laptops in that I love the high ews screen. I also have looked at the HP. The last 2 laptops i've purchased were with 17 inch screens and both were Sagers. I purchased a 4780 about 4 years ago with the 1440X900 screen but when the 5710&5720 came out I wanted the high res screen. I got the 5710 because the GP from ATI was better for battery life and I didn't need the machine for gaming. I also could pop out the DVD drive and add a second battery and got close to 4 hours when surfing the web. Now Sager has upgraded the 5710&5720 to the Core 2 Duo 5750&5760. Most Sager dealers offer the 5750 with the ATI GP and 1680 x 1050 resolution and the 5760 with a more powerfull GP and res of 1920X1200. Rj Tech does allow you to configure the 5750 with an ATI card and 1920X1200 with 2 gig ram and 120 HD for less than 2000. I've read though that Sager will soon release the replacement for the 5760 and when they do that the resellers give 200 discounts to the models they are replacing. You may be able to get a good deal on the Sager models in the near future. I love Sagers and have upgraded them just because of the new technology but the Hp 9000 did catch my eye also.

Can't advise as to the build quality of acer-though I can tell you I didn't find any red flags in my searching. (I did find lots of red flags with alienware and dell-but that could just be due to the sheer number of units they ship.)

I don't think there is really any way to get a decent handle on cutting edge build quality without putting the hardware into your hands-by the time there is sufficient reliable feedback on an item from qualified sources...it is often obsolete.

I read for a month, and made my selection of the dv9000t after I went into a showroom and tried one. But I would have gone with the acer if it's harddrives were 7200rpm and it's dvd burner were at least 8x DL as it is over $1000. under it's nearest 19-20" rival. After bringing it in-if I didn't like the build quality...I would have sent it back. Build quality issue thus addressed.

Well I've had 2 and never had a major problem. When my current machine was about 11 months old one of the fans burned out so the others were running all the time. Sager replaced it with a quick turn aroud and cleaned it out while they had it. *Your results may vary*... I've heard some horror stories about extended warranty companies. Again, if you're more comfortable buy the name. But they all rebrand somebody. Maybe Compal.

Alienware, Hypersonic, Sager, & a few others rebrand Clevo.
Most of the top end gaming machines are Clevo. I think it's the only one that offers Raid in a notebook.

There are others that offer RAID, I found a few. I didn't let that be a decider for me-my dv9000t is for use as a video editor and RAID 0 was important for this application but I found that with an addonics card and an external 1TB sata raid 0 array I could have it all and still spend slightly less than the nearest spec rival to the HP, (while receiving far more). Now if only HP could support the use of XP on it's current vista impregnated notebooks (source of another thread to be here shortly).