Alright guys, I've owned this notebook since Christmas day, and here's my thoughts on it. There are no pics right now, if there are requests for some, I'll throw them up.
First Impressions
It's a fairy big notebook. The 15.4in Widescreen is the reason for this. I love the case design. Very sleek looking both closed and opened. The rounded front speakers allow for my wrists to rest comfortably on the keyboard without digging in. The laptop feels solid.
Actual Use
The quick spec's are:
AMD Athlon 3400+ (PowerNow equipped)
512 MB Ram (2x256) PC2700
100 gig HD (4200 RPM)
64 MB GeForce 4 440 Go
Integrated 11b/11g Wireless
DVD-RW (Not sure if it's + or -)
15.4in Brightview (glossy) Widescreen (1280x800)
Booting it up, the laptop loads windows extremely fast compared to my other computers around the house. HP does preload WAY to much software on the computer (2 gig's worth). I have done a system format to get rid of all of this software. Now that I've stated that.....
The 3400+ really screams. I usually leave the chip in 'Always On' mode, and it does perform very nicely. The chip is useable even with PowerNow engaged, and clocked down to 800mhz. I'm not going to go any further into the chip throttling. There are many fixes to this listen on this forum.
Doing normal tasks, the first thing that hit me was that the laptop needs some more memory. 512 is adequite for most tasks, but for DVD encoding/burning I really want to have more. The laptop comes with a 2x256 configuration, with one user accesable memory slot, allowing for up to 1.25 gig. This is according to HP, yet on their website, they list the zv5000 series as being able to hold 2 gig of RAM. I'm not sure about this yet.
The graphics card that is found in this laptop is definatly not the best. It's at least a couple of generations old and it does not fully support DirectX 9. I've been able to work with it though. I did benchmark the laptop with 3DMark 2001 SE. It scored around 6000. I dont have the exact result, as I had to format the hard drive almost right after I benchmarked it. I'm not a huge gamer, so the card that is in it ment little to me. nVidia has included it's 'True Color'? feature with it's software that is installed on the laptop. (I forgot what it's really called, I'll look it up when I get home). This is the most redeaming part of this graphics card. Looks AMAZING with this turned on. Colors are very vibriant.
The screen. One word, beautiful. No dead or stuck pixels, and I love the widescreen aspect. There is some light leakage at the bottom right hand cornor of the screen, but it is hardly noticable. Resolution is 1280x800.
DVD-RW. I've been able to rip and burn DVD's perfectly using this drive, Sonic Record Now (included) and DVD shrink. Record Now has had MANY problems with burning CD's. I have not tried any other CD burning programs with the laptop yet. I do intend to buy something better (ie Nero) as soon as I am able to get some cash. For the DVD's, it's fine as it is though. *Note - I'm not sure of the drive speed, but it takes about 30 min for a full DVD. Is that around 2x?
Integrated Wireless. This has worked perfectly. Picks up my home network, has never lost the signal (through two floors and in a basement). I love this aspect of the computer. It has also been able to pick up other networks within my neighborhood outside of my house. I'm inpressed. The notebook does have a very convenent off button for this feature, located just above the keyboard.
Hardware. The keyboard is nearly full sized. I've had no problems learning how to type on it (I'm a touch typist), and I love the keys. The keyboard does not have any bending issues and feels very solid to the touch. The touch pad is equally as good. Very sensitive, the bottons have good feedback, and the scroll feature on the right side is absolutely wonderful. I did have to do some tweaking of the mouse properties, but it all worked out with no problems.
Ports. I use a Logitech Media Mouse with the laptop when I'm at home. The mouse is great, plugs into the USB port and works flawlessly. The laptop has 3 USB 2.0 slots, all are along the side's of the notebook (2 on the left, 1 on the right). There is one Firewire port, I haven't used it yet, so I can't tell you how that works. There is a 5 in 1 card reader. I've only used SD card with it, but it's worked flawlessly.
Random Notes.
*The notebook has an actual recovery CD, not a hard drive partition. This is nice for reinstalling everything.
*There is a fairy strong software/productivity package included. I recommend formatting and installing what you need, as HP installs everything from the factory.
*HP includes a 'USB Digital Drive' with the notebook. Think a portable SD card reader. Very handy for use as a 'Jump Drive'. It's saved me from burning CD's countless times.
That's all I have for now. If I remember anything else, I'll post additions to this. I don't have the notebook in front of me right now, I'm typing all of this from school. Anyways, that's it.
First Impressions
It's a fairy big notebook. The 15.4in Widescreen is the reason for this. I love the case design. Very sleek looking both closed and opened. The rounded front speakers allow for my wrists to rest comfortably on the keyboard without digging in. The laptop feels solid.
Actual Use
The quick spec's are:
AMD Athlon 3400+ (PowerNow equipped)
512 MB Ram (2x256) PC2700
100 gig HD (4200 RPM)
64 MB GeForce 4 440 Go
Integrated 11b/11g Wireless
DVD-RW (Not sure if it's + or -)
15.4in Brightview (glossy) Widescreen (1280x800)
Booting it up, the laptop loads windows extremely fast compared to my other computers around the house. HP does preload WAY to much software on the computer (2 gig's worth). I have done a system format to get rid of all of this software. Now that I've stated that.....
The 3400+ really screams. I usually leave the chip in 'Always On' mode, and it does perform very nicely. The chip is useable even with PowerNow engaged, and clocked down to 800mhz. I'm not going to go any further into the chip throttling. There are many fixes to this listen on this forum.
Doing normal tasks, the first thing that hit me was that the laptop needs some more memory. 512 is adequite for most tasks, but for DVD encoding/burning I really want to have more. The laptop comes with a 2x256 configuration, with one user accesable memory slot, allowing for up to 1.25 gig. This is according to HP, yet on their website, they list the zv5000 series as being able to hold 2 gig of RAM. I'm not sure about this yet.
The graphics card that is found in this laptop is definatly not the best. It's at least a couple of generations old and it does not fully support DirectX 9. I've been able to work with it though. I did benchmark the laptop with 3DMark 2001 SE. It scored around 6000. I dont have the exact result, as I had to format the hard drive almost right after I benchmarked it. I'm not a huge gamer, so the card that is in it ment little to me. nVidia has included it's 'True Color'? feature with it's software that is installed on the laptop. (I forgot what it's really called, I'll look it up when I get home). This is the most redeaming part of this graphics card. Looks AMAZING with this turned on. Colors are very vibriant.
The screen. One word, beautiful. No dead or stuck pixels, and I love the widescreen aspect. There is some light leakage at the bottom right hand cornor of the screen, but it is hardly noticable. Resolution is 1280x800.
DVD-RW. I've been able to rip and burn DVD's perfectly using this drive, Sonic Record Now (included) and DVD shrink. Record Now has had MANY problems with burning CD's. I have not tried any other CD burning programs with the laptop yet. I do intend to buy something better (ie Nero) as soon as I am able to get some cash. For the DVD's, it's fine as it is though. *Note - I'm not sure of the drive speed, but it takes about 30 min for a full DVD. Is that around 2x?
Integrated Wireless. This has worked perfectly. Picks up my home network, has never lost the signal (through two floors and in a basement). I love this aspect of the computer. It has also been able to pick up other networks within my neighborhood outside of my house. I'm inpressed. The notebook does have a very convenent off button for this feature, located just above the keyboard.
Hardware. The keyboard is nearly full sized. I've had no problems learning how to type on it (I'm a touch typist), and I love the keys. The keyboard does not have any bending issues and feels very solid to the touch. The touch pad is equally as good. Very sensitive, the bottons have good feedback, and the scroll feature on the right side is absolutely wonderful. I did have to do some tweaking of the mouse properties, but it all worked out with no problems.
Ports. I use a Logitech Media Mouse with the laptop when I'm at home. The mouse is great, plugs into the USB port and works flawlessly. The laptop has 3 USB 2.0 slots, all are along the side's of the notebook (2 on the left, 1 on the right). There is one Firewire port, I haven't used it yet, so I can't tell you how that works. There is a 5 in 1 card reader. I've only used SD card with it, but it's worked flawlessly.
Random Notes.
*The notebook has an actual recovery CD, not a hard drive partition. This is nice for reinstalling everything.
*There is a fairy strong software/productivity package included. I recommend formatting and installing what you need, as HP installs everything from the factory.
*HP includes a 'USB Digital Drive' with the notebook. Think a portable SD card reader. Very handy for use as a 'Jump Drive'. It's saved me from burning CD's countless times.
That's all I have for now. If I remember anything else, I'll post additions to this. I don't have the notebook in front of me right now, I'm typing all of this from school. Anyways, that's it.
