Friday, October 26, 2007

HP DV4000 Overview

My configuration for the HP Pavilion dv4000 customizable Notebook PC:



  • Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2

  • Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz)

  • 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)

  • Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 900

  • 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)

  • 60 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive

  • FREE Upgrade to 8X DVD +/- RW/R & CD-RW Combo!!

  • 54g(TM) Integ. Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth

  • 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

  • Microsoft(R) Works/Money

  • Remote control (purchased separately)


Battery



I got the battery for hp pavilion dv4000 because I wasn't concerned about the extra weight it added, but with the 12 cell battery this sucker is heavy. HP says it is 6.5 pounds with a 6 cell battery so with the big battery it's about 7 pounds, this is not terrible but not light either. I wouldn't want to carry it from class to class. As you can see in the picture the dv4000 battery bulges out of the bottom giving the unit a nice slant for ergonomic purposes. Air circulation is improved with this raising of the notebook also. It ruins the sleekness of the laptop, but I don't care. I don't plan on moving the laptop too much so the extra weight is no big deal. Battery life has been impressive, about 7.5 hours under light use.










































Notebook Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
HP DV4000 (1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 51s
Dell Inspiron 6000 (1.60GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 52s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 45s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 48s
IBM ThinkPad T41 (1.6GHz Banias Pentium M) 2m 23s
Compaq R3000T (Celeron 2.8GHz) 3m 3s
Dell Inspiron 600m (1.6 GHz Dothan Pentium M) 2m 10s
Dell Inspiron 8600 (1.7GHz Banias Pentium M) 2m 28s

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HP Pavilion ZD8000 Review

The ZD8000 seemed to be a good candidate as it came with an ATI Mobility Radeon X600 graphics card and other options that provided for a great desktop replacement style notebook. In this review I compare the new ZD8000 to both the Toshiba Satellite P35 17-inch screen notebook and the HP ZD7000(li-ion battery:hp pavilion zd7000 battery) 17-inch screen notebook which I had before the P35.



HP ZD8000 Review Unit System Specs



  • Mobile Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz, with Hyper-Threading

  • 1GB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz(512x1) from Micron

  • Toshiba 80GB hard drive 5400 RPM

  • LG GWA-4080N DVD+/-RW Drive - CD-ROM (40x); CD-R (40x write); CD-RW (24x write); DVD-ROM (16x); DVD-R (8x write); DVD-RW (4x write); DVD+R (16x write); DVD+RW (4x write); DVD+R Dual Layer (2.4x write)

  • ATI Mobility Radeon X600 with 256MB dedicated RAM

  • 17.0" WXGA TFT LCD ViewBright display 1440 x 900 resolution

  • Integrated V.92/56K modem

  • Realtek RTL8193 10/100 Ethernet LAN

  • Broadcom 802.11b/g Wireless LAN

  • Built-in Harman/Kardon stereo speakers

  • Intel ICH6 AC97 Sound Card

  • 5-in-1 Media Reader (Secure Digital, Memory Stick/Pro, MMC, xD Picture Card)


Design


The ZD8000 has a slightly modified look from its previous generation model, the ZD7000. Most notable is the cooling system. It is totally redesigned. Is it better now? Unfortunately that's a negative. There is an extra fan now, probably for making sure the machine can keep cool with the new ATI Mobility X600 graphics card. The entire rear of the notebook is dedicated to having vents for cooling, thereby sacrificing the parallel port from the previous generation. Even with a number of vents, the computer still gets very hot and the fans spin up all the time and they are loud. The keyboard area and wrist rest below the keyboard still gets very hot to the touch, though not as bad as the ZD7000 I used to own did. The touchpad area is thankfully improved and more usable now than before. I wish they had focused more on improving the cooling and reducing heat build-up around the keyboard rather than improving the touchpad though. The heat around the keyboard can make it uncomfortable to type after 10 minutes of typing on this laptop. The cooling system simply needs a lot more reworking, my use of the Toshiba Satellite P35 proved that a large desktop replacement notebook with a Pentium 4 processor doesn't have necessarily have to be a giant heat synch. Toshiba somehow managed to get rid of heat from the P35 system and typing was comfortable.



The power connector for the ZD8000 seems to be totally redesigned from the ZD7000. I have heard of many problems others had with the older design, and have myself experienced problems of loose power adapter connections on my old HP ZD7000. The new connector on the HP ZD8000 looks to solve this problem, however this means you won't be able to use 3rd party power adapters anymore. Using my Kill-a-Watt meter power usage of the ZD8000 peeks out at a staggering 130watts under the full load of Half Life 2, this pushed right up to the max rating of 135watts on the transformer. No surprise that with such power consumption noticed when running using an AC adpater, you'll be lucky to get an hour from this monster when on battery power; and don't even try something 3D intensive when not plugged in!






Size and Weight



This laptop is one of the biggest out there. Weighing in at a hefty 9.5 pounds, it is probably in the top 5% of the weight bracket for notebooks. The dimensions measure 16.5" L x 11.5" W x 1.57/1.85" H. The AC adapter adds another pound and 3 ounces to overall weight. That means that you'll be carrying well over 10 pounds of computer related stuff, so this titan is not for the faint of heart!


Screen


Laptop LCDs and LCDs in general have come a long way. Gone are the days of ghosting and inaccurate colors if you buy a decent brand LCD, and most modern laptops seem to have displays of very good quality. The screen on my ZD8000 features BrightView which helps improve clarity, color saturation and contrast. It's quite a bit better than the older ZD7000 without Brightview. I notice no ghosting of any type in my first person shooter (FPS) games and there were no dead pixels. The blacks are deep and incredible, putting my professional Sony Trinitron CRT to shame. The white is a little on the warm yellowish side, I prefer cool, bluer whites. The viewing angle is simply amazing. This is truly a desktop replacement system as it will be hard to go back to your desktops display after seeing this one!


Speakers



The speakers are Harman/Kardon brand and relative to the size of the laptop are tiny. The speakers on this laptop face outward which is nice if you would like to play something with the lid closed. The performance of the speakers isn't so good though. You begin to hear sound distortion at about 80% max volume. Bass is virtually nonexistent with this set of speakers. For games the speakers seemed to perform decently, but they lack the virtual spacialization found in the Toshiba P35 speakers. There is no improvement in the ZD8000 speakers over the ZD7000 speakers, which is sort of a shame. Furthermore, these speakers can't even begin to compare with the Harman/Kardon speakers on the Toshiba P35.


Gaming


HP decided to ditch nVidia and went to ATi for the graphics system in this generation of the ZD line. At the time of its design, this was probably a good choice as ATI was whipping nVidia around in the laptop department for a long while. Everything changed when nVidia released the mobile 6800Go though. The ATI X600 graphics card is basically equivalent in performance to a Mobility 9700 running on 16X PCI. Does the PCI standard make it faster than the equivalent AGP processor? No. Does the name of the card make it sound faster? It sure does! But don't let names fool you.


The X600 graphics processor core is clocked at 400MHz and the 256MB of ram is clocked at 250MHz (500MHz effective). The difference between 64MB and 256MB makes a huge difference in current games. With 256MB you can run Half Life 2 at full detail and 4xFSAA whereas 64MB you were limited to minimum quality. Games like LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth and FlatOut, which would not even run with 64MB, is very playable now.


A picture speaks a thousand words and so do numbers, so let's just look at some to demonstrate gaming performance:


Using Omega 2.6.05a (Catalyst 5.1)


Drivers graphics settings on max.



































































































































































Resolution

AA

Avg FPS





3DMark 2001SE

1024

0

12700

3Dmark 2003

1024

0

3252

AMD N-Bench V3

1024

0

2073

FFXI Online V3

1024

0

3547

Call of Duty

1024

4

50

Doom3 High

800

0

24

Doom3 Ultra

1024

0

20

Warcraft III

1440

0

43

Underground 2

1024

0

38

Prince of Persia 2

1024

0

35

Jedi Academy

1024

4

35

Riddick: EFBB

1024

2

20





Half Life 2




HOC Coast

1024

4

57

HOC d13c17

1024

4

36

Guru3D demo4

1024

4

73

Guru3D demo5

1024

4

60

Guru3D demo6

1024

4

62





Farcry




Volcano

1024

0

27

Volcano

1024

4

22

Research

1024

0

31


HP Pavilion ZD8000 Battery


HP PAVILION ZD8000 SERIES laptop battery































Laptop battery for HP PAVILION ZD8000 SERIES (LiIon Battery) Compatible Part#: HP DP390A, HP DP399A, HP HSTNN-DB02

Chemistry: Li-ion
Volt: 14.8V
Capacity: 6600mAh
Dimension: 152 x 114 x 19.3mm
Net Weight: 607.5g
Color: Black

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I/O Ports



The ZD8000 is an I/O mecha. It features 2 PCMCIA ports. I don't know what you would use 1 of them for, let alone 2. Just about everything you need is already built in. No need for searching for the USB port, as there is one on every side. There are 5 USB ports total, one which is featured as a "HP USB Digital Drive" which is just a gimmicky SD card reader. I guess its for those who do not figure out that pretty much all HPs come with a 6in1 card reader standard nowadays. Compact flash support is however missing. The largest surviving flash memory seems to be a dying breed, mostly reserved for those with high end digital cameras.


Input



The keyboard is a very standard layout with built in numpad, which is certainly a nice addition. If anything will drive you to this laptop, the numpad is it. Touchpad is a big improvement from the ZD7000. It no longer gets dreadfully hot and is sunken in. This helps alleviate the problem of it being accidentally tripped when typing. But due to its large size it still does not totally prevent this problem, even with small hands.


Wireless and Connectivity



The ZD8000 comes with the Broadcom chipset which when paired with Broadcom routers offers incredible performance. Broadcom seems to be the choice now in wireless chipsets. Performance is very stable and range seems to just keep improving after every revision. It offers more consistency and range than even the venerable Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card I have. The wireless switch is at the top right edge on the side of the laptop accompanied by an orange LED. I would have liked an LED on top for quicker identification as to whether WiFi was on or not.


I was very disappointed to see only 100MB fast Ethernet via Realtek instead of Gigabit Ethernet. Most people will find this a non issue, but I have a Gigabit network at home for transferring video files and with a 5400RPM hard drive, things could easily take half the time to transfer vs plain old Ethernet.


Conclusion



Overall the ZD8000 is a decent improvement over the ZD7000. Performance is great thanks to finally having a full 800MHz FSB. The X600 graphics card is no slouch either, playing Half Life 2 is brilliant on this laptop. However if gaming is your thing you should look toward the Pentium M as it is nearly twice as fast clock for clock as a Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 excels in heavy FPU data like Photoshop, video editing, and encoding. Overall a decent laptop replacement, however I would have to recommend the Toshiba P35 over the HP ZD8000 unless you really cannot live without a numpad on the keyboard


Pros



  • Gorgeous Screen

  • NumPad included on keyboard

  • 5 USB Ports

  • 2 PCMCIA ports

  • Good graphics card and gaming performance


Cons



  • Loud Fans

  • Keyboard area of laptop gets really hot

  • Horrible Battery Life

  • No serial or parallel ports

  • Proprietary AC connector

  • Only 100MB Fast Ethernet

HP Pavilion dv1000 Review

The HP dv1000 is considered a lightweight entertainment notebook that boasts extra features for playing DVD's and music.

HP Pavilion dv1000

HP dv1000 specs as reviewed customized and purchased through :

  • Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
  • Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz)
  • 14.0" WXGA BrightView Widescreen
  • 768 MB DDR SDRAM (2700) Upgradeable up to 2 gig
  • 60 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
  • LightScribe 8x DVD+/-RW&CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer
  • Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 900 - Pentium
  • Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG & Bluetooth(TM)
  • 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
  • HP Mobile Remote Control

Reasons for Buying

After my old notebook started having issues I decided to do my research and look for a notebook that filled my needs and didn't break my pocketbook. I was mainly looking for a notebook that was thin, light and ran quiet. My last Compaq 2100(compaq presario 2100 battery)had heat issues which made the fan run about 90% of the time the computer was on. I wanted a notebook with a widescreen and BriteView (glossy screen) that was quiet and light and could do basic tasks like browse the internet, use Adobe Photoshop, do some work in Flash and use Microsoft Word. I also wanted built-in Bluetooth and wireless.


Buying

I decided to purchase my dv1000 direct from HP. My reasoning for this was to be able to customize it just the way I wanted it. I downgraded things I didn't need and purchased the minimum amount of RAM and a smaller hard drive, things that I could upgrade myself at a discounted price. With my customization was still able to get better specs for a cheaper price than the retail stores were selling the dv1000 for. If you are interested, do the math and you will see that by buying direct and customizing a dv1000 yourself you get much better specs at a discounted or similar price to say Best Buy or Circuit City. My final cost was $1100.00 minus a $50.00 mail in rebate, free shipping and a basic HP DeskJet printer free! It took twelve days from the day I ordered the notebook online and to the day I received it.

Build and Design

At first glance the dv1000 looks a lot more expensive that it really is. The outer shell is made of silver colored plastic. The inside of the notebook is all black with a sort of textured feel to it. I would have preferred all silver rather than the two tones, but the look seems to work for this model. The laptop is sturdy, but I do have problems carrying it from the side, it seems a bit fragile and "creaky" when I am grasping it. The screen has very little or no flex to it, you would have to push very hard on it to see a ripple. The hinges seem very sturdy, there's no wobbling to the screen at all, when you put the screen in place it stays there. I have a problem with the latch that closes the notebook though. With just a slight push on the latch the screen releases and I don't like the placement of it, it is right below the touchpad and I find myself pressing it with my thumb when using the pad. I feel they could have made the latch a bit sturdier.

Screen

The dv1000 only comes in one screen size, a 14 inch widescreen. I chose the Brite-View option for my screen and I must say I love it. It's bright, crisp and clear and it's a pleasure working on it. I love working in Photoshop and watching DVD's. Many people don't like the glare that the glossy screens produce, but I don't mind, and when it seems very noticeable I just adjust the screen angle and that usually does it for me. It seems the more I work on it the less I notice the glare and to me the benefits outweigh the glare. The screen has even backlighting and no screen leakage as far as I can tell. Thankfully my screen had no dead pixels!

HP dv1000 screen brightness stands out even more in the dark

Speakers

My model came with the Altec Lansing speakers, last years model had Harman Kardon speakers installed on it. Nothing spectacular to say about them, basic laptop speakers mounted on the front of the notebook. I have yet to hear any notebook speakers that really sound great, so I would rate these as average.

Processor and Performance

The laptop has a Pentium M 1.73 GHz processor with 768 MB DDR memory installed (2 slots), 60 gig 5400 HD, and Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 900 -- Pentium shared video graphics card. Performance is snappy; my startup time from the push of the button is about 45 seconds. Programs startup fast and everything is very responsive no lagging on anything I use except for a few extra seconds starting up Photoshop because of the plug-ins and fonts I have installed. I have not done any gaming so I can't report on that, but I do wish there was an upgrade option for the graphics card.

Benchmarks

Results for calculating Pi to 2 million digits in Super Pi: 1m 50s

Notebook Time
HP Pavilion dv1000 (1.73 GHz Pentium M) 1m 50s
Fujitsu S6231 (1.6 GHz Pentium M) 2m 6s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) 1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) 1m 45s
Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M) 1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M) 1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M) 1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M) 2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Pentium M) 1m 57s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz) 1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) 1m 45s

PCMARK: 2950 PCMarks
3DMark05: 196

HD Tune Results
Min Transfer Rate 16.1 MB/sec
Max Transfer Rate 33.6 MB/sec
Avg Transfer Rate 27.0 MB/sec
Access Time 18.9 ms
Burst Rate 59.3 MB/sec
CPU Usage 5.4%






HP PAVILION DV1000 SERIES laptop battery

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Chemistry: Li-ion
Volt: 11.10V
Capacity: 4400mAh
Dimension: 205.15 x 51.10 x 21.20 mm
Net Weight: 310.00(g)
Color: Black










hp pavilion dv1000 series laptop battery

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Hp Pavilion DV1000 Series Laptop Battery (LiIon Battery) Compatible Part#: COMPAQ 367759-001, HP PF723A, HP PM579A
Chemistry: Li-ion
Volt: 11.10V
Capacity: 8800mAh
Dimension: 205.20 x 59.20 x 37.50 mm
Net Weight: 604.50(g)
Color: Black

Laptop battery for HP PAVILION DV1000 SERIES is brand new, higher capacity and cheap price. We guarantee the HP PAVILION DV1000 battery with a full one-year warranty from the date of purchase and 30-days money back if the battery(s) have any quality problem!

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Fan and Heat

A big reason I chose the dv1000 was because the notebook seems pretty quiet. Coming from a computer that sounded like a leaf blower and that ran very hot this computer is awesome. I must say the dv1000 does run a bit hot, both processor and HD run around 50 degrees idle. I usually keep my notebook on a Targus Podium Cool Pad which allows the computer to get better airflow and usually reduces the fan from turning on and off. This was a big point in my notebook buying happiness and the dv1000 is quiet and cool enough for me.

Keyboard and Touchpad

HP dv1000 keyboard and touchpad

The dv1000's keyboard is nice and responsive; it's relatively quiet and springy. The keyboard was actually a deciding factor in choosing this notebook. The keyboard does have a slight flex on the right side from the enter key down to the arrows. The touchpad was another thing that I liked about this notebook, it's very responsive and I love the textured feel of the pad, it makes me feel like I have more control. The buttons are a bit hard to press but I have a feeling this is something that will change with use. As I stated earlier I don't like that the screen latch button is close to the touchpad because I find myself pressing it while using the touchpad.

Input and Output Ports

The dv1000 notebook is equipped with:

  • 1 Type I/II PCMCIA card slot. I store my Media Remote control. (left side)
  • 1 IEEE-1394(Firewire) (right side)
  • 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0) (Two on the right side and one on the left)
  • 1 Built in 6-in-1 digital media reader (No Compact Flash)(Right Side)
  • 2 headphone-out (front)
  • 1 microphone-in (front)
  • 1 TV-Out (S-video) (right side)
  • 1 RJ-11 (modem) (left side)
  • 1 RJ -45 (LAN) (left side)
  • 1 External VGA monitor port (left side)
  • 1 expansion port for use with HP Expansion Base(sold separately). Available only with Intel Extreme graphics with productivity port (left side)
  • Power jack (in the back)
  • CD/DVD drive (right side)

Wireless

I chose the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG with Bluetooth. Wireless worked great right out of the box. The laptop picked up my router right away and I connected with no problems. I also get better range than my other laptop, as I am picking up 3 of my neighbors connections and seem to always have an excellent connection through my house. I use Bluetooth with my Motorola E815 cell phone and it works wonderfully, I am able to transfer pictures and my phonebook entries to and from my phone seamlessly.

Battery

I opted for the standard 6 cell battery. I stay plugged in and don't use it often, but I did test it out for the review and a got about 3 hours out of it using only my mail program and browsing with Firefox.

Operating System and Software

The notebook came with Windows XP Home service pack 2 installed. I was happy to find an XP CD and a separate driver and program backup disc. I find myself doing clean installs every so often so this is a major plus. The basic "junk" software comes with the notebook, nothing special to report in this department.

Customer Support

Fortunately I have not had to call customer service so I can't report on this right now.

Media Options

The dv1000 comes with extra media features that allow you to play CD's and DVD's without starting windows. You can use the remote control or the media buttons at the top of the keyboard to control playback and volume. I also opted to get a drive with LightScribe. It wasn't something I was looking for, but at the time it was just a $25 dollar upgrade so I decided to add it. Media for it is pretty pricey right now but I am sure that will go down soon. It takes about 20 minutes to label the CD with LightScribe but I found the software they have included very limiting when labeling, so I use Nero Burning Rom a great all in one burning package.

Included media remote control

Complaints

Not many complaints here. I don't like where the latch is placed and that it's easy to open and gets in the way when I am using the touchpad. I also think that the headphone jack's placement should have been more thought out, although I like that they give you two jacks I think that one of them should be located in the back or the sides because anyone hooking up their notebook to speakers will have a cord sticking out of the front of the computer.

Praises
The screen is great and luckily I had no dead pixels. It's thin and light weighing in at a little over 5 pounds. The extra media option and buttons are a plus. Overall it's a great notebook for the price.

Conclusion

The HP dv1000 is a great lightweight widescreen notebook at a great price. It travels easily has a great keyboard and does all the things it's supposed to with a few added features. It has a few design shortcomings but the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion.


Manufacturer: HP

Model: HP Compaq Presario 2500

Processor Options: Intel Pentium 4

Battery:Lithium Compaq Presario 2500 battery

Product Description
Features: 15.0" TFT display, PM 2.6 GHz processor, 512 MB memory, DVD/CD-RW, 40GB hard drive, Windows XP Home, integrated 54g wireless LAN, and 3 USB 2.0 ports.
Compaq Presario 2500US


S/N ?CNF4021CSH


Product #: DS549U#ABA


OS: Windows XP Home Service Pack 2

Intel Pentium 4-M 2.667 GHz/512k/400


HP Integrated Wireless LAN/MiniPCI 54g W450 Broadcom Card


512 MB DDR SDRAM (2X256 MB)


40 GIG Hard Drive


1.4 Internal Floppy Drive


CDRW / DVD ROM


15" Display

The compaq presario 2500 battery details:

Chemistry: Li-ion
Volt: 14.80V
Capacity: 4400mAh
Dimension: 134.40 x 95.00 x 21.80 mm
Net Weight: 389.50g
Color: Black


Replacement laptop battery for COMPAQ PRESARIO 2500 2100 NX9000 is brand new, higher capacity and cheap price. We guarantee the COMPAQ PRESARIO 2500 Battery computer with a full one-year warranty from the date of purchase and 30-days money back if the battery(s) have any quality problem!