Battery life and other issues, help appreciated

Based on cost alone, which is basically priority #1 for me, HP seems like the way to go. I'd really like the 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9600 that they offer in the zx5000 Pavilion... I'm not a HUGE gamer, but I'd really like to have a nice video card for once, haha. However, I'm worried about battery life with what appears to be (is?) a desktop processor in a laptop. I've heard things like an hour and a half? I would probably go with the 2.8 ghz, not the HT 3.0 ghz unless someone can convince me that the HT makes a big difference on performance (does it?). If I got the 12-cell Li-ion battery, what kind of battery life could I expect with these stats:

HP Pavilion zx5000 series customize notebook - $1240
- Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.80 GHz
- Win XP Professional
- 512MB DDR SDRAM (1x512MB)
- 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
- 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
- FREE Upgrade from 15" XGA to 15.4" WXGA (1280x800)
- 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9600
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money
- 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Would it be worth spending an extra hundred bucks or so that they charge for an extra 12-cell?

The alternative seems to be:
HP Pavilion zt3000 series customize notebook - $1265
- Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 705 (1.5 GHz)
- Win XP Professional
- 512MB DDR SDRAM (1x512MB)
- 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
- FREE Upgrade to Intel(R) Pro Wireless 2100 WLAN!!
- 15.4" WXGA Widescreen (1280x800)
- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

How much of a difference in battery life will I see between the two? In graphical performance? Also, is there any way (esp on the first model I listed) that I could just turn the settings down way low during battery time (as in, turn the video card almost off, turn the processor way down, etc) if I were only, say, typing or browsing the net (or maybe running really old games that require like no performance whatsoever) while on the battery to get good battery life? I'm sort of torn right now as to what to do, haha... any advice would be a big help.

 

Personally, it depends how important battery life is to you. Mine is going to be sitting in a dorm 95% of the time, so having (what I've experienced) 1.5-2 hours of battery life is something I can live with.

But keep in mind i have the 1680x1050 resolution, so that's a bunch more pixels for the battery to power. If batt life is important, then yes the HT isn't really worth it, as it does cause the processor to use up more power. and no, you can't adjust the CPU speed on the desktop models.

 

I'm getting a zt3000 in about a week, if you're still curious about it then I'll be doing battery tests on mine as soon as I get it, to decide whether or not I'm going to keep it.

 

Voigtrob,

You're probably looking at approx 2.5-3hrs for the ZX5000 and 3.5-4hrs for the ZT3000, depending on what you're doing at the time.

Just so that you're aware (if you weren't already), the ZX5000 is a pretty BIG unit @ approx 9lbs with the ac adapter. The ZT3000 weighs in at about 7lbs with ac included.

You can adjust the screen brightness and lower the CPU speed to save battery power. The ZT3000 will have the advantage when it comes to battery life.

The ATI 9600 graphics card in the ZX5000 will out-perform the ATI 9200 in the ZT3000 without even trying. But if you're not going to be playing games or not going to be playing the latest DirectX 9.0 games, then the ATI 9200 should do you just fine. I used to have the NX7000 (same as the ZT3000 but was the Business model) and it ran fine on the Pentium M 1.6Ghz & ATI 9200 w/64MB. I could play games like Rainbow Six 3:Ravenshield & Unreal Tournament. Playing the DirectX 9.0 games kinda worked, but the graphics were corrupt because the card didn't support the required DirectX 9 features to work properly.

So, since you're concerned about battery life, but also want a powerful unit. I would say, go for the ZT3000. It has the right balace of computing/graphics power with a very long runtime with a major weight difference compared to the ZX5000. This will allow you to travel a lot easier than the ZX5000.

Good Luck!

-Vb-

 

how do you adjust the cpu speed (apart from going into the bios)?

 

What I meant with lowering the CPU speed was to set the power management settings so that it'll enable the Speedstep in the bios. From what I've seen, setting the PM settings to Always On will keep your CPU running full speed on AC or battery.

I believe there are utilities available that will allow you to adjust your CPU speed. I'm not sure if it's only for upping the speed or allowing you to increase/decrease the speeds.

-Vb-

 

I'm not a gamer at all, but I can tell you that my nx7010 I got three weeks ago came with DirectX 9.0 installed. I've got a 9200 with 64MB RAM.

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HP nx7010 DU259A: Pentium-M 1.6GHz, 2x256MB RAM, 60GB 7200RPM HDD, 64MB Radeon 9200, 15.4" WXGA, XP Pro.

 

Hay Marcog,

The DirectX 9.0 software is installed in all the new computers, but you still need a DirectX 9.0 complaint card to be able to use the extra features/enhancements that DirectX 9.0 provides. The 9200 cards only support upto the DirectX 8.x features, DirectX 9.0 contains the same features as DirectX 8.x plus more. It's just that "more" option that you will not be able to use without a DirectX 9.0 compliant/supported card.

-Vb-