HP Pavilion zd8000 Review

PCMag.com published a short take of the zd8000 notebook yesterday, although you still can't buy the notebook at HP.com yet.

Here's a link to the review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1706542,00.asp

Kudos to HP for putting in a PCI Express graphics card (ATI X600 Radeon with 256MB RAM). Has a BrightView 17-inch widescreen display, external USB Dual TV Tuner and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005, 3.4GHz Mobile Pentium 4, 80GB Hard Drive @ 5400 RPM, 802.11g, DVD Burner.

Check out the rumor article we posted a few weeks back for pics of this notebook:
HP Pavilion zd8000 Pics

 

Do you know when this might be available for order? I'm actually interested in the Compaq X6000 more, but I have a feeling Compaq should release their 17" once HP does, right? Or will there be a long wait for the X6000?

 

NOOOOOOOOOO! Dammit, I had so hoped HP would make the zd8000 an Athlon 64 machine. I guess I'll be hanging on to my zv5000z a while longer.

 

I'm guessing the units will be out for the Christmas shopping time frame. Best time to rack in the cash on a brand new model.

I don't think HP is a very bid AMD company. Pretty much all their systems have Intel CPU's. The AMD CPU's just started to sneak into their product lines, on an inexpensive version of their ZV & R lines. I think sales numbers started to drop for those series, that's why I think they came out with new CPU's but then opted to go with the crappy GPU's. If you go through their product lines, even the ones in the past, you will probably find that 80% (maybe more) of their systems are based on Intel CPU's.

-Vb-

 

I have been following this system closely because I am rather excited for it's release. I have heard December 15th from a few people, but it would be great if it was out earlier.

I'm most excited for the graphics card. Hopefully it will be a remarkable improvement over the zd7000's Go5700 128MB card.

Do you happen to know the starting price? I can expect it to be rather high when adding in the GPU and all of the extras that will make this such a great notebook, but it is nice knowing what to expect. I am debating between this and the Alienware Area 51m. I love the looks of the Area 51m. The zd8000 isn't bad either. The screen size and the value makes it so much cooler. It's a hard choice, but Alienware is an awesome name to have under your belt.

Did you plug many devices into the ports? One of the sides of the notebook is covered in ports, I'd image that it would get quite frustrating. It's not a big deal to me because I'd only have a few things to plug in at my desk. An external hard drive, some speakers, power adapter (Which is in the back anyway), and possibly a USB mouse. How would I go about setting up my speaker system? Should I just connect them to the headphone jack or is there a different way of doing that with better results?

Thanks!

 

How does The media center version of windows, compare to the regular WinXP home/Pro?

 

Yes, it sounds like December 15th is firm.

HP Unveils Media Center Notebook

The HP Media Center zd8000 series notebooks will be available December 15 in a variety of configurations on HP's Web site and in retail stores, says Kevin Wentzel, technical marketing manager at HP. The $1399 desktop replacement notebook was designed as a mobile digital media hub for students, families, or other home users, he says.

Adaptec Dual TV-Tuner to Ship With New Line of HP Media Center Notebooks

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by AJVETT

 

I agree, if want you really want is a notebook and not a TV/Notebook blend you'd be better off with XP Pro/Home. Now, if HP doesn't give you that option I'll cry laughing as they'll ruin a perfectly good product with a perfectly sill OS choice for a laptop that many would be interested in for gaming and as a dedicated desktop replacement notebook.

Please tell me it ain't so HP, don't leave out Windows XP as an option.

 

They list XP Pro and XP Home along with XP MCE 2005 as options for the OS. I would like to get MCE but the price looks rather steap without it so I'm going to pass on that. There are many more things I'd rather spend the $200+ needed to upgrade to that from Home.

The configuration options for the zd8000 are looking awesome!

•Intel® Pentium® 4 processor with HT Technology (3.80 GHz)
•Windows XP Media Center 2005
•Up to 2GB DDR2/400MHz memory
•Up to 100GB hard drive (4200 rpm)
•DVD±RW drives with double layer support
•Available 17" WSXGA+ high-definition widescreen display (BrightView)
•ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON™ x600 with PCI Express x16 graphics
•54g™ integrated 802.11b/g wireless LAN
•6-in-1 digital media card reader
•Remote
•USB TV tuner
•USB personal video recorder

http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/generic_store/generic_subcategory_view.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0155981786.1100058714@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdcadcmmmmlmedcfngcfkmdflldfjl.0&landing=computers&category=notebooks/hp_pavilion/zd8000_series&subcat1=rts&catLevel=3

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/generic_category.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@1323792101.1100058489@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfkadddddgilgjcfngcfkmdfondfgf.0&catLevel=1&storeName=computer_store&landing=notebooks&category=hp_pavilion&aoid=1426

 

Is there any chance that they are going to offer the (yet to be named) ATI M28, a.k.a. Mobility Radeon X800 in this?

--------------------
Compaq Presario 2800T
Pentium 4-M 1.6 GHz - 15" UXGA
512 MB RAM - 40 GB (5400 rpm)
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 64 MB
Pretty good for 2002 isn't it?

 

I hope so, the x600 performs closer to a mr9700. The new nvidia card being offered in sager's outperform the mr9800, and the ati x800 is supposed to be even more powerful than that one, maybe a 10k score in 3dmark 03 [8D]

 

Based on tests on the prototype, it's pretty much on par with Nvidia's newest offering. It does better in HL@ and FarCry while Nvidia does better in Doom III. In the others, it held a very slight advantage, but nothing noticeable like we've seen in the past.

With that said, the M28 is more prone to being offered in a wider selection of notebooks that we'd actually want to buy. Nvidia's offering is probably going to be restricted to Alienware, Sager, maybe Toshiba's flagship model. However, I see the MRX600 or the MRX700 (in the future) as taking over the mainstream segment that's held by the 9600 and 9700 right now.

--------------------
Compaq Presario 2800T
Pentium 4-M 1.6 GHz - 15" UXGA
512 MB RAM - 40 GB (5400 rpm)
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 64 MB

 

Do you think Compaq's X6000 will also be released on December 15th? I'm eyeing that one more for its silver looks

 

"The $1399 desktop replacement notebook was designed as a mobile digital media hub for students, families, or other home users, he says."

1399? You've got to be kidding me. Or is that with like a 10 gig drive and 128 meg ram?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Darthus

 

Yeah but I still can't see HP putting out a powerhouse zd8000 for only $1399

 

I expect to order a ZD8000 with MCE 2005 as soon as it is available, but have some slight misgivings since I just returned a ZD7000 with MCE2004 to HP after ordering it about a month ago and getting it 2 weeks ago. When I ordered it, I was told it would be upgradable to MCE2005 and was even given the URL for the upgrade order page, but it turned out that the upgrade was for desktops only and HP would/could not commit to making an upgrade available for laptops.

The upgrade involves a new external TV tuner as well as software upgrades, so I understand that the upgrade might be expensive and would have no problems with that, but am fairly upset at the basic thought that some new computer operating systems may not be upgradable at all (at least, not with just a reasonable amount of effort). There is NO excuse for a $2,500 laptop not being upgradable.

Still, the ZD7000 with MCE is an awesome machine for those of us who, in addition to needing a versatile laptop to move around the house (and from one house to another), want to get a big TV screen out of the living room. The 17" screen is wide enough to read the electronic (not web) version of the NY Times (and other newspapers) in bed without having to zoom in and out. For videos and TV, having the laptop about 4 feet away results in the same size picture as a 32" TV about 12 feet away, and the sound quality is outstanding.

I plan to experiment with wireless TV transmitters in the house so I can move the laptop from one room to another, but that's off in the future.

Now if only HP delivers the ZD8000 on time on Dec. 15 or earlier.

 

Do I understand correctly that the zd8000 includes the external dual TV tuner/FM tuner? HP's own web site is a bit vague about this, and Costco.com, which sells the zd8000 (and lets you configure it, the same as on HP.com), makes absolutely no mention of the external tuner.

If I order the zd8000 with XP Pro instead of MCE, is the external tuner still included? And if so, does HP include software that still allows me to watch TV, record TV, etc.

Thanks,

PRL