HP Special Edition L2000 Questions/Help Needed

Hi,

I am planning on getting a HP special edition L2000 notebook as a surprise birthday gift for my wife but I need some help especially from those who own one or those who have seem one physically with a 12 cell battery.

1. First, my wife likes the sleek, trim line, and fashionable look and I was wondering if having the 12 cell battery would make the notebook look kinda cumbersome especially with it protruding out at the bottom.

I have seen one on picture from various postings on the forum but I have not seen one physically so I would very much appreciate anyone who owns one of these or seen one physically to provide some input.

Also, does the 12 cell battery make it relatively less portable? Eg Does it make it heavy on one side and does having one make the notebook a little more difficult to slip into standard notebook bags/carrying cases made for notebooks with 14 inch wide screen?

2. Is there a noticeable difference in performance between 64 ML-30 1.6GHz CPU and the 64 ML-30 1.8GHz CPU? Both have 1M L2 cache but does 200 MHz make a difference? While my wife probably won't care, I plan to 'borrow' the notebook when she is not using it and I tend to do a little more stuff with it than browsing the web such as DVD burning and video/image/sound editing. I tend to need a little more multitasking. Going to the 2 GHz CPU is a little beyond my budget but if there is not much performance difference between a 1.6 GHz and a 1.8 GHz, then I would rather spend the savings on other upgrades.

3. I am trying to time the arrival of this between August 18 - 20. For those who have experience ordering from HPShopping.com, how soon should I order it?

Thanks!

JL

 

Well, the 12 cell does stick out quite a bit (as seen in pictures), and it does make it a tad bit heavier. If your wife appreciate sleek lines, then she won't like the 12 cell battery. Maybe getting an extra 6 cell would be good.

As far as processor speed goes, you definately won't notice a huge jump between 1.6 and 1.8...if you need to save money, do it there. I actually undervolted my L2000 and keep it constantly running at 800MHZ for casual word processing or web browsing and it's fine to me (even with a crazy overclocked desktop PC at home).

I ordered mine on July 6th and got it July 18th (with standard ground shipping). When I ordered July 6, HP said it wouldn't ship till July 20th...but they've been pretty quick on most orders as most people would agree on here.

Also remember that these laptops get warm, so if your wife has any gripes about such an issue, keep that mind. The heat issue is all relative, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

Yep, dont get the 12cell with that criteria. It's big, and makes a light laptop heavy.
The machine will spend most of it's life at 800MHz anyway, so the take the price savings.
10 days was my turn around time, and that's 2 weekends. You could just get one local from Sams club, I think they have the the specs you want.

 

Thanks for the reply and good input. I hope to remedy the heat issue, if any, by getting her a Lap Desk or something of that nature.

By the way, is the AC adapter small and light or is it bulky and heavy?

 

Thanks for the reply.

The deal at Sam's club looks tempting except I want to make one configuration change - get one 512 M DIMM instead of two 256 M DIMMs with the hope that in the near future, I will get a 1 G DIMM for the extra slot. The other thing is to use that price savings beween a 1.8 GHz and 1.6 GHz processor to get a LightScribe DVD Burner. Also, I get employee discount from my company (not HP) at HPShopping.com. Good suggestion though.

 

The AC adapter is actually suprisingly small...definately not as big as some of the ones I've seen. I used a Panasonic CF-W2 (2.8 lbs with small AC adapter) and it's adapter size is actually comparable which is nice. Hope this helps

 

Thanks again. That's really nice to know as I have seen notebooks with AC adapters almost as huge and as heavy as a brick! I am glad the L2000 comes with a small AC adapter.

I do have one more question. I figured that undervolting the notebook at 800 MHz would probably be fine most of the time. However, if the need arises, eg burning a DVD or performing video editing or some heavier duty task, is there a noticiable difference between a 1.8 GHz processor vs a 1.6 GHz processor? I am quite new to these things.

Thanks in advance.

 

As far as burning a DVD, it definately won't matter. If you're doing heavy video editing, you may notice a small difference, but it's definately not as big a difference as some people may expect. And there's always the choice of overclocking it if it ever feels a little slow