Just ordered ZT3000; Shoud I have waited?

The new "Dothan" chips are going to be released and I'm starting to wonder if I should have waited to order the new laptop...I really need one now, but I also need all the battery life I can get.

Here's what I ordered:

ZT3000
-1.5Mhz Pentim M
-512Mb RAM
-60GB hard drive
-DVD/CDRW
-Bluetooth and Wifi
-15.4 WUXGA(1900x1200)
-64MB graphics
-MS Office
-3yrs Acc. Damage

I think that is everything...I guess only the processor, RAM, and harddrive will greatly affect battery life. So do you think I would be better off with the newer chip versions with this or a similar setup?

 

no, because you'll pay a premium for the new chip, the machines will be slow to ship or delayed due to bottlenecks in the supply chain and manufacturing and I doubt HP will put the Dothan in the zt3000 anyway.

 

What do you think of the setup I ordered? I definitely wanted the screen resolution to be better than my current notebook(1024x768), but I wonder if that is too high a resolution for a 15.4in screen. I also wasn't sure whether to get the 5400rpm hard drive or the 4200rpm drive. Is there really a battery life advantage to the slower one? Is the speed difference really noticeable when opening programs like Word, Outlook, Internet Explorer...basic stuff? Does it matter for movies?

Sorry for all the questions, I just never saw a website with so much info available in one place and I want to capitalize!

 

Your specs are fine. The faster drive will nto impact stndard programs or web browsing, the difference between 4200 and 5400 is almost not noticable for most people. I really don't think you'd benefit much from Dothan, so don't feel bad at all.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Silver5--

Regarding screen resolution--my HP zx5000 has a 15.4" screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800--I like it, but kind of wish I would have went for the 1680 x 1050 resolution.

My husband has a Dell Precision m60 with a 15.4 inch which has the WUXGA resolution of 1920 x 1200. He absolutely loves it, but I know it would drive me crazy--everything is just to small. (He has much better eyesight than I do!) So it's very much a matter of user preference.

Have fun with your new laptop!
dordale [ ]

 

Thanks...I figured I would be fine with the resolution since I have better than 20/20 vision! I have just never seen a screen with this high resolution in person, at least not in a 15" screen. I just made the decision on my father 20" screen Apple Powerbox or whatever they call it.

 

Silver5

One thing I can say about my husband's computer (1920 x 1200 15.4")--everything is very crisp and clear. The text is just too tiny for my eyes. Since you have great eyesight, I'm sure you won't regret your decision.

Have fun! [ ]
dordale

 

Just wanted to bring up that I went to HP's site today and they are selling the the exact machine I just ordered (and is on it's way here) except with a Dothan 745 chip and it costs the exact same price! I'm kinda flipping at the moment, cuz I don't think I'll bother sending it back over that. But I ordered a 1.6 and the new dothan is the exact same price! Oh well, I suppose...tough luck...

-Kyle

Ordered:
HP Pavilion zt3000 series customized NB
- Intel® Pentium® M 1.6 GHz
- Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
- 512MB DDR SDRAM (1x512MB)
- 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
- Intel® Pro Wireless 2200 802.11b/g & Bluetooth
- 15.4" WVA WSXGA+ (1680x1050)
- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(tm) 9200
- Microsoft® Works/Money
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- hpshopping in-box envelope

Ordered: 4/29/04
Status: Shipped
Estimated Ship Date: 5/13/04
Actual Ship Date: 5/10/04
Estimated Delivery Date: 5/13/04
Received: ????

I can't wait for it to arrive!

 

Let's say I decide next year that I want a faster processor, is it possible to just upgrade the processor?

I currently have a pretty nice laptop for the time at which I purchased it, and it only has a 1.1Ghz Pentium III and I'd love to upgrade the processor and memory on it if I can. Is this something that is possible with laptop or are the processors permanent? It is a Compaq Presario 2700T with most of the goodies that were available then...

 

Silver5,

For the P3 1.1Ghz notebook, you may be able to get a new CPU for the notebook, but it may be pretty difficult. There aren't a lot of mobile CPU's floating around in the market. The other issue is that the CPU may be integrated onto the systemboard, which would totally eliminate any possibility of upgrading, unless you can get a new systemboard (similar design/model) with a faster CPU and swap it out, but then again, that would be pricy. The best option is to just get the fastest CPU you can afford and you should be OK for the next few years.

-Vb-

 

The cpu is almost never integrated with the board, however your chipset will limit you. You have a PIII, which will mean you can only upgrade to a faster PIII chip. The socket changed when they went to a P4 so that will not be an option for you, plus your bios may not recoqnize a card that fast if it would have even worked, and since unlike desktops most people don't bother there aren't many bios updates available, and the ones that do don't usually deal with that nor do the bios normally allow you to select your processor and clock speed. This is standard though for pretty much any premanufactured system. They just don't give you full bios control over things like that so they don't have to support it.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 21,862