Looking to Purchase V4000T or equiv.

I have been looking at laptops mostly for school/work use, but also for recreation. I would like to purchase one from Compaq or HP since I can get a discount through their EPP program. I was hoping you guys could answer a few questions for me.

I was comparing the V4000T to the same build for the dv4000 (from HP) and the HP laptop came to around 150 more. Is this due to the brand name and target market, or is there some other benefit I am missing to buying an HP computer.

The CPU I have been considering is the P-M 735A. Is it worth the additional $50 for a .3ghz gain in cpu speed?

Finally, I can't seem to figure out what the difference is between their normal and BrightView monitors! Somebody help me out on this one.

Any recommendations on configurations, alteratives, or advice would be great!

Thanks,

Brian

 

The HP has some quickplay features that allow you to play CD/DVDs without booting the notebook. The colors and trim are different, but underneath they are the same notebook.

You'll get a bigger performance boost with a faster hard drive or more memory than the CPU. You'd only notice it if you doing something very CPU intensive.

Glossy screens are coated so that colors are sharper and more vibrant. They do produce more glare. Some like it, some don't. You might want to head over to BestBuy/CircuitCity to check some out.

Without knowing your budget or what you plan to do with it, it is hard to help. You should consider the FAQ in the hardware forum and post there. Good Luck.

 

Sorry, I left the budget out because EPP prices are different from the list price.

My budget is somewhere around 800-1000. Using the hpshopping.com prices (before rebates) that is somewhere around 1,500-1,600.

I am majoring in CS and do a lot of programming, but also do a lot of database work and some gaming.

For the screen, this would mostly be used in a classroom, at work (cubes), or other situations like that, so reducing glare would be preferred. Is the BrightView screen just a glossy screen?

 

I was thinking about going with:

P-M 735A (1.7)
ATI x700
80gb 5400 HD
512mb ram
XP pro

how much of a battery gain would I be looking at going from the 6 cell lithium to the 12 cell?

 

Doubled battery life - from 2.5+ hours to 5+ hours

 

Is it possible to put software or something to do the viewing of DVD's w/o booting the computer up like the HP can? In case you are like me and ordered the Compaq...

 

I am not aware of anything.

 

Strictly speaking you would have to boot up to run any sort of software, so I don't think that would work too well. It would probably require some hardware-side edits

Here is my final question. What would the power consumption be (as a percent) while running using the quickplay features in comparision to a normal running state?

 

Hey guys! I just got my V4000T yesterday. I'm not ready to submit a full review just yet. But I'll give you a sneak preview for the attributes that pertain to this thread.

First let me say that my purposes for this laptop are 1.) LAN partying. For the games I play, I really needed that x700. And now after some testing I would not recomend anything less. 2.) To allow my wife to comfortably play her game (WoW) while sitting on the couch or bed. 3.) general laptop uses.

Here's what I orderd...
V4000T
1.6 P-M
2x256 (512mb) DDR2
x700 128mb
6-cell
matted (non-glossy) WXGA
80 gig 5400rpm

So with that in mind here's what I found. If I had to do it all over again, I would have just gotten 1x256 DDR2 and replaced it with 2 of these modules. As a matter of fact, I just ordered a pair of them today. I'll let you know how they work out as soon as I get them in and tested. Anyway, last night when I was playing UT2004 with my budy who lives about 3 hours south of me, it was taking too entirely long to load up the maps. (i.e. By the time I was in the game, I was already dead. ) This probably has allot to do with the 5400rpm drive not being a 7200 rpm drive. But, I won't have time to reload the OS before the upcoming LAN this Saturday. Plus, those 7200rpm drives are still a bit pricey!

Another thing I might have considered was upgrading to the P-M 740 or 750. That .03ghz isn't gonna do much. But the 533mhz FSBus sure will! And like zazonz had said, you probably wouldn't notice much of a difference for most things. However, I noticed that when I tried to set up a game for myself on my own machine where the CPU was controlling oll the bots and monsters in UT, I was experiencing noticable CPU lag. I also must say that I was not particularly impressed with the graphics. I can run both UT2004 and HL2 at 1280x800. But I have to turn allot of stuff down or off for it to be reasonably playable. My desktop which has a much better card (x800pro/AMD64 3000+/1gig DDR) has no trouble running UT2004 at 1920x1440 with all the UT2004 display goodies on MAX! And it does this while managing lots of bots and or monsters. And I know, it's a desktop. But when you look at the differences in 3dMark2k5 scores (Lappy:~2500 vs. Desky:~5000), it just seems like the lappy should be just a little smoother. But, let me continue to test. There may be some stupid setting that I've missed or something. I did notice a setting that I think will help allot. I'm gonna test it again tonight.

Overall, I am very happy with the laptop! It seems very solid and from what I'm used to, very light. The matted screen is awesome!!! I can't imagine the glosy screen being much better. The lady at Compaq told me that the glosy screen is better for people who work/play outside. I'm gonna be going to these LAN parties where unknown light sources will always be a problem. When I went and looked at the glossy screens at the store, yeah, they are very apealing at first but when you see all those florescent lights gleeming back at you in the screen ...AAAAHHHHH!!!! Anyway, I'm very happy with the matted screen it is beutiful! ...much better than my desktop CRTs.

Another thing I like is that the laptop looks allot cooler in person to me, than it does on the Compaq website.

Haven't tested the DVD play back yet. Also, I am still conditioning my battery. If battery life is important, I would deffinately get the 12-cell.

Well, sorry about the long response. Hope this helps. These notebooks really are nice.

 

Thanks for the reply, not very many V4000T reviews floating around on this site, or the internet for that matter.

I have one quick question for you. How 'cluttered' does the keyboard layout feel? I have pretty big hands and was hoping the keyboard wouldnt feel as compact as my current laptop.

 

I don't know what you have right now. But I would say the Compaqs and Hps have some of the largest keys around as far as laptops go. They seem much larger than say an Acer Travelmate. They have a reall good solid feel to them too. YOu should go to a computer store and check out some of the Compaqs and HPs there. It think most of them share the same keyboards.

 

WOOPs!! Extra post! Sorry.

 

Some Pics...

My camera is not that great. so bare with me.


Check out my FPS on WoW at 1280x800

 

Ok! One more...



I'm really startin' to like this puppy!

 

Thanks for the pics. Look forward to a nice big review

 

I didn't want to start a new thread for this, so one more question

For the network card, what is the difference between the intel wireless and the other one (with the speedbooster that will never actually do anything :>). Also, would bluetooth be worth getting?