Mini-Review: HP Compaq F572US

Hey guys,

I don't post much here, but I thought I could contribute today with a mini-review of the Compaq F572US. It's a new budget laptop by HP Compaq, and it has a number of features that caught my eye especially at this price point. I picked it up at Office Depot today and after price-matching to Staples...the computer should end up being $330 after rebates but before tax. Anyway, the computer features the following:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-53 Dual Core Processor @ 1.7Ghz
80GB Harddrive
1gb RAM
Nvidia Geforce Go 6100
Broadcom Wireless B/G Card
Windows Vista Home Premium

I spent quite a bit of time tinkering around with one in the store and found it to be a very attractive, functional laptop. It is amazing to see how far HP/Compaq's design team has come, considering I use to own a Compaq R4000 which featured the same screen size, but a much thicker case and huge power brick.This laptop shares the same casing the Compaq V6000 redesign, however it doesn't feature the imprint finish, and has a slightly different texture on the top cover. The top and bottom of the case are a matte black, while the inside is a smooth gunmetal colored plastic. It also features the new Compaq logos. The speaker grill looks rather cheap; it's very obvious where the speakers are set as the faux speaker vents aren't very convincing. All in all, this is a very beautiful, professional, sleek looking laptop. The build quality is rather average; the screen ripples when pushed on from the back cover. The keyboard has a nice layout, however it is a little louder than I expected. The touchpad is a nice size, and the buttons are nice and quiet. Again, this is a budget laptop and it seems Compaq has ditched the touch-sensitive volume buttons in favor of FN key combinations. Also noticeable absent is a PCMCIA Slot, Expresscard Slot, and media card reader. The screen is the glossy kind with a 1280x800 resolution. It is quite bright, and the glossy finish helps make colors pop. The speakers are Altec Lansing branded and they are loud! I've had HP/Compaq laptops before with the Altec Lansing speakers and they can't even compete in terms of volume. The speakers begin to distort a bit at the loud end, but it's to be expected of such small speakers. What interested me about this laptop was the new Athlon X2 badged TK-53 processor. I particularly like the new system badges that adorn this laptop. I knew that AMD hadn't released the Athlon X2 previously for laptop motherboards, so this was something of a novelty that caught peaked my interest. I'm assuming they've dug up the Athlon X2 processor name for their budget chips to compete with the newly resurrected Pentium name for Intel's budget dual-core chips.Vista reports an Athlon X2 however CPU-Z identifies the processor as a Turion X2, codenamed "Tyler". What's interesting though is this processor is 65nm, so that should help with battery life and heat. Also inside is an Nvidia 6100 which can handle light gaming. I loaded up Command and Conquer 3 and it ran pretty well considering the integrated graphics. After spending an hour of removing all the bloatware, the computer is very snappy considering only having 1gb of ram. When the system is being pushed hard, the fan kicks in a bit and the wrist rest gets somewhat warm, but nothing to write home about. I think the battery is a standard six-cell, not the higher capacity six-cell and I seem to get around 2-2.5 hours of battery life unplugged, though I'll have to test that some more. After spending some time with it, I can say I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and believe it to be a steal at this pricepoint.

Here are some pics:

 

Wow, great deal for $330! It is nice to see someone post with pictures of the Compaq F5xx series, as it has been rarely seen or talked about.

Just out of curiosity, what is the average cpu temp of your TK-53?

 

thats a steal for 330!

r u sure its 65nm? i thought AMD was gonna make those in autumn with their desktop series?

 

Yup, the TK-53 is 65nm, and so is my TL-58.

 

wow! AMD has finally released somethign new LOL

 

You really get 2-2.5 hours? I actually lose about 10% of my battery with the laptop in hibernate. I get 1.5 - 2 hrs AT MOST on this. It's nice, however. BTW, I checked OD and it was $599 minus $150 in rebates. How did you get it for $330?

 

he said he price-matched it first to another place then minus rebates. so 599 minus price match then minus the $150 rebate

 

I haven't been able to check the core temp...all the programs I use seem to get different results. Mikelets- I do seem to get at least 2 hours consistently if not more, though I guess I'd have to test it more extensively to accurately see how much I get. I pricematched to Staples which had it in store for 510, so with the OD rebates(150+30 HP rebate), it comes out to 330.

 

Great deal and nice laptop for $330. You sure had a nice find there. Can't beat it for the price.

 

Oh, forgot to add it has a DVD Burner!

 

Do you know what the product number is at Office Depot? That's an awesome deal.

 

wow what adeal $330? I don't know how you ended up getting such a good deal on that computer. I saw the model at a Sam's Club, looks good. I'm not too fond about the Athlon processor.... still for the price - wow. Can't beat it.

 

I picked up one of these for school, $459 great value.

 

Can you get an extedned life battery for these??

 

you mean a larger battery? just go to HP.com just look at what the battery is compatible with

 

I got this laptop today. Pretty spiffy, but it has Vista, which is way too cumbersome for me. I went to HP, and could only find drivers for Vista. Anybody know where I could get drivers for XP, so I can format and reinstall?

 

the 12 cell battery from the v3000/v6000 should drop straight into these notebooks.

dick smith electronics this weekend had the F503AU on sale for $842AU plus $100 cashback, $742AU makes this notebook pretty well the best value in the nation for new notebooks IMO.

 

So I looked up the battery model number for the f572us, and it listed a ton of laptops. I clicked on one of the laptops randomly, and it gave a list of several batteries that would work with it. Will these also work for the f572us?

Also, does anyone know what the abbreviations AHR and WHR stand for? And how do these affect power time?

 

I just signed up to this site just so I could post to this thread!

I saw an advertisement for this laptop at staples for 480 plus a 30 rebate which will bring it down to 450. So since then I've been interested in this model for college. (I already have a big fat alienware 7700 notebook which is 15 pounds and breathes fire... not very portable for school.)

It looked good but the proccessor made me supcious because amd didn't have the tk-53 product info on their site (its seriously no where to be found).... so i googled around and this is the best info i could find:

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=86693

Anyways, I was amazed at how you got the laptop for 330? Was this on sale at office depot in just your area, did you just get lucky with rebates? Do you think I could still get it for 330?

I think tommorrow I'm going to call office depots in my area and see if I can get any kind of deal like you did.

If all else fails anyone know any other good laptop deals going around in retail outlets?

Thanks!

 

Pitchblack,

I don't think you'll be able to get it down to 330 unless Office Depot is offering another 150 rebate. If you read through my first post, I had to price match to Staples to get the 479 price and then I could tack on Office Depot's 150 mail-in rebate, which was only good for the week that I bought it. For a budget notebook, it has more of the nicer features like a DVD burner and dual core, but it is also missing some big features like an expansion card slot or memory card reader. Anyway, considering you already have another capable computer, I can whole-heartedly recommend this laptop for a nice portable college laptop. It's got nearly everything you'd need in a notebook for taking notes and surfing the internet on campus. Unless you're totally hooked on this laptop though, I'd consider shopping around. I think Best Buy has a dual core Gateway which looks mighty nice considering it doesn't have any rebates. If I had to buy a notebook this week, it would be this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8413139&st=8413139&type=product&id=1181347936925&ref=10&loc=01. Hope this helps, good luck with your hunt!

 

Well thanks pac man for your help. I finally bought this computer.

After looking around I felt as though this was the best deal for my area. There was a special at staples so it was marked down from 600 to 480 plus a 30 dollar rebate so I bought it for 450 basically, and they also gave me a 25 dollar gift certificate for their "dining dough" program. It also came with a free hp printer (after another rebate), but I didn't waste my time because I already have a new printer. Still A really good deal.

I really like the feel of this computer. The keys feel nice and sturdy to type on. It also looks pretty professional. I love the blue led's. It's light, speedy, seems like college material. I like how they have USB ports on both sides and there is no latch for opening and closing. The sound is not bad for laptop speakers. I like the touch pad and how you can turn it off if you like (must save power if using mouse?). The touchpad buttons feel like my finger is falling into a pit but I could get used to it. The windows premium with aero gives the desktop a nice new refreshing feel.

I was impressed at how well it was packaged out of the box, as compared to a toshiba laptop I just helped set up for someone which ...well, was messy. After spending a couple hours removing the bloatware and tailoring vista to my liking I feel as though this is a great value laptop. I am pretty happy and will now will jump into my studies right away...lol. Let's just see if it holds up to the test of time....

 

Those are my sentiments exactly- I was looking for something just to tote around campus and something I don't really have to worry about.

 

I bought the F572US almost 2 weeks ago and found that Vista was horrible and didn't feel like upgrading to 2 gig of ram to make Vista usable.

So I decided to put XP Pro on the laptop. It turned into a 3 day exercise in frustration. Compaq/HP doesn't offer XP drivers for this laptop. They basically require you to stick with Vista. Fortunately the laptop internals are the same as other laptops in their line. It took some research but I eventually was able to compile all of the drivers needed for XP to work on the F572US from the Compaq/HP site except for the Nvidia drivers. I had to find the latest Geforce Go 61xx drivers on a different site.

I found out that Nvidia is contractually prohibited from providing any drivers that will work on laptops that use their chipsets. In otherwords if you want new drivers for your NForce or Geforce Go chipsets you can't get them from NVidia. You have to get them from the laptop manufacturer.

For everyone who wants to change from Vista to XP I have provided a download that contains all of the publicly available drivers.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7G4Q5BJM

I posted about my experiences on my blog and provided this link. So far over 20 people have downloaded the file archive. That's not bad since my blog doesn't get that much traffic. The archive is around 135 meg in size and I hope it helps out anyone who wants to change to XP. My laptop is actually FAST wince I switched from Vista to XP.

 

The only thing I haven't been able to find yet is a compatible 12 cell battery. That is one thing that would really be useful since the 6 cell battery life isn't as long as I would like.

 

Conidering the F572us resembles the V6000 series notebook. A 12 cell battery compatible with the v6000 series should be compatible with the F5xx series as well.

 

How much memory did you start out with? I have one gig and vista works great. And I usually run 5 plus programs at once.

 

how has it been working?

 

Best Buy has 1 Gig sticks of Pny Pc5300 ram for notebooks for $42.99, I just upgraded my ram to 2 gig on my F572US. Great notebook, I am really pleased for the price.

 

Hi everyone, I'm a new user and just wanted to add my praise to the Compaq F572US laptop. It really is a steal. I didn't get it for quite as cheap as the original poster, but I did get it for about $100 more, so still...quite a good deal. Especially since the Circuit City down the way from the Office Depot I purchased the laptop at was having a great deal on Wenger notebook bags, 59.99 with a 60.00 dollar rebate .

I've been pleasantly surprised with this laptop. It's quick, efficient, and very professional looking. My wife and I were looking for a laptop (our first) so that I could use it while I begin my seminary studies. This laptop definitely has fit the bill.

For those that have asked, the extended 12-cell batteries for the V6000 are compatible with this laptop. I purchased one this past Friday and it has easily raised off the plug operating time from 1.5-2.0 hours to well over 5 hours.

In the new few weeks, I'll probably be looking to upgrade the ram to 2GBs, just to keep the computer from getting too taxed and I'll eventually upgrade the hard drive from it's current 80GBs at some point.

Question though, I looked at the 80GB 'plug' interface and it's quite different from the desktop hard drives I'm used to seeing. Is this 'push in' feature the same with all SATA notebook hard drives? Or is there a specific type of interface I need to look for when I do decide to upgrade the hard drives?

The only things I can 'complain' about with this model are the fact that the touch pad is very sensitive and my thumbs/back of my hands keep hitting it and make the cursor fly everywhere. Very annoying when typing something. In fact, this is my 2nd attempt at typing this post because my straying hands accidentally closed Firefox while I was typing...grr...

The other gripe I had with the computer was the fact that no installation CDs came with the laptop...it only came with a partition (about 10GBs) for you to reinstall Vista if it ever crashes on you. However, I want my hard copies, so I bit the bullet and purchased the 'official' cds from HP for $16.00. My though process being, if my computer crashes, how the hell am I going to get to the partition on my hard drive if my computer won't boot? Oh well.

if those are the 'only' things I can complain about, that's pretty good. So, if you're looking for a good computer at a great price, this is definitely a laptop worth looking at

 

The laptop comes with a DVD drive that can burn both CD and DVD. You can use the recovery manager to burn your own DVD recovery disks from the recovery partition. It will take 2 DVD's to do this and would have saved you the $16.

And if the touch pad is annoying you it can be turned off. The little dimple at the top of the touch pad is the on/off switch for the touch pad. Press it and the little touchpad light to the left will turn red indicating the touchpad is turned off.

 

Panama - Yep, I know it would've saved me 16 bucks. But i realized that after I bought the DVD from them. Not a big deal, 16 bucks is nothing...if it had been 60 bucks (like my wife thought, lol) than I'd (and so would she) be a bit more pissed, lol.

And I know you can turn off the touchpad. I think when it comes down to it, I just have to learn how to type effectively on a laptop to not hit it. Which, I'm getting better at.

In the end, it's still a great laptop for it's price. Was a bit disappointed that it didn't come with any expansion slots, but when I think about it, I don't know what else I'd put into it that I'd use it for. So it's all good

 

Hello,

I just bought this computer and installed Windows XP home on it. I am in the process of using Panama Jack's linked drivers (thanks).

However I am noticing that I only have a C drive size of 66.4 GB in capacity...

Have I done something incorrectly? I do know that when i installed XP it asked me about unpartitioning a drive and I did unpartition the backup drive D:.

Any insight?

 

It sounds like the restore partition is still allocated on the drive. Right click on the computer icon and select Manage. After it loads click on Disk Management. That should show you all of the paritions on the drive.

 

Also, I posted newer drivers a few weeks ago and forgot to update this thread.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GBEOLZWL

 

Yeah I figured that out last night.... when I reinstalled XP I caught the partition.. I used the D to delete all partitions and then created just one.

Also of note don't leave USB cards plugged in... I thought it was another partition and cleaned it off and into a RAW file... I have since fixed that though.

Panama I am curious why your download has the light scribe drivers? From what I have read the DVD drive is not light scribe?

 

My 572US came with lightscribe programs, though I haven't tried making any labels yet...

 

NCX,

If you go to run and type dxdiag.... under the display tab do you show Direct Draw, Direct3d, and AGP Architecture acceleration? Direct 3d on mine is showing not available...

I am going to install the newest directx version to see if that corrects it.

 

I was concerned about this as well. However, my 3 year old lap top has an expansion slot and I never used it. The only thing I was concerned about is if I get Verizon Wireless' aircard...then I soon realized they have a USB version, so I'm covered.

 

I was in the same boat as you... this is obvious but, if you don't like the idea of the USB aircard sticking out the side and becoming a liability of being broken etc... use an extension cable.

 

I have been a Windows XP die hard along with Win 98 SE for many years...I thought they were excellent operating systems and i still "swear" by them.

However, after running Vista for a few months, I love it. It's very quick and once you get used to it, it's simple and efficient. For the life of me, why go back to XP besides the reason of saving some disk space and a few other things. I really don't see why....unless I'm missing something.

 

/\ I don't know how often Panama gets into here, so I will link his web page (which he linked in other posts on this forum) for reference. I feel kind of the same way... however I have been reading that if I upgraded to 2 gigs of ram I should be all set... Given that I may do that in a bit.

Secondly I don't know how to use Vista.... I don't have a book, and until I got this laptop I did not have internet at my home... Mainly due to not being able to get it through cable, and dial up is too expensive in my area and too slow..

I am at work 80% of the time and have their access which is very fast. So i had no resources to use to learn Vista while at home, which is where I would be learning it..

I think I will be on XP for maybe 6 months to a year... then get another Gig and reinstall Vista, until then.

 

DirectDraw, Direct3D, and AGP Architecture are all enabled on my computer...

Again, I haven't tried burning a lightscribe label yet, but my computer did come with lightscribe features...

And, I believe the add at office depot where I got it mentioned that it was lightscribe capable...so who knows...

 

I included the Lightscribe Host because it came on the original Vista install. I don't know if it works or not as I don't feel like spending the huge difference in price for Lightscribe DVDs.

I set my laptop up as a Dual Boot with XP and Vista for testing purposes. I upgraded from 1GB to 2GB of ram. Vista actually becomes usable and fairly quick if you upgrade to 2GB of ram AND disable Superfetch.

Some people claim that Superfetch will greatly speed up your computer and they are completely full of it. After probably 30+ reboots and over a week of use Vista with 2GB and Superfetch enabled was still SLOW. Vista would spend most of its time hitting the swap file. Even after all that time the laptop would be running the hard drive for 5+ minutes after the desktop appeared. It would take that long to fill up the extra ram with TOTALLY USELESS GARBAGE IT THOUGHT I MIGHT USE. If I loaded any program that wasn't cached in ram it would take forever for the program to load as Vista would move the cached data to the SWAPFILE to make room. It wasn't intelligent enough to just discard the data. Changing the hard drive from a 5400rpm to a 7200rpm would probably help but not enough to matter.

After a week of total frustration in how long it would take to load anything I turned off Superfetch and the speed difference was amazing. The hard drive would stop after the desktop came up. Loading programs happened many times faster than before as it didn't have to move cached crap to the swapfile.

Vista finally became usable but anyone that tells you that 512MB-1GB with Superfetch enabled is usable is either lying through their teeth or they never experienced anything else.

You still have to be very careful under Vista because you can totally corrupt the operating system by installing older XP software. Vista doesn't seem to have a decent ability to prevent that from happening. So much for being more secure. I would recommend making a partition backup before you install any XP software. This way if Vista becomes corrupt you can recover. BTW, having System Restore and making Restore Points may not save you. It never has for me yet. Basically a useless feature that just uses a crapload of hard drive space. Disable it on all drives and use decent backup software like Acronis.

For those of you who don't have the $70-$120 to spend on upgrading your ram or still want to use XP software you should install XP.

If you want both then install XP and then install Vista to create a Dual Boot system. There is a tutorial somewhere on here on how to extract your Vista Key from your Vista install. Then you can use a Trial Vista DVD to install as a dual boot and then install your Vista Key. This way you will have a clean Vista install without the horde of crapware they include with the laptop.

 

Hmm...I edited some startup programs and services on my laptop, and it literally takes no time to bootup at all...I haven't even messed with superfetch.

Though, if I wanted to test the system without superfetch turned on, where would I go?

 

Now are you talking about a boot from scratch or coming back from Hibernation or Sleep Mode?

If you know how to turn on and off services just go to the service manager and find SuperFetch in the service list. Select properties and disable it.

 

Okay,

ncxcstud got the direct draw set up... It didnt show the first time but all is well now.

Thanks again Panama and everyone for the continued conversation and learning experience on this laptop. Office Depot has it right now for $449.99 after 2 rebates. Radioshack sells it (pre rebate) for 614.99 so it might work to price match RS price at OD and then use the rebates as the Radioshack rebates are gift card variety.

Anyway on to another question....


When I move the laptop from say my lap to a table top etc. I notice that the LCD screen/display in the lower right corner distorts due to pressure. After seeing this a few times I lightly pushed on the lid(back of the screen) and I can get no distortion anywhere but the lower right corner... its fairly easy to get the colors etc to distort. I am fairly new to LCD displays so is that a concern? Its almost as if something inside the case is not aligned correctly and causing this distortion....

OR am I being overly worried about a common or irrelevant issue?

 

I got this notebook about two weeks ago from Staples after my G4 ibook died on me (if I could afford another mac I would buy it just for the simplicity of the OS - Linux would be nice, but driver's are a problem). My first impressions of Vista was disappointing. All the hype of Vista and the best they could come up with is a memory bogged, prettier version of XP? I never knew it was that slow and complicated to use (maybe it's just me). I ended up upgraded the ram to 2GBs and noticed a boost in performance, however, I still wasn't satisfied with the performance increase as the hard drive was being accessed when idle. I applied most of the settings from Top 10 Windows Vista Speed Tweaks and then stumbled upon Panama Jack's blog. I'm going to install XP soon because I don't like a lot of the incompatibility with the non-vista certified software and performance problems.

For those that have installed XP, have you noticed lower temps with your notebook? The fan on this notebook is fairly loud and frequently spins and I was wondering if it ran any cooler (e.g. fan doesn't frequently spin).

Cheers

 

Panama - I don't usually let my computer go into hibernation very often, but when it has...it doesn't take long at all to boot up...

and I was was talking about talking about starting from boot...doesn't take long at all...

 

i just one like this yesterday for 475$. it has a recovery partition, does anyone know how to use that?

pauleta, try disabling superfetch.

 

The drivers work great. I love this thanks. However, dont do thee bios update in windows xp.

the new update also made the comp crash due to memory. My kingston ddr2 533 1 gig sticks stoped working and i had to swap the old memory back in.

btw, does anyone know if its possible to install internal bluetooth in this computer?
When i look in system info it says that there are two network cards, one is the wifi and the other reads disabled



Network Cards
Number of Network Cards: 2
Card 1 (Connected): Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Description: Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Type: WIRELESS LAN
Speed: 54 Mbps
MAC Address: **-**-**-**-**-**
IP Address: ************

Card 2 (Disabled): NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Description: [8] NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Type: Unknown Type