Questions about ZT3000

After weeks of contemplating and looking at all the models that have what I want (including Dell 600m, 8600; Toshiba M2V; PowerNote Book C:17; IBM T40 series), I finally settled on the HP ZT 3000 customized as below. As a college student, I place a high premium on battery life and on portability so I didn't get a comparably priced but more powerful laptop that weighed 2-3 lbs more (you know with p4 HT and a radeon 9800).

Here are some questions I have about my purchase though:

1) Shoud I get an extended warranty? If so, what warranty should I get? HP has some fairly expensive warranty options and I'm not sure which one really is best for me. I was thinking either 1 year accidental damage with service express or just 2 year service express.

I bike to school, so my notebook may get some jostling (though traffic is quite lite). I'm afraid maybe I'll not zip my backpack enough and things will come tumbling out. However, I am pretty responsible so this may just be paranoia.

2) How good is the 9200 for games? I mostly play war 3 and a few fps, but I really want to play Half Life 2 when it comes out. I don't need the best graphics or resolution. I just want it to look pretty good and run at 40 fps at 1024x768. Is the 9200 (64 mb) good enough to do that?

3) How do I tweak the power options to get more than 3 hours? I sometimes have 4-5 hour blocks of classes where I don't have a plug. I've read you can get over 4 hours if you tweak the power settings right. I also read, that the main source of the problem is the screen which is the biggest user of battery life. How do I change this?

From what I've read, I'm fairly happy with my purchase. I'm not sure if I should've gotten the NC6000 instead though (which has a 3 year limited service warranty, 32mb 9600 or 9700 card, and a 5 hour battery life, and weighs about 1.5 lbs less). My main reason for not getting that was the screen was smaller, it had dingier speakers, no firewire, and it cost about 300 more (I don't know if the warranty necessarily justifies the cost).

Any input would be appreciated.

Just bought (haven't even received yet). 735 Dothan. 784 mb ram. 8x dvd, 15.4" w/ BrightView, 64 mb ddr ATI 9200 dedicated, bluetooth enabled, 60 gb 5400 rpm.

 

depends on how well you sleep at night everyone's assessment of risk and the costs differ

 

1. Yes, extended warranties, IMO, are an excellent safety blanket to have. Just 1 major repair after the standard warranty expires will more than pay for the extended warranty. If you're accident prone, get the Accidental Damage Coverage, if not, you may just want to up it to 3 years (total). By the time you're finished school or ready to upgrade, the warranty will be up.

2. The 9200 will play games fairly well, but the newest games may suffer. I don't know if you'll be able to play HL2 on this notebook. The latest games will require massive amounts of GPU power, so you should get a unit with an excellent GPU. An ATI 9600 or comparable Nvidia GPU should be the minimum. 64MB should be fine.

3. Well, if the larger the screen the bigger the drain, the only way to fix this would be to get a smaller screen. If a 15.4" is needed/wanted, than you have to drop your brightness, enable the max power savings option in the Power Management settings and try not do use the wireless, cd/dvd or HDD that much. You should be able to get close to 4 hrs. An HP NC6000 with the 2nd modular battery installed should push your runtime to almost 9hrs.

4. If you're looking for a unit with excellent battery life, a fast GPU and is inexpensive, you may want to chack out the Acer product lines. the Acer Travelmate 4501WLMi & 3201XCi would be excellent alternatives to the ZT3000 & NC6000. The 4501 is the 15.4" WXGA model, PM 715 Dothan, 512MB, 40GB, DVD +/-, ATI 9700 GPU w/64MB, 6.5lbs, approx 5hrs runtime and goes for $1400US. The 3201 has pretty much the same specs, except that the LCD is 14.1" XGA, DVD/CDRW Combo, 60GB HDD, weighs only 4.8lbs & has an approx 4hr runtime. This unit goes for $1450US.

-Vb-

 

Try the zt3000 forum for a good discussion of gaming and lots of technical tips....http://www.x1000forums.com/