R3000T Anyone have comments?

Still searching for a notebook & found this to be one of the few HP/Compact offerings with 64MB ATI 9600 dedicated video. The only drawback I see is that it if fairly heavy, coming in around nearly 8 lbs.

Mobile P4 2.8GHz
XP Home
512 MB DDR
40G HD
DVD/CDRW
54g Broadcom WLAN
15.4 WXGA
64MB ATI 9600
12 cell battery

$1262 after student discount & $100 rebate.

Where is the downside?

 

The downside is the way it looks.

Are you sure 40GB is going to be enough for you? Since you have got ATI 9600/64 I can guess you are going to have some games on your HD. Plus mp3 music, plus movies - you are running out of space.

Quikster, is 40 GB enough for you? What kind of games do you play and do you save music/movies on HD?

 

I have the R3000T with lesser specifications.

Celeron 2.8
256 RAM
ATI 9000 IGP Shared Memory

It is heavy. Add the brick size recharger and your carrying case is going to be heavy.

Smart move on your part to get the 12 Cell. Wish I did. Let me know how long your battery last if you decide to get it.

Looks wise is very subjective. You like silver, get Compaq. You like black, get HP.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
Looks wise is very subjective. You like silver, get Compaq. You like black, get HP.
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Agreed.
Now the more important thing, does it have good speakers? I mean I do not hope having sub-woofer but music should be playable pretty loud.
Also, I could not get 3D view of it on hp.com, where are the speakers placed?

 

For me 40gb is plenty for a couple of reasons though.
I still have my desktop with 2x80gb hard drives, then I have a dvd burner and a cd burner in my desktop as well. Plus I have another 80gb hard drive that is an external USB2.0 drive.

As for which games I play a cs 1.6 with steam, Splinter Cell: Pandora's Tomrow, Halo, XIII, and age of empires II: conquer's expansion for the most part, plus demo's every now and then.
It makes a great game machine to bring to lan parties and to friends houses.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

My wife has the HP Pavilion N5310 laptop and the music coming from the speakers sounds like AM Radio. My Compaq R3000T has the JBK logo on the side and it sounds much better but it's no Hi-Fi Stereo. You don't buy a laptop for the speakers. Just plug in a set of headphones if you want good sound.

 

actually the HP models with the Harmon-Kardon speakers are great sounding, and thus don't need a pair of headphones. Personally I like my computer to have a good pair of speakers that way if more than one person is watching a movie or whatever they can do so.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

So far the only con I see from anyone is the weight. It is a concern but only a minor one. I don't play games or download MP3's etc. so 40G should suffice. As for the video card, I do use photoshop and run some engineering design programs, ala autocad & some modeling programs so the better video spec should be helpful. Also, it should not become to obsolete in the next year or two. Gee, what is the average useful life of a computer these days?
Anyone know of another (less heavy) model with similar specs for near the same price?

 

Rfi,
I guess weight is a very big issue that most have with this unit. It is on the larger side & then you have the AC adapter. The other con I could see with the config you listed is the WXGA screen. Because you're going to be doing things like CAD & graphics modeling, etc... these usually would benefit from a screen that has a higher resolution so you can fit more onto the screen.

There are other brands/models that have similar specs, but may be a bit more expensive. The Sony A-Series (they have a 15.4" LCD model but don't know if it's available yet), eMachines & the Toshiba P-Series. They all have comparable LCD's, HDD's, Video card, etc... options & some may even be in the same price range. You're best bet in the 3 listed would be the eMachines on the below link.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=549IVqfAgAxIaucFptdCXejPND5gZo8plj8=?CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_A_Series&Dept=cpu

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_M6410

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=HHO&coid=-26382&sel=0&rcid=-26367&ccid=1291021

-Vb-

 

Venombite:

Point taken and it is heavy. However, my need for a notebook is for occasional use when I have to travel which is not very often, plus I don't even like notebooks! (grin). We have five desktops in our home network plus my son's Mac Powerbook (nice machine). For any real heavy graphics work I'd be using the desktops or the Mac.

Of the three units you listed all would probably do the job but I do have issues with two of the choices. EMachines & Sony - different issues for each. Toshibia is a nice product but way to expensive for what I want to do.

I'm still kicking around a few other models but HP is realy screwing around with the available configurations. I like the looks & price of the Averatech 5110 but am concerned about the reliability of the produce and the longevity of the company- not to mention the very pale display.

Quite a dilemma with all the possibile choices.

 

The issues with the Averatec 5110 that I notcied are that it's only a Pentium 1.3Ghz CPU which is quite slower than a Mobile P4 2.8Ghz (PM 1.3Ghz x 1.4 = Mobile P4 1.82Ghz approx). The graphics doesn't have an ATI 9600 chip or even close, it has the Intel 855GM chipset which is an integrated graphics chip (will work but will be slower) that shares the system memory (512MB System Ram - 64MB Video Ram = 448MB Usable System Ram). The model does look good and is small and light, but is somewhat below what your original specs indicated. The price is also very good, but I'd like to see you get the best bang for the buck.
There are other notebooks that have similar specs to the Averatec, have you considered the Acer or Asus product lines, or even a Gateway? I know the Gateway models are also priced similar to the Averatec.

http://www.gateway.com/home/products/hm_ptb_catalog.shtml?cmpid=consumer*Corp_Home*Billboard*NTBFreeShipping*HOMEPage

http://usa.asus.com/products/notebook/nbindex.htm

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/index.htm

-Vb-

 

I agree with you assesment of the Averatech - it looks nice on the surface but... I do prefer the specs of the R3000T (except for the weight) and in particular the availability of the ATI 9600 video card. The ZT3000 might be an alternative but currently they do not offer the 9600 video card.

As for Gateway, (didn't they buy or merge or something like that with EMachines?) I question the current stability of the company. The have lost a lot of market share to HP & Dell.

Asus & Acer have nice specs but price is an issue. I'll have to revisit their sites and go over configs again. One other point is that I have access to both student and/or work related discounts with Dell & HP which can help with the price. We have a bunch of Dell notebooks at work & there have been many issues with quality so I am staying away from that brand. If only there was a way to shave a couple of pounds off the R3000T & shrink the power adapter!

 

[ ] Yeah, my eyes nearly popped out of its sockets when I saw the AC adapter. I don't understand why they can't use the adapters from the NC Corporate series, nice & small. HP & Dell are the top 2 largest computer manufacturers in the world now. If I had to choose a brand either HP or Dell, I'd say HP. I've gone through the site and read the complaints on the Dell & HP notebooks & find there are more problems with Dell quality than HP. The main complaint about HP would be the tech support.

As you indicated previously, for the HEAVY graphics work, you'll use your desktops or MAC notebooks & you don't play games. If that's the case, is there really a need for such a high end graphics card? If not, you could go for the ZT3000 even though it has the 9200, which is powerful enough to play most games and do somewhat graphics intensive applications.

Another unit you may want to consider is the NX5000. It's small, light, should use the smaller adapters, has decent power, but it has the Intel integrated video card. This unit goes for approx $1500, but that's before discounts & rebates. This notebook is a Business variant of the NC6000 Corporate line.

-Vb-

 

also if he liked the zx5000 and didn't need heavy graphics he could go with the zv5000 or the zv5000z.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

But then it still comes down to weight of the unit & AC.

-Vb-

 

Gone over it again- and again. I'm not much of an AMD fan so I've ruled out those lines. I rehashed the ZT3000 which I had looked at a number of times before being distracted by the R3000T & the ATI 9600 card. After going over my intended use and possible future use I think the ATI 9600 would be very nice but I can live with a lesser video capability. So, I am thinking along the lines of the ZT3000 with the WSXGA display. Price is in line with where I want to be.

So here is the config:
______
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) M 1.5 GHz
Operating System Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home
Memory 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)
Hard Drive 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
Primary CD/DVD Drive DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Networking Intel(R) Pro Wireless 2200 802.11b/g WLAN
Display 15.4" WVA WSXGA+ (1680x1050)
Graphics Card 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200
Productivity Software Microsoft(R) Works/Money
Primary Battery 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
6.5 lb

Prices out at $1312.06 with student or corporate discount and free shipping.

Any know issues with this model line?

 

Looks nice, the only one I ever heard about was a problem with the LAN adapter, but I don't know if that has been resolved or not.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

Yes, the LAN adapter will have connection problems when using such programs as BitTorrent, plus there may be a buzzing noise from one of the resistors on the upper right corner of the unit. HP's aware of this problem, but don't know if they actually fixed it or just put glue on top of it to muffle the sound. A user posted a possible workaround for the buzzing noise by disabling the Power Management for the USB in the Device Manager. I can't comment if this worked or not because I had already returned my NX7000 (same platform as the ZT3000).

-Vb-

 

It was either a resistor or capacitor that was buzzing. I can't remember, it's been a while since I returned my notebook. This is what one of the engineers told me when I was working with him to get the problem fixed. The "solution" was to put glue over it to coverup the sound. I din't think that was acceptable and decided to return the unit.

Edit: D'OH! Sorry, but just noticed the heading for the post was for an R3000T not a ZT3000, sorry that's my bad! This buzzing issue was not for the Presario R3000T's it was the NX7000/X1000/ZT3000 series.

-Vb-

 

Doubt I would be using BitTorrent so that should not be a problem. As for the buzzing resistor, that's interesting. Having been in the electronics/telecommunications field for almost 40 years I have never heard of a 'resistor' buzzing. I've seen em smoke, fry, & explode but never a buzz. Can anyone elaborate on what the buzzing is exactly?

 

Actually you are correct. The question was for a ZT3000. The original post was for the Compact R3000T but that sort of went by the wayside due to it's weight & power adapter.

Capacitor I can believe. The too smoke, fry & explode (violently) but have also been known to buzz (in particular filter capacitors - 60 Hz)
Thanks for the tip, if I do in fact order this model I'llkeep an ear open for the buzz.

 

You have to set your power management setting to "Always On" in XP and have nothing connected to the USB ports. If you connect a USB mouse or something that starts to draw power from it, the sound goes away. i was also told by a user on this site that disabling the USB Power Management option in the device manager would also eliminate the buzzing sound.

-Vb-

 

Pulled the trigger last night so I'll give a first impression review in a few weeks.

Thanks for all the input.

RFI

 

I take it you went for the ZT3000. Congratulations on your purchase! I'm sure you're gonna be happy with the unit.

-Vb-

 

You should of gotten the 12 cell battery. How much more for it? $25.00? The 12 cell should give you at least 50% more battery power than the 8 cell battery.

 

They don't make a 12cell for the zt3000. I don't mean to be rude, but please pay attention to the model and information I know I've said several times before that there is no 12 cell battery for a zt3000, since it doesn't need it with that Pentium M processor and it is trying to sell as a lighter notebook.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

You should be able to get over 4 hours on the ZT3000 with its supplied battery. most people with x1000/zt3000 models generally get close to 4.5 hours. You may want to knock the screen brightness down 2-3 levels to improve this, but it's a pretty solid power scrooge.

-n

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by rfi

 

Don't let Intel see you making comments like that [ ]!

RFI may not be any beef with AMD, it just could be that he's decided specifically on an Intel based system. It would be similar if you've decided on a North American car, but people keep mentioning Japanese cars. Nothing wrong with the car, but it's just been decided that you want a North American car. IMHO.

-Vb-

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Venombite

 

Long winded a bit...

Interesting twist of the thread…. To address the AMD issue, yes, my experiences with AMD were in fact during the mid 90’s. Lots of heat and instability. Things may have changed but it appears there is still a heat problem. Found some interesting comparisons between Intel & AMD during a fan failure test. AMD did not fair very well - and the tests were run this century :}

Now to address the original thread which sort of started out about a Compaq RT3000 but was really intended to be a search for info to aid the purchase of a new notebook. Came down to a choice between the RT3000 & the HP ZT3000. I did finally purchase the ZT3000, mostly due to the lower weight, the smaller power adapter and the thinner case. My trade off was a smaller battery and a less aggressive video card. Most other features are pretty much the same.

Quick turn around by HP, ordered on line on June 10 & it was delivered today, June 18. First impressions are pretty good. Nice style and it appears thinner than what I had imagined. No dead pixels and nice bright screen. On the negative side, I did not care for all the crap they preloaded on it - uninstall getting a workout there. Also seems to boot slow but mostly due to the slow HD.

For a comparison I have the ZT3000 sitting next to my sons Mac G4 Powerbook & we are giving them a quick going over. So far the G4 wins hands down but then it is twice the price!

We tried to play the same DVD in the Powerbook and the HP. The HP complained that the DVD was for the wrong region. WinXP says you can only change the region code 5 times - they lied. My young hacker want to be made quick work of the region code issue & now it plays DVD’s from any region without changing anything further. I have a couple of trips coming up in the next few weeks so will get a chance to run the HP thru its paces on the road. I will put together a more in depth review after using it for a while. As I stated in an earlier post, I really don't like notebooks but do have a need so my review will not be biased.

BTW, many thanks to all on the board who offered their comments , opinions and observations - all which helped me in the final purchase decision.

Oh yeah, I have a Honda Civic and Odyssey, Plymouth Voyager and a Chevy Silverado so I'm even.

RFI… it’s everywhere