Refurb Elitebook 2530 vs. DM3z

Its time for me to replace my aging IBM X30. Its served its purpose very well, but its time for something a bit newer. My concern is not gaming, but a machine I can do coding on, play with Linux distros, VMware stuff, etc...

Specs of the 2530 (sold through newegg.com ad is factory refurb)

Core 2 SL9300 1.6GHZ 6MB L2 cache
2GB Ram
80GB HD
Intel 4500
6 cell battery
DVD+RW
12inch Matte display (big plus)

552$ before tax and shipping

Specs of the DM3z

AMD L335
2GB ram
160GB HD
AMD 3200
6 Cell
13.3 Glossy display

554$ before tax and shipping

Both represent good deals but I am leaning towards the 2530 because its a better built business class machine and has a DVD+RW built in.

 

I can't speak for the DM3z, but I just purchased a refurb 2530p from eBay, and am thoroughly impressed with the build quality and performance. I paid just over $500 for a model with a 7.2K RPM 2.5" HDD/no ODD, so the price NE is offering is an excellent deal. I have no idea how the 1.8" HDD will perform, but you always have the option to replace it with an SSD.

The system does get a little warm under full load, but for general use, it is cool and essentially silent. I was able to undervolt the CPU to 1.0125V, which lowered full load temp from 67C to 62C (idle/light use keeps the CPU at 38-44C). I have been using the machine under pretty heavy load these past few days (OS reinstall, etc), so I can't speak for battery life under more normal usage, but even with a high CPU load, I have been getting 3.0-3.5 hours. The OS estimates upwards of 7.0-7.5 hours when sitting idle.

The matte display, build quality, and trackpoint alone would be enough to go with the 2530p IMO; you also have the little bonuses such as the ambient light sensor. I purchased mine for working with spreadsheets and thesis work, and feel that it is one of the best hardware purchases I have made in some time. The thing is seriously built like a rock, with superb fit and finish.

 

+1 for the 2530P. Great build quality. I'd buy it over the DM3z for the matte LCD alone. There are two types in the refurb market:

- with 2.5" hdd in optical bay
- with 1.8" hdd + optical drive

2530P Owner's Lounge lists some ways of extending the 2530P's functionality.

 

2530p owner here and i am quite satisfied with it, as other people have told it has the best build quality I've seen in a modern laptop (excluding IBM era thinkpads) and the only detail I am not confortable with is the heat management.

 

I just bought the same 2530P from NewEgg you refer to on 1/27. I love it, aside from the cheap Samsung 80gb 1.8" drive it comes with. I'm very happy finding such an awesome deal, I can't believe they're parting with such a high quality machine at that price.

I replaced the Samsung 1.8" drive with a Toshiba 250gb, works great, and the entire package ($150 for the Toshiba replacement drive) is still a steal, in my opinion.

This machine is replacing a HP DV3 I purchased about four months ago from Sam's Club. The DV3 was my first "dip" in to more consumer branded notebooks, having been used to business class thinkpads, latitudes, etc. The DV3 is a nice machine, but still a bit heavy even with only a 13.3" screen, and I'm not a big fan of gloss/shine (fingerprints.) I'm also not used to "flexing" notebooks and cheap plastic!

The 2530P, when referring to build quality, is top notch -- the only other machine that I've ever owned that came close was a ThinkPad T60 a few years ago, or the Aluminum PowerBooks/MacBooks.

Nick

 

The 2530p is an awesome laptop for school. I have this exact same model upgraded with 8 gigs of ram and a 160GB hard drive. I use it to run multiple vmware guest operating systems at the same time and it works very well.

With the 9cell battery I never have to plug in while at school, very nice. The 9cell does add to it's weight though...

 

How long does the 9 cell battery give?

 

It really depends on what you are doing. If I have bluetooth turned off and am just browsing the web I can get around 10 hours, a little more sometimes. Running a bunch of guests in VMWare drops it to maybe 4 hours.

 

Keep in mind though that some live usb linux distributions won't work . Something to do with the bios (waiting for an update to have my sdcard bootable fedora with persistent storage)