Thinking about buying a V4000T

Hi. I'm considering buying a V4000T and had a few questions for those who have one. With the $300 instant savings + plus my wife's student discount, this seems like an awesome deal.

First, I was just wondering what everyone thinks of this laptop and whether or not they are happy with it. Good, bad any other feedback.

Second...I do plan on doing some gaming with it while I'm on the road, but it won't be a replacement for my desktop. Are the graphics for games pretty decent with the 128MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700? Also, does this video card still only support DirectX 9.0b, or since the card has been around for a while will it now support 9.0c?

Also, I was only going to order it with 256MB (1 x 256MB) and put a 1GB stick in on my own, as i figure this would be cheaper than getting it factory installed. I just want to make sure...is there an extra slot to expand the memory on my own? Also, can i just add a 1GB stick or does the memory need to be installed in pairs?

Thanks. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

 

The ATI Radeon x700 is great for gaming. I got the v4000t sister, the dv4000, and it will run games like no other.

About the DirectX version thing, the x700 was designed to be fully compliant with DirectX 9.0b. That's not to say that it won't run 9.0c games, but it doesn't support Shader Model 3.0. From what I see, SM3.0 isn't all that it's said to be, and most games will run just fine without it. One question I might ask is the type of gaming you might be doing on the road. I find it really taxing on the laptop to actually game "on the road", with no AC and full brightness, and will only get about 2 hours out of my 12 cell. But if you mean having something very portable, I would highly recommend it.

Also, buying a 1GB stick is well recommended for any configurable laptop. I bought a stick of 1GB Transcend RAM off of newegg.com. If you plan on buying it from there, you should wait a while until the price is around $75 or so as it fluctuates from week to week. Memory does NOT need to be installed in pairs to work, as I run my laptop with one of the original HP sticks. It just won't be able to run in a full dual-channel configuration. If you can get 2GB at the same time, go for it, but otherwise, 1GB will do for just about every game out there (BF2 is an exception, it's a poorly coded game).

Hope I helped you out!

 

I ordered the v4000t yesterday. I'll post my impressions when i get it.

 

Dagamer34,

thanks for the info. reading your review made me feel good and reassured me that i was getting a great laptop.
I customized it as follows
- Compaq Presario V4000T CTO NB
- Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
- Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz)
- 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
- 128MB ATI MOBILITY(TM) RADEON(R) X700
- 256MB DDR2 SDRAM (1x256MB) I plan on adding a 1GB stick
- 80 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
- 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
- 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money

With $300 instant savings, plus my wife's student discount Total came to $1062 with tax + I get a $50 mail in rebate. Not a bad deal I'd say. Supposed to ship Feb. 27....cant wait.

As far as doing gaming on the road, i should probably rephrase that. I really dont plan on doing any gaming while traveling or even using it that much on the battery if at all. Instead, I wanted something portable and capable of playing todays games that I can use while sitting in my hotel room for 12-20hours per night 3 nights a week.

I will be sure to post what I think when i receive it. thanks.

 

Its an awesome system..

But do you need it right now? If you do, then go ahead and order it. If not, you might want to really consider getting a dual-core system with a better graphics card (X1400) or so.. That would be a better investment.. But you're not going to find any laptops with that config from HP for at least a month I think.

I ordered my v4000t about a month ago, I needed it for my classes this semester. I'm typing on it right now. It really is a great laptop. The keyboard is incredibly nice to type on. It took me about 15-20 seconds to get used to typing on it. I like this keyboard much more than the clunky $15 keyboard on my desktop .
The speakers are "acceptable" they certainly aren't as good as your typical $35 pair of regular-sized desktop speakers. But the speakers in this little laptop can really make some noise.. Enough to be easily heard across the classroom... It doesn't have any bass though, which is typical of most laptops without subwoofers built in. Just be careful with cranking the sound all the way up.. I forgot I had it cranked up, and I turned my laptop on in the library with that very loud Windows login chime. So far, I'm very satisified with my purchase.
v4000t 2.0 Ghz
$1,250.00 after rebates and student discount Dec '05

Funny thing: I just started up Money 2005 for the first time. (Came with laptop) and immediately it said there was an update available.. I click OK and then it tells me to purchase Money 2006.
lol.. I JUST got this laptop a month ago.. And now they want me to pay $49.99 Microsoft...
I don't think I'll use this program though.

EDIT: OH!! I almost forgot.. If you're going to be doing serious gaming on this laptop, then you'll need a laptop cooler. I play games, but I usually don't play 2-3+ hours as other people who say they needed a cooler do. Just a heads up if you're looking at using this system as a gaming machine.. The X700 makes much more heat than the Pentium M, AND it seems to have a max temp that is lower than the pentium M.

X700 Force into Low performance mode: 75C
X700 System Shutdown Temp: 82C
PentiumM Force into low performance mode: 95C
Pentium M System Shutdown Temp: 100C