Thoughts on the HP dv8000z? Just ordered it.

Hi there. After much consideration of which laptop to get, I decided to go for the HP dv8000z. It seems like it had al ot to offer, but the main reason was the 64 bit Turion chip, which seemed well poised for future development.

Another nice thing was the fact that it is able to support two hard drives. As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be any other laptops that have this feature.

Anyway, does anyone else here have the dv8000z or have any opinions on the machine. I don't have it yet, but would like to get some thoughts while I wait for it to arrive.

Animas

 

Theres several other notebooks that can support two hard drives, I just can't name em, I think a Toshiba Qosmio model did.

 

Many Sagers allow modular HDs. The big muthas (9xxx series) can have two internal, I believe.

 

Yes- The Toshiba Qosmio G15 and G25 both offer dual harddrives as well as the Sager NP-5720, I believe. Some Asus' have Dual HD capability, but you have to pop out the CD/DVD drive.

 

The DV8000 is a good notebook, my major complaint about it is that it deserves a much better graphics card.

 

Head on over to cnet, they had a review and there are several user reviews. Funny, cnet never mentioned the 2nd HD.

Hope it works well for you. I'm waiting for Yonah, aka Core Duo.

Hermit

 

Thanks for your comments folks. Do the Toshiba and Asus have the Turion chip.

Also, I was thinking about making one drive boot up in xp 32bit OS and the other to boot up in xp 64 bit. Has anyone ever heard of this? I just found out about XP 64 bit version today.

By the way, what is Yonah? is it Intels version of a 64 bit chip?

Thanks.

 

Toshiba doesn't have any notebooks with Turion processors, I don't think Asus does either.

Yonah won't be 64 bit capable, its a dual core processor, Memron will be 64 bit capable.

Yes, you can dual boot 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows XP if you want.

 

I'm not sure why you'd want to do so, though, since XP 64 is buggy and doesn't have many 64-bit programs to run anywho.

 

Yeah, there's few drives out for it which makes it a chore to use for most users.

 

It's definitely for power users who have specific 64-bit apps in mind, like the 64-bit version of Far Cry or some such thing. 64-bit Windows Vista betas might be interesting to play with once they get closer to a release candidate. 64-bit Linux has been out for quite some time now. I dual boot 32-bit WinXP and 64-bit Fedora Core Linux but spend most of my time in Windows (I have a separate 64-bit Linux desktop/server).

 

Interesting. Well, I am into 3D graphics, animation and video. As far as I know, SoftImage already has released a 64 bit version of their software so has Cinema 4D (although neither app I use unfortunately). If I knew that one of my apps will be 64 bits, I would start using it immediately.

When is Memron supposed to come out?

 

I ordered the dv8000z from HP Shopping and configured it to the specs that I wanted back on November 30, when I was still deployed to the AOR. The estimated build date was supposed to be December 9. On December 6, I received an email from HP saying that the order had been shipped from Kunshan, China.

I finally made it back to the US on December 9, and Fed Ex had already tried to deliver it TWICE. I was impressed by the fast service. Still in the process of loading it with the software that I want. I'm not a big gamer at all. The games I play are the old RTS games like Command & Conquer, Age of Mythology, etc. Games that even 400 MHz processors and 32 MB video cards can run. I also wanted a mobile entertainment center, so I wanted the biggest screen I could get at a price that I could afford.

When I first received it, I was impressed by the size of the screen. The 17" widescreen looks just as wide or wider than the screen of my 19" Viewsonic Ultrabrite CRT monitor for my desktop. Watching movies is a pleasure on this machine. I've worked with Toshibas, Dells, and Gateway notebooks before, but it seems this one's better than all those I've tried.

The notebook supposedly weighs 8.1 lbs. Yet it doesn't feel that heavy at all. In fact, it feels lighter than the Dell notebook I was lugging around before.

 

Dell Inspiron 8200 does support 2 HD if you don't need a floppy. There are many notebook computers that has a modular bay for a second battery, floppy, or HD.

 

AOR?

Was it shipped directly to you from China? Not going through HP's depot in the states?




Your photo looks better than the ones on HP's website. Who'd thunk!!!

Please continue to post your impressions.

Thanks,
Hermit

 

Somewhere in the middle east.

That's what the Fed Ex tracking report says. Maybe I'll post a full review later on this week.

 

Nice buy The dv8000z is a much better notebook overall than the zd8000. My only wish is that it had a better video card. The X200M isn't meant for any intense gaming - just multimedia I think. Still, its a nice notebook and I like HP's idea of Dual HDs in an affordable notebook.

 

Hi Kikaider01, Congrats! Do not forget to review it soon. I am really interested to know more from users about this model.

 

many thinkpads have the modular bay for a 2nd hdd...but you loose the cd-rom.

 

Hi Kikaider, can you please supply us with high resolution pic of your lappy. Wowwwwww, I'm really eager to have a lappy............


sigh, no money yet...
tx
Eric


:budget:

 

I've heard HP offers a HD-Screen with the dv8000z!

 

Well I got my DV8000 2 days ago, I custom ordered it thru Costco [they have a 6 month satisfaction warranty ]

I custom built it but I only had them put in 1 hard disk, well I went to install a Seagate Momentus that I had ordered and I opened the bottom of the notebook, well there is a place for a 2nd hard disk but !!!!! you must have a special bracket to mount the drive into that then slides into the computer. I have had NO luck finding it, I talked to one person that said you could only buy it with a hard drive.

Does anyone know where I can find one of these brackets? I really need one right way, Thanks for your advice and help in advance.

Ray My advice is if you think you want the 2nd drive, Order it from the start.

 

Just so everyone knows, HP will be releasing this unit with core duo, so if that is appealing to you, you might want to wait.

 

Just brought one home last nite (dv8113cl). Guess that's the model# sold by Sam's Club. Daul 80 Gig HDs, Turion ML-40 running at 2.2, 1024 RAM, XP mce.... sounds the same.

Well so far I'm very pleased with it. I was just on the verge of getting a zd8000, but changed my mind at the last moment after reading a few of these threads, particularly the one about how 'not good' placing a P4 in a laptop is and especially the one about Pm's and Turions can run faster than P4's even at slower rated clock speeds. So if I understand that correctly, even though the zd8000 was rated at 3.0 mHz and the dv8113 is rated at 2.2, doesn't mean that the dv is slower.

At $1349, I'm very happy. The only decision I have left now is whether to purchase an extended warranty. What's the general feeling in here on EW's for these things? Generally, I look at EW's as rip-offs, but I understand that for some things, it may be worth looking into.

 

Brian where did you see info on the core duo and when will it be out. I came moments away from ordering this notebook, but the gpu stopped me in my tracks. If they have a better solution in 17 display I'm on it.
thanks