V2000 too late already?

So I read that some stores (circuitcity) gave away FREE Compaq V2000 laptops over the holidays. Also read that stapes is/was selling them for 399. And also considering theyve been out for a couple years already.......would I be nuts to order one now?

I'm lookin at buying a base model for around 550 through hp employee pricing.

Celeron 1.4 Ghz
256 ram (will add a 512 stick later)
60Gig 5400rpm
Wireless/bluutooth
briteview monitor

Or should I buy something else?

(ive noticed the hp dv1000 is a bit more, bit nicer but not much different...)

Thanks for your input!

 

which holiday? Black friday or the upcoming holiday? I need some info about this !!

 

They did this at BF. As to buying one now, I don't see why you'd wait, especially for a value machine.

 

They haven't been out for a couple of years, the DV1000 and V2000 came out late 2004, July or August I think.

 

Actually, I am in the similar dillema because I am considering 799 (after 200 rebate) bestbuy deal for Compaq V2414, Turion 64, DVD RW, Memory reader, ATI 200M..

From my opinion, I do NOT think V2000 series is that out-dated... but I kind of understand what you feel....

How about V2414 (at bestbuy...)? Isn't it worth 999 - 200 = 799 ???

 

I see!

Well I guess I'll just order one......I think the AMD based versions like the V2412 (I guess they are called the v2000z series) is probably gonna be faster than the celeron I am considering. The one thing thats stopping me is the lack of a VGA port on those machines. My external monitor and projectors both use VGA (I guess there is the S-video option too)....can anyone advise about this lack of VGA?

 

Even though I'm a big fan of Intel, I'd say get the V2000Z over the V2000. The Sempron is better than the Celeron in every aspect and plus its cheaper.

 

Its actually more expensive on hpshopping.com
399 for celeron v2000
549 for sempron v2000z

What about the VGA port?

 

Ah really? How surprising.

I'm not too sure on the VGA port. All I know is that bascially the more cheaper budget V2000s like with the Celron processors have less ports than their more expensive cousins like perhaps one less usb port.

 

powerglide, The V2000Z have the DB15-VGA port for connecting to external monitors. I bought a V2000Z last July/August which I gave to my newphew, and it has the VGA port.

I ordered it with the productivity ports... I believe the productivity ports only add a USB port, and the memory card readers... so if you order without the Productivity ports it should include the VGA port.

also, check the 3D tour on HP's website... it clearly shows the VGA port.

 

fill2k you're right! I can see them ****ed port on the picture but its not listed on their as one of the ports...?

I called HP and the dude told me 'they no longer put vga ports in their new laptops.....and no the v2000z does not have one' but this guy was just probably reading from the same web site I was looking at....AND he knew less than me!?

Now the decision became alot more difficult.....jeez.

 

I sure hope he's wrong.... I just ordered my 2nd V2000Z last 12/1. Since I gave my 1st one to my nephew.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that you have to configure the X200M with productivity ports to have a VGA port.

 

xAMD... I'm not sure. The website describes the V2000Z productivity ports as additional firewire & USB ports, and media card readers. So it seems that whether you get productivity ports or not, you should get the VGA port. However, powerglide's discussion with HP is not reassuring.

Frankly, I don't remember ever seeing a laptop without a VGA port.

With that said, the productivity port is only $25 more... definitely worth it since you'll be getting firewire, 6-in-1 media card reader, and an extra USB port next to the S-video port.

 

VGA ports comes standard. Productivity port Option adds 1 USB port, 1 firewire, 6-in-1 card reader, Expansion Port 2.

With expansion Port 2, you can get a media cable, which has firewire, USB, Digital Audio, analog audio, video, IR receiver and a HP slim remote for $89. All in a single cable which works like a dock.

 

Ah well, I tried. I belive that most all modern notebooks come with a VGA port standard.

 

I can now confirm that all V2000s do have the VGA port, don't worry about it.

 

Just ordered the V2000.
(I was temoted by the IBM r50e deal 599 but I wanted widescreen and at least a dvd rom drive....hence the paq)

Its the base 1.4GHz Celeron.
60Gig HD @ 5400
Bluetooth/54g/productivity port
BriteView Screen
Pentium graphics accelerator (had to get it for the bluetooth)
256 MB Ram
Correl Photo-6

It cost $533 total...so I think its a good price.

Now the memory......I wonder if I should cough up $100+ for the Gig Stick or just pay $40 for 512 for now.

Also, TigerDirect is selling a ULTRA brand memory for 59 (plus you get 20$ mail in rebate) seems to be a good deal but dunno anything about ULTRA.

wheres a good place to buy ram?

PC2700 DDR is apparently what it uses.

 

I've never heard of the "ULTRA" brand before - you take a risk when you buy new companies products, however you do get a better price. I buy all my computer accessories/peripherals at newegg.com - great prices and fair customer support.

 

Yeah....the thing is I want to order a bluetooth mouse (kensington pilotmouse mini) and tiger sells them for 49 while everyone else is like 60-64. (newegg doesn't carry them)

anyways heres the link to the ultra ram
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=25042&Tab=5&NoMapp=0
its got lifetime warranty.....but for 6 bucks more I could get a corsair or viking from newegg (+ tax)

 

I'd get the mouse + other bluetooth peripherals from Tiger then. Definately go for the Corsair or Viking (I perfer Corsair) over the "ULTRA" brand - The other two companies have a pretty good record of selling good products whereas the other does not. I'd buy the RAM from Newegg, but if you want to buy from Tiger, go ahead, I just prefrer Newegg.

 

I'd go wth Corsair, Crucial, or Kingston. Used them for years, no problem.

 

I'm wondering if should spend 45$ for a 512 or like 120 for a 1gig stick.

You guys think its worth it to get a total 1.25 Gigs on this low end machine or is the 768 gonne be enough?

I was thinking about forgetting the bluetooth mouse for a while till it gets cheaper and instead going for the gig stick.


PS I don't do any gaming, only memory intensive thing would be opening a bunch of pictures at once to look at.....maybe

 

I think that you should go for 1GB - two sticks of 512MB should do the trick.

 

do you think it will make a big difference even for this low end machine?

also it looks like buying 2 512's will cost about 100-110 while buying a gig is about 120-130 so thats probably a better deal to buy the gig stick and get 1.25 total....


One other thing:

How about getting two 512MB running at pc3200 speed instead of the stock pc2700. Will this make a big difference?

 

Yes - 1GB of RAM will make a huge difference in performance, no matter what the machine (unless your running on an ancient processor like a Pentium II or something).

 

In case it got missed....

How about getting two 512MB running at pc3200 speed instead of the stock pc2700. Will this make a big difference too? (the prices are about the same...)

 

Hmm...
I'm no RAM expert, but for your purposes, I don't believe that this will make a big difference.

 

Well I ordered a gig stick.....hoping for the best.

HP (I spoke to sales twice and tech support once) says it wont recognize anything over 1Gig but all the memory manufactures/retailers assured me it can use up to 2. And they claim they get their info straight from HP.

 

Got the laptop today. The delivery was super fast, left china and arrived here in less than 2 days!

Looks beautiful, I love it.

I stuck the gig stick in there and now its reading all 1.25 gigs of ram. (although HP says it will only recognize 1GB....BS)

$533 for the laptop + 110 for the crucial gig stick.

60GB 5400 RPM
Xbrite Monitor
1.25 GB RAM
Bluetooth + WiFi

 

Excellent price!

Yeah - I don't know where they get "It will only recognize 1GB" from.

There isn't a noticable difference between PC2700 and PC3200 - about a 2% performance increase overall.

All the best,

 

Just to clear up the Staples 399 deal; it was a lowball price have to add a $75 dollar assembly fee plus you might need a DVD and wireless card which nowadays are included. Salesman sounded almost apologetic. I got the BB $450 v2403nr 14.1 wxga brightview Cm1.4 with wifi and DVD-CD included with no handling or extra fees. Free laptops just for filling out some forms and agreeing to make some purchases?