pavillion zx5000?

hey guys.... Im currently looking at buying a
Sony Vaio PCG-K15
Dell Inspiron 9100
HP Pavillion zx5000

what do you guys think? Any specific reason why I sound NOT chose one of those? I mean they all have similar processors, HD's, Memory,screen sizes, Video cards(the vaio is a bit different) and such. I know the 9100 has a faster Bus speed, but Im not doing any hardcore gaming, and dont think I will notice a difference.

I will mostly be doing school work, which requires often using multiple decent sized engineering and cad type programs at the same time. I need something that is relatively easy on the eyes, due to the fact that Ill be staring at it all day.

Also, I will be using it to work with flash programs such as Flash MX and will be using Cool Edit Pro often on it to manipulate and mix audio.

I really dont need super battery life, but it definately dosent hurt. Truthfully, I need something that will be VERY dependable, as all of my research will be done on it.


I guess Im just looking for some opinions.

Thanks!!

Bobby

 

i dont think the sony vaio has a wide screen, does it?

Anyhoo, i plan on getting the zx5000.. or atleas thtats my goal.. theres some solid good words on that model, quickster will tell ya!.

I plan on doing the same sorta things u do on my notebook when i get it, and i think the pavilion is the one im gona get.. i just wish futureshop would sell them wtih 9600 ati cards instead of 9200's :S

 

I have a zx5000, and love it. I haven't found any problems with it yet, and some say it gets to hot, but mine hasn't been hot at all.

 

I must also, say that I love my zx5000 it never gets hot on me and it runs like a charm, I looked at all the manufactures and you couldn't touch the price of the zx5000 when I got mine. Of course they has a 10% discount stacked on the 6% and a 100.00 mail in rebate so I'm not sure how great the price is now, but if you see a sale on it you should be set. The price is what cued me in to buy it, but if there has been some reviews on cnet or something so that I could've know how great a machine this is I probably would've bought it anyway. Hope this helps.
P.S. the radeon 9600 you can add in if you customize it in the US kicks ass, but the 9200 isn't bad either just for 25.00 more how can you pass it up.

 

Is the fan running constantly (and audibly) on the zx5000 (like it does on the zd7000)?

 

I've had a zx5000 for a little over two weeks now--haven't noticed it getting hot at all. It runs very quiet compared to my husband's Dell M60. Quikster is totally correct...I think that the zx5000 is by far the best bang for your buck on the market right now!

dordale [ ]

 

apparently it doesnt run much, or isnt loud and doesnt get hot, thats whats been said around here lately atleast

 

If you feel under the case and behind the fans are alomst always on, but they are so quiet you wont even notice them. However, I am not the best judge of this since my desktop has a massive fan that I've pretty much drowned out, but when everyone else pretty much agrees I think I may be right on this one.

 

The fans on my zx5000 only kick on when gaming but they are quiet and I only know when they come on because of the air blowing out.

 

I currently own a hp pavillion zx5000 and it works great, its quick I could tell you that it runs Doom 3 real Smooth.

 

I have an HP ZX5000. The fans never ran when I first got it, except for gaming. It was great, and quiet. Thats important in a classroom.

It started running the main fan constantly after a week and a half. I took it back to Best Buy and got a new one. Worked great for almost 3 weeks. Now, same problem, except its a different fan, on the bottom. Its annoying in a quiet classroom, to the point where I cant use it.

I'm reformating the thing now to see if that fixes it, but I doubt it will. I confused the rep at HP and he gave me a tech. The tech gave me a run around about windows loading the registry and stuff casuing it to run hot. I work at a computer store fixing computers, and what he said was not entirely correct.

Does anybody elses ZX5000 have a fan on? If so, which one? Thanks!

 

Wild guess: enough dust collects on the heatsink to inhibit heat dissipation just enough to require the fan to run all the time.

FWIW, my zv5000z, which runs significantly cooler than your zx5000, still runs one fan all the time. It's always done that. It's annoying and unnecessary, but on the bright side I've never been able to overheat the notebook. HP could change this in the BIOS if they wanted to. I'm really surprised your zx5000 ever let both fans stay idle.

 

I took off the fan cover (nice design, by the way) and blew out the dust. There was barely any.


Do ANY laptops ever run without a fan?

The first guy I ever talked to at HP said it wasnt supposed to run unless it got hot.

 

I've had my computer for about 5 months now and I really like it a lot. As far as the fans go, one fan is always on low, it is very quiet and the computer has never ever gotten hot! When I play games it blows out warms air but the computer is still cool. I can play doom 3 no problem, but lower settings, still very smooth. I can play unreal 2004 on all high settings and 1280X800 res. so it looks real nice.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
1 X 512MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 5,400 RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Hey Rannoch,
I am surprised your zx5000 operated WITHOUT a fan running. My zx5078cl ALWAYS has had one fan running constantly at a low speed. The second fan turns on and the RPMs increase when needed.

Has anyone tried to replace the original thermal compound between the processor and heatsink? A more efficient transfer of heat from processor to heatsink can be facilitated by using a silver oxide compound. This simple change (I know, buried in the heart of the notebook) could reduce the temperature of the processor enough to deactivate the fans.

My zx5078cl has an M chip. I thought this would be a cooler processor. But the fans keep running... Changing the thermal compound is my last resort to make my fans shut off. For now, I'm happy just dealing with the hum.

Jeremy
__________

 

Someone on this forum did take there's apart and resurfaced the heatsink, they also put better thermal compound on it. You can do a search and read how they did it and maybe get some help from them sense they have experence. I'm looking forward to doing it with mine, i just need to wait for the warrenty to run out, or if anything breaks I'll be in trouble.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
1 X 512MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 5,400 RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

I own a zx5000 currently and have for almost 2 years. It still runs great. I have a small fan that runs constantly and the large fan comes on when I place it someone where it has less ventilation, ie. my bed or on the carpet. Not a great thing to do to a laptop but it has never overheated which is what happened to my Compaq and eventually burned it out.

I'm looking though to sell mine and get a small version and smaller screen any recommendations? I've been looking at the HP Pavilion DV2116WM 14.1" Widescreen Laptop w/ AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile TL-50.

Does anyone know the resale value of the zx5000, I bought mine on ebay and now there aren't any for sale?