r4025us or custom r4000?

I've managed to deliberate long enough that a custom R4000 has a one-month wait. I could wait that long, but I'd rather have it right now (especially since so many people are getting delay notices for zv6000 orders--the wait might be even longer). I'm thinking about getting the r4025us from CompUSA instead, even though I'll waste $75 on sales tax. With tax, the r4025 is priced about $100 less than my custom, so that's not an issue.

The r4025 is similar to what I wanted for my custom except that the r4025 has...
1.) DVD writer that I don't need, but that's okay
2.) 8-cell battery, but I wanted 12-cell
3.) XP Home instead of XP Pro
4.) 3200+ processor, but I was going to order 3500+
3.) this is the big one--4200rpm drive, but I wanted 5400rpm

Am I giving up that much to buy off-the-shelf? The hard drive is my biggest concern, but how much does that matter? I will be doing mostly photo editing, word processing, and web surfing/e-mail. Is the speed going to kill me? FWIW, my current laptop is ancient, so the new one will be faster no matter what.

 

If your not in a rush to use it or need it...I would suggest you to customize than buying off the shelves. And I think the zv6k has a shorter wait time than the r4000...

and yes there's a NOTICEABLE difference between 4200 rpm from the 5400 rpm HD.

 

The slower HD is the biggest annoyance. You could swap in a Seagate 100GB 5400RPM drive on your own if you want, I think CompUSA even carries them (probably cheaper from Newegg, etc though). Or a 7200RPM drive, if you can find one. That also gives you an excuse to do a clean OS install without all the HP bloatware.

OTOH, I wouldn't take the one-month wait thing seriously. You'll probably get it sooner. And there are some things, like Bluetooth, that are next to impossible to add later.

 

Regarding the zv6000, as I posted in another thread HPShopping.com is not offering a "Customize" option at the moment, at least since last weekend.

The more I think about it, the less I want to wait. I wonder if I should order a Pentium M model instead. I probably don't need that much power (no gaming, 3D, or video editing, just photo editing). I can configure a dv4000 or V4000 for a similar (to R4000) price with everything except 1 GB memory (I'd get 512MB in one slot so I can upgrade later for less than HP's $125 add-on cost). Would a Pentium M 715A be okay, or should I upgrade to a 730 or 740?

 

yea it was down temporary. you can customize the zv6k on hp shopping now.

i prefer zv series over dv. but that's just me.

 

I just got my R4000!

I would customize for the following reasons:

1. Customizing an R4000 does not result in a long arrival time. It came very quickly. From order to arrival was about 2 weeks.
2. Getting the 12 cell is worth it. I opted for the 12 cell battery, which I would highly recommend. I get close to 3 hours of usage out of it (remember to drain the battery completely on first use and then charge it up completely). Actually, I opted for the $99 extra 12 cell option and got 2 12 cells, so 6 hours of battery life is pretty much all I need.
3. The Briteview screen is great, and can be tweaked (in the advanced display setting) to produce gorgeous results.
4. The 5400 rpm hard drive works great.
5. Overall, I'm very pleased with my machine! I tried multi-tasking to slow it down, but it Vegas 6.0 (video editing), Intervideo, and Acid (music editing) all at once, and it passed with flying colors!

One day I'll upgrade to 64-bit Windows when Vegas 6 is updated and can't wait to see the machine fly!

R4000
Athlon 4000 (1 Mb. L2 cache)
1 Gig RAM
15.4 brightview
128 ATI video mem
80 Gig. 5400 rpm drive

 

I almost forgot about this thread that I started just two weeks ago. Today I went off the deep end and coughed up an extra $500 for an IBM T43 with a 15" screen and 1400x1050 resolution. I still think the zv6000/R4000 notebooks are a good value, but I decided that the IBM is a better fit for me. And as brianstretch and MashiMaro suggested, I made sure it had a 5400rpm hard drive. Of course, if I had ordered the R4000 two weeks ago, I would be getting it any day now. Now I'm counting on IBM's wait time being erroneous!

 

True...the wait time ETA is currently erroneous (for the better)...BOTH my zv6000 & r4000 orders were delivered in 17days!!!

And, both are roughly equal in price currently through Hp directly.

------------------------------
Http://www.zv6000forums.com

For all zv6k/r4k dialogue.
------------------------------

R4000 with:
Athlon64 3200+ (2.0GHz/512kb L2cache)
15.4" Widescreen w/Brightview
1,024MB DDR SDRAM (2x512-PC2700)
60GB-5400RPM HardDrive
54(g)Broadcom Integ.Wireless w/Speedbooster & Bluetooth
12cell battery