warranty & dual monitor info: r4000 + dv6000

If you're planning to purchase an R4000 or DV6000, you might be interested in what I found as I researched my recent purchse (R4000
[ ])

1. Warranty: many on this forum got some great deals at Office Depot (and a new deal is coming up tomorrow). One thing that steered me way from OD is the warranty. After the 1 yr. HP warranty, you can opt for:
- a 2- 3 year standard warranty, BUT, it doesn't cover your LCD screen AND it starts from the day you get your laptop! So, you are only get an additional year of coverage for the 2 yr. warranty (because it overlaps with the HP warranty).

- OR a 2-3 yr laptop + screen warranty, which is very expensive (1 year of additional coverage is $400, 2 years of additional coverage is $445.)

2. Dual moniotors: I'll need to check this when I get my R4000, but according to the ati site, the ati 200m integrated graphics engines supports 2 simultaneous screens! So, plug a CRT into the VGA plug and you can work on two different screens at once! And, the external monitor can go all the way up to 1600 x 1200 @ 90 hz (if you have a crt and the specs are right). When you have 2 screens, you can't go back to just 1! Check it out: (neither the HP reps nor people at the retailers knew about this capability). Because the R4000/ ZV6000 don't have a dvi port, you'll have to plug a flat panel into the vga plug or perhaps use an adapter. Perhaps there is a way to get a dvi out card?

http://ati.com/products/radeonxpress200m/specs.html

I ended up purchasing the R4000 through HP directly and got a great (graduate) student discount to meet my video-capturing/ editing needs:

R4000
Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4 GHz & 1 meg of L2 cache)
1 Gig of RAM
15.4" WXGA Brightview
MS XP Professional (to get the eventual XP 64 upgrade)
80 GB 5400 RMP HD
DL DVD +/- R/RW drive
WLAN + bluetooth

for $1350.00 (w/ the ed discount and before some extras)

 

The older zv5000/R3000 series machines have dual monitor support too.

What do you use the second monitor for? It's somewhat tempting to get a Samsung 213T 21" LCD panel (well under $600 after rebate at newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com) and share it between my notebook and desktop (VGA and DVI ports, respectively), though being an unemployed grad student myself that's probably not a good idea [ ].

 

Hey Brainstretch,

I'm currently working on a dual monitor home system (21" Cornerstone and a 19" Viewsonic) running off a Matrox card. Having used dual monitors for around 4 years now, I have a hard time being restricted to a single screen, much less a 15.4" one.

As a grad student, I most often have two screens of MS Word running... one the screen I'm typing in, the other with notes/ diagrams/ database stuff I'm mulling over. I'm a visual thinker, so as I type up the text I often adjust diagrams/ charts I'm working on.

When I get my lappy, I plan to have the video of the scene I'm analyzing playing on the external screen while I type up stuff on my main laptop screen.

If your budget is tight, you may consider going with a smaller LCD screen-- I find that even a reasonably sized LCD screen (even a 15"er) just about doubles your productivity! And, you might get a 15" screen for around $150, I would think?

best,

Derek

 

I have a USB HDTV tuner box (http://www.copperbox.com/lite/sasem.php) so having an external screen that can get as close to full 1080i res would be nice. I currently have an old 19" panel on my desktop on the other side of the room, I could move that stuff over here to play with dual monitor use... hmm. I should probably wait for 24" widescreens to get a bit cheaper. People have been getting Dell 2405FPW's for under a grand so it's only a matter of time before Samsung (my favorite brand) updates their lineup, I figure.

Plus I should wait until I'm done with school, employed, and have paid down some of this debt I've been racking up...

 

Yeah, HD doesn't make sense when the panel is too small!

And, I can totally relate about the student loans! Hopefully, the R4000 will help pay for itself as a business tool!

best wishes,

Derek

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by dmike

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by dmike

 

Thanks for that info, Russ on the warranty.

And, great pics and info, Dragonwolf! I'll start hunting for a large-screen display after my R4000 arrives.

Derek

 

I have dual monitors at home with my deskstop. It's great.

I just did a dual monitor on my dv5000z. The problem I had was I couldn't send my cursor to the other monitor...