zt3000 Best Buy Purchase & Testing Plan

I just picked up the Zt3280 from Best Buy for $1,600. The specs are as follows:

Pentium M Centrino 1.6 GHz
512 RAM
80 GB 4200 rpm HD
Wireless b/g
64 mb mobility radeon 9200
DVD +writable/CDRW combo drive
WXGA
XP home

The pricing was $2,049 less $350 in rebates ($200 from HP and $150 from Best Buy) and they knocked off another $100 because it was the only remaining floor model (it was only two days on the floor).

Questions for the experts:

1) Is this a good deal - if not I have 14 days to return it?
2) The sales guy talked me into a $349 3 year warranty plan through Best Buy- he said the centrino batteries tend to wear out within a year of use, they cost $200+, and the plan would permit replacement of the battery every year, if it shows sufficient wear. I have 30 days to get a refund on that plan, if you think it isn't a good deal. My credit card covers an additional year over the manufacturer’s standard 1 year warranty.
3. What tests should I run over the next two weeks to verify the unit is working properly (and please specify where to obtain the software for the tests) e.g., to verify all pixels are working, processor is performing according to its speed, etc.

I just watched Finding Nemo and everything seemed to appear and sound find as far as that goes.

Would appreciate prompt reply as the clock is running on the return window (no restocking fee- I had the sales guy write that on the receipt!) Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Sorry, Friend. You paid too much. For $2000.00 before rebates you can get a better notebook at powernotebooks.com or even Hp.com. You're paying for the DVD writer. Do you plan to burn DVDs? $350 Warranty? Centrino batteries wear in a year? Friend, all notebooks battery wear out over time from recharging. It's the nature of the beast. Some last a year, 18 months, or two years. What do they consider sufficient wear? For $2000, you should at least get the latest Video Card which is the 9700 or at least the 9600 with 128MB. My vote is to return it and read this forum a little longer and learn from the "experts".

 

Yes i agree, u have paid too much, its nice that it is a 80 GB HD, but the prob is that its only 4200 rpm, look a little more around and u can find many much better and cheaper notebooks...

 

Thanks for the feedback but if you could clarify your responses:
1) Isn't the bottom line price what you evaluate ? YOu say "for $2,000 before rebates" you can get a better notebook- but I paid $1,600 after rebates (though it is true I paid tax on the $2,049 price). I priced the same unit at hp.com (only difference was 1.7 ghz instead of 1.6 processor) and it was $111 more ($1,711) even under the epp program that I qualify for. I also got $85 back in best buy merchandis coupons so the bottom line cost was $1,515 plus tax of $140. Also, cOmpared to the M6809 which many tout on this forum which was on sale for $1,400 after rebates, this unit was lighter, had longer battery life and a much better looking screen (though the m6809 does have an athlon 64 3200+ ?<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'> 2)I thought the warranty plan might be exorbitant but you can only buy it at the time of sale and I have 30 days to get a full refund on it so I opted for it now. If the consensus is it isn't worth it,particularly if HP is fairly reliable, I can return it. 3) burning dvds isn't essential but a nice to have. Probably the zx5000 base model for $999 after rebates would suffice for my purposes and I could just beef up the RAM.
Originally posted by prisonmate

 

3.0 ghz Intel® Pentium® 4 processor with Hyper-Threading Technology

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

17-inch WXGA+ panel with 140-degree wide viewing angle and 16:10 aspect ratio

NVIDIA GeForce Fx Go5700 high-end discrete graphics solution with 64 MB or 128 MB dedicated video memory

333-MHz DDR SDRAM, two S0DIMM slots, upgradeable to 2048 MB

60 GB, 4200 rpm or 80GB, 5400 rpm SMART

Integrated 802.11g wireless LAN module

Integrated five-in-one digital media reader

Integrated IEEE-1394

Full size keyboard with separate numeric keypad

10/100 Ethernet NIC

12-cell standard Li-Ion battery

Touchpad with right/left button and vertical scroll bar

This is the newest from hp, its weight is 9.2 pounds, but its ment as a desktop replacer... u can get it for a 100 more or maybe 200, but its alot better... The HD is still only 4200 bt the processor is ALOT better, and i dunno bout the RAM on ures, but this one has 333 MHz and as far as i know thats the best u can get...

 

Sry bout repost, but it has 512 Ram... and DVD writer...

 

Thanks for the tip. Questions: 1) What is the exaact model # on it ? 2) When you say I can get it for $100-200 more, are you talking about my bottom line price of $1,600 (so it is $1,700- $1,800) ? 3) I thought the Centrino technology was more powerful so that , say, the pentium m 1.6 ghz chip i currently have is comparable in power and speed to a p iv 2.8 ghz<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Hustlar

 

Don't buy the warranty, especially if your creditcard adds another year. That means your paying $349 for 1 year of warranty. Even if they did give you another battery or two (this is a big bogus extended warranty sales pitch) $349 will buy many batteries. extended warranties are the biggest ripoff.

Jack

The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

"There is no way to compare the 2 processors in performance"
"Yes, 1.5 is the general value because the 1.6GHz Pentium M usually compares to the 2.4GHz P4 in performance. Thus you can expect to see the 1.8GHz Dothan run like a 2.8GHz Pentium M. Now to get to your question about processors.

First lets talk about battery life (while doing casual things such as wordprocessing:
Pentium 4 (desktop version): usually expect 60-90 minutes
Mobile Pentium 4: expect around 2 hours.
Athlon 64: 3 hours
Pentium M (used in Centrino package): up to 5 hrs.

Performance:
of the three processors, the Athlon 64 shows the best performance. Coupled with AMD's hypertransport technology, the athlon64 can have up to a 1600mhz bus speed if the mobo supports it. Otherwise is runs with an 800mhz bus speed. Thus the athlon64 gives you a three hour battery life while a comparable P4 (with 800mhz fsb) would give you 1 hr. Although Pentium M gives you wonderful performance, it can't compare to the Athlon64 in performance.
Athlon64 will give you best performance with average battery life. If you get the Pentium M it can still handle any game out there especially with a M11 video card. Stay away from the P4. They aren't meant to be used in lappys. laptops are meant to be portable. P4's weigh ten pounds and have virtually no battery life to speak of."

Also the P-M has shorter pipelines which is also why it could keep up with a 2.4-even though there is a 800Mhz difference.

The only reason HP gives a 12 cell is because that 9.5lbs lappy needs to run more then an hour.

Enjoy your lappy and dont worry about what people say.

 

U can find it here on notebookreview.com link = http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2731

The price is listed and i dont think its the bottom line[V]

The good thing bout M is that it dosent use so much battery, and it has a good performance, i know the the M has a 1 Mb cache, and the P4 only has 512, but that dosent matter so much...
There is no way to compare the 2 processors in performance, many disagree byt its around double (plus minus 300 ghz)...

In the power issue, a P4 3.0 uses ALOT of power, but the HP has 12-cell Li-Ion battery... That is really power...

 

ok but that link indicates it is NOT a dvd rewritable drive, and a 60 gb hd- bump up those two (what I have) and I'm sure it is over $2,000 the 17" is nice, but not essential. So it would boil down to me as whether the p iv 3.0 HT performance boost is worth another $400 + I don't think it is for what I am doing, but maybe I am overlooking some other factors ? <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Hustlar

 

Ok truggy, uve beaten me [ ]...
But just 1 thing, truggy i dont think uve looked well enough, the HP is ment as a desktop replacer, so its ment to be mostly used with power plugged in...

Olan its up to u, its all bout wut u wanna use it to, do u wanna have a ´good performing pc that is small, but u cant really use it without power plugged in, or do u want a pc u can use in the park or sumthing go for the one u have...
But 1 thing, if u wanna use the lap for gaming it dodent last so long on the battery anyways, gaming uses ALOT of the battery life....

 

Weather its a desktop replacement is up to the user. I bought it for school, and batter life. My desktop will never be replaced by a lappy.

p4 2.8C @3.4
1gb Kingston HyperX
9800Pro
Nec 8X dvd+-
Abit lc7-max3
samsung DVD
ect ect ect....