Hi all, just found the forum, and found loads of info already. I was wondering if anyone here knows about the hp/compaq line of laptops: I've decided on a HP Pavilion ze4000 (cash is at a premium for a while) with the AMD Athlon(TM) XP-M 2600+ 2.00 GHz, 256Mb DDR, 30 Gig HDD, DVD/CDRW combo drive, ATI mobility Radeon, and 802.11b wifi. I know I shouyld wait and save for a better rig, but the whole reason that I need a laptop, and not my desktop is that I am a USN submariner, and by Dec. I'll be going back to a boat and won't see sunlight for a minimum of 3 months, so I'd like something to watch DVD's, hook up to a digital 8mm cam (to watch the 8mm movies that the boat gets), and play some not too old games (morrowind, age of empires, etc.) I have never thought about getting a laptop before, so is there anything critical that I'm missing out on here? Anything that's in the hardware that has some known issues, or differences between HP and Compaq (same site, same rig, same cost)./ Sorry about the long post, and thanks for reading it.
Decent laptop for a while?
- Thread starter shuvool
- Start date
- About the submariner ... KEWL!
- The system will suit your needs however you might consider looking for a few things:
(a) A system with 512MB of memory
(b) What model of the Radeon it is and more importantly does it have its own memory because 256MB isnt a lot and if the video card is sharing it then you'll have even less
- The system will suit your needs however you might consider looking for a few things:
(a) A system with 512MB of memory
(b) What model of the Radeon it is and more importantly does it have its own memory because 256MB isnt a lot and if the video card is sharing it then you'll have even less
well, here's what it says about the video card: "The integrated ATI Mobility RADEON(TM) graphics controller with up to 64MB of shared video memory and 4X AGP 3D performance provides a new level of high performance graphics to users who demand leading edge graphics technology at no premium. Enjoy flawless DVD playback and sophisticated game play with ATI Mobility RADEON. Mobility Radeon is a trademark of ATI Technologies Inc." I'm not too sure about what this means...I'm really more of a PC guy, and I don't like the sound of that part that says integrated. Should I look for something else? Also, is there any way to get a DVD-/+RW for a laptop without paying through the nose for one?
Whenever they say "shared" or "up to" that usually means "shared"
(equivalent desktop term = integrated). This is somewhat normal for laptops however (the integrated part, but not neccesarily the shared part). I would suggest you have a look and see if you cant get a system with 512MB of RAM as your 256MB there will only be running with 192MB of memory (after the video card takes out 64MB).For playing Age of Empires you should be ok but certainly you'll want more if you want to play Morrowind
The part about the DVDs is marketing crap because DVD playback is CPU work