I need some serious help!!!

[compfused]

Hello people...My name is Andrew and I am computer hardware illiterate. I am a pretty good guy when it comes to software The adobe's and the acid's, but when it comes to hardware I am a doofus. Therein lies my dillema...I'm shopping for a laptop for college lol. I've searched aroud alot and have found a computer that I THINK could satisfy my needs...(School...games...namely Guild Wars). Here are the stats...if you could give me some feedback about this notebook I would be ever grateful.

HP Pavillion zv6000
AMD Athlon 64 2.4 GHz 1MB Cache
15.4" WideScreen
128 MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM)
1.0GB DDR SDRAM (2x512MB)
100 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
Integrated 56K Modem + 10/100 Ethernet LAN
8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Window's XP Home Edition

I'm not worried with battery life because I will just plug it in, but I need to know if this computer would be able to multi-task fast, and play Pretty large, graphics demanding games WoW, GW and MMORPG's in general...Thank you Andrew

 

[Mr.Suave]

play Pretty large, graphics demanding games WoW, GW and MMORPG's in general

its funny how people think WOW and other MMORPG's are graphic demanding they really arnt, you could be using intergrated GPU and it would still look ok.

wat exactly will you be doing with it other then playing mmorpg's? take notes? make documents?
you might not need an Athlon64, its ganna run real hot and suck up bat life fast. should go with those turions (or w/e thier called) or even an intel celeron and it would be smaller and lighter to carry from class to class. but then you said your just ganna leave it plugged in, so are you ganna take it class to class or leave it in your room/dorm?if so y not just get a desktop?

if you decide you really want a laptop. you might want to buy a wireless card so you dont have to bother with cables.
how much is it btw?

 

[compfused]

Well all together it is $1,359.00 which I think it relativly cheap for 1 Gig memory and 100 gig hard drive. Mostly it's for games and online classes...maybe like a movie here and there and some digital music but nothing really taxing. I just want a powerful machine that will be able to do what I want at the time. Say I someday decide to make a music vid for my band and buy Adobe Premier or something to do it...I want a machine that won't have a prob running a fairly large program. Papers and stuff will probably be part of college too lol.

 

[Jerkstore]

That sounds like a good machine....I used to own an HP and their batteries suck large

If you can have it plugged in then go nuts
They do get very hot (excessively compared to my Acer) and they eat battery life like no tomorrow, you'll probably get about an hour give or take of solid battery from it

Overall a good machine for what you're looking for

oh, and HP's tech support is borderline handicapped....their answer to everything is "boot from recovery disk"

 

[compfused]

lol that's my mom's solution to everything too...Battery life I am not worried about...I can get better batteries or just use an Ac adapter...but what about the heat problem...I would hate to get a computer that gets hot and have it damage itself or something...is there something I can do?

 

[Mr.Suave]

lol that's my mom's solution to everything too...Battery life I am not worried about...I can get better batteries or just use an Ac adapter...but what about the heat problem...I would hate to get a computer that gets hot and have it damage itself or something...is there something I can do?

yes there is something you can do. get one of those fan matts that you place underneath your lappy.
like these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ce=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=319&Submit=Property

 

[compfused]

That thing looks like it could be noisy and cumbersome...is it the only option? I will certainly get it if it is necissary but I would hate to have to lug it around everywhere I went

 

[Mr.Suave]

That thing looks like it could be noisy and cumbersome...is it the only option? I will certainly get it if it is necissary but I would hate to have to lug it around everywhere I went

well depends on which one you get. the one i got for my laptop is quiter than the laptop fans and its thin so it fits fine with the bag.
but you might not even need it.
when you get the laptop feel the underside and make sure you leave space between the laptop and the desk so air can flow threw. and if it still gets really hot then you'll need one.

 

[compfused]

Yea good call...I will definatly investigate these fans further...also can someone maybe throw together a pro's and con's list for the comp stats I just posted...it would really help me weigh my options...

 

[Mr.Suave]

Yea good call...I will definatly investigate these fans further...also can someone maybe throw together a pro's and con's list for the comp stats I just posted...it would really help me weigh my options...

pros
-lots of power b/c of that atholon64 2.4ghz
-good amount of RAM
-lots of disk space for a laptop
cons
-by the looks of the specs, it might be a big, heavy, thick laptop
-low batt life b/c of the CPU
-no wireless card

there are probably more pros and cons, just cant think of em right now

 

[compfused]

I forgot to add the Wireless card but it has one...and an optical drive I think...I don't know what that is though lol. It will be big but it is going to be a desktop replacement so I'm not worried...and I think that the heat thing shouldn't be to much of a problem. And the AC adapter and availability of 12 cell batteries and that so yea I think this is the computer for me...next step...getting parents to cough up the cash lol

 

[Mr.Suave]

I forgot to add the Wireless card but it has one...and an optical drive I think...I don't know what that is though lol. It will be big but it is going to be a desktop replacement so I'm not worried...and I think that the heat thing shouldn't be to much of a problem. And the AC adapter and availability of 12 cell batteries and that so yea I think this is the computer for me...next step...getting parents to cough up the cash lol

lol good luck, just say its requiered for a class and if you dont have it you'll fail...lol
and i think the optical drive is the cd-rom drive or dvd-rom or w/e your getting.

 

[compfused]

Hey I have a question...I just looked and saw that 4200 RPM Drive is really slow but HP Only offers 100GB HDD's in 4200 RPMS. Do you think I should go with an 80GB 5400 RPM HDD If I'm going to be gaming

 

[Mr.Suave]

Hey I have a question...I just looked and saw that 4200 RPM Drive is really slow but HP Only offers 100GB HDD's in 4200 RPMS. Do you think I should go with an 80GB 5400 RPM HDD If I'm going to be gaming

ya and you probably dont even need the 20gb's since its the documents and a few games that arent really large.

 

[compfused]

Good call, saves me 50 bucks too!! I was thinking that the faster smaller drive would be better anyways, seeings how I'm probably never going to have 100GB of stuff on there at once anyways. I have a strict 2 games at a time policy, where, if I want to play a new game I take an existing one off. I also regularly clean and defrag my comps so I don't think I would have used that extra 20 gigs anyways. Thanks for all the help...any other advice?

 

[Mr.Suave]

ya i kind of have that same policy with my laptop. its reall hard for me to do tho lol

any other advice?

hmm might want to look into a carry bag unless they give you one for free. or any other accessories you'd want. like one of those mini retractable usb mice thats perfect for laptops cuz those darn touchpads are hard to use and play with.

 

[kof2000]

u should get the compaq presario r4000 it is the same like the zv6000 specs except it has the different shell. looks better and it is still from hp u can buy from the same place.

 

[compfused]

I was also going to ask about this 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory that is the best vid card you can get with this comp. Can it handle games like WoW, GW, Age of Empires 3, Everquest...stuff in that general graphics genre. I don't play shooters on computer (That's what I bought a consol for hardy har har) So Doom 3 and all that jazz won't get close to my computer. Mostly MMORPG's and Game's like AoE3 and War of the Ring, Warcraft 3...stuff like that

 

[compfused]

Helloooooo lol...anyone there? If you reply I'll give you a cupcake...maybe 2....