Suggestions before I buy

[NeoDreamer]

I'm going to college soon, so I need to buy a laptop. It's going to be the HP Pavilion zd7000 (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?series_name=zd7000_series&catLevel=2&category=notebooks/hp_pavilion&storeName=computer_store).

Are these specs adequate for...

Computer science major at U of I (Do they have wireless internet?)
3D animation electives
I'm still going to continue web designing with Flash
I'm going to update the RAM myself to 512 MB.

[berkoWitZ]

Sounds pretty good, the only problem its the RAM but u said ur going to upgrade it (if u can make it 768 :D)

[NeoDreamer]

When viewing intricate Flash websites, which is more important in seeing it smoothly: processor or video card?

[berkoWitZ]

well, Im in a Athlon 2.4 XP with 368 of RAM and a piece of sh*t video card (and I mean a piece of sh*t video card) and everything runs smoothly, but u got a nice video card there, u´ll have no problems at all...

[kirupa]

You should increase the RAM, and the graphics card you currently selected is a good deal slower than similar (maybe even cheaper) alternatives from ATI such as their Mobility 9600, 9700, or even 9800s.

[Digitalosophy]

Looks like a good deal to me - the RAM.

[protagonist]

it cool with your changes if it's gonna be a desktop replacement, display and graphic card are definitely gonna rock! (although i prefer ati)

i plan on buying a notebook around € 1500 myself, perhaps you wanna take a look at my current favourite:
http://www.samsung.com/Products/NotebookPCs/SamsungPseries/NotebookPCs_SamsungPseries_NP35.htm

[NeoDreamer]

You should increase the RAM, and the graphics card you currently selected is a good deal slower than similar (maybe even cheaper) alternatives from ATI such as their Mobility 9600, 9700, or even 9800s.
This model only has the same graphics card at different storages.
I'll upgrade the RAM myself, since it's cheaper that way.

[dreeft]

Better gpu would be nice, more ram and a possibly a bigger hdd (assuming you'll keep music and 3d work on it, you'll max out 60gb quickly).

You'll also save a few hundred(+) if you have your own copies of the software. *ahem*

[Ψ]

thats a nice deal. dude u wont even come close to geussin how much ram i have....16 mb

[li0n]

I have the zd7000. absolutely awesome machine! I would go for at least 512 ram. your gonna bottleneck the **** outta the vid card without it. Umm.. what else. an extra battery if you will be doing alot of "mobile" computing. Mine shoots about 2 hours of live time doing normal things, about 1hour 20mins if im using the vid card.

[Yeldarb]

Just curious, but when you say U of I what are you referring to? There are a ton of U of I's hehe :P

And the laptop looks good, I'd try from www.ibuypower.com and see if you can get something comprable for cheaper.

[NeoDreamer]

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. One of the best places for engineering.

[Yeldarb]

Sweet, my cousin is going there this year. It's also a school that I am considering.

Isn't that a ways away from taiwan? (in your location field) ;)

[love police]

get win XP Pro not home. home will drive you insane.

[NeoDreamer]

Sweet, my cousin is going there this year. It's also a school that I am considering.

Isn't that a ways away from taiwan? (in your location field) ;)

Taiwan isn't my real location. =)

[minimalistik]

Doing 3D, you need 512mb at least. Shouldnt the 60gb be at 7200rpm as standard?

[prstudio]

get XP pro and up the ram - at least 1gb

and i'd look at a higher RPM on the hard drive.

[mansour]

not having enough ram is critical

please do not sacrifice your ram. I regret ever doing that, and relying on video card!

[teet]

I'll upgrade the RAM myself, since it's cheaper that way.

are you starting at U of I in the spring semester? if you're not actually going to start college until next fall I would suggest holding off until the summer to buy a laptop (unless an unbelievable deal comes up). The technology of today will be considerably cheaper 6 months from now...plus this laptop will probably have to last you 4 years at least.

I got my P3 laptop in february of my senior year of high school...the very next month they came out with P4 laptops! Now I'm stuck with this P3 laptop for another 1.75 years.

-teet

[ya3]

i see you've got a P4 CPU in there... try to stay away from desktop CPUs (eg. P4, celeron) in laptops. go for the Mobile CPUs. they prolong the battery life dramatically, and also run a whole lot cooler.

[NeoDreamer]

i see you've got a P4 CPU in there... try to stay away from desktop CPUs (eg. P4, celeron) in laptops. go for the Mobile CPUs. they prolong the battery life dramatically, and also run a whole lot cooler.
I need power. I'm going to have my laptop plugged in most of the time. Pentium M goes around 2 GHz. That's slow.

[NeoDreamer]

are you starting at U of I in the spring semester? if you're not actually going to start college until next fall I would suggest holding off until the summer to buy a laptop (unless an unbelievable deal comes up). The technology of today will be considerably cheaper 6 months from now...plus this laptop will probably have to last you 4 years at least.

I got my P3 laptop in february of my senior year of high school...the very next month they came out with P4 laptops! Now I'm stuck with this P3 laptop for another 1.75 years.

-teet

I hear what you're saying. And I may hold off buying the laptop, since I am going to U of I in the fall of 2005.

I heard from a computer nerd at school that Intel is coming out with a new processor in March. It's going to over 4 GHz. Anybody know anything about this?

This guy seems to be talking about the same thing:
http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=3293

[DDD]

I think you are good to go once you up the RAM. I have an hp pavillion ze5200 2.4ghz, 500mb RAM. 64mb ATI vid card. And it does well. I run LW8, Silo, Plasma, Swift, all those 3d apps with no problems. I think what will irritate you is that hp laptops fans tend to be very loud. You wont notice how loud it was until you turn it off....lol.

Matter of fact I may be upgrading soon. So my laptop will be coming to an ebay auction near you soon.