Almost Complete!
Written: Feb 21 '02 (Updated Feb 22 '02)
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Pros: CPU, amount of RAM, hard drive space and many more features.
Cons: No floppy, speakers.
The Bottom Line: A great value if you don't need a floppy drive.
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| jumperless's Full Review: Hewlett Packard HP Pavilion Zt1170 (F3380H) PC Not... |
I recently got to set up an HP Pavilion ZT1170 for a customer and was somewhat impressed with it. I remember working in sales at CompUSA when the Pavilion notebook series were introduced, it took awhile for them to get off the ground. They weren’t very popular for awhile because the reliability was unknown and they seemed expensive compared to the competition. But, they have come a long way and are a much better value, the ZT1170 at an average price of $1,599.
-CPU-
(PRO) The ZT1170 has the same CPU as the Compaq I just reviewed, an Intel Mobile Pentium III at 1.13 GHz with Speedstep technology, a great CPU for all uses from word processing to graphic work. This is an important consideration when purchasing a notebook because the CPU can’t be upgraded.
-RAM-
(PRO) The ZT1170 comes standard with 512MB of PC133 SDRAM and can be upgraded to 1GB of RAM if needed. This is a great amount to start with because it won’t need to be upgraded for awhile and will allow you to run multiple applications and do graphic work.
-Storage-
(PRO) Like many, the ZT1170 comes with a 30GB hard drive. A good sized drive for multiple uses. But you should back up important data on larger drives, especially notebook drives that are not as reliable as desktop drives and seem to go through more abuse.
(PRO) This also has a combo 8x DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive that will also read standard CD-ROMs. A great feature that allows you to read DVD software, watch DVD movies, backup files to blank CDs, create music CDs, read CD-ROMs and more. This is a major plus for this model because it will add a lot of life to it. This drive can also be removed and a weight saver bay put installed. Kind of a pointless feature, I have never seen anyone use these.
(CON) Opps, there’s no floppy drive. You can purchase an optional external USB floppy drive. This can be a problem because the floppy is still needed for some uses and can be a hassle to carry an external. But the price is still good without the drive.
-Operating System-
The ZT1170 only comes with Windows XP Home Edition, it looks like it can’t be customized on HP’s site either. Making this notebook good for home users, students and some business users. But a lot of businesses will need Windows 2000/XP Professional for security and administration purposes, which you can’t get the ZT1170 with.
-Software-
There is a decent amount of software installed on this model. The list includes MS Encarta (encyclopedia software), Cyberlink PowerDirector and MediaShow (not sure what these do), WinDVD (for playing DVDs), RecordNow by Veritas (CD burning and backup software), a bunch of ISP programs, Acrobat Reader 5.0 (for reading PDF files), Money 2002 (home finances), MS Fax, MS Firewall, MS Works 2000 (Word 2000 and spreadsheet) and finally Quicken Financial Center.
-Display-
The ZT1170 has a 15” TFT LCD display, but the max resolution is only 1024 x 768. Most users will not need to go over this, but I see some of the competition can go up to 1600 x 1200. The display looks great, very bright and crisp. No signs of distortion of off tones, such as white looking yellow or too dark.
-Communications-
There is a built in V.90 56K modem and a 10/100 network card. Seems to be standard in most new notebooks now. It’s nice because there’s no need to buy these separately.
-Input-
The ZT1170 has an 87-key keyboard that’s spill resistant and 5 shortcut keys that can be programmed for different uses. It also has a touch-pad, which is my preferred navigation form on notebooks.
-Size-
The ZT1170 is 12.99” wide, 1.47” high and 10.94” deep. It weighs 6.1 lbs. with the weight saver bay installed, with the CD-ROM drive, it weighs about 6.8 lbs. This is better that average which is about 8 lbs., but I would still have a floppy drive an have it weigh more.
The outside is dark blue/gray plastic with silver/light gray trim around the screen and touch-pad.
-Connections-
Connections include (PRO) 3 USB ports, printer port, s-video (good for TV output), microphone and headphone ports, port-replicator connection, VGA port (for external monitor) and IEEE 1394 (firewire, good for camcorders).
-Sound-
There are Polk Audio surround sound speakers built-in, they sound okay, but not as nice as Compaq’s Presario series. You would not be able to hear them well over background noise, such as from an airplane or road noise.
-Video-
The ZT1170 has an S3 Savage4 4X AGP chipset with default 16MB of RAM that’s shared with the system RAM, you can configure it to use 32MB of system RAM. The S3 Savage4 is an older chipset, I believe introduced in 1999. It will support Direct3D and OpenGL for gaming, but may have performance problems with demanding games.
-Warranty-
The ZT1170 comes with a 1 year parts and labor warranty and 90 days software support, basically phone support for setting it up. I say this on all my notebook reviews, notebook parts are insanely expensive, usually not worth paying for if the notebook is not under warranty. Because you can get about 4 years or more use out of this model, I recommend purchasing an extended warranty either through HP or a vendor like CompUSA. It will add 2 to 3 years to your warranty and somewhere between $250 to $400 to the price depending on the coverage, but it’s worth it if you plan to use the notebook for more than a year.
-Battery-
The ZT1170 has a Lithium Ion battery, like most on the market today because they have a better life span. The max battery life is about 3 hours, probably 2.5 hours with the CD-ROM drive in.
-To Sum Up-
This is a nice notebook with a good display, a lot of RAM and strong CPU, but no floppy drive. For the price, I recommend also considering the Sony VAIO FX390, it has less RAM at 256MB, but comes with a floppy drive, just tradeoffs to consider. But I like this notebook and think the price is fair for all it offers, so it gets a 4 star rating.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1599
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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jumperless
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