Great Notebook
Written: May 20 '05
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Pros: 64-bit processor, good quality/value, built-in FastEthernet and 802.11b/g
Cons: Bulky, only 1 USB2.0 port, not shipped with a 64bit OS
The Bottom Line: If you don't want a PowerBook, but want a PC notebook instead, this is a great pick.
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| packetjunkie's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario R3000Z (DP533AV) P... |
There is only one downside I can think of with the notebook and that is the fact that it's a bit bulky. However, that's tolerable.
This notebook comes with a number of possible hardware configurations. Mine has an AMD Athlon64 3400+ (2.2GHz) processor with 1GB memory, the dual layer DVD burner, integrated Broadcom 54g, etc.
As expected, like almost every other notebook, the built in speakers aren't amazing; however, with earphones plugged in the quality is actually really good.
It has 3 USB ports: two (2) are USB1 and one (1) is USB2. If you only have a USB printer and a flash drive or a digital camera, this is fine. If you have multiple USB hard drives and stuff, you'll end up feeling the lack of speed on the USB1 side and have to buy a USB2 minihub (searching froogle.google.com will give you plenty of hits).
If used with Windows (as provided), it works perfectly. However, it ships with a 32-bit version of Windows, which does not take full advantage of the fact that this is a 64-bit processor. So, really, the processor is going to be not full utilized.
If you manage to get Windows XP 64-bit edition, my experience was that the driver support that you normally expect for Windows just isn't there -- especially with this notebook's hardware (e.g. onboard WiFi). I used a beta version and didn't waste much time, so now that it's RTM who knows -- your mileage may vary.
I'm a Unix user (BSD, Linux, etc.) so I didn't want to waste my notebook on Windows anyway. The hardware is pretty well supported by most major distributions offering a 2.6 kernel for x86_64 architecture. (A i386 arch system would work, but why not take advantage of the 64-bit processor?)
I tried both SuSE and Fedora Core 3, which both installed and configured themselves well. But there were four problems: (1) Hibernation (in my experience) is non-existent under Linux with this notebook; (2) to get the touchpad's scroll wheel section working, expect to recompile your kernel; (3) to get wifi working under 64-bit Linux you'll either need to buy a supported PCMCIA 802.11 card or use Linuxant Driverloader (commercial) [note: under i386, ndiswrapper will support the onboard wifi]; (4) the memory card reader on the side won't work at all [although USB ones that you can use will work with the usb_storage module and are cheap].
It's very useful for customization purposes that some of the Function key combos and the volume buttons on the side get given their own keycodes (as if they were actual keys) and aren't powered by some driver.
The system is pretty solid and 4 months later I still haven't been forced to get a RMA for it.
There are a number of sites that feature how to get it working under
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1800
Operating System: Linux
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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packetjunkie
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