The HP Pavilion zd8000 (hp pavilion zd8000 battery )series combines desktop capabilities with the very latest in technology to bring you and your family exhilarating home entertainment. The zd8000 features the latest and greatest graphics performance for immersive gaming with photo-real and lifelike images. The optional ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600 with PCI Express x16 graphics (up to 256MB of dedicated video memory) enables next-generation PC gaming and can easily handle your demands for rapid-video capture and editing and streaming video. You'll forget you ever needed floppy disks to transfer files between PCs, printers, cameras, and other devices once you use the zd8000's integrated 6-in-1 digital media card reader (compatible with xD digital memory, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, MS-Pro Memory Stick, and SmartMedia cards). There's even an integrated bay for holding and transferring info from your HP USB Digital Drive. The zd8000 can be customized with the right optical drive for your needs. Three alternatives accommodate any budget: DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 8x DVD±RW/R and CD-RW combo drive, or 8x DVD ±RW/R drives with double layer write support, which allows you to almost double the amount of data you can store on a single DVD disk with only single layer support (currently limited to 4.7GB vs double layer 8.5GB). The zd8000 supports the most frequently used ports: four USB 2.0, one FireWire (IEEE 1394), one Fast Infrared (FIR), and one S-Video TV out. In addition, the zd8000 (ibm thinkpad t60 battery )includes an ExpressCard/54 PC slot to enable faster, thinner, and lighter PC Card expansion products. There's even an infrared tucked away in the machine for optional remote-control access. Keep your desk free of extra wires while controlling your media from your couch!
HP ZD8000 Review Unit System Specs
Mobile Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz, with Hyper-Threading
1GB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz(512x1) from Micron
Toshiba 80GB hard drive 5400 RPM
LG GWA-4080N DVD+/-RW Drive - CD-ROM (40x); CD-R (40x write); CD-RW (24x write); DVD-ROM (16x); DVD-R (8x write); DVD-RW (4x write); DVD+R (16x write); DVD+RW (4x write); DVD+R Dual Layer (2.4x write)
ATI Mobility Radeon X600 with 256MB dedicated RAM
17.0" WXGA TFT LCD ViewBright display 1440 x 900 resolution
Integrated V.92/56K modem
Realtek RTL8193 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Broadcom 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Built-in Harman/Kardon stereo speakers
Intel ICH6 AC97 Sound Card
5-in-1 Media Reader (Secure Digital, Memory Stick/Pro, MMC, xD Picture Card)
Design
The ZD8000 has a slightly modified look from its previous generation model, the ZD7000. Most notable is the cooling system. It is totally redesigned. Is it better now? Unfortunately that's a negative. There is an extra fan now, probably for making sure the machine can keep cool with the new ATI Mobility X600( dell inspiron e1505 battery )graphics card. The entire rear of the notebook is dedicated to having vents for cooling, thereby sacrificing the parallel port from the previous generation. Even with a number of vents, the computer still gets very hot and the fans spin up all the time and they are loud. The keyboard area and wrist rest below the keyboard still gets very hot to the touch, though not as bad as the ZD7000 (hp pavilion zd7000 battery )I used to own did. The touchpad area is thankfully improved and more usable now than before. I wish they had focused more on improving the cooling and reducing heat build-up around the keyboard rather than improving the touchpad though. The heat around the keyboard can make it uncomfortable to type after 10 minutes of typing on this laptop. The cooling system simply needs a lot more reworking, my use of the Toshiba Satellite P35 proved that a large desktop replacement notebook with a Pentium 4 processor doesn't have necessarily have to be a giant heat synch. Toshiba somehow managed to get rid of heat from the P35 system and typing was comfortable.
Size and Weight
This laptop is one of the biggest out there. Weighing in at a hefty 9.5 pounds, it is probably in the top 5% of the weight bracket for notebooks. The dimensions measure 16.5" L x 11.5" W x 1.57/1.85" H. The AC adapter adds another pound and 3 ounces to overall weight.(dell inspiron 630m battery )That means that you'll be carrying well over 10 pounds of computer related stuff, so this titan is not for the faint of heart!
Screen
Laptop LCDs and LCDs in general have come a long way. Gone are the days of ghosting and inaccurate colors if you buy a decent brand LCD, and most modern laptops seem to have displays of very good quality. The screen on my ZD8000 (dell latitude d610 battery)features BrightView which helps improve clarity, color saturation and contrast. It's quite a bit better than the older ZD7000 without Brightview. I notice no ghosting of any type in my first person shooter (FPS) games and there were no dead pixels. The blacks are deep and incredible, putting my professional Sony Trinitron CRT to shame. The white is a little on the warm yellowish side, I prefer cool, bluer whites. The viewing angle is simply amazing. This is truly a desktop replacement system as it will be hard to go back to your desktops display after seeing this one!
Speakers
The speakers are Harman/Kardon brand and relative to the size of the laptop are tiny. The speakers on this laptop face outward which is nice if you would like to play something with the lid closed. The performance of the speakers isn't so good though. You ( dell inspiron 700m battery )begin to hear sound distortion at about 80% max volume. Bass is virtually nonexistent with this set of speakers. For games the speakers seemed to perform decently, but they lack the virtual spacialization found in the Toshiba P35 speakers. There is no improvement in the ZD8000 speakers over the ZD7000 speakers, which is sort of a shame. Furthermore, these speakers can't even begin to compare with the Harman/Kardon speakers on the Toshiba P35.
Input
The keyboard is a very standard layout with built in numpad, which is certainly a nice addition.(hp pavilion zx5000 battery )If anything will drive you to this laptop, the numpad is it. Touchpad is a big improvement from the ZD7000. It no longer gets dreadfully hot and is sunken in. This helps alleviate the problem of it being accidentally tripped when typing. But due to its large size it still does not totally prevent this problem, even with small hands.
Wireless and Connectivity
The ZD8000 comes with the Broadcom chipset which when paired with Broadcom routers offers incredible performance. Broadcom seems to be the choice now in wireless chipsets. Performance is very stable and range seems to just keep improving after every revision. It offers more consistency and range than even the venerable Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card I have. The wireless switch is at the top right edge on the side of the laptop accompanied by an orange LED. I would have liked an LED on top for quicker identification as to whether WiFi was on or not.
I was very disappointed to see only 100MB fast Ethernet via Realtek instead of Gigabit Ethernet. Most people will find this a non issue, but I have a Gigabit network at home for transferring video files and with a 5400RPM hard drive,(dell xps m1210 battery )things could easily take half the time to transfer vs plain old Ethernet.
Conclusion
Overall the ZD8000 is a decent improvement over the ZD7000. Performance is great thanks to finally having a full 800MHz FSB. The X600 graphics card is no slouch either, playing Half Life 2 is brilliant on this laptop. However if gaming is your thing you should look toward the Pentium M as it is nearly twice as fast clock for clock as a Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 excels in heavy FPU data like Photoshop, video editing, and encoding. Overall a decent laptop replacement, however I would have to recommend the Toshiba P35 over the HP ZD8000 unless you really cannot live without a numpad on the keyboard
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