Dell 9100 or HP zd7000

Message

cybrjackle · Post by **cybrjackle** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 7:22 pm

I'm looking for a laptop and I believe I have narrowed it down to these two. I know people have got them both working with Linux, espically the HP since there is a large thread here. I really like a lot of the stuff that comes in the Dell and I don't know if I really want the large 17" that HP has, but the other HP's have pretty bad video cards and I want it to last for 2-3 years. Anyway, the Dell has a ATI 9800 card and I'm wondering how well that is supported in Linux for graphics. stuff like Doom 3, ET, UT2k4 or any other programs like Maya 6.

Here are the canidates:

Dell Inspiron 9100 $2,364
Starting at 8.92lbs
Intel® Pentium® 4 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz, 15.4-in. WUXGA 1920 x 1200
1GB DDR 400MHz 2 DIMMs
256MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY RADEON 9800 AGP 8X Graphics
I'm also considering this card, if it can handle games and such:
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY RADEON 9700 AGP 8X Graphics [subtract $162]
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R) with double-layer write capability
or
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow [subtract $161]
60GB Hard Drive at 7200RPM

Tons of Connectivity Includes 4 USB 2.0 ports, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), Integrated Dual-Band wireless antennas with Mini-PCI card option for wireless networking support, Digital Video Interface (DVI) and an S-Video port.

Hp zd7000 $2228.58
1.85" thin and 9.3lbs
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.40 GHz w/HT Technology
17.0" WVA WSXGA+ BrightView (1680x1050)
128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) FX Go5700
1.0GB DDR SDRAM (2x512MB)
60 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
FREE Upgrade from DVD to DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive!!
or
4X DVD+RW/R & CD-RW Combo Drive add +$225.00

Conveniently access multiple ports and connectors
The zd7000 supports the most frequently used ports: four for USB 2.0, one for FireWire (IEEE 1394), one for FIR (Fast Infrared), and one for S-Video TV out, plus you get a 5-in-1 digital media card reader.

______________________________________________________________
Not sure I really need the DVD+RW drive, I could save money buy not getting it and get a portable one latter on when they speed up more. The RAM I could probably slim down and get a GENERIC brand on the net for a lot cheaper but might not be as reliable.

So in the end, my question is which one would you buy and why?

Thx

P.S. to Mod's if this is in the wrong place, sorry and please move it.

cybrjackle · Post by **cybrjackle** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 5:08 pm

I'm also looking at:

Dell Inspiron 8600
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 755 (2.0GHz),15.4in WUXGA
1GB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON 9600 PROTURBO
60GB Hard Drive at 7200RPM
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow
or
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R) with double-layer write capability

From what I have been reading, it appears that the video card (Mobility Radeon 9600ProTurbo) is supported with 3D acceleration.

Anyone have any experience or advice?

Also from looking at some benchmarks that the Go5700 beats out the 9600 just by a little bit. Is the headache of getting this video card worth going with the Dell? I do like to play games like ET/Ut2k4 and Doom3 when it is avaible and I'm wondering if that card can handle it?

thx,

second_exodous · Post by **second_exodous** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:18 pm

I have a HP ZD7000 series notebook, it has:

17" 1440x900(the older screen, but I can't imagine a better picture)
3.4 P4 with HT
1 GB ram
128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) FX Go5600(a little slower I'm guessing)
80 GB HD, 5400 RPM
4X DVD+RW

And it can't play DOOM3! Well, it does really good for a notebook, but no matter what resolution/detail I put it at it's still really jerky, which is enough to ruin the experience. It plays UT2k4 and ET at full detail though, really fast. The cooling in this notebook isn't well thought out, if you have the chance to use one you can't use it on your lap, you'll block the air intake and it will heat up pretty fast. I'm trying to get rid of it, ZD's with my specs go for 2000-2200 on e-bay right now, I'm going to sell it, bank it, and get a desktop with a 23" apple display to make it a little more portable(my old 21' monitor was over half the weight of my old desktop). I've been eying the amd64 chips.

As for Doom3, the native stuff still isn't out yet, so that might speed it up quite a bit. The media reader doesn't work, I haven't looked into getting it to work because I don't have any of that media. My digital cam is one of the Sony one's that write to a little cd.

When I bought this 8 months ago I thought it would last me 2 years, but it's barley lasted me this long, mostly due to doom3, but I'm also interested in maya like you. After talking to some people that use it and reading articles about maya it's pretty obvious that the extra ram helps quite a bit, and this notebook can only use 2 GB, which is fine for everything except digital creation content.

I would do this, if you have an awesome desktop and can afford a desktop replacement notebook, go for it. If you have an ok desktop that needs updating, update that first then get a notebook with what you have left over. A notebook is nice, just not as nice as a desktop.

Thanx,
Stan

Archangel1 · Post by **Archangel1** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:48 pm

Those screens on the Dells are nice. THe HP one is 2" bigger and significantly lower resolution - not really a ncie tradeoff.
Personally I'd call the 8600 the best of a bad bunch - I'd find those far too big and heavy. But obviously you've got some reason to need a large machine - are you going to be doing a lot of gaming on it? And not moving it around much?

cybrjackle · Post by **cybrjackle** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 1:32 pm

Well, now you tell me

I did buy the zd7260 this weekend

3.2ghz
17" 1680x1050 <--looks nice
512MB ram <-- 1 GB stick should come today
80GB 4200rpm <--- 60GB 7200rpm should come today
I bought a 2.5" hd carry case to put the 80GB for data
Nvidia Go5700

I do have a Dual Xeon 2.8GHz box here at home also with a FX5700 but I can upgrade that card easy!

Archangel1 · Post by **Archangel1** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 10:28 pm

Forget I said it - that resolution should do you okay

That's a serious bit of processing power between the two machines - would knock off compiles pretty quickly...

cybrjackle · Post by **cybrjackle** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:01 pm

Also have a xp-2500 oc'd to 2200Mhz,

The Dual Xeon alone rips through stage1 in 40minutes w/ nptl

second_exodous · Post by **second_exodous** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 6:35 am

Nice, yeah, a desktop replacement notebook is ok if you have a nice desktop, if not a notebook can never replace a desktop, even though some call it a desktop replacement. I am needing a desktop now more than anything, I have a little ibook that will allow me to type/do internet stuff on the go, that's good enough for me, I need a really fast system more than a pretty fast notebook.

I like the zd screens, even the old 1440x900 beat all the notebooks I've ever seen as far as clarity/brighness. They are a lower resolution than some but I think they have a higher quality monitor to begin with than most.

Thanx,
Stan

AnimalMachine · Post by **AnimalMachine** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:21 pm

I have a zd7260 as well, and Doom3 plays reasonable (but not great) at 800x600 with low detail, though I think I kicked it back down to 640x480. But that's just my opinion ... my standards have dropped a bit, as I'm getting sick of forking out so much cash for video cards.

So far I'm extremely happy with my zd7260 as a desktop replacement. I'm done with desktops forever.

However, I'm running into a few hurdles in getting gentoo working on it. But Knoppix & Gnoppix run on it, so I'm sure I'll get it to come around eventually. The bootstrapping and system emerge went by pretty quick. If only xorg wouldn't freeze my system ...

Still gotta read through all of the zd7000 posts here...

cybrjackle · Post by **cybrjackle** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:56 pm

AnimalMachine wrote:I have a zd7260 as well, and Doom3 plays reasonable (but not great) at 800x600 with low detail, though I think I kicked it back down to 640x480. But that's just my opinion ... my standards have dropped a bit, as I'm getting sick of forking out so much cash for video cards.

So far I'm extremely happy with my zd7260 as a desktop replacement. I'm done with desktops forever.

However, I'm running into a few hurdles in getting gentoo working on it. But Knoppix & Gnoppix run on it, so I'm sure I'll get it to come around eventually. The bootstrapping and system emerge went by pretty quick. If only xorg wouldn't freeze my system ... Still gotta read through all of the zd7000 posts here...

Do you have a working xorg.conf now?

I got gentoo on yesterday along with gnome/xorg and was looking for the settings.

AnimalMachine · Post by **AnimalMachine** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 8:28 pm

cybrjackle wrote:Do you have a working xorg.conf now?

I got gentoo on yesterday along with gnome/xorg and was looking for the settings.

Nope, don't have it yet, sorry. I don't believe it's the configuration file causing my pain, because when I tried the output of 'X -configure' it locked up also. I bet it has something to do with the fact that I've compiled the gentoo-dev-sources kernel, and had to use the unstable ebuilds of the nvidia kernel & glx packages. But I'm still at work and can't really look at it until tonight.

There is this post to follow, but there were not any specific solutions to lockup problems there (the one mention of it didn't get a response). There are also these forums to look at.

[edit:] I didn't even attempt to look at the log files yet, so I really haven't done much diagnosis ...