HP Pavilion dv9000z

The 7.8-pound HP Pavilion dv9000 is a desktop replacement that's serious about multimedia. Its matte- or glossy-finished, 17-inch wide-screen display comes with a native resolution of either WXGA+ (1,440x900) or WSXGA+ (1,680x1,050), and the system features LED-backlit, touch-sensitive multimedia controls; two headphone jacks (one of which supports S/PDIF out); and HP's QuickPlay 2.1 software for accessing media without booting into Windows. You can configure the notebook with an AMD Turion 64 X2 processor at speeds from 1.6GHz to 1.8GHz; up to 2GB of 533MHz or 667MHz RAM; an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card with 256MB of dedicated VRAM; and a 5,400rpm hard drive with up to 120GB of capacity. The HP Pavilion dv9000 also supports two hard drives on a RAID controller for up to 240GB of space. Other features include HP's Mobile Remote Control, S-Video out and FireWire ports, an ExpressCard slot, 802.11a/b/g wireless, Bluetooth, a dual-layer DVD burner, and a 5-in-1 memory card reader. A Webcam, dual microphones, and Windows XP Media Center Edition are all optional.

With prices starting at $1,349, the HP Pavilion dv9000 looks poised to continue HP's tradition of offering a strong set of component options and media features at a competitive price. Our only concern relates to performance: the first few AMD Turion 64 X2-based systems we reviewed weren't able to keep up with their Intel-based counterparts. We're expecting a dv9000 review unit in the CNET Labs shortly, so look for a full review soon.