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General discussion

HP vs TOSHIBA: Please, help to make a choice

by BS Nov 12, 2004 1:34PM PST

There are 2 noteboks and one of them I'd like to buy. The first one is: TOSHIBA M35X-S329; the other one is HP zv5320us. The configurations are very similar (512 RAM, 80 HDD, 15.4" screen, DVD-rom/CD-RW), but the processors are different: Toshiba has Pentium M 725 (1.6GHz), and HP has AMD Athlon-M 3000+.

Please, could you give me any information about:
1. Performance of these notebooks;
2. Battery life -//-;
3. Any other fiatures or detailes concerning these models.

Thank you very much in advance.

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3 Posts
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Re: HP vs TOSHIBA: Please, help to make a choice
by KenSanramon Nov 13, 2004 6:02PM PST

First of all the Toshiba M35 series is comparable to a HPZT3000 (Pentium M Centrino) or its sister Compaq X1000 series (which I own) -- see X1000forums.com for best specs and discounts on hp/compaq custom order models at hpshopping.

Either the Compaq M35 series (6.2 pounds) or HPZT3000/Compaq X1000 series (6.5 pounds) will get 3.5 - 4 hours using wi-fi (somewhat more battery life with LCD brightness turned down) and up to 5 hours not using wi-fi (DVD playing would be similar to wi-fi). The outstanding M35S456 (now discontinued) had it all but many M35X models now have less features and some even have only shared (integrated) video RAM. Both the M35 series and HP/Compaq can be had with up to 64mb dedicated video RAM is you get the right prebuilt or order custom.

HP/Compaq and E-machines/Gateway (see these at Best buy) are the only mainstream companies to build an Athlon 64 based system right now. Each grouping I show above is now a merged entity (Gateway moved its headquarters to E-machines in Irvine from San Diego this year). Right now, the Athlon 64 notebooks are 7.8-8 pounds for the HP/Compaq with the same size 15.4" widescreen. They are thicker due to the extra heat but this is vastly superior to a Pentium 4M notebook. Battery life still isn't great but you may get 2.5-3 hours (many Pentium 4Ms are at 2 hours or under). AMD is 64bit so if it will definitely have better performance with Windows Longhorn when it appears or with Linux or some other 64bit apps now or next year.

If you get an notebook now for under $1500 and accept a 2.5-3 year productive life (until Longhorn appears in 2006-07 --then the 2 cpu 64bit chips will be out, faster chipsets and memory and you don't want to add Longhorn 64bit as an upgrade) get a Pentium M.

If you can wait for the Athlon 64 bit low voltage notebooks to appear (supposedly out in Europe)this may get closer to a Pentium M with better battery life.

Right now Dell won't even sell AMD but that may change.

The only real negative about the M35X (assuming you don't get stuck with shared video memory or an abhorrent Celeron Pentium M cpu) is that is runs a bit hot around the touchpad and under the notebook (the M35S320 at least had slightly raised feet in back to indicate the need for more airflow. The HPZT3000/Compaq X1000 by contrast does not even run its fan at all in normal use (wi-fi , office) but rather only at startup or when using the optical drive or hard drive alot).

The only negative about the HP/Compaq Athlon 64's I saw (other than the thickness/weight/less battery life) is that the touchpad is not centered under the spacebar as it is on the HPZT3000.

You can custom order the HP Briteview LCD screen on nearly any HP/Compaq custom order notebook now at HPshopping --- Toshiba has Trubrite on some higher end M35's but not on many new lower priced (closer to 1,000 or under) M35X's

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Re: HP vs TOSHIBA: Please, help to make a choice
by BS Nov 14, 2004 6:13AM PST

Thank you very much for this detailed answer!

But I'd like to make more exact one thing: the HP laptop i'v mentioned (HP zv5320us) has AMD Athlon XP-M processor, NOT Athlon 64.

What could you say about comparison of these 2 processors (I mean Pentium M 725 (1.6 GHz) and Athlon XP-M 3000+ (olso 1.6 GHz)) in terms of productivity and battary life?
I'v heard the Athlon XP-M has similar energy-saver system like Pentium M, but which of these systems is more efficient?..

And the another question, what could you reccomend me for video system: shared or dedicated video memory? I'm not going to use my notebook like game-station, but I will need to use some applications (for example, Matlab) to makes a lot of computing and pictures (gistograms, plots and so on). So, would shared grafics be enough for these purposes?

Thank you for your answers once again!

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Re: HP vs TOSHIBA: Please, help to make a choice
by KenSanramon Nov 15, 2004 3:52AM PST

The Intel Pentium M (Centrino) offers the lightest weight and thinnest notebooks with the best battery life (3.5 to 5 hours -- wi-fi use on the lower end and playing DVD's or games -- on the higher end of the scale if doing Microsoft office, etc). This is a 32bit chip like the Pentium 4M so it will not work as well when Windows Longhorn 64bit comes out in late 2006-2007 but that is still 3 years use and that is all you can expect from a notebook these days (you can keep using it but productive use will be reduced).

I would only get the Athlon 64 if you want AMD as it is a 64bit chip. The cheaper Athlon does not give you the 64bit future benefit and it is not as efficient with battery life as the Pentium M.

Supposedly, the Athlon 64 will be shippping with a low voltage version that may be the best of both worlds (supposedly in Europe already) but I don't know when those will be released.

Since you have mentioned a higher end program that uses video (Matlab) I would definitely recommend that you get at least 64mb dedicated video. You can get that on the HPZT3000/Compaq X1000 series (32mb dedicated is better than shared but 64mb dedicated is only $50-$75 more custom order) or on the Athlon 64 notebooks by HP/Compaq .......if you thought you needed 128mb dedicated video you can get that on the Dell 8600 or a few others but you probably are ok with 64mb for your use.

Note that an ATI 9600 or 9700 video card performs somewhat better than a 9200 video card so if comparing notebooks and you see a newer model with the same amount of dedicated video RAM the newer video card would be better.

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