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General discussion

Ken SanRamon...I decided to get the X1370US

Aug 5, 2004 10:31AM PDT

Thanks for your advice Ken. I guess I'm getting something like your unit plus 10. I'm ordering from Infinity-Micro of Los Angeles. Seems like it's not a scam operation so I went ahead and wired the money. The price even with shipping and the bank wire service turns out to be $300 CAD less than buying the slightly faster 1.5GHz X1460CA in the local Staples. I found some websites list it as a 400MHz bus but HP's website says 333MHz. I guess there's some sloppy reporting going on. What about upgrading from 512MB? It's my impression that both slots will be full so I'd have to discard both memory modules to upgrade from 512MB. That's an annoying shame.

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Re: Ken SanRamon...I decided to get the X1370US
Aug 5, 2004 10:48AM PDT

The X1370US (sold also at Office Depot for a long time) is identical in specs to my X1360US (sold at Circuit City until replaced by faster Dothan Pentium M and X1460US model)but yours has only a 40gb 4200rpm hard drive and mine has a 60gb 4200rpm hard drive.

Office Depot blew these out a few weeks ago for only $1249 after rebates (X1370US). I got my X1360US for $1299 after rebates in late May so that is nearly an identical deal (give that the hard drive is larger in mine).

Are you sure you don't want to custom order at hpshopping.com ? If you do, you can get the 1.6 Pentium M Dothan (1.4 Pentium M we have has only 1mb L2 system cache) with 2mb L2 system cache for only $50.00 higher than the 1.5 Pentium M (1.4 Pentium M is not sold at all custom online).

Also, by ordering custom, you can order just 256mb of RAM and add 256mb or 512mb yourself in the open 2nd slot (1st slot is not easily accessible, 2nd is very easy). 512mb RAM can be had for only about $100 from Crucial, etc which is less than HP/Compaq is charging you to go from 256mb to 512mb (and you end up with 768mb).

Note: the X1370 has the 400mb system bus. The original X1000's built in mid 2003 had the slower bus but they upgraded it in 2004. You have PC2700 memory modules inside also (not the original PC2100 spec).

Also, if you order custom there is still a $100 rebate for any Compaq X1000 or HPZT3000 (or any other custom order notebook) through 9/1/04.

If you did get the notebook for around $1300.00 than you got a good deal if you are satisfied with the base specifications. I would have upgraded the dedicated video memory from 32mb to 64mb for only $50 more if ordering custom and also it is worthwhile to upgrade to a 5400rpm hard drive for up to 50% faster hard drive seek time.

But you will enjoy this notebook even if you don't get the Dothan 1.6 processor, 64mb video, and faster hard drive.

Note: 512mb RAM should be fine unless you are not going to run Photoshop or other intense programs (Autocad, etc) anyway..........

But what did you pay ?

You could get the 3 upgrades listed above for less than $1500 after rebates and also save money by ordering only 256mb from HP/Compaq.

Register at X1000forums.com to see all the updates and specifications people have.

Also, since you have a prebuilt, you may immediately need to upgrade the system bios. Mine came with F33 which had an issue with a <shift> ; causing the system to shut down.

This was immediately rectified by the F34 bios (or F42 bios out now) and that is now shipping on all new custom notebooks.

But since you have a prebuilt you may have to download this and also the other 2004 driver/bios updates (ATI video 5/8/04, wi-fi driver around 4/04, Intel proset utility 4/04), etc on the Compaq website for your model (X1370US).

I have had no problems since and found out about this stuff on the forum...........

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Re: Ken SanRamon...I decided to get the X1370US
Aug 5, 2004 10:58AM PDT

Sorry I forgot you were looking at the models in Canada at the HPshopping which are prebuilt only (X1460CA).

Again, take the lowest price I saw for that in the US at 1249.00 US and compare that to your store. That seems to be a US store so it should be in US$.

Note, the X1370US ( as you are getting a US model) is still qualified for the $100 Compaq rebate -- you can find that at HPshopping.com (US site not Canada) -- go down to mail in rebates on the homepage and go to Compaq notebooks and open the rebate that states it is valid for purchases from 2/1/04-9/1/04 -- it is a rebate offering either $100 cash back (US), free Wordperfect Professional (Wordperfect, Borland Quattro Pro, Presentation program), or a Mariott hotel deal). (the rebate is a PDF file -- adobe acrobat -- so you need that program (can download for free) to open and print the rebate.

This rebate was part of the deal I got so if you paid $1350 US with this rebate that gets you to $1250 as Office Depot had it when they blew them out.

Since you live in Canada, perhaps you are not technically elligible but you have bought the model listed on the rebate (X1370US is listed there). So, if you can't get it in Canada perhaps you can have it sent to someone in the US (use your name and US address of that person or relative) and then get it.

I know people from the forums from England who could not order custom from overseas either but that had a US credit card so they had it sent to relatives in the US and then came over and got the notebook that way.

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Re: Ken SanRamon...I decided to get the X1370US
Aug 5, 2004 11:09AM PDT

By the way to clarify I mean submit the $100 rebate and have it sent to a relative or friend at a US address. You don't have the right rebate offer unless it states it is good for 2/1/04-9/1/04 (make sure it is $100 compaq notebook rebate not HP notebook rebate) and make sure it states X1370US as one of the models qualified in the fine print (all custom order models are also qualified). You will also see my X1360US listed so that is the same rebate I submitted and received.

You will have the US invoice, the original UPC code (2nd label on side of box) -- so the only issue is the US address.....

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Re: Ken SanRamon...I decided to get the X1370US
Aug 5, 2004 11:03AM PDT

Regarding the 512 memory if you keep the prebuilt X1370US you ordered (you won't regret the Pentium 1.4 Banias versus the 1.5 Banias at all -- only moving up to the 1.6 Dothan would give you any significant improvement due to the doubled L2 system cache)....

then open the memory slot under the notebook. If you see a memory module in there you have 1 256mb RAM there and the other 256mb module is mounted under the keyboard (you have to remove the entire keyboard to get to it).

If you don't see any memory module underneath (simple screw and pop out lid -- instructions in Compaq manual) then you are lucky and you got 1 512mb memory module !!!! If that is the case you can upgrade without removing any memory.

But again, 512mb is fine for most people and most people do the 768mb option only because they can custom order 256mb and add 512mb themselves for about the same price as 512mb ordered from HP/Compaq.

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Re: Ken SanRamon...I decided to get the X1370US
Aug 5, 2004 11:17AM PDT

And one last thing .. the X1360US and X1370US (and any other HP/Compaq consumer models) have only a US warranty (not international warranty). The business models (nx7000 is the business model equivalent to the X1000 and ZT3000) has a 1 year international warranty.

One repair depot is in Milpitas, CA (very near me) for HP/Compaq and I think the other may be in Canada.

At any rate, if you have a repair issue you would have to send it to the facilities for US customers as you have a US model (you could not have it repaired at other worldwide HP repair facilities).

Call HP/Compaq service but hopefully for you that only means you have to fed ex it to the US repair facility they designate ...........

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paid $1249, sort of
Aug 6, 2004 12:16AM PDT

Paid 1249 minus 37.47 for paying "cash", actually, a wire transfer in my case, for a total of $1211.53.

I don't mind the disk's 40GB capacity because I keep my music on a desktop.

I didn't look at custom because I figured I'd save money by taking a model that vendors are trying to clear out. Pricegrabber.com found this deal for me.

Thanks for the tips about the BIOS and driver upgrades. As for the $100 rebate, I will get it mailed to a friend at a Detroit address.

I hadn't thought about servicing... I guess I'm taking a risk to save a few bucks. Anyway a "dead on arrival" problem should be addressed by a swap with the retailer.

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Re: paid $1249, sort of
Aug 6, 2004 4:07AM PDT

You got a good price then as the $1249 I quoted was net of the rebates - so if you get either the $100 rebate or the $30 mail in rebate you are coming in for less.

You can always add your own faster hard drive later (it pops out of the bottom of the case) if needed but yes 40gb should be fine for a notebook.

Note: if you did have a warranty issue and they would not send it back to Canada then hopefully you could use your same friend with a Detroit mailing address.

I guess you must be in Windsor or somewhere close to the border.

Note in the future that HP business notebooks (and the equivalent to the X1000 is the nc7000) do have 1 year international warranties.