Well my dad offered $1600 over 4 yrs (high school) for a laptop. I did a little bit of resaerch and I've got my mind set on the HP Pavilion zd8000.
Intel(R) Pentium(R)4 processor 540 w/HT Technology (I believe 3.2 ghtz)
17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Wide Viewing (1680x1050)
1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 400MHz (2x512MB)
60 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600
DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
Total with extra battery is $2,098
My questions are
1) Can it handle video editing? I'm thinking its almost overkill but you never know.... 3.2 might not be top of the line but its no scouch. should last me.
2) Gaming..... I will eventually try out Half Life 2, Doom 3, etc and I want to know if this could handle it. I dont need highest settings, but it would be nice if it could look good. x600 PCI Express is ok, pretty good for a laptop.
3) How long can this last? I.e. college is still 3-4+ yrs away and I don't want to bust out more money for a new laptop. 3.2 + x600 might last me through high school, but I'm thinking its also more than enough for college. By then I'm thinking P5 but for word processing even under 2 ghtz is more than enough so it should last, no?
4) Battery life is horrible which is why I'm getting (hopefully) another one. But even combined its still under 5 hrs, and probably closer to 3. Never having had a laptop, is this enough? I'm probably mainly going to use this as desktop replacement, but when I do take it out, will the battery life hamper me that much? In college I'm assuming I'll take laptop to the library and study. There are probably no power outlets, and I'm thinking 3-4 hrs (max) is still a bit lacking.
Please just tell me what you think of this. I'm currently using 1.4 gthz, 256 geforce 4 mx400 which is enough for word processing but I find it limited for video editing and my parents are planning to take up computing so we need a new computer. Should I go for this laptop? $1600 + ~$400 from my pockets should get me this computer. But then there goes my gmini 400.....
Straying from the topic, I also need a new hard drive. Anyone know any cheap places? I'm dirt poor so has to be cost effective (at least $1 for 2 gigs). It would be better to get an internal hard drive and put it in an enclosure no?

