HP Compaq Presario V5000Z

The HP Compaq Presario V5000Z is virtually identical to the Presario V4000 with one major exception: where the V4000 can be configured with Intel's Celeron or Pentium processors, the V5000Z runs on one of two AMD processors--either the Pentium-equivalent Turion or the less expensive, Celeron-equivalent Sempron.

Otherwise, the Presario V5000Z is a pared-down version of the Pavilion dv5000z and makes a solid all-around notebook for a student or a home user who needs good--not great--performance and a fairly complete set of basic features and connections. Its starting price of just $549, $200 less than the price of the V4000's baseline configuration, makes it one of the least expensive base models on the market. We're not convinced the Intel processor is worth $200 more than the AMD equivalent, so we think the V5000Z is the better deal. If you're looking for a laptop with a bit more multimedia oomph, we recommend the dv4000 or the dv5000z.

The Presario V5000Z weighs a few ounces more than the V4000 (due to slight differences in their design) and almost a pound and a half more than either of HP's similar thin-and-light models, the Pavilion dv1000 and the Presario V2000. Our loaded Presario V5000Z test unit, priced at $1,217, came outfitted with a 2GHz Turion 64 ML-37 processor; 1GB of DDR SDRAM (1x1,024MB); an ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress graphics card with 128MB of VRAM; a 100GB hard drive running at 4,200rpm; Windows XP Professional; a 15.4-inch BrightView wide-screen display; a DVD burner featuring HP's neat LightScribe technology; an integrated 54g 802.11a/b/g networking card with Bluetooth; and a standard 6-cell battery. It turned in a decent score on our MobileMark benchmark, just a bit behind the more expensive Pentium-equipped V4000 we tested last year. However, the V5000Z, configured with a standard 6-cell battery, delivered only 2.4 hours of run time; the V4000, also configured with a 6-cell battery, ran for slightly more than 3 hours. Though the V5000Z is a bit heavy for regular travel, we recommend shelling out the $39 for the extended 12-cell battery if you plan to ever move from the wall socket.

For more information about the Presario V5000Z's design, features, and warranty, check out our full review of the very similar Presario V4000.

System configurations:
Compaq Presario V5000Z
Windows XP Pro; 2GHz Turion 64 ML-37; 1GB DDR SDRAM PC2700 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200 128MB; Seagate 4200.2 100GB 4,200rpm

Compaq Presario V4000
Windows XP Pro; 2GHz Intel Pentium M 760; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM PC2700 333MHz; Intel 915GM Graphics Media Accelerator 128MB; Toshiba MK8025GAS 80GB 4,200rpm