HP 2133 Mini-note

New Mini-Note Models are up with Custom Config as Well!

HP has new Mini-Note models up as well as a custom config option! Check them out.

In the comments Heather posted a chat she had with an HP rep which states that XP will come pre-loaded with XP and a Vista Business install CD so you can upgrade in the future.

Update:

Alrighty, looks like the pricing and spec details we got on the new Mini-Note models were correct. We did get wrong (half) the release dates, the no custom-configuration and XP as a preload option. The initial tip did say two models on Monday and two on Thursday so maybe something else is still coming.

I’m not sure if their pre-config is broke, but right now it’s only letting me have the 1.6Ghz processor, 2GB and 120GB HD with Vista Business, the 1.2Ghz with Vista Home and the either the 1.2/1.0Ghz CPU and either the 4GB SSD/120GB 5400RPM with SLED. It’s basically locking you into what is available on the pre-config’ed Mini-Notes. Since the pages are pretty new it’s probably just temporary error on their part…if not it defeats the purpose.

I find it pretty shady what HP is doing by pushing the XP downgrade. Remember if you get Vista Business you can downgrade to XP for free anyways. HP isn’t doing you some favor with these new offerrings. Unless you really, really need another 40GB, the KX870AT ($749, Vista Business, 1.6Ghz, 2GB, 120GB 7200 RPM HD) is the best purchase of all the Windows based models.

Update #2 (8:24am CST)

The custom-config option seems to be working properly and isn’t locking us into the general model configs. Curiously SLED and Vista Business are missing from the OS options. Only Vista Home and “Vista Downgrade to XP Professional” are available. Going for the XP downgrade will run you an extra $50. For CPU options the 1.2Ghz and 1.6Ghz processors are available, and you can get either 1 or 2GB of memory. On the hard drives, you can get any of the drives available on the pre-configs: 4GB SSD, 120GB at 5400 or 7200RPM, and the 160GB at 5400RPM. You’re locked into the 6-cell battery and the wireless a/b/g with bluetooth chipset.

For now it seems the pre-configs are your best bet because the custom-configs are ridiculously over priced. For $839 I could get a Mini-Note with Vista Home, 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400RPM hard drive, with the 6 cell battery and the a/b/g wireless with bluetooth. For $240 less you can get the preconfig w/o bluetooth and the 3 cell battery instead…No thanks HP.

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XP Drivers for the Mini-Note Up on HP’s Site

Serving as more confirmation that XP is coming to the Mini-Note one way or another this coming week, HP has what looks to be all the XP driver’s on their site. For us early adopters it makes getting everything installed and working with XP that much easier at any rate.

Now the question is, how soon until Isaiah?

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New Mini-Note Models coming on Monday and Thursday?

A very nice young lady from the middle east got to chatting with an HP rep today and sent her the following:

The rep also said he had not heard about any user configurable options, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. They are however offering XP as an install option.

The pricing structure seems to off on this, but when the Mini-Note was released they did have one for $849 that had the 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and Vista Home… so it could be these are not the finalized prices.

I just called HP and they confirmed that XP will be available on the 15th, but she couldn’t say if it was pre-installed or CD only. I’ll call again shortly.

Thanks again “that chick from Israel”!

Update: I called twice more and the rep said that XP is coming out for sure on the 15th…but the second rep didn’t have a clue when it was coming out. He could only “assume” it would be “soon”.

Update 2: I just did a chat and got this:

Jay: Good afternoon! My name is Jay, chatting from beautiful Colorado, and please give me a moment to review the chat so far.

Jay: Hello, and thanks for looking to HP’s award winning line of business notebooks. I see you have a question on the newly released 2133, and when an xp loaded mini is available. Next week we will be offering 4 new mini models preloaded with xp.

Guest: awesome

Jay: Does that work, and did you have another question for me on the popular 2133 mini?

So here they come!

Update 3: I was digging and some more and found this ultralight notebook comparison page which lists XP as an option for the Mini-Note

Digg this: http://digg.com/hardware/New_HP_2133_Mini_Note_Model_Info_Leaked

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Mini-Note Performance Tests with Windows XP

I know everyone has been really curious to see the performance difference of XP on the Mini-Note, so without further ado here are the results:

Computer Details

Mini-Note #1 = 800Mhz, Vista Business
Mini-Note #2 = 1200Mhz, Vista Business
Mini-Note #3 = 1600Mhz, Vista Business
Mini-Note #4 = 800Mhz, XP Pro SP2
Mini-Note #5 = 1200Mhz, XP Pro SP2
Mini-Note #6 = 1600Mhz, XP Pro SP2
Desktop #1 = 1800Mhz AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1800Ghz), 1GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 6200, Windows Media Center SP2
Desktop #2 = 1867Mhz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 7600GT, Windows Media Center SP2

Note, that all the Mini-Notes are actually the VIA C7-M 1.6Ghz model underclocked with the power management settings, and have 2GB DDR667 RAM, 120GB 7200RPM HD.

The 1.2Ghz benchmarks using XP are missing because I haven’t found a way to throttle the CPU in XP to 1.3Ghz. The power options only let me have 800Mhz or 1600Mhz.

I didn’t realize there was a newer version of 3DMark when I ran the benchmarks on Vista. I’ll try and get the Vista image restored this weekend and try 3DMark06.

Benchmark Tests

Video Encoding

See the Mini-Note Vista Video Encoding Benchmarks post for full details on the encoding test.

Summary

As I said in First Impressions of XP on the Mini-Note, the 2133’s performance is noticeably better with XP and these benchmarks really prove that.

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HP Mini-Note XP Movie Playback

Web Videos

I again tried Hulu, YouTube, Metacafe and Break to test Mini-Note’s Flash movie playback in XP. I’m happy to report they’re all much better. YouTube, Metacafe and Break all play perfect or near-perfect in full or screen modes. In small screen Hulu still plays choppy, but it’s watchable if you really want to see something. Hulu’s full screen mode is still pretty bad.

AVI Videos

There really weren’t any major issues with AVI playback in Vista, but it does playback smoother while multitasking in XP now. With the video size at 100% there were hardly any dropped frames while surfing. At 200% it started dropping some more, but you’re not likely to notice while multitasking.

Quick Time Videos

The SD video trailers still played great in XP, and the 480p only dropped a few frames here or there. You still need to wait for it download entirely for best performance though. Unfortunately the 720p and 1080p were still pretty bad with QuickTime.

At Peach1200’s suggestion I tried the K-Lite codes and Media Player classic with the high-def trailers. It was 100 times better using those. The 480p and 720p trailers played flawlessly. The 1080p trailer would barely play at all though. (Get K-Lite Mega Pack w/Media Player Classic)

I also tried web surfing while watching the Iron Man 720p full-size in MPC which did cause it to get a little choppy. I would say it’s a little worse than the Superbad AVI at 200% while browsing.

DVD Playback

This time around I tried PowerDVD 6 as well as PowerDVD 8 to try out some DVDs with. This time around playback was perfect - no skipping or choppiness. (by the way, PDVD6 Isn’t compatible w/Vista)

While surfing DVD playback was heavily affected by it. The audio wouldn’t drop but playback would freeze for a few seconds from time to time and plenty of dropped frames.

Summary

As expected the Mini-Note’s performance is much better with XP on it instead of Vista. The processor is much more capable without a bloated OS slowing it down. Check out the video of it in action.

For details about the AVI files used or to see the Vista results take a look at the HP 2133 Mini-Note Vista Movie Playback Test.

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Official XP Drivers the HP 2133 Mini-Note

Wikifun happed to see that HP has the official XP drivers up on their site now! Finally no more digging around trying to find what works were. Thanks wikifun!

Update: liliputing.com is reporting that the drivers have been pulled down. (confirmed)

Update: the drivers are back up now

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Improving High-definition Video Playback on the Mini-Note

Over in the First Impressions of XP on the Mini-Note post, Peach1200 suggested I try the K-Lite Mega Codec pack and Media Player Classic on some high-definition QuickTime videos. I was very impressed by the results. The 480p and 720p QuickTime trailers and some 720p WMV movies played back flawlessly in Media Player Classic. It really is a night and day difference. Thanks for telling sharing that Peach!

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First Impressions of XP on the Mini-Note

It really is way better with XP on the Mini-Note. YouTube videos play fine, Hulu is almost watchable in small screen, DVDs look great, and 480p QuickTime Trailers are watchable (still dropped frames, but less than Hulu). In general the performance is way better than Vista with XP on it. The one thing I do miss from Vista though is it’s power management let you set throttle the cpu to a certain percentage. I’m still playing with couple 3rd party apps trying to pick the best one.

XP is definitely way better than Vista on the Mini-Note. I’ll have an official review, some videos and updated benchmarks soon.

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More Mini-Note Performance Tests

Hi everyone, I have some more fun performance/benchmark tests of the Mini-Note running Vista. This should give you an idea of how well it can (or can’t) run.

Computer Details

Mini-Note #1 = VIA C7-M 800Mhz, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Chrome 9 Graphics, Vista Business
Mini-Note #2 = VIA C7-M 1200Mhz, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Chrome 9 Graphics, Vista Business
Mini-Note #3 = VIA C7-M 1600Mhz, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Chrome 9 Graphics, Vista Business
Desktop #1 = 1800Mhz AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1800Ghz), 1GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 6200, Windows Media Center
Desktop #2 = 1867Mhz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 7600GT, Windows Media Center

Note, that all the Mini-Notes are actually the 1.6Ghz model underclocked with the power management settings. Also I messed up and somehow ended up with 3DMark03 instead of 3DMark06. I will have this updated ASAP.

Benchmark Tests

Video Encoding

See the Mini-Note Vista Video Encoding Benchmarks post for full details.

I’ll be installing XP on my Mini-Note tonight and I’ll those numbers up soon so we can the difference. Should be really interesting.

Posted in performance tests | 2 Comments »

Skype performance on XP

jkOnTheRun has a video of a video call through Skype on XP. It looks good enough and doesn’t seem to drop any frames or audio. This is a huge improvement over Skype’s performance in Vista which is good news for those of you worried about the VIA C7-M processor. It still a little underpowered, but the processor a decent operating system and it will handle the basic stuff well enough.

Check it out: http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/05/jkontherun-geek.html

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