HP COMPAQ Business Notebook NC6120

I’ve been looking for a new notebook recently as my old one needed replacement and I wanted to step up to something just a tad bit faster. As I use a notebook on a daily basis, either on the road or at my desk, it needs to be as well-rounded as possible. For starters I want a full size keyboard, built in DVDRW drive to not cut into my productivity much as I have to scramble to go find the external optical drive many smaller notebooks are featured with. Furthermore wide-screen TFT’s with >1280 x 1024 resolution makes for the fonts and icons to be rather small on a 14″ or 15″ screen hence I’ll settle for the defacto 1024×768 resolution with a screen size of 14″ or larger. What else? Well, I can’t be bothered with all sort of extra multimedia keys placed in odd locations, chrome or matte silver lining, fancy lights or anything else that’s just there to up the notebook’s visual appeal and not its functionality. So basically I’m looking for a notebook that clearly puts function over form and not vice-versa.

I find the HP COMPAQ Business Notebook NC6120, The following is the configuration of the HP nx6120 I have:

Intel Pentium M Processor 740 740(1.73GHZ, 533MHZ FSB,2MB L2 CACHE)
512MB DDR RAM
60GB(5400RPM) Hard Drive
DVD/CD-RW Drive
15″ Screen
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 with up to 128MB Shared System Memory
Windows XP Pro
W/LAN with Bluetooth

What I did find distracting at times was the fan noise, because even when used in battery mode, with the processor running at a mere 366MHz, it would spin up audibly. My previous notebooks have all had fans that were inaudible or wouldn’t even turn on when running on batteries, but I do have a fairly quiet office, hence your mileage may vary. Battery life is on average 3.5-hours of normal use, which is right in line with similar Centrino notebooks. Unfortunately a spare battery is sold at the usual ridiculous aftermarkt price, else I’d opt for a 2nd NC6120 battery as a backup when I’m traveling. One thing got me a bit puzzled though, the HP nc6120 features a docking station connector at the bottom which has its contacts unprotected by a plastic lid, hence beware that no paperclips or other metal objects are under the notebook when you put it down, as who knows what might happen. I would’ve welcomed a rubber gasket or some plastic lid to protect the connector from such mishaps.