Filter
Top Products
Of course the system was not running on AC power meaning that this was a good test for the battery life of the four cells that made up
the battery pack of this notebook. Obviously this is a simulation and in reality one would be potentially connecting to tens or hundreds
of these systems whether it be servers, routers or switches in the data center or data farm. From the screenshot below it is evident that
the system had the potential to last for two and a half hours solely on batter power. Actually probably more without the inserted CD
and Mozilla Seamonkey internet suite running, so I would imagine up to three hours of usage provided that the system was used with
just Minicom connecting to stty serial console lines.
SCR-8. Hp 2230s connected to Sun Microsystems E420r, Sun Ray interconnect server.
4. Conclusion:
The Hp Compaq 2230s is one very nice machine indeed. Built with a strong space-frame (chassis), the system is equipped for the
workplace and road alike and definitely will last. Some issues however, with the build in some areas discussed earlier need to be
addressed, however these are minor issues when taking the whole package into account.
The tech specs and performance of the 2230s are really second to none with the 'ultra-portable' form guise. Features are plenty-full
and overall I/O ports are in abundance in relation to the casing dimensions. The multi-tasking abilities of this system are astounding
proving the Hp 2230s a powerhouse in disguise under the sleek and conservative yet professional looking black exterior.
Portability and mobility of this device is again highly exemplary with up to 3 hours of battery usage time and longevity. The system is
light enough to carry around all day without feeling any pain or discomfort in ones shoulders if using a laptop case or backpack.
Although untested with other forms of UNIX apart from a VM of BeleniX, for Linux usage this system is very much ready. From the
moment of install the system is complete with all the necessary drivers and kernel headers to handle the hardware. No serious
compiling of drivers and kernel headers is needed and the system is ready to take configuration from first boot. The only slight issue is
the Intel GM45 chipset driver which with default configuration assumes i915 compatibility mode, but even in this mode with the
Gnome2 desktop environment the resolution is perfect. The only areas where the system and thus usage would suffer is in the
processing capabilities which can be rectified by installing the latest xorg-intel driver as shown in section 3.4. KDE users and fans
however will be slightly disappointed and may need to do some digging in order to obtain proper resolution within the KDE4 desktop
environment.
I can definitely see this system appealing to a wide audience range including business users, home users, and students alike. The price
for what is given is a bargain and in real terms ~£600 mark is not that expensive for a notebook at all. I think that I will even buy
another one for multi-boot usage using multiple versions of the UNIX operating system. Most likely I will go for the 320GB HD
option and 3GB memory option too, although I may need to upgrade that later on but that's only a small detail.
19