The HP Compaq nc8000 is quite a bulky unit -- in fact it is the thickest notebook tested. After some further inspection we can easily see why -- it integrates a DVD and floppy disk drive where most other notebooks have an interchangeable drive.
The NC8000 is quite a rugged notebook and it looks like it could take a good beating.
Inside sits an Intel Pentium 1.7GHz M processor with only 256MB of RAM but we understand that the retail model will have a significantly higher 512MB of RAM.
Because of time restraints we didn't get to test this unit with 512MB, we just tested it they way it was shipped it to us. But going from the performance scores the extra 512MB would come in handy. The HP didn't come with a DVD burner but only a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive.
On the back it has a variety of connectors including FireWire, S-Video, as well as parallel and serial ports. To the right of the notebook there are two Type II or one Type III PC Card slots, and a SD slot. Communications are completely covered with the addition of a modem, Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth -- all the options you could want.
In terms of performance this notebook does not perform too well, mainly because it is short on RAM. But if you bump up the RAM you should easily be able to make this notebook just as fast as any of the other notebooks we tested for this review.
In our battery life test, the NC8000 manages to perform exceptionally, just falling short of seven hours which is great result for this rugged notebook.
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