Advice Needed on My New Laptop..

M

michaelearth

New Member
Alright so I am 18 and am going into college in the fall so i am in the market to buy a new laptop. I dont know much about laptops but I like HP, dell laptops are butt ugly and Sony laptops are overpriced and battery life sucks. So i went to HP and built this high end laptop:

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition customizable Notebook PC
LM720AV

dark umber
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
2nd generation Intel(R) Quad Core(TM) i7-2820QM (2.3 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 3.4 GHz
2GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6770M Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
No Additional Office Software
FREE Upgrade to Norton Internet Security(TM) 2011 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
50% OFF!! One 6-Cell and One 9-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)
FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support
Standard Keyboard
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I can get the above laptop for $1,308. Its that low cause i have a 30% coupon. The only thing i wish it had were a backlit keyboard and a touchscreen....

So i guess my questions are:

1. Is this a good laptop for the money?
2. Am i missing anything?
3. can i use it as a DVR?
4. Should i wait till the end of the summer to buy incase they update the hardware and risk losing the 30% off coupon?

IF it helps, i plan to listen to alot of music, watch movies, surf the web and game alittle on this laptop.

Thanks, I know i asked alot...
 
1. No. HP just plain sucks on product quality. The screen quality leaves a lot to be desired, the RAM is generally offbrand and doesnt perform at teh rated spec, and well, they are plain overpriced for the setup.
2. Doesn't look like you are missing anything.
3. You would need a USB video tuner, but yes. In the media center for Windows 7, there is a DVR app, IIRC. If not, your tuner should come with DVR software.
4. In june they are releasing the new AMD series of processors. It may be worth waiting.


I would suggest that you get a Toshiba or Asus laptop. They have much better warranty support and built quality. Also, better value for the money generally.
 
Eh HP. They generally tend to have poor build quality unless you buy their business lineup. I've seen so many of my friend's HP laptops fall apart sophomore year in college. I would recommend Asus, Macbook Pro, and Lenovo thinkpad for college. They all have good build quality and will actually last 4 years through college.
 
HP is really that bad? Everyone else ive talked to says they are one of the best companies to buy a laptop from...

Well im just not sure I can pass up the 30% coupon on this awesome hardware..
 
As a HP owner, I say pass. Besides, they have 30-40% off sails with every holiday.

And yes, it is that bad. i have had to take my DV7 apart several times to fix various errors that the company has in that line. I do it myself because they dont cover it under the warranty (have to pay for the GPU plus shipping each time and that is about 500 through HP. I just got a box of the GPUs from a local repair shop for 300 and replace it each time it burns out.)
 
There are 2 hp laptops in this house. 2 don't work quite right. Neither will charge, and the other the fan will constantly rev up and the laptop won't respond to anything.
 
bkribbs said:
There are 2 hp laptops in this house. 2 don't work quite right. Neither will charge, and the other the fan will constantly rev up and the laptop won't respond to anything.
Click to expand...

If one reads this forum you find many brands are failing. Laptops are prone to failure all of them. They are small everything is crammed in tight, the HDs are built to be of the less weight. There just what they are laptops.
They fail you toss them and buy another life moves on.;)
 
Alright. Statistics about my house.

We have had 5 printers. 4 hp, 1 brother. 3 hp printers are broken, the other was, but it was replaced.
We have had 2 desktops. One is compaq(before they became hp), one is hp. The compaq is fine. The hp is having problems with booting constantly.
We have 4 laptops. 3 are hp, 1 is dell. the dell is at least 6 years old and going strong. one hp had a motherboard go bad. the other 2 don't charge and one constantly stops responding, and the fan goes on high.

You tell me, but according to that, I know I will never purchase another hp product.
 
bkribbs said:
Alright. Statistics about my house.

We have had 5 printers. 4 hp, 1 brother. 3 hp printers are broken, the other was, but it was replaced.
We have had 2 desktops. One is compaq(before they became hp), one is hp. The compaq is fine. The hp is having problems with booting constantly.
We have 4 laptops. 3 are hp, 1 is dell. the dell is at least 6 years old and going strong. one hp had a motherboard go bad. the other 2 don't charge and one constantly stops responding, and the fan goes on high.

You tell me, but according to that, I know I will never purchase another hp product.
Click to expand...

Great you buy what you want I will buy what I want. :)
 
1shado1 said:
Not every HP laptop pukes out. But a higher percentage of HP laptops have had issues than most other brands for the last couple of years.
Click to expand...

I am thinking it's because they sell many more computers then all the other Mfg's sell. So far the one I bought is working great.:)
I also bought a new H.P. OfficeJet 8500A Pro. and it's a super printer/scanner.;)
 
flanker said:
I am thinking it's because they sell many more computers then all the other Mfg's sell. So far the one I bought is working great.:)
I also bought a new H.P. OfficeJet 8500A Pro. and it's a super printer/scanner.;)
Click to expand...

Once again this study:
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

and this chart specifically
17nov09compach0qw83.jpg


says otherwise.
 
flanker said:
I am thinking it's because they sell many more computers then all the other Mfg's sell.
Click to expand...

As the figures are based on a PERCENTAGE of each brand sold, and not on the total NUMBER of each brand sold, that theory holds no water.

There is no need to defend YOUR purchase of an HP laptop. The difference between the most reliable, to the least reliable brand, is only like what, a 10%(maximum) spread? Also, the figures in the chart are now going on a couple years old, and as such are no definitive indication of performance of HP's newest units (nor anyone else's, for that matter). But lacking any current data, basing a purchase on past recent track record is all we have to go on.:D
 
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