Working specs?

Origin Saint

Origin Saint

Well-Known Member
Hi, I'm new to these forums, so I'd like to start off by introducing myself. I'm a 16 year old, Junior in high school living in ohio. Oh, and my current laptop stinks. I've been looking into a laptop for my birthday, that I will most likely have to end up helping to pay for but it's worth it. Anyway, I went to HP's website and customized my own laptop that I found to be decent enough. Here's the stats:

> Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
> AMD Quad-Core A8-3550MX Accelerated Processor (2.7GHz/2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
> 1GB AMD Radeon HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
> 6GB DDR3 RAM [2 Dimm]
> 640GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
> 6 Cell Lithium-Ion battery
> and the basic integrated webcam, fingerprint reader, and R/W drive

So my question to you is, is this a decent set-up? Most of my concern is that the 6GB maybe not being able to handle everything, but then again I'm not sure. Most of what I do is create YouTube videos, edit videos, saving videos in HD, surfing the web and running iTunes a lot. I used to play WoW and RuneScape, but after their updates in graphics and gameplay, my laptop can't handle them. I currently have a HP G56-129WM (WM=Wal-Mart unfortunately). At first, I thought it had a dual-core processor but its only a Intel Celeron 900 single core. I'm not sure who made this laptop but they made it very unproportional. I have 2.2GHz of processor and 3GB of RAM, but at 100% CPU usage, I'm only using 1.35GB of RAM. So to reiterate my question, is that a good set-up for a laptop for someone like me? Thank you for your consideration and help.
 
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6GB should be fine for rendering, I'd worry more about your CPU than your RAM. I'm not really an expert on laptop CPUs and laptops in general, you want to get the most powerful quad-core you can afford. The mobile i7s would be a good choice if you can afford it. 5400RPM is kinda slow too, try to get one which runs at 7200RPM if you can, but I'm not sure if 2.5" drives can run at that speed, if not, then you'll have to stick to 5400RPM.

Any particular reason why you need a laptop over a desktop?
 
I'm heading to college soon and getting my own apartment and I like the mobility, I realize that desktops can very well be better and even cheaper at the same time, but I just don't have the space for one and I need it to be mobile. As it stands, the HP customization of the laptop doesn't allow for Intel CPU's to be put in it and I'm not sure if I can quite afford the extra $60 for a 7200rpm HDD. Is it really that beneficial that it's worth it? And to my knowledge, HP laptops are built to stay standard because from what I knew last, if you want to improve a part, you have to get a whole new motherboard. I could quite possibly be wrong though. Anyway, my new questions are as follows:
> Is the extra $60 for the 7200rpm HDD worth it?
> Is it possible to improve a single part in a HP laptop?
> If yes to the last question, how and where would I go about getting it?
 
Origin Saint said:
Is the extra $60 for the 7200rpm HDD worth it?
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7200 RPM is faster, but if they're charging you 60 bucks extra for the 7200 RPM disk, tell them to get lost. Can you find another laptop which fits your budget which has a 7200 RPM disk or maybe an SSD? Have you taken a look at Dell's lineup?

Origin Saint said:
Is it possible to improve a single part in a HP laptop?
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You can upgrade the RAM and hard drive most likely. That's probably about it.

Origin Saint said:
If yes to the last question, how and where would I go about getting it?
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Buy the parts from Newegg and then look in your manual, it will tell you how to change stuff like the HDD and RAM. Usually with the RAM there's a door on the underside of the machine you can unscrew and remove to access the RAM, and usually the HDD either slides out from the side or you have to remove the screen and keyboard. It varies.
 
I'll look into Dell, I was steering away from them at first because I've heard bad things about their laptops, but I'll check regardless. I just looked and on the Dell website, the only i7 core they have is in a laptop that has a starting price of $900. I need something under $800 if possible. I'll keep searching. The more help you can offer, the better. Thank you very much mate.
 
No problems my friend. OK have you given MSI and ASUS a try? They may be over your budget, I'm not sure, but worth taking a look. I've used several of Dell's laptops, all the newer ones are sturdy and are actually very nice, it's the older laptops which you need to worry about.

Off to bed now (it's 10:30pm over here in Britain), so keep searching and good luck!
 
Thank you a load mate. I'll continue my search for the "Holy Grail" of computers lol. If I need help or hit a speedbump I'll just post again and patiently wait. Thanks again.
 
It's not a problem, happy to help any time. :) Hopefully some members who live in the USA will also give you a hand too whilst I'm away.
 
Alright, well I've been searching every laptop brand I can think of trying to find the right one. A few sites, like ASUS only offer notebooks and I want just a standard laptop with nice internals. I've decided maybe I can swap out the 640GB 5400rpm HDD for a 750GB 7200rpm HDD, would that adequately run my computer? The AMD Quad-Core A8-3550MX Accelerated Processor (2.7GHz/2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache) is the best quad core I can get in any laptop so far for the right price and I personally believe I could manage with it. What do you think?
 
OK it all sounds pretty good to me. If the A8 is the best you can afford, then stick with it.

You should see a difference between 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM, not so much in boot up times, but mostly in copying files and launching applications, take a look at this video (it's only just over a minute long) and decide for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9f8fKn40kk I'd go for the 7200 RPM though because you're doing video editing and you want as much space as possible, and an extra hundred or so gigs is nice. :)
 
I'm assuming this is the HP DV6z Quad Edition?

Keep in mind that it's only recommended to buy the HP DV6 in a configuration that has the 1920x1080 display upgrade.

15.6" 1366x768 displays limit multitasking and productivity because they make things onscreen large, and they tend to have terrible image quality due to low contrast. I don't recommend this type of display to those who have a budget that allows them to get a laptop that has a better display and at the same time suits their needs, and who don't require large text for eyesight-related reasons.

But the 1920x1080 display offered in the HP DV6 is an excellent display, both in contrast and in onscreen workspace size. It also has a matte finish so it'll be more usable when glare is a potential issue.

Video editing in particular benefits from a higher resolution display, but as does general multitasking and productivity. And keep in mind that the reason you should get the 1920x1080 display upgrade is not just because of how good the 1920x1080 display is, it's also because of how bad the 1366x768 display is.

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You'll most likely be fine with 6GB of RAM. But if you need more memory then you can upgrade it yourself after-market for much cheaper than HP charges on their upgrade page.

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These are the configurations of the DV6 that I typically recommend using as base configurations.

HP DV6z Quad Edition (A6-3420M, AMD Radeon 7690M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte display) - $699 after coupon code 25LOGICBUY. Don't downgrade the display to 1366x768; don't downgrade the GPU.

HP DV6z Quad Edition (A8-3550MX, AMD Radeon 7690M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte display) - $769 after coupon code 25LOGICBUY. Don't downgrade the display to 1366x768; don't downgrade the GPU. The A8-3550MX is 40% faster than the A6-3420M.

HP DV6t Select Edition (i5-2430M, AMD Radeon 7690M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte display) - $799 after coupon code NBDTSAVE50 (if that expires, then $824 after coupon code 25LOGICBUY) - Don't downgrade the display to 1366x768; don't downgrade the GPU; don't upgrade to the 2GB GPU because the extra memory itself on the same GPU core won't make much of a difference for gaming.
 
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Okay, so first off, I would like to say thank you for being such a help. I haven't got much "in-detail" advice yet from anyone and I've posted on a few websites. Is the 1920x1080 screen going to suck my graphics card dry? I've heard that 1080p screens can drain power. And is it "that" big of a upgrade from the stock screen? Like, do I really need it? Because at this moment, I have no job and my mom has no job and my step dad has to pay for rent and bills and my dad and his girlfriend are the only ones with decent money and I can't put much towards getting this, even if it is for my own birthday. I don't want to drive my parents broke with making a $900 laptop. And your 2nd configuration would be the only one I would want, but when I put the coupon code in it's actually $819.99 for the laptop and shipping, and where would I find a 2.5" 7200rpm HDD somewhere cheaper than from HP, because I can't even find a cheaper one on Newegg.com.

So what I need to know is:
> Will the 1920x1080 screen drain power (CPU, battery, RAM or Graphics)?
> Is the difference in screens really worth the extra $150?
> How and where could I get a cheaper 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" HDD?
And if at all possible, is there any way to save more money? maybe another coupon or something?
Thanks again, you're a big help. Please respond as soon as you can.
 
It seems as if either you are opinionated or wrong, or others are lol. I've been doing some searching and most places say that the 1920x1080 screen just drains battery and reduces multitasking ability and also that the extra resolution really isn't that noticeable on a laptop. Here's a quote from someone on Yahoo Answers:

"Yes Full HD will stress out your GPU and CPU more than 720p.
This will reduce multitasking capabilities, risk lockups and greatly increase battery drain.

On a laptop screen it is difficult to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.

If you really want full HD for Blu-Ray or High Resolution Photography needs then get the Full HD Screen.
If you want a little more battery life and multitasking and gaming performance get the 1366x768."
 
That response you found on Yahoo Answers is completely incorrect.

On a laptop screen it is difficult to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.
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In theory, if you have two 15-inch televisions: 1366x768 and 1920x1080, that have exactly the same contrast, color gamut, and viewing angle stability, then you are not going to notice much of a difference in image quality when watching movies. That is what his response is stemming from.

My statement about 15.6" 1366x768 displays typically having terrible image quality is true though, but it's because they are low-end LCD panels and tend to have very low contrast, not because of the resolution itself.

However, one the biggest reasons to get a high resolution on a laptop display is so that you can fit more onscreen at a time, not just to get better image quality. 1366x768 is the same resolution as is used in 11.6" laptop displays, and will thus allow you to fit the same amount of content onscreen as you can fit on an 11.6" display. But in a 15.6" display, such a low resolution makes things onscreen appear very large. I recommend to stay away from 15.6" 1366x768-resolution displays if you have a budget that allows you to get a laptop that has a better display and at the same time suits your needs, and if you don't require large text for eyesight-related reasons.

Yes Full HD will stress out your GPU and CPU more than 720p.
This will reduce multitasking capabilities, risk lockups and greatly increase battery drain.
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This is completely false. This is stemming from the concept that running games on higher resolutions results in less performance than running games on lower resolutions does, and that a higher-resolution display causes games to default to running in its native resolution, of 1920x1080, instead of 1366x768. While this, in itself, is true, what was said about noticeable performance drops, freezes, and battery drain is false.

In fact, typically due to the significant difference in contrast between 15.6" 1366x768 and 15.6" 1920x1080 displays, games tend to look better running in non-native resolution on a 15.6" 1920x1080 display than they look running in native resolution on a 15.6" 1366x768 display, so gaming shouldn't be a reason to pick a lower resolution display.
 
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Hmm. HP must have changed the prices.

Anyway, I configured the DV6z Quad Edition with:
- A8-3550MX
- Radeon 7690M
- 750GB 7200RPM
- 1920x1080 display

and it came out to ~$850 with coupon code NBDTSAVE50 instead of $942. Seems that this coupon code works on the DV6z for higher configurations.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...ation.do?destination=review&config_id=7157090 (+NBDTSAVE50)

HP may lower the prices again in the not-too-distant future though, if you aren't in a rush to buy the laptop immediately. Right now the prices for the DV6z are $50 more than what they were a few days ago.
 
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I just did your link, and used that coupon code and got it to $855 plus tax (which is ridiculously high) it comes to $914.84. Does $60 tax seem right?
 
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