PC Laptop... opinions on this one please

[Noz]

Opinons on this spec please:

 

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-dv7-6154ea-17-3-laptop-steel-grey-10783805-pdt.html

 

picking it up hopefully sometime this week when my new card pin arrives.

[Scott]

Looks like a bit of a monster for a laptop. I wouldn't fancy it sitting on my lap on a warm day though

 

I wouldn't expect much more than 90 mins or so from the battery either, 2hrs tops probably.

 

You aren't buying it from PC world are you? Can most likely get it elsewhere a fair bit cheaper.

[caseys]

What are you going to use it for and how long are you going to aim to keep it for?

 

Seems excessive unless you're a very heavy traveller and doing graphic design work.

 

Also for that price I'd expect a 1920x1200 resolution screen.

 

HDDs are slow for 5400rpm too.

[Xzarik]

5400 rpm is pretty standard for laptops - means that there's no 7200rpm monster overheating and draining battery.

 

It seems quite overpriced, i'd recommend getting elsewhere. Ebuyer and Dabs tend to have good deals going on similar laptops (i'm not going to say get the SAME laptop as I haven't checked what they have in). Scan also has good laptop deals.

 

Generally speaking getting a laptop online is cheaper and nowadays is just as safe as getting one from a shop. If you're not a serious user of computers then fair enough, get it from a shop so that you can take it back easier or get advice from the technical staff there, but with that in mind you probably shouldn't be getting one with such monster specs.

 

Having slammed it i'm going to add the following so that you don't think i'm just a twat:

 

Good sized HDD (although do you need 1TB? I've got 3TB in my PC and only use about 400GB as everything that isn't an executable is stored elsewhere)

Good amount of memory

Good processor

Looks nice

Not a terrible graphics card for a laptop

Not the worst screen in the world

 

Finally remember the old saying - "friends don't let friends buy from PC world"

[SupraDan24]

For £1000 i'd expect a graphics card far better than that tbh. Ram is overkill as well unless your going to be running any large scale rendering programs. I bought a Hp Envy Beats edition a few months ago and sent it back after a fortnight. It was so rediculously hot on my lap it negated the point of being a laptop.

[Noz]

The hard drive will be big enough for what I ever want it for. changing spec puts the price up, so its not a selection made on the HD size.

 

The graphics has it's own card, when using design software for work and for Uni (inventor / soldworks / pro engineer) I'm found a lack of ram is what slows me down, so focused on this.

 

I checked a few other sources though ebuyer wasn't one of them, I bought a TV from them back along I should check there for sure. I'll have a look found a post my findings. I also liked the screen size, I'm used to have x2 moniters so larger the screen the better.

[caseys]

Graphical packages rarely use GPU unless you're doing rendering, so I'd check if the packages you're using can use the GPU, also I would check if they're multi-threading otherwise buying a 4-core/8-thread CPU will be a waste of time and you're better off trying to find the chip with the highest clock speed and possibly not a dedicated GPU. No point having 8 threads running @ 2.2Ghz if it's only using one if you can buy a chipset that has half the threads/cores but runs at 2.5+Ghz.

 

IMHO you are probably better off getting the best resolution screen you can, don't worry about that size HDD as I doubt you'll utilise that if you manage your data effectively and you're better off making sure you have adequate ram and possibly a SSD in there for performance. Then if you really need more data just buy a 30 quid 320/500gb HDD with a USB cable you can bung in your bag. An SSD will give you far better raw performance in all applications than a 5400/7200 drive and also possibly extend battery life.

 

Summary - RAM check, better screen, possibly get a 120Gb SSD or such if you can live with that capacity on a laptop. 2x HDD and a 1600x900 screen would make me frustrated, esp at a 17" screen.

 

I've had no problems with ebuyer myself, also their returns policy and customer services have been great when I've had a dead HDD. Post sales service is always something you want.

 

BTW saw your sig - I'll have some 550cc injectors for sale shortly if you want them

[Delboy52]

The CPU in there is a beast. Are you rendering with 3DStudio or Maya? You'll see all 8 threads peak at 100% with those programs.

 

It's not a total waste of time having multiple cpu threads. In normal use as a modern OS will balance out the workload quite well juggling between mulitple programs.

 

It has 2X 500gb SATA hard drives which is odd for a laptop. Double the weight and power consumption I'd expect?.. If they are striped as raid0 that would be greater performance but a huge risk of losing all your data if one drive dies. SSD is best for a laptop for speed and power consumption but they are still expensive and reletively low capacity.

 

Mine has a neat party trick. It has 2 graphics cards that work kinda like a turbo. There is a low power consuming integrated GPU chip for basic usage and a performance 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M for things like games. Can play Left 4 Dead 2 very nicely. Yours might be on full boost all the time with that Radeon, hehe.

 

No doubt it'll perform well but it looks to me as it's meant to be a portable desktop rather than a laptop running on batteries.

[Noz]

caseys, if you have some GE injectors that would be awesome.

 

i saw a selection 1GB NVIDEO GeForce graphics card on ebuyer, thats the way forward then. had a quick look on the graphics card spec, the HP (pc world) laptop I `think` is only 250MG :-O good job I checked that out pfft!