K53TA.. The best deal ever... could be!

Thanks for the info. I just did a CTO on the HP EPP site and it came out to about $881.99 with the A8-3510MX/upgraded graphics/1920x1080 screen. So i guess the big question is where is the 30% off coupon coming from?

 

They come and go, but there's usually 30% ones around or ones for specific cash off like $375-$425 off. Your EPP account isn't eligible for them though so you'd either have to have HP take off your EPP or create a new account, which is what I did. I don't see any at the moment, but keep an eye out in the deals section here or at the HP forum here. They have 30% off right now for DV6t/DV7t (intel CPU laptops) but currently excludes the DV6z.

edit: Here's one for 20% off NBT5922. But if you can wait a week or two there will probably be a 30% off eventually.

I would recommend getting the A6-3410MX since it can be clocked to same speeds as the 3510MX and saves you $50, and should be able to use 1600MHz RAM for a boost to the IGP. 6-cell high capacity gets you close to battery life of the 9-cell too, but that only saves you a few bucks. However I like the 9-cell because of the bulge on it, it props it up for a better typing angle and improved cooling for better airflow underneath.

 

is best buy the only place to get the k53t? I want these specs around $500. Are there other models that are basically the same, ie the A53?

 

HP is rated both below both Dell and Acer in reliability as of the last 2 years, not sure how they are now. Asus is rated #1 for reliability.

I'm not trying to knock you, I'm just stating the facts (as I know them, ymmv) and hoping that you get the best deal for your money and most of all, what matters is that *you* are happy, not anonymous forum nerds like myself.

P.S. I appreciate all the testing and insight you have posted up in both the K53TA and DV6z threads. My initial overclocks and voltages were based off your settings, and I just polished them into what works best for this machine.

 

Awesome, thanks again for all the detailed info. You seem like a true Slickdeal'er. I'm surprised I hadn't seen any of the 20-30% coupons on SD lately, but I really had no reason to look for HP coupons, so they probably just went under my radar.

Argh. I think I am still probably going to hang on to the K53TA though. Not that I doubt my ability to get the retention discounts, but I only have 2 days to return the Asus and the HP deal leaves a lot up to chance and coupons....maybe down the road.

One last thing, what is the case actually like on this? HP site only says 'metal-finish'...does it actually have an aluminum casing or is that just sales-speak for fancy plastic? And who sells these in-store?

 

The K53TA can ONLY be bought at Best Buy. There are no similar machines. I am not sure why there is such a limited run of it though.

I kind of wish I had a few more days to make my decision on the K53TA, but I had until tomorrow to return it, and had the chance to return it today so did.

The DV6z is a mix of plastic and metal. The top cover, basically the part that surrounds the keyboard and touchpad is brushed aluminum, as is the top of the lid that houses the LCD. The speaker bar is all metal too. The rest of the machine is plastic, combination of ABS and polypropylene. The color of the metal looks black usually but in sunlight it's clearly dark brownish-maroon. Personally I don't care the color. I prefer dark, preferably black.

I actually liked the keyboard of the Asus a lot better than the HP though. The HP is ok, but the Asus had bigger keys which I like.

 

Well looks like I'm sol unless they get a new supply. None at the local best buys or the ones on the other side of the state. Too bad

 

You can't do "ship to store"?

 

I want to get an 8 gig matching set of RAM for this any recommendations?

Thanks

 

LOL. I'm never happy. I'll probably sell this HP laptop here at NBR in six months and buy something else.

 

If by "matching" you mean "exactly the same", then here: Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ

Or you could just get a single 4GB stick and be fine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231341

Would the latency on that RAM being 9 be a bad idea? Should someone pay more for lower latency?

 

9 is standard.

performance gains are negligible with cas 7 ram. not worth the extra money.

 

Has anyone opened this up yet and done any cooling modding???

I'd like to replace the paste with some arctic silver, thinking it might help my core temps.

 

I just picked up my 3rd k53ta. Well actually, 4th.

the first 3 units had dead pixels. The 3rd one had a huge black spot dead center, spanning 4 pixels.
Can you believe my luck ?
3 in a row !

I think asus got a huge discount on these screens. That's probably how they can offer this at $450.

Luckily, I opened the 3rd one in the store, and swapped for the 4th right away.

my 4th unit has perfect screen. I hope nothing else malfunctions.

 

Yes. I pulled the back cover off the other night with extreme difficulty. The plastic really wants to break and I only barely got it off and on without damage. I would've taken screens and done a guide, but my phone (and only camera) has died.

Overall I would not recommend tear-down unless you are very experienced at taking laptops apart. Once it was off, the heatsink looked pretty simple to remove. I left mine, just wanted to see for curiosity since my temps are great. If you do, be sure to order Arctic MX-4. Silver 5 used to be Arctic's best paste for over a decade and that has finally changed. MX-4 requires no set time and cools best.

 

Hey just wanted to clear up concerns that my earlier woes may have warranted -- I was initially having problems with my Vortex 2 and getting such poor performance that boot times were in the neighborhood of 10 minutes. Anyways this boiled down to a firmware issue.

I've updated the Vortex 2 to the latest firmware (1.32 I believe) and things are running MUCH better now. It's still not on the level of what I would get on an Intel system (like the M11X I was coming from) but that is probably because of the RST drivers available to Intel systems. I seem to experience about a 15-20% hit in my numbers versus an Intel system.

I'm not sure which post, but if you search this thread for my posts you'll see an SS with my last run in CrystalDiskMark showing scores.

Hope this helps!

 

unless I am missing something, its unavailable. Whenever I chose a store to ship to anywhere within 100 miles of me it says

We're sorry, this item is not available for ship to store to CITY, STATE.

I hope there will be a new supply or something. I need something for school and was trying to stay under $500. On that budget I am struggling to find anything close to this.

 

Hi guys. This computer here in canada is on sale @ 550$ and with coupons, i can get it to 500$.

I have right now a toshiba satellite a500 with a damn nvidia geforce 310M which for one year has always crashed with java/flash and nobody could fix it nor could I find any info.

I want this for java/flash games, autocad and basic stuff. I think it would fit my bill.

Is this computer good? I notice that on the first post, tehre already a bios fix for the bleeding.

Thanks.

 

I must be really lucky here in Michigan. It's available to ship to every location around me.

 

Same here, I live in Michigan too. There's four at that Gratiot Roseville store even though it doesn't show them online. I was there today.

 

.... im in michigan too. Detroit area.. am I doing wrong lol?

 

I talked to one of the highly trained professionals at Best Buy today, and he said it's scheduled to go out of stock by the 10th of September, not to be restocked. We'll see. I have a friend in Michigan right now, I wonder if I should see if she can get me one... hmmm.

 

i attempted to pry open the case but stopped when I realized it wasn't going to open easily. I ordered a cooling pad instead. ThermaPAK HeatShift we'll see how much of a difference it makes...

 

Yes it is. For your purposes this computer is excellent. In the past Flash games were not accelerated by the GPU and relied on the CPU. The new AMD 6000 series cards' UVD3 video decoder accelerates Flash movies and games.

Autocad type programs should be good too. I wouldn't recommend 3D jet engine performance simulations on this laptop, but short of that, you're fine.

 

What the heck is that contraption? Are there fans in there somewhere?
edit: nm just googled it. What? Cooling crystals? I don't know about this my friend, when I said cooling pad before I meant like with a fan.

 

Loving this new laptop but I do have two minor problems. I'd really appreciate some advice!

1) I have p0 set at 1.1v, 2400mhz, and p1 set at 1.025v, 2100mhz. In the "high performance" power profile, the computer is set to 100% minimum processor power (constant p0), meaning no variance or down-stepping to lower power states. However, when I perform extreme stress tests with the battery out, the computer steps down to p1. This only happens with the battery out, and it happens in spite of my power profile settings in Windows 7.
2) AMD Overdrive doesn't run, and honestly k10stat doesn't have a good interface or profile management. Has anyone else gotten Overdrive to work? "AMD OverDrive has failed to start" is what it says when I attempt to start it.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

 

Looking at what you want to do, it's technically overkill, but it's cheap enough that you're not really overpaying or anything. If you want a smaller / cheaper machine, the 14" HP Pavilion G5-1117dx for $379 is afantastic little unit that has an AMD A4 with no discrete GPU. The lack of a discrete GPU means it'll run cooler, longer on battery and will not have any issues with switching between the two GPUs or anything like that. OTOH, it won't be a real powerful gaming machine etc.

If you want a machine that can do 1080p video, and run most apps just fine, for a bit less, look for something with the AMD E-350 CPU. It's not as fast as the A4/A6/A8 series, but it's plenty fast for normal web browsing and the built in GPU can handle 1080p video in its sleep. Acer Aspire 5253, and Lenogo G575 are 15.6" machines with E-350s for $300. I'd at least pony up the extra $80 to get the HP G4-1117dx myself.

 

Thanks ordered it.

I have one other tech question. From the couples of thread I read earlier, it seems that this computer has integrated video and a dedicated. It also seems like there is no way to select the one we want. Does it auto select? Also how does it work and lets say I play a game, how do I make it choose the dedicated one?

Thanks.

 

If so, what would happen to it? Is this a relatively new laptop? Would it just be a matter of time before it becomes available again somewhere else?

 

yeah I know it has crystals, I've done the fan thing and honestly not a "fan" of how clunky and loud they are. This is thin discrete and good for 3 hours or so.



On a different subject, anyone notice any issues with their USB going in and out... the one on the right side is acting like it can't decide if it wants to work or not. pissing me off

 

Not sure. My guess is that there'll be a K53TA-BBR7 or something with a slightly different config, like a bigger HD or something like that. Let's hope anyway. It would be a shame if it was like the Acer 5740G which was only made for a short period then stopped being made in favor of inferior machines.

 

Makes buying it while it's actually available that much sweeter though . I think the general trend here is for the AMD APUs to become cheaper and more widely available though, so even if they stop producing this model there should be similarly powered and priced ones in the near future.

 

In the AMD CCC, you can use 'profile switching' to set which GPU it uses for whatever programs you want. It'll even ask you when a new program runs whether you want to run it on the integrated or dedicated GPU. So you CAN use the dedicated by itself if you disable Crossfire.

AMD Overdrive is crap and won't work on this. K10Stat is awesome, just follow this guide: Aspire Gemstone: K10STAT AMD Griffin Processor UnderVolting Guide

 

Thanks Disgustipated, but I did use K10stat and I'm alright with it. My problem relates to the processor state switching while on battery power (see my original post). Any advice on that?

Thanks for the help!

Also, what temps are you hitting with 2.8 ghz? (Intel Burn Test?)

 

Just manually switch it. Right click the icon and switch Profiles. Or just use a 'normal' overvolt and underclocked profile, should work fine on battery thanks to PStates and undervolting.

But if you're really picky, just make a profile that's the same as default, but with lower voltages on all the P-states.

Follow the guide I posted above. But under the Conditions tab, do this: Click Start only if the computer is connected to AC power.'

Then it'll just run the default profile when you disconnect it from AC. But manually switching to a special undervolted 'battery saver' profile will still be much better because the stock voltages are way too high.

I usually sit at around 75-85c during games but can spike up to 90-93c when doing IntelBurn/other intensive programs like LinX. If I repasted this suck I bet I could drop the temps by 8-10c. Then I could maybe hit 3 ghz with safe temps.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "manually switch it". The problem is that the processor state goes to p1 when it's supposed to stay on p0 the entire time. I have my Win7 profile set to 100% processor power at all times, even on battery--yet while it's on battery it has a tendency to jump down to p1 during heavy loads. No idea why.

Thanks, and sorry if I'm just misunderstanding you

 

based on what i've seen from the k53e asus line at BB, I'd bet that this shipment is final.

there was a k53e-bbr3 that went out of stock eventually, and nothing replaced that.

all they have left are core i3's and i5's.



anyway, i think i got one of the better built k53ta's today. It doesn't have any noticeable chassis warp around the bottom row of keys, there's minimal kb flex, and It has an LG burner instead of that crappy panny/matshta. the LG supports nero discspeed scanning, which I always use to make sure my burns are good.

On my first k53ta, the mata would crap out halfway while installing games.

I will be OC'ing this soon. I hope it can OC like my first k53ta.

 

Try locking the P-State using K10: right click the icon, or go into the main window and click on the core speed squares next to P0.

Also, you may have messed the 'up/down' percentages up. Those dictate when to throttle up or down. Try resetting them to 60% up/20% down.

 

It happens even if I lock the p state. (But, again, only on battery power.) I didn't mess with the up/down percentages, but I don't think that would be a possible culprit here (since it happens on battery but not while plugged in).

 

I drove to michigan to buy mine lol. They often have things the other stores are out of.... Michigan people must not like good deals! But that's fine with me!

 

any issues with their USB going in and out.

 

No, it's just because nobody works so nobody to buy the crap.

 

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried the All CPU Meter gadget and used the show clock speeds function? Even though I've overclocked with K10Stat and CPU-Z reflects that, the gadget only shows 798 Mhz and 1400 Mhz clocks, the stock values. If I run the Intel Burn CPU-Z will show that I'm running at 2.4 ghz and show proper voltage, while the gadget shows only a max of 1.4 ghz. I'm thinking it's just bugged, but it had me confused for awhile.

I thought I completely failed at overclocking. lol

 

Most programs are bugged and keep reporting 1.4 Ghz. It's not just you.

 

guys, how high does your voltage go ?
This unit I just picked up has the highest I've seen of the 3 units i had- 1.4V.
my first one had 1.375, 2nd one had 1.2875 max.

There's a ton of these still available all over new york and miami. damn

yes. it's a common problem.

left side usb goes out after hibernate or sleep. but it comes back after 10 minutes.

email asus and report problem to bios team.

 

incorrect.
the G4-1117dx Product Specifications HP Pavilion g4-1117dx Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Product Number LW338UA#ABA
Microprocessor 2.5GHz/1.9GHz VISION A4 Technology from AMD with AMD Dual-Core A4-3300M Accelerated Processor
Microprocessor Cache 2MB L2 Cache
Memory 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 DIMM)
Memory Max Maximum supported = 8GB
Video Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6480G Discrete-Class Graphics
Video Memory Up to 2037MB

 

It's actually you who are incorrect.

AMD Accelerated Processors for Notebook PCs

Edit: Do we have any confirmation as to whether or not the wireless card is upgradeable in this notebook? I have a 750 GB WD Scorpio Black hard drive ready to go in and a 4 GB stick of RAM on the way. A Killer-N 1102 would be the final piece to make this a really powerful budget-grade system.

 

Well no luck. Was there when they opened this morning and had none left. Also for the guy who said they are online around him, I have still havn't had any luck ordering online. Any tips to place order online? Have you actually click which store to have it shipped to, because thats when it tells me it cannot ship to that store. I have tried about 15 different locations near me.

 

Well damn. It says ship to store in 3 to 5 days. When I click "select" it says not available to ship to that store.

Hmm, man, that was a short run. Hopefully the K43TA will be out soon and at same price, maybe with better screen.

 

damn students buying up all these laptops!! well ill wait a few days, but need to do something quick