HP Pavilion DV's

Hi! I'm planning on purchasing a laptop from either HP or Dell. The following the choices and their GFX cards are as follows:

HP Pavilion DV9500T - 8600M GS
HP Pavilion DV9000T - 7600GS
HP Pavilion DV6500T - 8400M GS
HP Pavilion DV6000T - 7400

Dell Inspiron 9400 - 7900GS

All of the laptops will either have the older T7200 processors or the newer Santa Rosa, T7300 and 2GB of RAM.

First off, does anyone know when the new HP Pavilion DV's will be released with the new Nvidia 8x00 line? Also, performance wise between the GFX cards of the DV9500T/DV9000T and DV6500/DV6000T and DV9x00T's vs the Inspiron 9400, is it worth it to wait for the new Nvidia cards or go with the older 7x00 Series?

Thanks for the assistance!

 

I think the DX10 cards will be widely available by the end of this month or the beginning of next month. So wait if you can.

 

Let's say I were to choose between the DV9500T with the 8600M GS and the Dell Inspiron 9400 with the 7900GS. The higher end card will be the 7900GS, but performance wise, how much difference will the T7300 w/ 8600M GS have versus the T7200 w/ 7900GS.

Also, when I upgraded the DV9500T to the desired specs, it came to $1400 w/o the 8600M GS. How much extra money do you think the 8600M GS will cost when added? The Dell Inspiron 9400 I upgraded came to $1447, which was a great price for such a powerful laptop.

 

T7300 and T7200 have very similar performance. Go 7900gs is close to twice as powerful as 8600M GS

 

Keeping that in mind, my largest concern is whether waiting for the new Nvidia 8x00M line to become readily available on the HP and Dell laptops or should I stick with the GeForce Go 7x00 line? I know DX10 is out, but will most new games supporting DX10, support the older DX9 as well?

 

Yes, for at least 2 years, seeing how many actullay have DX9 cards. However, if you can wait, do it. If you need one now, find something with 8600M GT (Asus G1s, Compal IFL-90). They might be more expensive (especially the G1s), but they have better specs. And their both 15,4".

 

Well, I'm planning to spend around $1500 on a laptop for college and hoping it will last me 3-4 years, despite my pickyness when it comes to computer hardware . So, if you were to choose between the DV9500T w/ 8600M GS or Inspiron 9400 w/ 7900GS, which one will it be?

 

Inspiron, hand down. But like i said, if you can wait until fall, do it. 8700M is rumored to drop sometime this summer, so Dells inspiron line is likely to get an upgrade. And most uni's offer deals on computers if you buy through them. For instance, I have 5% off at dell and 10% off at apple for being a student.

And you do know that carrying around a 17" laptop is a ***** (a female dog). For most people, even 15,4" is to heavy, since you have books and ****(poo). However, if it's gonna mostly stay on a desk and merely meant to be a desktop replacement, 17" is good.

Damn language filter. Feels like the FCC. It won't even allow me to say poo.

 

Haha...I took the weight issue into consideration, but during the summers and so, my 17'' will be used as a desktop replacement. Hopefully, I won't be lugging it from my dorm to the library too often.

As for the 8700M..is it better than the 7900GS?

 

the 8700m is not released yet so no one knows for sure. But rumors has it that it is based on desktop 8600GT, in my personal opinion it will be better than 7900gs, but not by a whole lot.

 

Correction, 8600 GTS

 

If the 8700M is released, will the CPU being given the option to be upgraded to the new Santa Rosa processors as well?

Stevenj, I noticed you have an Inspirion 9400. How well is it treating you?

 

Probably yes. However the performance gains between a T7300 and T7200 are minimal. The power consumption is supposed to have been lowered though.

 

Okay, so the performance between the T7200 and T7300 is minimal.

In terms of GFX cards and overall costs when the 8700M is released, how much greater performance will the 8700M have over the 7900GS and how much do you expect the prices to rise due to this card?

Like I mentioned, I am able to purchase the Inspiron 9400 for $1447 after all upgrades and I anticipate the price to rise to about $1600 when the 8700M comes out. Agreed?

 

Maybe? Seems about right. It should be a noticable increase of performance. the 8600m GT approaches the Go 7900GS, so the 8700M should be ahead a fair bit.

This is all speculation though, not facts.

 

Well, maybe I'll wait on the new upgrades. When do you think they will be out though?

As for the Dell, my university has a Dell store and instead of the Inspiron 9400, they sell the E1705, which I believe are identical. I upgraded the E1705 and price came to $1510, which is $63 more than when I configured the Inspiron 9400 with identical options. Not much of a student discount is there eh?

 

I've read rumours that they'll be released in late june. And that was the suckiest discount ever.

 

Well the price on the Inspiron 9400 is pretty good, so it's quite hard to pass it up. I don't want to have to pay about $1600 and then about $110 tax, with a total of $1710 or so for a laptop just because it has a new DX10 card when the DX9 7900GS will suit me just fine. The discount on the Inspiron ends 6/6, so do you have any other suggestions?

 

If you want and need a laptop now, get it. There will always be something better lurking in the horizon. If you can wait, it's probably best to wait until mid-august when more laptops have been launched and people are going vack to school.