Not happy with purchase - Please help

Well, I just purchased my first HP notebook from Circuit City DV6324US and it is so slow for graphic design (i.e.; Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.). It also has this problem where the screen keeps blinking to black a few seconds after startup, a buzzing noise from the screen, and the fan keeps coming on very loud, very often (unlike my friend's compaq). I'm hoping to be able to return it as a defective product and not pay the 15% restocking fee but I'm not sure if they'll let me so I've been looking on the Circuit City website and found the HP DV6345US and was wondering what you guys think. The differences that jumped out at me are listed below (I couldn't link to the Circuit City site but you can look up the specs if you search for the model number at their website):

DV6345US:
Intel Core 2 Duo
1.7GHZ
Bus Speed 533MHz
Level 2 cache 2MB
160GB Hard Drive

DV6324US:
AMD Athlon 64 X2
1.6GHz
Bus Speed 1600MHz
Level 2 cache 2 x 256KB
120GB Hard Drive

I'm wondering if the Core2 Duo and 2MB of level 2 cache might make a big difference. I also found it weird that the Bus Speed is lower on the more expensive model and that it doesn't have a dvd burner (?) I'm thinkign it might be a mistake on the Circuit City listing..

So that's it. I'm hoping to just be able to return this and find a good deal on a Dell Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM but I dunno how it'll work out at the store yet because I'm out of town.

Thanks

 

on the Intel it lists the FSB and on the AMD system the HyperTransport speed. Not really the same and nothing to worry about.

The Intel Core 2 Duo is faster yes. It will make a differance to you. the AMD is not a slow system so maybe it is just bloatware and so on slowing you down.

I am not sure if the other problems you have will be solved.
The screen turning black during boot is because of the driver I would think. I never heared of an LCD monitor making a buzzing sound....

 

I agree. The Core 2 is a faster processor than the AMD. Amd is no slouch though as I have the lowest model Turion 64 x2 TL50 and I have never had any issues with Photoshop CS2 or Illustrator. Sounds to me like you just got a defective laptop. One difference is that I added my ram to be 2gb of DDR2 as I will agree that first day out of the box my Gateway had alot of bloatware on it and Vista itself needed alot of tweaking on my part.

 

I really don't think that the difference in those CPUs is the cause of slow downs on those programs, sure Core 2 duo is better, but not by much. I wonder if your bottlenecks are caused by short RAM. How much you have?
Otherwise I think both PCs are good enough for graphic design software. Try updating your drivers anyway, overall for the blinking stuff.

 

According to the HP site the DV6345us has the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950,which is built into the motherboard. This is guaranteed to be your performance bottleneck and the most likely cause of your screen blinking after startup. Never ever get a computer with the gpu on the moterboard especially for graphics design or gaming.

 

The rule of thumb is "no 3d, no benefit from powerfuler graphics cards". I believe it applies here. ( This guy says it's a GO 6150.) My bet is that his system is tied up with nasty preinstalled programs courtesy of HP, or that he's not got enough ram. Both at once may be a possibility too. I'd still return it if it's making annoying noises and you don't like it. People should enjoy their computers.

When you say the screen keeps going black, do you mean just once during the boot, or repeatedly as you're trying to use it? If the latter, there's no way they should charge you a restocking fee. That's broken.

 

Skye2 the OP bought the AMD machine according to his post and is considering the Intel machine instead. You need one with a go7400 for the best graphic design experience. Also 2GB of RAM will be needed too. the screen blinking often happens on some drivers (at least thats wat used to happen with desktop PCs)

 

I have also seen the blinking with low performance video GPUs. Memory is also an issue in this case because it is using system memory as there is no dedicated video RAM. Bloatware is a definate possibility for poor performance as the video is using system memory leaving less for processes..

We don't know for sure which video card he has in the system and it would really be helpful if we did. My old Inspiron 8600 running XP Pro has an nVidia GeForce Go 5650 with 128MB of video ram and 768MB of system memory with absolutely no issues and I use it for graphics editing and it handles Second Life fairly well for as old as it is.

 

I don't think the GPU is that of an issue in 2D stuff, may be if you are doing 3D, but not for usual flat graphic design. If you do, then definitively is the GPU, but I insist in the RAM

 

Sorry I've been away all day but my computer has 1GB of RAM
The blinking happens at startup (about 30 seconds after windows loads) then goes away - still annoying though. Does the 2MB of level 2 cache make a difference? The one I'm using now only has 2 x 256KB

 

the only thing i can think of is that you just have a defective video card(accountable for the blinking or could be the drivers), and/or your system is filled to the brim with unwantable bloatware and junk that came preinstalled on your system.

 

Again, I wouldn't blame the processor.

 

In my experience, the GPU has minimal effect on even 3D rendering, as that is done entirely by the CPU too.

Could have just settled for an integrated GPU for architecture school - it makes absolutely no difference.

 

Yan might be right (I was impacted when I just read it), sure not for gaming though.

 

You're not entirely right. In the place where I work we have few computers. one of them is a toshiba laptop with a coreduo T2600 (2 x 2.16Ghz). Don't get me wrong I know that the T2600 is fast but I don't think it's faster than a Pentium D 930 (2 x 3.00Ghz).

the toshiba is equiped with only 1gig of ram and uses an Nvidia Quadro nvs 110 (128 mb), and most of the times when it come to heavy 2D and even 3D graphics, this laptop is faster that the desktop equiped with the pentuim D 930, 2gig of ram and a radeon x600 (128mb + 128mb via turbocache).

So the graphics card matters.

 

The blinking is almost guaranteed to be some sort of graphics driver issue.

What do you mean by bad performance in Photoshop?

 

You shouldnt compare FSB speed between intel and amd processors. They are made differently and so this comparison has no real basis.

I agree with the general consensus that the Turion/1gb ram is not the problem. I would strongly advise you to re-install windows from scratch. Just install the operating system and the programs you need. That stops extra cr@pware from being installed and started on your laptop taking valuable processor time and memory space

Also check out www.tweaktown.com to make the most of what you have using their tweaking guides.