DV9730nr review

I have just purchased my laptop. A HP dv9730nr from bestbuy. A few things I don't like about it. But I'm overly happy with this buy.

I don't like that it doesn't have a wireless "N" mpcie card. Or that they didn't raid the 2 hard drives together. And that they put miss matched ram inside. Or the slower duo core processor. I guess it goes back to HP doesn't give anything away.

The Blu ray player is nice, I still haven't figured out how to get media center to play them. But quickplay launches them fine. But after an hour of removing bloatware, my eyes playied tricks on me and I started to uninstall everything. So right now I'm in the process of figureing out which are programs I need or which is bloatware.

The geforce 8600m gs plays all my games with ease. I would have like the 8800 Gt that gateway had in their machine, but the gateway doesn't have a blu ray player. So you can see were your money went. I play sins of a solar empire at max settings and never see a hicup or drop in fps. The title screen jumps around for some reason though.

After opening the bay were the ram is installed. Hp decided to use a 2gig stick and a 1 gig stick. The 1 gig was made by Samsung. The 2 gig was made by some Korean company. I really couldn't find a brand name on it. I think once you match the ram up and it can go dual channel that will speed the machine up quite nice. On my windows vista index number my ram is the lowest number. 4.5. Next is the processor at 4.7. With the hard disk transfer rate at 4.9. So I would like to start with the ram then get a processor that will complement the system better. Right now I'm looking at a Intels T7200.

Each part that handicaps this system are really the low baller parts that HP decided to cut the corner at. And most are upgradeable. Which is why I'm very pleased with my machine. I would really like to raid my Hard Drives but did not find any option in the bios. So if anyone has or knows how please reply.

After playing with the tv tuner card for about 30 minutes I finally got a picture from the antenna. Watching cable over air is workable but you really need a stronger antenna. Then hooking up my cable to the tuner card everything was crystal clear. Media center even went online and download their tv guide for my zip code. My wife found that neat. I streamed a movie to my xbox 360 and it did not lag once; my laptop was even wireless. This machine rocks at media tasks.

I enjoy my laptop and recommend it to anyone looking for a good media machine that still has some balls to play most games. I will keep you all up to speed on my laptops gain from the different upgrades I get done. Please remember this laptop punch my wallet in its balls and I need to get some payments out before I can really experiment.

 

Read the Clean Vista install stickied thread and consider doing a clean install of 64-bit Vista. 32-bit Vista is limited to 3.25GB RAM support, thus the oddball 3GB configuration HP provided. Dual channel memory access provides a modest improvement, good but not as worthwhile as having an extra GB to play with. 64-bit Vista has no such limit but you're more likely to have software compatibility issues. I put 64-bit Vista on my dv9000z 4GB RAM notebook and I'm happy with it.

Buying direct from hp.com is the only way to go if you're picky about component selection. The deals for retail configurations can be pretty compelling though.

RAID0 on a laptop is a very bad idea. Laptop drives have a higher failure rate than desktop drives, in my experience at least. Lose either drive and you're screwed.

 

here is my score with current config. (avitar)

 

Wow I never figured that laptop hard drives crap out more than desktops. But I does make since, laptops are thrown around more. Put at odd angles. While a desktop just sits still in its corner. All that little wear and tear adds up.

But my information on this machine is already backed up. I have a nas on my network. I'm not to worried about losing it. I would rather have it raided together. Just to see how much one can push out of this model laptop.

I didn't know vista had a cap on its ram. Doesn't surprise me either. How many problems do you run into with different programs and the x64 bit? I'm reading the thread you linked. Thanks for the info.

 

Johnksss, I think that no matter what I do---my system wont be able to keep up with yours. My FSB is 667Mhz so yours will also one step faster than mine.

 

nope, your motherbaord will adjust to the new cpu. it will go from 400 mhz to 800 mhz.

i had the t5450 and now i have the t9300.

 

That is good times.

 

It's not Vista. 4GB is the maximum any 32 bit operating system can address. Deduct the memory reserved for Bios and hardware, you end up with about 3.25GB of usable memory.

 

unless your rendering...you probally wont use more than 2 gigs of ram ever.... gonna put that to the test tonight though.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm just glad that the mother board will step up the fsb. I thought I was stuck on the 667mhz. That makes everything different. But does anyone know that if you change the processor out to a high fsb say 800mhz. Can you get the ram to match the speed? Or does the ram still run at the slower mhz?

 

3 or 4GB is about right for Vista, depending on whether you're running 32-bit or 64-bit. It's that much of a bloated pig, though 2GB is tolerable. As for 64-bit compatibility issues, I haven't personally run into any but a friend of mine (who installed 64-bit on my recommendation) discovered that eFax isn't compatible. Outside of really oddball cases like that you'll be OK. If you have to use Vista I recommend going straight to 64-bit.