Dv7-4294nr From Fry's.

So on wednesday I was looking for a new sandy bridge pc, initially I was looking at a dv7 quad edition or a Envy 17.

Then I came across the Dv7-4294nr in a Fry's ad.

$849.99
$150 INSTANT SAVINGS
HP ENTERTAINMENT NOTEBOOK MADE FOR THE WAY YOU PLAY 2nd GENERATION Intel® Core" i7 PROCESSOR FOR VISIBLY A SMARTER PERFORMANCE • Windows" 7 Home Premium • 4GB Memory & 750GB Hard Drive • High Definition Entertainment & Smooth Game Play With Radeon HD6570 1GB Discrete Graphics • Increased Security With The Integrated Fingerprint Reader • lntelr WiDi to Stream Videos And Photos To HDTVs • Microsoft" Office 2010 Preloaded (Purchase Of A Product Key Required To Activate) #6508743 Limit 1 Per Customer $999.99 REGUALAR PRICE - 150 INSTANT SAVINGS = $849.99
4/10/2011

At $850 the bargain was just too good to pass up.. The specs are almost identical to the dv7 quad edition. Though one thing I did notice is was that the color of My new machine Is kind of a metallic brown/champagne..

So I began to worry that I might have some how found a SB pc that was affected by the chipset issue but I checked Hp's sight and according to my SN it's not affected

SO I bought an 8gb ram set and a New SSD the adata s599 at 64gb (actually around 55 formatted.) SO far it runs great and only takes a few seconds!!!
(I also did a clean install of windows)

I was wondering if any one else had picked this up and your initial impressions.

 

wow this laptop is identical to the DV7TQE lol! Except you can get a 6770M instead of 6570m. I'm just sick of DV7TQE's delays

 

Yeah I know, I was going to get an envy but i really did not want to wait until the end of the month (or possibly longer)

Frys also has a high spec config which includes 8gb ram and 500+500 Hard drive config for $1100 after $50 rebate.

I spent 850 for the pc plus 90 for ram and 120 for the ssd plus 40 for the hdcaddy.

So 850+90+120+40=$1100 So for the same price as the high spec version at frys i now have a 64gb ssd+750gb hd config.

 

That's a lot like one of my dv7tqe-6xxx, except I got 30% faster video, a 640gb 7200rpm HD, a slightly slower SSD, a spare 6 cell battery to go with the 9 cell, USB 3.0, and a one month wait.

$810 +$48 tax +$80 Corsair Nova 64 SSD +$36 caddy (got 2 for $72) +$49 4GB mem card -$50 credit from HP for the memory (they changed the base configuration from 6gig to 8gig after I ordered) -$50 cash back from American Express (OPEN Savings + Simply Cash Reward) = $923 and waiting patiently after ordering March 23rd.

 

Thats a pretty awesome config for the price but I really just couldn't wait. I have a 3d design class that I needed a new computer for. I do wish I would have had the better video card though... But i don't do much gaming (only css l4d and portal) and it runs all settings max at 60fps(locked) with no lag whatsoever. The 3d apps I use really are not very demanding. I do plan on using photoshop but I haven't installed that yet.

 

I just bought one which seems to have the affected SN. Mine is lower than the 108 the hp website is claiming might have the defective chip. It states that the 4th through 6th digits: 108 or higher=not affected. 107 or lower may be affected. I haven't opened the box yet but looked at the serial number on the box. If I open it and have to return it Fry's will charge a 15% restocking fee. Kind of a bummer if I have to return it, it has everything I'm looking for except the 4295 has 1TB and 8 GB Ram.

 

Fry's wont charge a restocking fee if its under recall or defective. They will even waive it if your just exchanging it to.

 

I ended up exchanging the un-opened one for a serial number hp claims to be unaffected. The new one now has a serial number over 108. Although under device manager it reads that it is the 6 Series 200 affected chipset. Not sure if it's B3 stepping in which its supposed to be ok but not sure how properly check that without opening the computer.

 

I had one of the quick ship dv7's off the HP store and ended up sending it back due to the fact that it was not SATA III capable. Looked a lot like this unit from Fry's. The SATA II configuration was a deal breaker for me. Does the Fry's Have SATA III? I looked at the specs and it just said SATA but didnt specify. Why do they do this? Its just silly.