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    HP Dv6 upgrades

    Discussion in 'HP' started by freshley, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. freshley

    freshley Newbie

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    I'm looking to buy an HP Dv6 and I'm surprised at how expensive some of the options are and was wondering if these can be added later for much less. The upgrade to the HD screen is $150! The GPU upgrade to a GT630 is $50 which isn't bad but it's not a great card but the GT650 is $125! I've seen the description on how to upgrade the screen but I haven't looked to see how expensive the parts are but that does look like something I could do my self. But is the GPU able to be upgraded or do I need to bite the bullet and just pay for it up front? I'm not looking to play any graphic intense games but I do want to be able to watch movies without it looking like crap. Is the Intel HD4000 good enough to do this or am I better off going with the GT630?
     
    freshley, Oct 10, 2012
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  2. Kirrr

    Kirrr Notebook Deity

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    The gpu is soldered to the motherboard -> can not upgrade
     
    Kirrr, Oct 10, 2012
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  3. Starrbuck

    Starrbuck Notebook Consultant

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    The screen is also difficult to upgrade so I would get that up-front.

    The video is a huge upgrade so I would recommend the 650 if you anticipate doing any gaming. Movies should perform fine with the 4000. I doubt the 650 would even kick in by default with the movie player.

    Things that you can upgrade later and less expensively are hard drive and memory.
     
    Starrbuck, Oct 10, 2012
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  4. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    There's a 30% off coupon floating around right now which would help bring those upgrade costs down quite a bit. <strike>30% of $150 is $45 if I'm doing my math right, so the upgrade would be $105.</strike>

    Correction, it's a $380 off coupon and not percentage off coupon now, code is NB42516.
     
    Andrew Baxter, Oct 11, 2012
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  5. yoshirama

    yoshirama Newbie

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    The ram is easily the best bang for your buck to buy aftermarket. A 16 GB upgrade should not cost $300. You can buy a decent 2x8 GB kit yourself for ~$80 for either newegg or amazon.
    Also the hard drive and mSATA SSD are two other upgrades you can get aftermarket.
    However to install the mSATA on the dv6 you will need to take off the keyboard and the front panel to access the motherboard (the slot sits right on the motherboard). You should reference the service guide if you intend to do that. Also use metric (2.5mm and 2.0mm cross heads) screwdrivers instead of imperial sized screwdrivers to avoid stripping the screws. I learned the hard way that imperial screwsdrivers and screws are designed to slip and strips metric screws, while metric screws and screwdrivers are not designed to slip.
     
    yoshirama, Oct 11, 2012
    #5