HP Pavilion dv7 specs

Hey I know i have been posting different threads about laptops but a sale just came up at office max and I have a few questions about the:
HP Pavilion dv7-1130us
it was 4gig ram
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics RS780M card
and well you can look at it here:

http://www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/sku.jsp?skuId=21711541&category_Id=325

Is this a good deal for 699? Its $150off or should I just get Gateway M-7317u
and its got 3gig of ram instead of 4 and a weaker video card. for 499(also on sale)
Im just wondering if the extra $200 is worth it for the HP?
and what games will work on the HP out of the modern games if any and if games like Portal and Doom 3 will work. THANKS for any help

 

your link doesn't work? Looks ok for 700 bucks though.

 

Looks like a great deal to me.

 

awesome! thanks so what games do you think will run on it?

 

The on-board ATI HD3200 is not exactly fast... you can probably play most games low-res with low to medium details...

 

So is this laptop upgradable? The video card? if so what is the cheapest upgrade that would improve the laptop without having to have the best. Thanks

 

CPU, RAM and HD you can upgrade.

The video card is soldered into the motherboard so you cannot upgrade it.

 

The Radeon 3200, while integrated, is roughly equivalent to a GeForce 9200 dedicated. AMD basically crammed a desktop Radeon 2400 core into the northbridge. If a game works on an entry level desktop card it'll work on this.

 

So then this is a pretty solid laptop for gaming then? i mean not with the highest settings of course but enough to play modern games at a resolution to where it at least looks presentable but not pretty.

Thanks for all of your responses I can't wait for this laptop its too bad I have to wait till the stupid gift card gets here and they just mailed it today lol

 

I wouldn't classify it as a "pretty solid laptop for gaming"... it'll chug along with minimal settings but it definitely will not look pretty...

 

will it run bioshock at med?

 

As long as you keep the resolutions low... you should be fine...

 

will it look like a ps1 game or will it look o.k?

sorry for the million questions I'm just a little antsy!

anyways thanks again for all the answers.

anyone have this laptop with any kind of review?

 

The ATI HD 3200 leaves other integrated graphics cards in the dust, but NO integrated GPU is great for gaming. Even if you configured a dv7z on the HP website, the only upgrades are the 256mb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3450 ($100) or the 512mb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3450 ($200). The performance increases of either aren't worth the additional cost, in my opinion. The HD 3450 only offers a performance increase of about 22% compared to the HD 3200.

For decent gaming performance, the ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3650 is a much better choice than the 3200 or 3450. The 3650 almost doubles the performance of the 3450 and MORE than doubles that of the 3200.

If you're looking for a gaming machine on a tight budget, take a look at the ASUS M51-series. Here's a link to the M51Ta-X1 at Newegg.com- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220348 It's on sale for $799.99 right now ($150 off reg. price) and there's no sales tax from Newegg.

The M51Ta-X1 has the same 2.0GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-70 as the HP dv7-1130us....BUT it has the MUCH more powerful 512mb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3650 graphics card! It also has a standard 2-year warranty and 1-year of accidental damage coverage STANDARD.

It's worth a look if you want/need a more capable gaming machine.

 

Yup... I agree with allfiredup...

using any resolution less than the native resolution of your LCD panel will make images look blurry as it will scale up to fit it entirely on the screen... another thing is, most games uses different ways of reducing detail... so will look bad... some will look decent...

 

Well the blurry thing is kinda like free AA (like the early AA adaption haha)

 

As far as deals go, Office Max does have the best price on the dv7-1130us this week. Most other major retailers are closer to $799 right now.

One other model you might want to check out (if you have a Best Buy locally)- the dv7-1135nr. The specs are almost identical, except the 1130us has N-wireless while the 1135nr only has B+G-wireless.

The primary difference between the two is that the 1135nr is the new "Bronze" color scheme, while the 1130us is the traditional "Onyx" (black/silver) design. It's a matter of personal taste, but Best Buy has the 1135nr on sale for $649.99 this week ($50 less than the 1130us at OfficeMax). Here's a link if you'd like to take a look- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9032986&type=product&id=1218010538308

 

Thanks you guys! The only thing is im really sitting on a tight budget of 699 PLUS i can only get the laptop at office-max which is a bummer because that is where I originally got my laptop and where i have to get my new one : ( but thanks you guys , i mean I dont wanna play crysis or anything , just Starcraft 2 when it comes , FEAR, and Bioshock , , will those run fine?

Ok thanks alot you guys!

 

The following link will take you to the specific ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3200 page on a site called NotebookCheck.net. It's one of the few, and the most extensive, sources of mobile graphics information. LINK- http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Radeon-HD-3200.9591.0.html

It might be useful to check out the following review of the HP dv5z- http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4486

The dv5z covered in the review has the same ATI HD 3200 as the dv7-1130us that you're considering. Your dv7 has a slightly less powerful processor (dv7-1130us has- 2.0GHz RM-70 with 1mb L2 cache; dv5z has- 2.1GHz ZM-80 with 2mb L2 cache) but the overall performance should be pretty similar.

I just glanced at the OfficeMax website. The dv7-1130us would definitely be my pick if I had to stick to a $700 budget (or even $800, for that matter). One of the best features is that it looks like it cost more like $1500, not $700!

Another nice feature is the 4GB of RAM included along with Vista Home Premium 64-bit, so all 4GB can be "seen" and utilized. This is especially good since it has an integrated graphics processor that shares memory with the system.

Good luck!

 

Thanks a lot man, Im very excited for this laptop ,thanks for the link ill check em out. Thanks again !