HP dm4t vs. HP dv6t se

Hi, I am an incoming chemical engineering major and am debating between these two laptops. I love the portability of the dm4t but not the graphics card or lack of backlit keyboard. I like the graphics card and keyboard of dv6t but not the weight. Here are the specs i would use for each.

HP dm4t

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5450 switchable graphics (i heard 1GB would make no difference because of the weakness of the card?)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Comes to about 1100 dollars

HP dv6t

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics
Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

Clearly the differences lie within

Hard Drive (will i notice a performance difference between SSD and 500 GB HDD?)
Graphics card - I don't game that much but engineering might use some modeling software? Is the difference between the 1 GB 5650 and the 512 MB 5450 huge?

Also, for those of you who were students, will i notice the difference in carrying a 5.5 lb 15.6'' laptop instead of a 4.4 14.0'' ? Is that something i should even consider?

 

the SSD will make a huge difference in the speed and performance, much more impact than the 520 vs 540. what sort of modeling software are you considering? is it important to you to playback blu-ray discs on your laptop? if you will not be gaming or doing heavy video editing the 5450 will probably be just fine. I suggest to get the dm4t with SSD and later you can upgrade the RAM to 8GB if you want to increase performance further.

I don't know about the weight of the dv6t but I've noticed a lot of great latop messenger bags that I can't use because my 15.6" laptop is too big. 14" seems to be a common size for vertical messenger bags for example.

 

I have the dv6t and it's very light for a 15.6". But as moviemarketing said the SSD will make the dm4t feel a lot faster except in games. You could also consider the Envy 14 which is kind of the best of both worlds - 14", backlit keyboard, same graphics card as the dv6t.

 

True for the Envy 14, but it's also quite a bit more expensive for similar options on the dm4.

Ultimately, it depends on what kind of video editing you're going to be doing - not all video editing packages even take advantage of the advanced features on graphics cards these days. Stunningly few, in fact.

I've heard that there are some that do accelerate based on the GPU, but I've yet to see any benchmarks that show significant (as in 30% or better) improvements. Perhaps that's just because I have my head in the sand and haven't really researched it (which I'm sure is a significant part of it).

 

alright, still debating.

I figured out that these are my options
dv6t SE
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
160GB SSD
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics
for $1080

dm4t
# Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
# 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
# 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
# 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5450 switchable graphics
for $980

a few questions...
1.) is more than 4GB of RAM going to be useful/noticeable? (like 6GB vs. 4GB)
2.) Is the dv6t going to be obnoxiously heavier than the dm4t for a college student lugging it around everywhere? (most important)
3.) For anyone that owns it, is a backlit keyboard worth the weight difference?
4.) is the difference between the graphics cards worth it even though i do not play hardcore games?

 

1.) Depends what you're doing. The only time it might make a difference is when you're doing modeling. But I use Ansys and Fluent and I usually don't have enough nodes to max out the memory, CPU is the real issue in that case. 95% of the time 4 is enough.
2.) The dv6t is very light for its size. It weighs about as much as 2 textbooks, if that's too heavy then go with the dm4t.
3.) It's handy, I don't know what you mean by weight difference because I think it's about the same. It's definitely more of a luxury than a necessity but I still would miss it if I didn't have it
4.) Probably not worth it if your main goal is carrying around. But it depends what kind of games you would play, because the 5450 sucks.

 

If you do not play hardcore games the 5450 will be sufficient

 

I'm not sure how noticeable 4GB vs 6GB will be but the difference with apps like photoshop between 4GB and 8GB is noticeable, especially when working with large files.

 

CHM ENG does not require any professional software (correct me if im wrong...) so the graphic with dm4t will be more than enough if you don't plan on gaming... plus dm4t have long battery life b/c of the smaller screen. a 9 cell can give you about 10 hours to last a whole day on campus