*HP dv6t & dv7t Select Edition / Quad Edition (6XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed. Also I heard that the SSD would perform better if it was in the primary bay, is this true at all?

 

I haven't heard anything either way. If I recall correctly, both HD ports are the same.
The optical drive IS a slower port (using the older "broken" chipset? Someone confirm or am I talking out my bum?), so is a limiting factor if you want to replace the optical with a caddy and HD.

The issue you SHOULD know about is that the Bios (at least prior to F.12) did not allow selection of which port to use when booting. So the first solution is to always use the primary for your boot drive. The second solution is to use a boot manager on the primary to boot from the secondary drive.
I haven't heard mention of such a feature being added to F.12.

I will likely install a fresh OS to the secondary using a boot manager, so I can try out a fresh install while retaining my factory shipped boot drive in case of issues on either.
I might also try Hackintoshing the thing, but the hardware is too new to likely be successful. We'll see.

- Qlippoth

 

supposedly its the same screen as the ENVY 17 (but not 3D).

Also. No. You can't only use the Radeon. If you want that look for a laptop like the y560p from Lenovo that only utilizes the discrete GPU. With dynamic switching it decides for you when you need more oomph. Fortunately, its pretty accurate most of the time. Unless the only thing you do with the laptop is game, it actually is better for the PC to use the IGP for lower level needs (not just to save electricity).

 

whats the key for the BIOS?

 

Should just be Escape for the main menu (Bios, Boot options, etc). I think it's F10 for Bios direct. Use Escape at boot, that will give you the menu for whatever. You have to be quick, though, dang thing boots so fast!

- Qlippoth

 

it does. I barely can see the boot screen...it just blips on by.

 

Careful. I believe you said that you had the dv6t, not a dv7t. The dv6t does not have two hard drive bays, so I don't believe the suggested caddy kit will help you. As far as I know, the only way to add a second hard drive to a dv6t is to replace the DVDrom drive with special adapter. You can see one here - 2nd Drive Caddy - HP dv5, dv6, dv6t, dv6z (add 2nd HDD or SSD) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks - but I'm not sure whether that particular model supports the dv6t-6x00 models.

 

Honestly, call me a naysayer, but I think you're just throwing your money away.

SSDs aren't made to be long-term main drives. They are also insanely expensive. IF you have the money, and IF you can install two drives it might be worth it. I'd buy a small SSD to contain the OS only. SSDs are only made to be written on so many times. They aren't as reflexive as a magnetic platter in traditional HDDs.

But, hey, to each his own.

 

I was going to replace the optical drive. Obscure makes a good point though and maybe I should just hold off. If I did get one it would be for the OS and a few programs. Does anyone have any experience with how much faster an SSD is compared to a 7200rpm HDD?

 

I beg to differ with you. I believe the manufacturers fully intend these ssd's to be utilized as primary drives in computers. Hence their clames of long life in spite ofthe limited times a drive can be written to. There are numerous operation that have been contrived to minimise the effect of this limitation and it does not appear to be a problem to me. The current cost of the SSD's are however a bit over the top! I dont think I am going to be able to help myself though. Its just a matter of trying to decide which brand to buy at this point or maybe to wait a bit longer.

 

Did u hear about the Corsair SSD recall today?

 

No! I will look. Thanks.

 

I remember some time ago, someone posting his experience in the hardware section with a 2nd generation (OCZ?) SSD reaching its EOL after a year of normal usage.

Awesome read though To lazy to search for it.

 

Is their any real difference between the 2.0 i7 quad and the 2.2 i7 quad? I'm trying to decide between the two and im wondering if the $250 increase is worth it with the $375 coupon.

 

The only situation in which the extra clock speed will really help you is when using older applications that can only use one core. However, even most of this older software probably will not push the core too hard. The only thing I can really think of that would are CPU-intensive games from around 2002-2005.

Even that doesn't really matter though, as Turbo Boost is there, so that one core can run faster when needed. I personally think the 2630 is more than adequate for most users today. Only video encoding could really use the extra clock speed on all cores, but even then the performance boost is not really close to making the extra cost worth-while.

 

The 2720 and up have VT-D, and encryption support(?). If that doesn't matter to you, you DO get a good 10% speed bump, so I think for dollars to performance it is worth it.

Anyone have other thoughts on the dif between the 2630? and the higher end CPUs?


Bios: Note you can add a delay to the Bios boot time, I set it to 5 seconds just so I don't have to do reboot more than once while I'm working on something in the Bios or with hardware. Or you can reboot and keep pressing the Escape key, but that doesn't always work either!

- Qlippoth

 

I agree with Kahn20.

If you have to ask that question, then you obviously don't need anything higher than the i7-2630qm. Save the money, even $50, for the upgrade few years down the road.

 

Agreed. Or buy a hybrid hard drive. Intel is releasing one this year and western digital has one in the works. The Seagate Momentus XT is the only game in town right now, and I have to imagine they will be releasing a faster 2nd generation this year - its been out since Spring last year.

 

Naysayer!

I agree with some of the potential reliability issues but it's worth it. I'll let you know if/when I have any problems. I have a Crucial C300 128GB as my only drive in the dv6tqe.

Regarding CPU's.
I had a 2720qm based system that I returned to get the 1080p screen. I went with the 2630qm on the re-order just to keep the price under $1k.

I don't think you'll notice the difference between the two unless you are consistently running programs that use a lot of CPU. 2720 has Vt-d for directed I/o virtualization and the AES instructions. 2630qm maxes out with 8GB RAM and 2720qm can do 16GB.

If you are running BitLocker or another full drive encryption program that will take advantage of the AES instructions you will see better performance with a 2720.

I ran several VMs off SSD with both units and I don't really notice a difference in I/O performance. I kind of had buyer's remorse when I was waiting for it to be shipped, thinking that I should have got the 2720 again. I can't say there is a big enough difference to worry about, invest the extra cash into an SSD...that makes a very noticeable difference.

 

Yeah, if you don't know what those are you don't need to worry. And if you don't know, you'll probably not need 16GB either, but I have learned to never say never.

I got the 2720 for those reasons, but I do some fairly esoteric things. Is it confirmed that the 2720 model supports 16GB, or are we limited by the Bios by HP?

- Qlippoth

 

That's just from the Intel spec sheet, you'd have to wait until there are 8GB modules available and hope HP provides BIOS support if it doesn't already.

 

Hmm.. Having absolutely no vibration, no sound, and my laptop is several degree Celsius cooler alone are worth it. Jumping from 5.9 to 7.9 in the Windows Experience Index for Hard Disk and being able to open apps in mere milliseconds are also nice additions.

The key is to wait for a good SSD to go on sale. I got my SATA III 256GB SSD for only $385.

 

Could someone with the new dv6t 6100 please let me know if the bluray/super-multi drive have the lightscribe capability? Thanks a lot.

 

Mine came with LightScribe support. Samsung TS-LB23L

 

...and longer battery life too. I would say at least another 25 minutes. Even though laptop hard drives and SSD's have similar load/idle power consumption specs, the SSD's get the work done and are in the idle state much more.

It's like a completely different laptop.

 

Just a sec. the DV6 holds just one drive. The SSD is just 256GB. How can you manage with such a small amount of HDD space?

 

That's one of the main issues with SSD, capacity. You can get a caddy and run 2 drives in the dv6tqe but you have to sacrifice your optical drive(and silence, and a little battery life). I'm on a 128GB SSD, it's half full and I have everything I need.

I have Office 2010 Professional Plus, Visio, Virtualbox with 4 VMs, Steam with a couple of games, Skype, Firefox, T-bird and my Programs and Features shows 109 programs installed.

I think most people can get by with less storage unless they have tons of games or media. YMMV.

 

I would like to add my two cents worth on the question of assigning just the ATI graphics card as the default GPU. I have the DV7T QE (delivered 5/31/11) and in the Catalyst Control Center I was able to designate the "High-performance GPU" (ATI) as the default and disabled the "Automatically select power saving GPU when on battery". This was under the Power button in Switchable Graphics. It was quite simple but I understand that my graphic interface differs from others. I have a friend who ordered one just 4 days after mine and the Switchable Graphics window is a much more elaborate layout that allows assigning graphics card by application. It apparently did not allow for an overall change as mine does. I would be curious to know which type of interface others have on theirs.

 

You have the 6000 revision, your friend has the 6100 revision of this series. The differences include the dynamic muxless graphics, and the option of the higher res screen, among a few others.

 

I am a photographer. need I say more? Storage needs are more along the lines of ~750+GB.

 

Does anyone else think that music sounds distorted as hell through these speakers? It's all crackly. Would updating the drivers do anything to help this?

 

shouldn't be crackly. uninstall and re-install drivers?

 

I haven't installed them in the first place. First thing I did when I turned it on was start making recovery disks, so now I can't do a restart to finish their installation.
I wouldn't think it would sound that bad though.. D:

 

Another question. What kind of programs are you guys using to find out your hardware and temps? I'd look back, but I'm lazy...

 

I'm too lazy to answer...

http://goo.gl/bQbXH

 

So, where do you go to find out exactly if you have the 6000 or the 6100?

And, what are the latest and greatest driver updates. It seems as though some of the updates being mentioned here are not showing up on either Windows Update or the HP utility.

I thought that BIOS would be updated on the HP utility, but it appears as though that is something you have to do yourself.

 

How important are the HP_TOOLS and RECOVERY partitions? Anything important? I made recovery discs and backed up the SW folder on an external hard drive.

 

Lol.

Try HWmonitor by CPUID, they make the CPU-Z app also.

When I had my first DV7tqe, I installed HWmonitor right away to make sure they didn't screw up the thermal paste.

On average, just browsing my CPU temp stayed at 48C, when I turned the ati on, even if I wasn't doing anything the CPU temp went up to 53, and the ATI was at 54.

The highest I saw was 69C for both. I tried to stress it by running Sylkipix and 6 videos (three flash, one WMplayer, one VLC, and a blu ray movie). It stays cool man.

 

How do I make recovery DVDs?

 

Type in recovery in the search box in start menu, then look for recovery media creation.

 

It is nice to see in F.14 that you can boot from a USB hard drive.

 

mmm... I love the small crisp text on the FHD screen. I have my taskbar using small icons, as well, and it gives you SO much screen real estate on a 15" laptop.

I apologize, just appreciating the new laptop...

 

My basescore in Windows Index was 1.0. xD

 

On a serious note. Everytime I click "Connect to a Network" a little box opens up that says "No Connections Are Availbable." D:
Scratch that. The dumb Wifi driver didn't tell me it was still installing. Took like 10 minutes after I closed the box because I thought it froze. >_>

 

I've noticed this too. Everything is so small, yet extremely clear and readable.

 

If you have the Blu-ray drive, just wait til you watch a really crisp movie like Zorro or one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. That screen is the bomb!

 

Thought I would just post my 3dmark06 for a dv6t select edition with 6770 1GB and i5 2410m CPU.

10998 3DMarks

Result

 

I apologize for the length of this post. If you perfer to skip background information and go straight to my questions scroll down to the green smiley face. Questions are in bold.

Hey Guys, I managed to read through tons of posts here a few days ago and I'm a bit tired and beat at the moment. It's late so I will get to the point....

I want to buy a laptop for my wife who has returned to college full time. She is taking a general course load...mainly science courses...but plans on going into a graphics intensive program in the next few years. Starting next year she might begin to dabble in heavier graphics intensive programs such as Maya3D and ZBrush...but I see that happening even more in late 2012 and into 2013. Really, not to confuse things....just wanted to state her concentration in case it makes a difference. I don't expect this laptop to handle graphics intensive work. For this we will have a desktop/workstation and will have the capability for her to do assignments at home. Not only this but the computer lab at school will make it possible for her to work on projects. So I envision the laptop to be of general and typical use. Internet, music, and video. But what i don't know is if a faster processor might come in handy for her in some way I haven't envisioned? I'm assuming Maya3D won't run very well on any laptop....but perhaps some of her projects/animations will play better with the faster processor? I guess it's possible that she could do some light work...Photoshop, Illustrator etc. as well.



Unless told otherwise....here's what I would buy for my wife/college student:


HP DV6tqe

i7-2630QM, 1G 6770 gpu, 1080p Full HD screen, 6G RAM (maybe 8G...not sure), 750G 7200 RPM HDD, Bluray with DVD burner, 3 year accidental damage protection....and Windows 7 Version ???

I believe that pretty much sums it up. Am I missing something? In what way could this come up short? Oh...and what's up with the color choices? Anyone familiar with both colors/finishes? I want her to find it visually pleasing. I'm thinking Umber...but it's hard to tell from the small pics online.

I am on the eve of making this purchase and hoping you guys can push me towards the right choices.

I would really appreciate your take on what to buy...and then just as importantly....what you would do right after the laptop arrives. Drivers to download, good tweaks, things NOT to do, etc. (Sounds like a lot of discussion involving drivers and automatic switching)

The DV6tqe looks like a nice powerful laptop and a decent bang for the buck. I hope I can take advantage of your experience and do it right! Thanks!

 

the dv6 is more than enough for what you are about to throw at it (maya3d, zbrush, etc...) the 2630qm is comparable to a decent first gen i5-i7 desktop processor, and can handle any of those tasks with ease.

most likely, your laptop will be completely fine - most people's are. only the ones that doesn't work comes onto the forums seeking for help, so that's all you read about. i have gotten 3 of the dv6's (different specs), and all of them are completely fine.

be sure to do a minimal system restore from the HP recovery menu, and you are good to go!

 

Hey all!
Just got my DV6tqe in the mail, it is absolutely fantastic! Just one quick question: Does anyone know how to manually turn the card on and off? I've found that you can set the card to turn on with various programs, but I'd like a way to just keep it set to off unless I choose to turn it on.