*HP dv6t Select Edition (3XXX series) Owners Lounge*

I always thought i5-450M>i5-520M?

Or at least by almost 100 points according to This

 

What I really loved about the dv6t at bestbuy was the sturdy laptop hinge. It didn't feel floppy and shake like my old m11x. I can't wait till mine shows up, but that E14 is looking pretty good right now...

 

Does anyone have an idea about power consumption for this thing? I ordered the high capacity 6 cell battery (~62Whr) and I'm hoping that I can get about 4 hours on a charge. People on the Envy 14 thread are claiming approximately 15 watts for theirs.

 

I just got about 3.5 hours tonight at the cigar shop with full brightness (damn you glossy screen) and surfing the internet the whole time.

 

Alright, I'd like some reassurances that the Acer build quality is crap. This just came across on the Costco email. Considering that it lacks the touch screen, finger print reader, and back lit keyboard it seems a good price. Any opinions VS an equivalently equipped version of ours?

BTW what's the real difference between the Spacial Edition and the regular dv6t? is it just the touch screen option?

 

Another envy 14 convert here, price and features won me over, I didn't really need that high of a resolution anyways.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned here or not but you can get an additional 3% (30 bucks in my case) off in addition to the $450 off by buying through the ebates website: HP Home Coupon Codes - find coupons, online rebates and discounts for HP Home

My System specs, $949.99 before tax and 3% cash back:

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition Entertai
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz
• FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 1TB 5200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
• No TouchScreen (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
• 50% OFF! One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope​

This system should suit my needs as an upcoming CSE major and light gamer/computer nerd. I went with I5 for switchable graphics for increased battery life. Opted for 1TB hd over blueray and touchscreen because I buy all of my movies digitally and have no need for a touch screen as I perfer my wacom tablet. LightScribe upgrade was just to pad my order to 1399 for coupon (exact, I know, I'm good). Oh and got the extra 9 cell battery incase the 6 cell doesn't cut it, Idk how much I'm going to need to get through a typical day of college. I'm pretty sure anyone getting this is going to get the backlit keyboard, it's a no brainer for all night call of...study sessions. And while the SSD was no doubt a good deal, I simply couldn't justify the loss in so much space for a little extra speed. Maybe this is because I haven't personally used one before, kind of like not being able to go back to standard def after high def, at anyrate 1TB is sounding pretty awesome, going from an 80gb compaq.

Now a little backstory if your interested, yah I'm fairly bored at the moment.
Its been an intersting 2-3 months researching laptops for college. I've gone from an 16.5 in asus with a 260 gtx but an hour and a half of battery life (and the thing weighed a ton!). To the m11x with decent performence and awesome battery life, even a good price after multiple coupons, but the 11 in screen was just too small for writing endless lines of code on. From that I came to the acer timline series, but at the time none were out, and now that one is the lack of a cdrom drive and the low specs drove me away. Reading a forum on the acer I came across the envy 14. The envy 14 is still my favorite out of all the laptops I've looked at, but my money concious mind just couldn't buy a minimumly specced envy 14 when I could get this fully specced for less. As long as the battery life is pretty good and I'm able to stand lugging this 15.5 in around OSU's campus, I think it will serve me well. If not I can always return within 14 days (or whatever it is) if it doesnt meet my expectations or if a good envy 14 coupon comes out .

Feel free to post any comments guys, even tell me how dumb I am for going 1TB over SSD.

Random thought: I don't really understand people going with quad cores, as I think the decent battery life from switchable graphics is a main feature here. Otherwise I'd think you would get something with a little more power in the graphics department, as the 5650 isn't too great when you can't switch it off, compared to cards like the 260 gtx offered in similar quad setups.

 

Does anyone know something about the veracity of the Passmark benchmark test and database? It has results that are at odds with posted benchmarks from countless computer reviews, not to mention Intel's own published specs, hierarchy and price of cpus in its line - eg, the core i5-430 is less than or equal to the Core i5-520 in all measures, including price, yet this Passmark test and database suggest the opposite. There are some tasks which some lower priced cpus outperform higher priced chips from the same Intel line - eg, Core i5-540 can outperform a Core i7-720 on single core tasks, because the 540 turbo boosts to 3.06 ghz and the i7-720 only to 2.8 ghz. But this chart is whacky, showing indeed the Core i5-430 being a bit more powerful (that is, running the Passmark test at a higher average score) than a Core i5-520, and that makes no sense, as the 520 is unambiguously faster. Me thinks the test or the database, or both, are not true indicators of how each processor performs, all other factors being equal.

Perhaps the most important take-away from this is that when you pay an extra $100-$300 to get the faster Core iX cpu, you are probably wasting your money unless you use programs that take advantage of, say, hyperthreading which some newer games do, but little else today. I've read many times and places - and seen computer benchmarks to prove it - that the difference in performance between the Core i5-430M and the Core i7-620M is negligible if even perceptible on the vast majority of applications, yet there is about a $300 difference in configuring most computers with each of those cpu's. The main justification for the average user, even "power" user, to pay up for the theoretically faster cpu is that money-sucking totally unprovable virtue called "future-proofing." I am the first to pay up myself in the name of future-proofing, but I have no idea whether it will matter during the lifespan of my notebook computers. At best, it's an insurance policy that I probably will never benefit by.

Finally, the smart money seems to be going to SSDs before considering paying for an upgrade beyond a Core i5-430. If you can afford both a faster cpu and an SSD, sure, go for it, but if you hit your limit buying up to a faster cpu or an SSD, use the limited funds on the SSD if you want to see very perceptible speed benefits immediately. That said, if you think you will hold on to the notebook PC you buy today for 3-4 years, some say put the money into the cpu, because you can't upgrade that later, while you can switch from a spinning drive to a solid state drive at any time, and it will just keep getting cheaper to do so.

I apologize if this is obvious to everyone on this thread, but from some comments/questions, including the one quoted above, there is uncertainty. I have no special expertise on the subject; I just read a lot, lol

 

Sorry, wrong forum.

 

Could someone please let me know the screen ID?
to find it open device manager -monitors - generic PnP monitor -go to the details tab and choose hardware ID.

Thanks

 

It is SEC3651.

 

Does anyone have the i7 quad, i want to see what the power brick looks like, people say it's huge.

 

I went with the faster i5-450, instead of the 430, and also the SSD to be able to get high enough for the $300 coupon.

As for hard drive space it really depends on how mobile you want to be. For me, 160gb is plenty big enough for anything that needs to be mobile. For all of my tv shows and movies that I download, the external HD works perfectly for that. Plus, the less heat produced by the SSD will make the laptop more comfortable to use.

 

How hot do the bottom of the laptop and the palm rests get, on battery and under load?

 

I believe that database is an average of a bunch of runs on different systems (user-submitted?) so it's more of an estimate. I prefer notebookcheck's list Notebookcheck: Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist. It shows the N930 doing well in multithreaded tasks like wprime but poorly in single threaded tasks like superpi. Of course there are still a few odd rankings like the low ranking of the i7 620m compared to the i5's. But at this point it comes down to how much you care about benchmarks, since real-world performance is going to be almost the same.

If the processors perform almost the same, right now, it probably won't change in a couple of years. You aren't really getting much future-proofing from a "better" processor. It's true that it's quite a lot harder to upgrade the CPU than the hard drive, but it's certainly possible (unless soldered in) and not as difficult as you may think. The component that is basically permanent is the GPU, so the smart "future-proofing" money would go there.

Anyways, a lot of new improvements in the CPU department come from new architectures or a smaller process, and getting a slightly higher clocked processor now won't help with that at all. Also, as others have noted the CPU is rarely the bottleneck in any case, so it'd be quite a lot of upgrades of other components before you really need to think about upgrading a CPU.

 

Nice find! I'm surprised I haven't seen this anywhere else... it's a shame I ordered right before reading your post.

And the terabyte drive is a fine choice. You also get speed benefits from a larger drive due to the higher density so I think it should be plenty fast enough.

 

Can anyone comment on the speed of the ssd? And heat reduction?

 

Did it ship like in the morning or like the end of that day, and then how long did i take to get to you? 3-4 days?

 

I'm interested in this as well. Ready to pull the trigger, just going back and forth on the SSD option and deciding between the 512mb 5470 vs. 1gb 5650...

 

Might as well get the 5650, but the ssd is up to you. Don't even know who makes it, if it supports trim for sure, or what its read / writes are.

 

I found this in the dv8t user review section on the hp site:

No idea if the 160gb is similar.

 

The 160gb is the intel x-25m I think.

 

If so the manuf claims are: Average sequential read speeds are 250MB/s and write speeds are 100MB/s.

 

I was initially looking to buy the envy 14, but the price to performance ratio for the dv6t select edition was just too good to pass. All envy 14 has going is better screen, but honestly, I might as well use an external monitor when I need such high resolutions. Battery also doesn't seem as good as advertised with a 3.5 to 4 hours compared to the previously stated 7 hours, and build quality wise, dv6t select edition looks to be an attractive and very well built piece of hardware itself with similar materials. Not trying to bash envy 14 or anything, but unless screen is a deal breaker, this laptop is what I would get. This is what I got:

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition customizable Notebook PC

* • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz
* • 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
* • 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
* • TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
* • SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
* • Intel Wireless-N Card
* • Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
* • High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
* • NEW! Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2010
* • $1! SAVE NOW!! Norton Internet Security(TM) 2010 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
* • HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

My only concern right now is the battery when using intergrated graphics. Would 5 hours be asking for too much with i5 on power saving mode with low brightness and wifi on? And from owners, is the screen visible at low brightness? From what I have read and from videos I have seen, people who own the i7 version have stated that their computers last for 3-4 hours on low brightness and light use, so the i5 should be able to reach 5 hours no? I ordered the high capacity 6-cells by the way. I'm using this for college and I would like it to last a good while around campus.

 

Can anyone say their thoughts or opinions on the chiclet keyboard? Would be greatly appreciated. Does it feel sturdy ect.

 

If it's any consolation, I haven't heard a single negative feedback of the keyboard in the previous pages of this forum nor in other videos and reviews. So far everybody seems to love the keyboard on this laptop.

 

I know, every where I've read people say its very nice I was just wondering if anyone had a complaints here.

 

I spent about a month researching laptops and finally settled on this a few days ago.

I have some very weird (but flexible) cross-shopping habits. But at first I was almost set on the Sony Vaio F Series (16.4 screen) with an i7. Then I saw it in person and the build quality was extremely poor, so decided that I'll look elsewhere.

Then I was almost set on an Envy 15 (14 wasn't out back then), but the flowery etching got me. So I went to Acer, where I found the TimelineX Series 4820TG, but that had horrible build quality like the Sony.

A few days later, the Envy 14 came out, so I looked at it, only to see the flowery etching again.

I started to look at the Sony Vaio Z-series, but couldn't justify the price, although it would be my ideal laptop.

Afterwards, I saw the DV6T SE, and decided right there I'm getting this one. So far, it's the best combination of power, battery life, price, and build quality, without an overly obnoxious design.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get an i5 higher than the 450M though, and I really would've preferred no etching at all, but either way, I can't wait for it to arrive.

Thanks to everyone on this thread for giving me a better sense of the laptop.

 

Erchino, when is your estimated ship date of your laptop? And when did you order it?

 

Maybe. I can squeeze out almost 5 hours (4:53) with the screen set at 40% and the power saving profile on with wifi on nonstop. If you turn the screen down a little lower and turn off the wifi when not in use I could see 5 hours easy.

 

Estimated ship date for me is July 8, ordered on June 29.

 

Thanks for the reply abaddon, yeah as long as it's closer to the 5 hour mark or around there it's good enough for me, and getting that battery life with 40% brightness with wifi on sounds great. Looks like this laptop was the perfect find.

 

Wow same for me too, same order time and ship time. Cool stuff. I hope it ships the 5 or 6.

 

Lol, crazy. I think it will ship before the 8th, a lot of people have reported that their dv6tse shipped and arrived earlier than expected.

 

But july 4 is saturday and its celebrated monday so what will that do to the ship times?

 

My estimated build date is "by July 13th"...

Went with this build:

* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz
* FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
* 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5470 switchable graphics
* 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
* TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
* LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
* Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
* Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
* High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)

Instant discounts you received:
$300.00 Coupon
$150.00 Notebook instant rebate
Unit Price: $1,630.99 Extended Price: $1,180.99

 

My build

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition customizable Notebook PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-840QM processor (1.86GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics + HDMI and VGA ports - For Quad Core Processors
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
• TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
• Lightscribe Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Estimated build date: July 8, 2010

 

Man, I see tons of people getting the SSD, I am beginning to wonder if I should have gone with it. Do you guys think it's worth it as of now? HDDs will still be useful four years from now right? I personally need tons of harddrive space because of all the media and games I download/install, and I don't wanna have to carry an extra hard drive around. I plan to do gaming, and if such expensive hard drives only improve the loading times, I don't think it's worth it. If it improves fps... well.. that's another story.

But other than gaming, I will be taking notes, doing homework, surfing web, photoshop, maybe maya and 3d softwares eventually, premiere pro and after effects perhaps. But nothing professional with the last four mentioned softwares, just playing around with them and learning them. SSD shouldn't be like a must-get in this situation right? And heck, SSDs will probably get really cheap and I can just swap out the drives if it becomes necessary.

 

Yea you can switch out the ssd but its really fast so that primarily why im getting it, plus i have a 500gb network drive for movies and other stuff.

 

This.

Just thought I'd chime in, I ordered my dv6tse June 26, estimated ship date was July 6, but it actually shipped yesterday July 2.

 

I ordered dv6t on June 25 and the build date given was july 6 and 5-7 days for shipping.But in the order status it was shipped on 2nd july.It is five days ahead schedule.

I thought this laptop was built in US.But to my surprise,in the shipping details page dv6t is shipped from shanghai.The hilarious part is that I have orderd dv6t from India,now it is shipped from our neighbouring country China to US and from US to India.

 

That's great, so that must mean mine may be shipped July 4th AKA tomorrow... sweet!

 

Anyone know if a signature is required on HP's shipments?

 

You're joking about that, right?

 

Well, I mean, I don't think there's a 4th of July in China. When shipping starts, it IS shipped from China no?

 

yeah they're made in shanghai I think

 

Well, first of all it is a holiday here and second of all, it's a Sunday.

 

I did say "may be". Whatever happens happened. Eh we'll see.

 

I'm just about to order this laptop because it meets everything than I want/need. And also before I lose the chance of using the $300 discount coupon.

So apparently the coupon only pertains to purchases of at least $1399, ignoring the instant $150 as well. I'm trying to spend just $1399 - $450 = $949, give or take $30. Also, there's no tax in DE so I won't have to worry about that.

Anyways, I'm taking off everything that I don't need, which is the Blu-Ray ROM capability, the touch screen, and the SSD. Except the pressing thing is I need to spend $150 more just to get that $300 discount.

I could either opt for the Blu-Ray or the touch screen. OR I could forgo both and get the 160 SSD. I won't need to upgrade to an i7 because it doesn't support the switchable graphics and I probably won't be running applications in which I'd see any performance difference between a dual or quad-core.

What do you think I should upgrade? I feel like I won't need much use for a Blu-Ray ROM, although it could come in handy sometimes. Ditto for the touchscreen, although I see some people really like it (what about the fingerprints on the screen?). And for the SSD, I think I could be able to upgrade to it within a year or so when prices drop.

I have to spend $150 regardless so what would be best for me?

My thread on what laptop to buy: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...play-switchable-graphics-i5-i7-processor.html

 

Haha sweet man, I'm from DE too, no tax ftw. I wouldn't do a blu-ray upgrade because I mean, you said it yourself that you won't need much use for it, and the screen is only 1366 by 768 so you won't be getting the full HD experience anyways, you might as well go for the dvd drive. That is, unless you have hdmi cable and an hd tv and don't have another blu-ray player.

Between 160 SSD and Touchscreen, it depends on what you need. If you want your computer to be blazing fast (it's fast enough as it is but apparently this makes a "notable" difference) than go for the SSD, but remember it's only 160GB. If you don't fill up your hard drive hardcore like I do, go for the SSD. I, on the other hand, went for the touch screen because I had an extra upgrade I could do until I reached the 1399 mark and for me 160GB is too small, choosing the slower but bigger and free 500GB HDD instead. So all depends on your need. I'm planning to upgrade to SSD once it becomes cheaper and once SSD space becomes higher. The touch screen from what I hear is quite responsive and many say it is fun and convenient to have because it can do stuff faster and more efficiently than the track pad (which has gotten mixed reviews) at times when doing every day tasks like surfing web, etc. But you probably will be getting some fingerprints, eh, you can always wipe it off.

 

Do you have an external hard drive? I do, and so I didn't need the big hard drive.

I actually ordered my first Dv6t with Bluray, 500gb 7200rpm hard drive, and i5-430m processor.

I'm returning it, and changing out to an i5-450m, getting rid of bluray, and swapping in the 160gb SSD. That same SSD that they use, an Intel G2 is $400 on Newegg. It's a fantastic deal. As for bluray, I figured out I don't buy DVDs, let alone bluray DVDs, so I have no use for it.

I'm not a fan of touch screens, and especially not on a screen on a hinge. I would feel like I would always have to use 2 hands, one to hold the screen, the other to poke at it for it to work. Maybe this isn't the case, but I think it's how I would feel. Although the screen can of course be cleaned, I'd just rather not touch my screen.

All boils down to what you think you will use. With the free upgrade to 6gb RAM, the slightly faster processor 430 to 450m, and the SSD, my new machine is going to scream compared to what I'm running now. Thing is, it only cost me $110 more than my original config.