*HP dv7t Quad Edition (3XXX series) Owners Lounge*

The only other cooler I think that is the same class as the zalman is the antec notebook cooler 200.They have different methodology, the zalman tries to evenly disperse airflow to the bottom of the laptop and the antec throws a general windstorm at the bottom of the laptop. I might have chosen the antec had it been available at the time, but Ive read many reviews and comparisons of these things, the zalman is always at the top of the list.What needs cooling is the CPU and the GPU. Im going to go out on a limb and guess that the grill that is too hot to touch on your computer is the internal fan output. If thats so , where do you think that heat is coming from? Mostly your cpu and gpu.The laptop cooler isnt supposed to blow air on a certain part of the case and cool it down from the outside , it provides a flow of cool air to the bottom of the laptop to be sucked up thru the laptop vents, cooling the internal components and is then expelled via the fan thru the grill .. When these coolers are tested and reviewed they dont test the tempatuere of the laptop case, they check the tempature of the CPU,GPU and hard drive.If you have any outside part of a laptop that is too hot to touch, thats a sign of trouble.I think any laptop cooler is better than none, but considering I want 3 or 4 years out of this laptop ( I hear you guys laughing...thats not cool) Id rather pay a little more and get something that does the job as well as it can be done.But Ill concede that its possible the antec would be a better choice for this laptop ( but its butt ugly)

 

The HP I worked with is similar (back left corner). The Zalman still helps because it should be sitting on something cold. But there is no air blowing into the intake to the heatsink. I just recently looked at this and tested reposition my laptop on the zalman so that the holes are under the intake and it made a huge difference. I decided that if the dv7t is the same design (which you say it is) I'm going to drill a couple holes under where the air intake is.

EDIT: On the Zalman there are no holes on the top third or so of the laptop. I believe this to be because the fans are directly underneath and if there were holes right above the cold air would just flow straight out without cooling the Zalman aluminum plate. So the air comes in at the top and comes out at the bottom which should cool the aluminum which then cools the laptop. I don't believe the design of it is intended to increase airflow into the laptop. They decided to make a cooler to be a cool surface to universally work with all laptops. Different brands and models place their intakes in different places so if Zalman did include holes in the top left it would severely lessen the cooling power to a laptop that located the intake and processor on the right because they wouldn't be getting direct airflow or a cool surface.

Drilling these holes will most likely reduce the effectiveness of the entire cooler, but pump more air into my laptop's heatsink which is the hottest part. In my test cpu and gpu core temps dropped 20 degrees with the direct airflow and the two hdd's made no difference. (Although I expect over a long period of time with lots of HDD activity those temperatures would rise, but only a couple degrees.) In my opinion keeping the processor 20 degrees cooler is much better than having an HDD 2-5 degrees. (Especially since I'll be running a SSD for my os, and my os hdd is generally 10-20 degrees F warmer than my data disk.)

 

The notion that the zalman is simply a coldplate and is not designed to increase airflow into the laptop is just plain wrong. Here is a diagram showing the airflow

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=280

Here is a video review which not only addresses your idea of drilling holes in the top of the cooler ( bad), and the notion that this isn't meant to force air thou the laptop (wrong). He does address the issue of the laptop grill not being aligned with the zalman cooler holes. His idea was to shift the notebook down a bit.( which I do) so the holes are closer to the vents.So your on the money there.

http://www.moviedemo.com/mdd/link/Zalman-NC2000-Cooler-Review-with-XPS-M1730.html

I am happy with my zalmans performance but now you guys have me wondering.How pratical would it be to turn the cooler 180 degrees ( front is now back) and prop up the back.This should align the vents and cooler holes and the temp drop would be dramatic but how practical would it be to use. For a 10~20 degree drop Id find a way to make it pratical, build some sort of stand ..But thats alot of BS to go thru for a premium cooler

 

For a user like me who uses their dv7t as a semiportable desktop substitute and packs heavy on the peripherals, a backwards flip with my TI-83 propping up the new back end actually sounds like a pretty darn good idea. If I see some Prime95 benches to back that up when it's flipped like that, I'm sold on Zalman, if only to use it exactly the wrong way

 

Thanks for the links. However all the picture shows is that air is pulled in the bottom of the Zalman and pushed out the holes on top as I said. However my stance was that it is designed to cool the outer surface and not increase air flow inside of the laptop. As the quote to the picture says "928 high capacity vent holes evenly distribute the flow of cold air to cool the entire notebook." At no point does it advertise to increase airflow to your heatsink, rather just cool the bottom which does cool the computer down.

In the video he does address the issue of drilling holes. He states that this would push the air straight through and not cool the aluminum surface (which I said would happen, also he is talking about cooling the aluminum surface and not pushing air into the laptop). However I believe that a cold cpu/gpu is better than a cool bottom. Nobody records the temperature of their case, they look at the temp of the cores of the cpu and gpu, and to a lesser extent hdd's.

Drilling these holes will decrease the air pressure coming out of the 928 holes, but there is no way that 2 or 3 small holes would take all of the air that is taken in through 2 semi powerful fans. Especially since only one of those fans would be pointed into my hole, the second fan is still free to supply all of the holes equally.

Neither of these links has disproved a thing I said.

 

Thats probably not a bad idea drilling a couple holes right underneath your fan or heatsink, because it would provide a direct air flow while still preserving how the zalman is suppose to be used. The small holes underneath your fan would not be taking all the air being pushed through the chamber, but enough to help keep your laptop cooler overall.

 

The catch with cooling the bottom shell of an HP-type laptop is that it's not entirely effective, unless you go down to subzero or something; this I know from experience with the fan/riser kluge I use (-2-5C on cores, none on GFX). I agree, a properly-used Zalman does not seem to be useful for an HP device, unless the air on the underside is of sufficient pressure that the un-vented section still receives air.

Also, we can't be certain it's a straight shot from the vents on the bottom to the cores. Likely scenario is that there's a fan between the outside and the cores that does the actual pulling. Even if it's a Zalman under the laptop,
if there's an HP fan between the high-pressure Zalman air and my CPU, that may well be our bottleneck, unless we actively push air into it (hence the drill mod/Inverted Zalman).

Still waiting for someone to do an Inverted Zalman benchmark to see if there's any improvement for using the device the wrong way. Also, I'd appreciate it if someone told me where the cores are so I can point my fan at their vents when I do a Prime95 test.

 

Fedex says my laptop will arrive on friday. I intended on doing various tests. I can add laptop on table, laptop on zalman, and laptop on zalman backwards, and then maybe hole in zalman if I have time to the list.

My only concern with upside down is the usb might not reach. I might need to power it off my other laptop since I'm not using the factory cord (broke after 6 months). I'm using one I got off a website and it is a little shorter which is good because the usb ports (zalman and pc) on my current laptop are about an inch apart and having a foot long cord is not needed.

Also the output of the zalman is significant. A very minor con to it is that when laying in bed cold air will blow on you, but this is just the air that came out of the holes on top, hit the bottom of the laptop, and is now being pushed to the sides. If you were able to make an air tight seal between the laptop bottom and the zalman I believe you would see a significant improvement. But it would be very difficult/cumbersome if not impossible.

 

First you said , and I quote..."So the air comes in at the top and comes out at the bottom which should cool the aluminum which then cools the laptop". . both my links say the opposite. The second link (video at 4.4 min )said they shift the laptop down so the vents would get fresh air from holes in cooler. He also said drilling holes in the cooler top was a bad idea and he never said anything about cooling the aluminum surface. What he said, when he first picked up the cooler , describing its construction,that it was made out of aluminum and cool to the touch.The laptop dosnt even sit on the aluminum face. it sits above it on rubber strips and if it dosnt have direct contact with the aluminum ..what kind of heat transfer could you possibly expect ? That dosnt make sense.
After reading your post I dispatched an email to zalman asking them to clarify the matter but then I surfed the net for more zalman. In my post I rased the idea of turning the cooler 180 so the vents and the coooler air holes line up.
I just found this link

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6088847190570648608#

In this video they do just that, turn the cooler around ( at 1.47 of the video) they say they do this because they say this unit has poor design that keeps air flow from flowing into the vents.( that wasnt so hard to figure out)

But I understand you are firm in your belief .As soon as Zalman answers my email asking for clarification of this matter..I be sure to post it.
For all the zalman owners, check out the video and give it a try if it makes sense.

 

What I meant by entering at the top and exiting at the bottom is that the air comes in where the back of your computer sits on the bottom and exits on the front of your computer on the top side. Sorry for any confusion.

Yes the laptop sits slightly up and that allows the cool air to escape without being sent into the laptop. If the aluminum wasn't used for heat transfer why would aluminum be better than plastic? The material clearly matters.

Why would you possibly want to use this upside down? The Zalman was designed to tilt you laptop towards you, it doesn't make snese to tilt it away. Can you imagine the discomfort? Yes you could mod it to offset the tilt (and raising your laptop higher which could increase typing discomfort), but this isn't an easy fix. Also by turning it upside down now the bottom third of the laptop will have no holes beneath it. In my post above you believe that my couple holes will take all of the air away from the bottom 2/3 of my laptop. It won't but I agree it will take some. But you are comfortable taking away all the air from the bottom 1/3. Some air reduction to 2/3 and full reduction of 1/3 seems like a wash to me.

I'm not saying that turning it upside down is a bad idea, it works. I'm just saying that keeping it right side up and adding a couple small holes should produce equal results. I'm actually trying the upside down idea right now and it does work. However I notice the tilt away and it makes my laptop edge meeting my wrists and over time I can imagine this to be painful.

Thanks for the video and I look forward to hearing Zalman's response.

 

Guys, I use this cooler, the Targus Lap Chill Mat AWE55US. It is slanted about 10 degrees, has 2 fans, covered with neoprene, and is hollow in the middle where the fans are located so there is no problem with ventilation. I just set my laptop on it and it stays nice and cool. Not even sure the dv7t needs it but the tilt for me works very well.

 

Lets go about this a different way. The first link is the buyers guide to notebook coolers .They say the most important consideration is lining up the laptops vents and the area of the cooler where airflow comes in.Would you agree then that the purpose of the airflow is to enter the laptop thru its vents? The review used the zalman cooler as his example. Do you still think the zalman is not designed to increase airflow in the laptop ?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=304671

The second link is a picture of the vents of the DV7t quad vents

http://i45.tinypic.com/5phf11.jpg

 

the reason the speakers pop on restart is the power running through it at first hp has stated that this is normal and that this will not damage the speakers. i read somewhere that there is a way to stop this from happening i just dont remember where or what it said. if i remember i will let you know

 

The speakers on my dv7t have yet to pop, crackle, or make any strange sounds. Very pleased with that!

 

when i ordered a the pegasus backpack with the $50.00 off coupon which i received because my lappy was delayed 2 days, the backpack was 79.99 - 20.00 discount, but when i placed the coupon code it didnt go through. i called hp and informed them that due to the fact that there was no indication of restrictions when using this coupon within the email and no link to restrictions then they honored the discounted price that i expected to pay i did however lose the free shipping option and paid about $3.00 for that. total paid for the 79.99 pack was 13.00. awesome!!!

 

I use my headphone jack more, and it still sounds pretty nice with a pair of bass-oriented 'phones. If only laptop designers these days picked more convenient places to put their jacks e.g. on the side; the straight jack that my 'phones have pokes into the table when I use a laptop stand; I have hang the last centimeter or so off the edge of the table so I use the jack...

Now that I have a wireframe setup, I really really want to try watching some action movies to see how that external speaker handles, though...

 

All you are doing is supporting my argument. I do believe that having the vents and the holes lined up is ideal, that is why I plan to add holes to make it line up.

 

The wierd part is... there are no intake vents in the rear left of the laptop. Sure, the exhaust is there (albeit on the sides), but there is little to no intake, just a little 1" port there that I think leads to the processor (... why it's only 1", I'll never understand); the majority of the vents lead to the RAM and the HDs. Additionally, I bet you that little grille is out of reach of the Zalman.

I fathom the heatsink/proc is there and it's fanned out radially to the two exhausts on the back end and the left back side. (As a dv7t owner, I don't know why I didn't notice the vent placement. orz)

If we were judging by vent placement... actually, using a Zalman in its default configuration seems to almost optimal, which Dabman noted in a post at EDIT: dv7t Owner's Lounge (Not Quad Edition) page 12 (can't be arsed to quote it, but it's there, thanks Google).

Devilsbane's mod seems to be a good idea, though, if only for a few small holes that blow directly into that isolated vent. If I had a way to make an air hose that punches into that teensy-weensy vent...

 

This isnt a discussion about drilling your cooler or turning your cooler aroud ( as much as you wish to turn it into that)This is about one thing, the way the zalman nc-200 is designed to cool.
You have stated that the way the zalman cooler works is air flows thru holes on the face of the cooler ,cooling the aluminum plate, turning it into a coolpad and that cools the computer case.You state the holes are not designed to increase airflow thru the laptop but rather to make the plate cold which in turn makes the laptop case cold. I am saying the opposite , that the holes are supposed to create an air flow supply for the laptop vents.The video I supplied stated exactly that, thats how the zalman works .How does that link support your arguement regarding the way the zalman works? (because that is what my posts have been about)

 

Now to avoid any confusion regarding what were discussing..this post will address issues you have raised here. First I NEVER said drilling a few holes will take all the air away from the bottom of the laptop.I dont believe I addressed drilling at all except to say the dude in the video review said it wasnt a good idea and he said why.You can drill holes in the bottom of your laptop to keep it cooler if you want, this is America. Im not the one talking about this issue, you are. I havent given you my opinion on drilling up the cooler, trust me you wouldnt like it.Besides thats not what the discussion was about.
You ask why would you want to use your cooler upside down.Thats a ridiculous question. No one would want to , but if you already blew $65 on this cooler only to find the vent holes dont like up, and turning it around makes it work correctly its an viable option. If you remember I suggested it as a possibility," how pratical would it be" quote, and then I found a video review of someone who reccomends it but they were using a dell xps which has fans right in that area, this method wont work for every laptop,and no cooler will be a perfect fit for every laptop made..If this worked it would be a suggestion considered by eveyone who had this laptop and a nc-2000 but anyone who looked at the links I provided showing the back of the dv7t and the measurements of the zalman can see the vents and holes line up pretty good.
But thats not what this discussion was about either..its was about how the zalman works.

 

Since there is all this discussion about heat on these laptops. When I ran a few stress tests my processor gets up to 80, highest I have seen is 83. Now, I run Seti@home and some other BOINC projects at 50% CPU and 40% utilization in order to keep my temperatures between 65 and 70. Now when I turn everything off it gets to between 55 and 60, this still feels on the high side. I know it's within limits, but I want to get those temps down, specifically the BOINC process time as that what it runs at around 80% of the time.

From what I can tell from discussion and looking at it this laptop does not have any externally exposed fans but pulls the air to the centralized exhaust location across the entirety of the base. Because of this, wouldn't something like the Zalman, or similar models that focus more on the bottom half, be better because the air would be drawn up through the vents from the exhaust fan? And even if you bring up concern about the vents up top, those will still get air from the cooler because there will not be 100% suction of the air, most of it will disperse under the entire base of the laptop, making its way to those vents.

I think the validity for drilling holes in the zalman or flipping it around would hold true more in laptops like my old zd8205us that had 3 fans on the upper portion where the air was pulled directly onto the CPU and GPU. The design on the dv7t does not seem to lend itself to this theory that applies to previous generations of laptops.

Now, onto an actual question, beyond getting a good cooler, is there anything else that I could do bring these temps down to a more reasonable level?

Based on my "theory" on the venting I am looking at the Thermaltake Massive line, a big 23cm fan right in the middle of the cooling pad but I'm open to suggestions as well.

 

Thats not theory , its fact. The zalman 2000 is a good cooler for this laptop because it pushes alot of air and its output lines up well with the notebooks vents.
Throwing a massive amount of air underneath the notebook is the general idea behind the thermaltake massive line .Its a good idea.
If you like the thermaltake you may want to compare its specs with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ies+-+Notebooks/Tablet+PCs-_-Antec-_-34997410

Antec notebook 200. (It moves alot more air...only thing its a little noisier.) had I known of its existence at the time, I probably would have picked it over the zalman nc-2000.

Oh..and I believe the max idle temp spec of this processor is *50

 

I picked this up and I am strangely satisfied....

http://www.amazon.com/Targus-Blacktop-Deluxe-Protection-CPT401DUS/dp/B000X2RNO6/ref=pd_cp_e_1

I also have a bigger McKlein roller bag that I do not like.

Regards,
R

 

After several hours of "business" use (word, excel, powerpoint, email, web), my temps are 46,44,49,44 on the four cores. Core #2 is often higher than the others (sometimes peaking at 51 or so).

Honestly, using a Laptop PC for BOINC is asking to trouble, in my opinion. Laptops are not known for their ability to dissipate heat. On the other hand, I have owned several brands and I really like this dv7t quad.

Next time I play Left 4 Dead or some other graphic game I will post my temps.

Regards,
R

 

I also have this bag... very tough and durable, plenty of room. I can fit both my dv7t Quad and dv6t in it at the same time. I strap the dv7t in with the velcro straps and I actually put the dv6t in a sleeve and lay it in on top of the dv7t then zip up the bag. Room in the outside compartments for both power supplies w/cords and 2 mice and misc. stuff. Yea, it's heavy when all said and done, but carrying strap is holding up fine so far, but then I don't carry it far.... just out to the car and from the car into work.

 

I Have a dv7t quad core i7-820QM, 8 gb ram, 1TB harddsk.
How do I find out what is current driver version of the chipset? And where do I get the latest version of the driver from. I belive the HP website does not have the latest drivers.

 

My usual numbers, according to RealTemp:
After running a Prime95 torture test: ~79C-83C peaks over four detected cores
While playing Mabinogi NA on minimal settings, windowed, fullscreen: ~77C +- 4, GFX 65 +- 5
Idle: 49 +- 5

My high core is core 4, which consistently scores the 83 on the temps. This is with a Thermaltake USB fan blowing directly onto the lower half of the laptop

I like the idea of the Zalman, but I don't like how HP decided to move all of the intakes far far away from the hotspot and where I think the proc/heatsink is (back left corner). I'm not sure it'll be too effective.

 

It is always a best practice to go straight to the manufacture's website for drivers. Windows Update and HP are both there as a convenience. If those drivers work for you, great, but if you are experiencing problems find the manufacture's website.

 

For anyone that wants blueray, when customizing your laptop HP wants to charge $350 to upgrade from your standard drive to blueray.

On the HP parts website, you can either buy the standard blueray drive for $277 (part number 516351-001) or the Blueray drive with lightscribe for $222 (part number 516352-001).

This doesn't sound right so I would appreciate someone to check my work. First of all why would they be so cheap when everything else is over priced ($43 for a cmos CR2032 battery anyone). And second why would adding lightscribe to it make it cheaper?

The other thing I'm looking at is the exchange price. For example on the 516352-001 lightscribe drive the exchange price says it is $145. It says that if you don't return your drive within 15 days they charge the $145 to you. So couldn't you just order the exchange with no intent to return a defective drive (since you bought a different one) and pay the $145?

The link to the page I'm looking at is http://h20141.www2.hp.com/Hpparts/Search_Results.aspx?mscssid=6A450BA3B2DA47379566E241CB78FDBF&SearchIn=Product and again I would really like someone else to weigh in their thoughts on this.

EDIT: The link doesn't take you right to the page I was looking at, rather to the seach page. I searched WM838AV as the product number. Also I think I see why the exchange drive is cheaper, it's refurbished. But still $145 for a refurbished blueray drive with cd/dvd burner and lightscribe is a good price. $222 for a new one is also a good price.

 

^^^
I just went to ebay and ordered a refurbished blu-ray drive for 102.50 i was not spending no 350 bucks, im kinda cheap like that. Thats another option for you!

 

I looked on ebay yesterday and couldn't find anything that matched. What keywords did you search for?

 

Is anyone getting audio via HDMI? I'm only able to get video, if you have audio working, what do you have to do to enable it?

 

My laptop just arrived. Audio does travel over HDMI though, I do it with my ps3.

 

Thanks. But how do I know what is the current chipset driver on my laptop?

 

Click start, type "devmgmt.msc"
Expand System devices
Scroll down to find your chipset.
Right click and choose properties
Go to the driver tab

 

you have to search for a dv7 not dv7t, its the same thing if you look on hp's site the quick ship dv7t models are dv7-******

Hope that helps

 

I actually didn't search for any type of computer. 99% of laptop cd drives are interchangable. I have never encountered one that wasn't. (I have had to move the hook thing before, but thats just taking out 2 screws and sticking them in different holes).

I don't know that I want refurbished. With some things I don't mind, but with a cd drive I think that might just be looking for trouble. I also don't really have the money to buy either right now, but maybe in a few months.

 

A dollar saved is a dollar earned, oh, is that a BD player, or burner?

 

Try using "Speccy" from Piriform.com.
It's free and from a respected source.

Oh, and can somebody advise me on increasing my ram at a fair price? My 3000 has 4Gig (2x2), with 2 slots, probably the same with most of you.
Can I have a 2 and a 4? Should it match what I have? I mostly edit video, and my hardware knowledge has it's limitations.

 

I didn't need 8GB, but it was like a $200 (might be wrong) to upgrade from 4-8 and I looked on newegg which typically has the best ram prices and for DDR3 ram in a 4 gig stick was like $250.

So while I probably don't need all 8 now, sometime in the next 3 years I'm going to want it so I bought it now.

 

I'm finding that my new dv7t feels warm (by the back corner) but is actually running quite cool. If just feels warm due to good ventilation. It is slightly noiser than my last laptop but the processor's and gpu cores are all about 20 degrees F cooler than my older laptop while just idling and screwing around.

 

Thanks for the reply,
can I use a 4 gig stick with one of my existing factory 2 gig sticks? Right now I have 2 Samsung DDR3 2048mb 1333mhz.
I promise it might be my last stoopid question!

 

I have 8 gig, its over kill, but
i don't even use windows swap file
SWEET

 

After reading some posts I was expecting a hot box but like you Devil, I feel this laptop is very cool, much cooler than my Dell.

 

I am very satisfied so far, and I haven't even installed my ssd yet. I have just been fixing all of the windows 7 bugs. I'm currently working on the start menu, I want it to branch out like previous versions. I find that to be quicker and easier to understand. Also it gives more realestate so scrolling isn't needed.

I'm using it on the zalman and heat is not a problem at all. Although I'm not playing an intense game, I don't expect that to become problematic.

I am wondering why some of the dv7t's have the 230m and others have the 320m. I was hoping it was just sort of typo but device manager lists mine as the 320 which is supposed to be a far worse gpu.

Been enjoying my tv tuner, I was hoping there was an antenna up in the screen like with wifi and bluetooth but this is not the case. Without the antenna plugged into the side there is no signal.

 

Thinking about purchasing this laptop very soon. The quick buy option shows it having the 230M Graphics card instead of the 320M. It has pretty much everything I want plus the blu-ray drive and a bit larger HD but doesn't have the finger print reader, and the current $250 off coupon doesn't apply.

Input?

 

It should work but you wont have optimal performance because dual channel memory has to be in pairs to reap the benefits of dual channel memory.At the very best the amount of memory over the existing stick(2 gig) wont run as dual channel. Also the worst timing of the two sticks will be the setting chosen for both modules( poorer latency ) This would only matter if you doing computer intensive tasks( like video rendering)
Mixing memory modules is usually a dicey proposition, if you must, then go to Kingston or crucial and use their memory configurators to select a module with specs as close as possible to your existing memory and of course one thats compatible with your system. Some computers are real picky about using memory not approved by the mfg. ( thats the most important thing,,duh). And if you do this make sure you ask these questions to the memory mfg. customer service b4 you buy (to verify this.)
Right now 8 gig of Mushkin ddr3 ( the good stuff) is $360.( 4gig X2 matched pair) A single 4 gig module will cost you about $170, but you wont get optimum performance because of the mismatch.I would wait for the price of these modules to drop.At least youll get the optimal performance your paying for.( thats my plan anyway)
Are you sure you need 8 gig ? Are you working with blueray files, because if your working with standard video I dont think so ? The most important thing here is your cpu, and you are covered there.

 

One of the coolest features that I have been playing with is the fingerprint reader. On any webpage (that I have preconfigured) I can just swipe my finger and it will autocomplete the username and password. I don't know how secure this is and won't use it for my banking or anything, but for this forum its great. I can be anywhere on this page and just swipe my finger to log in. No need to find the form boxes and type in the information. Great for not needing to remember your login info or your password.

I think it is a good buy, web surfing and stuff like that on my cooler it runs in the low 100 degrees F, about 30 C I believe. Not bad compared to my older laptop that would run about 140-150, even without doing much. Although part of that is because I need to clean out dust that I am sure has accumulated.

The webcam takes a little time to get right. The default is like HP Analog something, which only displays a black box. Once you figure out how to switch that to HP webcam all works well. And it actually works out of the box, I had to go driver hunting with my last one.

The speakers have a slight pop on power on, but nothing that is too loud and it is normal. It is a fingerprint magnet, tomorrow I am going to guitar center to buy a microfiber cloth, a friend of mine uses that to keep his dell nice and clean.

Very crisp display and great sound, best that I have ever heard from a laptop. I haven't tested out the HDMI port or anything yet. I spent a little extra for the 820 processor, 8 GB ram, and the tv tuner and stuff but I think its worth it. I got over two years out of my last laptop and for this one I spent the extra money for the 3 year total care with accidental damage. So a lot of money up front, but it should last me at least 3 years.

Windows Experience Index:
Processor 7.0 (820 QM)
Memory 7.4 (8 GB DDR3)
Graphics 5.8
Gaming Graphics 6.0
Primary Hard Disk 5.8 (320GB 7200 rpm that it shipped with, installing SSD tomorrow)

Overall score 5.8 due to graphics and hard disk.

 

Hi All,

Actually, I am new here and i just purchase HP DV7T Quad as a replacement for my HDX16 1370 us, with the following specifications:

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz

Memory 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

Hard drive 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

Graphics card 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 320M - For i7-720QM and i7-820QM Processors

Display 17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)

Primary optical drive Blu-ray +/-R/RW with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

Personalization [For BrightView Infinity Display] Webcam Only

Networking Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth

Keyboard HP Color Matching Keyboard

Primary battery 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

1- the price is 1425$ does it worth?

2- also i am afraid of Nvidia GeForce GT 320M since there is nothing related to it in nvidia website. is it fine or my old one 130M is better?

3- what is the score for Windows Experience Index for the ones with Nvidia GeForce GT 320M?

4- does the Primary optical drive Blu-ray +/-R/RW support burning blu ray Double Layer?

5- is it ok to add another hard drive?

sorry for the questions, but you know i read many things regarding to the graphics card and i was disappointed even before i recieve my notebook.

 

hello everyone, i'm new here as well. i ordered my dv7t on the 16th and it was in my hands on the 25th. i'm loving it so far. this is my third hp(dv5170us: needs lcd inverter; zv5227wm: power/motherboard issue). it's crazy because i've always wanted a dv7, but the prices were usually steep. i was originally set to buy a 16.4 inch sony vaio for $1100, but i'm glad i didn't rush into it. my brother was looking for a new laptop as well, though his price range and specs wanted were nowhere near mine. he was watching qvc one night, where they had this "deal" on the dell studio/inspiron whatever laptops. the 15in. was $849 and the 17in. was $897, with both including an intel dual core T6600, 4gb ram, 250gb hd, dvd burner, bs software and a 2 or 3 year warranty. now my brother bought an acer laptop from qvc a few years back with a "warranty," which turned out to be bull. he's considering buying the 17in., so i tell him to hold off on it while i research it. i went to dell's website, found the computer, customized it with the same specs, except the processor, which i bumped up to the p73xx or 78xx, and it ended up being nearly $200 less than what qvc wanted. now, i already have all of the software we both needed/want, and we each went half on kapersky internet security 2010, so we were set on that end. i found that to be trippy, since i believed that you'd pay more for buying straight from the source itself. later on that night, said what the hell, let me go to hp's site and see what they're talking about, just for s and giggles.

here's the result:

dv7t quad edition
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 320M - For i7-720QM and i7-820QM Processors
• 17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
• [For BrightView Infinity Display] Webcam Only
• Intel Wireless-N Card
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• No Modem
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

i took advantage of the president's day sale, as well as my brother's hpa account, and a bs $10 coupon code(which i thought wouldn't work). price before tax and recycling fee: $975. total price: $1077.12. what say ye?