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

got my dv7t quad today, its a pretty nice laptop although there are a few niggles so far.

CONS

1. the brightness isnt as good as my t400, i dont like comparing laptops like that and admittedly the screen is a close fourth to a mbp, t400, x200t which edge it out although comparing these four like that is like comparing different models of ferrari in some ways in that as long as it's a ferrari i'll take it

2. I do have one dead pixel although unlike my girlfriend's first macbook pro which had one in the same top right corner, this one is black instead of red and the screen is so darn big it doesnt bother me. Knowing how bad lcd panels can be with dead pixels, im not complaining (yet)

3. I am the type of guy who wanted a backlit keyboard, but now i see why it should have been a necessity for this laptop: the keys are glossy! this was a terrible decision on hp's part, at many angles you can't see the key lettering because of the screen reflection.

4. This is likely standard for most laptop makers but the battery is unfortunately reporting something around 70000 mwh in battery bar pro. I just wish these makers would say 8 cell and have that correspond to 80000 mwh for once. Not only that but there was no option for a 12 cell like the dv6t. Not only THAT but the battery percentage doesnt report right in windows 7, but i heard this will be or is fixed with a BIOS update? Whatever, battery bar pro works.

5. Obviously there is bloatware, but I did find it doesn't seem to slow down the laptop too much. After I run lots of benches to satisfy my curiosity I'll probably reinstall windows to get a taste of what a clean installation on my 80GB intel x25 will boost this puppy.

6. It does get a little warm even on power saver mode, but this might be better once I use my SSD. Plus, I knew this going in that nothing would run as cool as a laptop on integrated graphics, so I expected some burnage.

7. I knew this going in, but gloss, Gloss GLOSS!! I'm not a big fan of gloss but...

...I couldnt pass up a good deal for an i7 laptop with a performance graphics card and two HDD bays (2nd connector on the way) ALONG WITH a dvd drive. The best I could manage on my t400 was removing the dvd drive and plugging in a 2nd hdd, I won't have to do that here so I'm satisfied. Now that the CONS are out of the way, onto the PROS!

1. More than I expected, so far the laptop seems to run games well. I haven't gotten everything installed through steam yet, but I ran defense grid on high and max resolution and it seemed to run acceptably, so I'm excited to see how much better it can do.

2. BatteryBar might be lying to me, but apparently I'm hovering between 2 and 3 hours of battery life in web browsing even on the bloatware stock install. That's more than enough for a desktop replacement of this power.

3. It really has a huge array of ports, which is great. HDMI and VGA on laptops might be standard practice nowadays but I can't help but be happy with it as if it wasn't supposed to be standard. I basically ordered this laptop as soon as I saw specs stating it had two slots for HDDs while being able to keep the DVD drive in. Expresscard or whatever slot will be a nice potential upgrade to esata in the future, although lately i've been trying to keep my day to day activities confined on the built in hard drives of the laptops i've used because cords have become very irritating to deal with over the years.

4. As surprising as it may sound, one of the more important things to me going into a new laptop was the way the power cable connects to the laptop. I am happy to find that despite wishing it was designed a little differently maybe with a locking mechanism or magnets ala MBP, its still better than most other laptops I've dealt with but hopefully thats not just because it's new.

5. I know i listed this as a con too, but the screen is great considering the worry i went through after seeing everyone and their mother complain in the dv6t thread. The resolution is perfect for what I was looking for, screw going for 16:10 because I cam from a thinkpad that had max 1440x900 resolution so adding some more horizontal resolution is a great upgrade for me. I also like to split windows in windows 7 along the middle, so wider helps with that as opposed to taller.

6. One thing I dislike about smaller laptops is the fact that they are hard to actually put on your lap when you sit even remotely cross legged, a big laptop like this is much nicer to me due to the fact that I dont have to sit as if I'm a cute secretary with a miniskirt on when it's on my lap, which also restricts bottom side airflow. If that even remotely makes sense then nuff said.

7. The button to turn off the touchpad is perfect. Another reason i didnt mind going from a thinkpad to this laptop is that despite my preference for a trackpoint over a touchpad, I always find myself using a mouse anyways so I dont even care anymore. I disabled my thinkpads touchpad in the bios just to suit my trackpoint preference, so i like being able to disable it here too. Not to mention I once had a laptop where the connections got so screwy at a point that pressing the spacebar or other keyboard buttons close to it would actually manipulate the touchpad so again, disabling it is a potential Godsend.

8. I've never had a laptop with a full size, numeric keypad keyboard before, and I feel special using it. I don't even think the dv6t has that which is yet another reason besides the resolution and two HDD bays to make the jump another inch for this puppy.

9. The palm rests dont seem to get hot which I heard is a problem for some notebooks and I guess this may be where glossy/aluminum designs shine: no wear and tear on the palm rest. I may eat my words later but these palm rests seem pretty sturdy at least in the fading-like-my-old-dell-inspiron-silver-spraypaint-bull.

10. The core i7 is a wonderfully fascinating new way to look at quad cores on the go. Turboboost is a hilariously fun thing to watch go up and down arbitrarily depending on your workload and is obviously going to be a boon for any type of processor reliant gaming like my favorite, left 4 dead and its sequel.

11. The GT230m was clearly the best choice (for me) for an i7 laptop, at least as compared to what i consider the dv quad series' competition in the dell studio lineup and their ATI cards. I know HP apparently is having linux problems and I don't even wanna think how hard it will be in terms of OSX, but one thing I do know is that any i7 laptop with a 260m or higher is overkill for my tastes, nvidia has the best linux support, the two hard drives scream to be multi-OS partitioned, and nvidia is synonymous with apple graphics cards, making it the best candidate for an OSX86 install either now or in the future.

12. Despite the complaining i've heard about the touch sensitive buttons, I'm more than satisified with the way they work. A separate issue for me but easily ignorable is the light of the power button somehow bleeding through the speaker holes, which looks kinda cheap.

13. The speakers sound better than any laptop I've used and also, more importantly, seem to be able to go much louder at least compared to my t400, so big points there.

14. Although it strangely feels like I have less control when lugging the laptop around closed, likely due to the glossiness, I am rather surprised at how light this monster of a laptop is! It's nearly twice the size than my t400 it seems but feels barely any heavier. I dont know how they did that or gave me that feeling but damn that's some strange voodoo going on there.

15. The seemingly unnecessarily included remote that despite others' claims fits nice and snug within my expresscard slot is an awesome final touch to an otherwise awesome, quad-packing beast (ok maybe not a BEAST in graphics) of a laptop that unfortunately is marred by an easily ignorable dead pixel. I definitely recommend this laptop, especially over its redheaded stepchild of a brother the dv6t (at least from what ive heard and knowing it doesnt have a 2nd hdd slot) Hooray for the dv7t!

 

It's pretty close. From the specs of the two models:

17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)

Internally the laptops are almost identical.

 

i see you have specific reasons youd like the 1080p and that's great, by all means go with what feels right, but if you have even a relatively OK 22" 720p monitor/TV or anything better than that, you're better off getting the laptop separate from any sort of blu-ray looks better argument because you should hook the dv quad up to your tv and watch the bluray from that.

 

1. To me the Brightness is really bright. Brightview and Infinity deliver the same screen IMO.
2. I wouldn't tolerate a dead pixel on a brand new laptop.
3. I agree with you 110%. The HDX series had them why not include it on the almost black pavilions. I was using at night and the keyboard was very hard to see almost impossible.
4. There is an option for a 12 cell battery just not from HP. Check eBay, there are 12 cell batteries for the HDX18t and Pavilion DV7t. Aroudnd $65 I believe.
5. When I turned it on it was fine, and super fast. But yeah reinstalling a fresh copy of W7 is always a good idea.
6. Eeeeh, I noticed that a little on the bottom, but the palm rests do remain cool which is nice. But I consisereded what desktoop replacement isn't going to get warm?
7. My friend this is sadly becoming stadard on all laptops nowadays. Ya just wipe with some rubbing alcohol and your good to go.

1. That's good, I wanna try World of Warcraft and Crysis
2. I'm getting around 2-3 hrs, but considering the 12 cell option via eBay.
3. Totally agree with you, its very future proof
4. Didn't notice one thing about the power connector
5. It really is, 1600x900 IMHO is not too big not too small.
6. IT does fit very nicely on your lap.
7. Really haven't used that button yet and when I plug in an external mouse I never have turned off the trackpads before.
8. OMG I LOVE THE NUMERIC KEYPAD, the size alone is perfect.
9. Try the Dell Studio XPS 16 and you'll thank yourself a million times over you went with this notebook
10. lol
11. I went with it because it was the first graphics processor for Windows 7 and overkill for what I need.
12. HP must have been listening to their customers because on all previous models the touch buttons sucked like so bad you couldn't even use them. These work perfectly and are exremely responsive.
13. The sound system is amazing, I noticed the HDX 16t was marketed more towards an 'entertainment' system and had ok sound but this DV7t blows it away. IMO
14. no weight isn't an issue with this notebook, but I would imagine thats all a matter of opinon, now the DV8t, and HDX 18t are another story.
15. I haven't tried that yet

 

thanks for the comments. BTW in case anyone is wondering, this laptop plays COD MW2 at 1600x900 with all options maxed rather well. I still turned down the textures from extra to high, and turned down the AA, and on some maps it seems all the shadows and etc options make it lag a little, but...it played it at max rather well, thats very promising.

edit: i'll add, the laptop gets rather blazing hot on the back left at least if you stupidly block the vents like i kinda was by leaving it on my bed. The laptop's large enough however, and this is key, to put on your lap while lying down and leave the vent completely open. Good design right there.

 

Best thing to do is turn it on its backside when not using to allow better ventilation.

Eggs Scrambled (lol),
Have you re-installed Windows yet? Did you get from HP or best buy, what are your specs?

 

didnt reinstall windows yet, i'm going to wait until my 2nd caddy arrives and then just refresh my intel x25 and use that as my main OS.

As of now, its 720qm, 4gb ddr3, standard dvd+r dl drive, 320gb hdd, 230m obviously, bluetooth, no tuner, non-infinity display, webcam no fingerprint. basically everything standard except the 4gb and hdd were free upgrades, and i added bluetooth. Bought from HP for about $733 after a $300 giftcard.

By the way, anyone know an acceptable temp range for gaming laptops nowadays? It's getting above 70 degrees celsius during games, hovers at the high 50s, low 60s while idle. I'm pretty sure thats normal especially because i actually dont get that uncomfortable when its on my lap while gaming, i just try to keep the vents clear and it stays warm but not too hot to actually touch my leg.

 

Im not sure on the average temperatures however they have increased. I have yet to game on the DV7t to find out. I was installing programs tonight and the fan is on and the back left side is the only part of the laptop that is generating heat. Not bad but warm.

 

mine's the exact same way... must be the core i7.

 

Yeah, either that or the graphics card. I'd have to be an idiot to get a powerful laptop like this and not think that was possible for it to get pretty hot I guess I'm just hoping that it's normal.

One thing that unfortunately bugs me though is that on my waterbed, the vents can get blocked so even just playing a movie will send it into 80 degree territory, as soon as i unblock the vents it goes back down to 70 which seems ok but this thing sure does run hot! I'll have to buy a straight lapdesk made of wood or something that'd probably keep it nice and cool, or at least as cool as it can be.

 

One common thing I have noticed is that the desktop will go black for a second and say the Nvidia driver has stopped working then be fine. I remember hax0rJimDuggan said it did this. Gonna try disabling the Nvidia Display driver in MSCONFIG so it doesn't start when Windows does. This is the latest version hopefully the next driver will resolve this.

 

that's odd, i've been doing some serious gaming, and it's been running at up to 80 degrees depending on how badly the vents are blocked and I've never encountered this problem, didnt you both get your dv7ts at best buy? I hope its not a common problem of the models sent to best buys... :-/

 

I think I found the fix. Disable the Nvidia driver in MSCONFIG so it won't load during startup. Honestly, I'm not that worried if I didn't fix it because it did it for like one second and was fine and I'm sure HP will update the Graphics driver. Oh I might add it did this at the desktop when the graphics card wasn't in use.

So how is the GT230m for gaming? Does it get hotter than 80 degrees? I have yet to try it out.

 

its great actually. If I want to, I can probably run whatever I want except crysis at maximum settings, but I like my fps so I set everything to medium and I seem to have little problem hitting 60 fps, in some more intensive games its at least over 30.

The i7 is rather perfect for gaming i would say, combined with the 230m if you have an older game that doesnt have multithreaded support, the turbo boost will help out and games that old likely run great on the 230m. Anything newer likely has multithread support, and will get a boost because of the quad core.

Specifically, three just released games run great: MW2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Borderlands, so this is really a quite nice laptop. Any gaming laptop will run hot, and this does too but it doesnt seem like it hits 80 degrees unless you block the vents. Its actually particularly good, I ran a good left 4 dead 2 local server with some guys and they said it ran very well.

 

I think, it's the driver issue. I too was having this issue... after installing this driver 186.82 (8.15.11.8682) from here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=404164, nVidia finally stopped bugging me about that screen flash.

 

I was intending on playing Crysis on LOW settings lol. I heard a lot of people say when I was debating laptops, oh you don't want the i7 there is nothing out for it yet. A year for now it will most likely be standard and replace the intel core 2 duos.

I knew about this just forgot, thanks for reposting, I installed and hopefully this will resolve it.

Anyone else seem to have theirs not remember the brightness settings. Like I powered on today with the battery then plugged in the AC and the screen should of adjusted to the highest brightness settings and it didn't, instead I manually had to adjust it under power settings. I've noticed this a few times and its a little annoying.

 

I am having the same problem with brightness settings on my DV6t Quad Core Edition, Most of the time it will not switch brightness from AC to DC and vice versa, also on occassions the 'Fn' + F'7' and 'Fn' + 'F8' stop working and I have to reboot (when this happens the brightness adjustment disappears under Windows Mobility Center as well, this sound like another ACPI issue and Windows 7.

 

I am having the same problem with brightness settings on my DV6t Quad Core Edition, Most of the time it will not switch brightness from AC to DC and vice versa, also on occassion the 'Fn' + F'7' and 'Fn' + 'F8' stops working and I have to reboot (when this happens the brightness adjustment disappears under Windows Mobility Center as well, this sound like another ACPI issue and Windows 7.

 

I order a dv7t Quad Edition from JR, still waiting for it.

Configuration:

# Box Contents: HP Pavilion dv7-3080us, AC Adapter, 8-Cell Lithium-Ion battery, HP Mobile Remote Control; Software Bundle: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition: 60-Day Trial, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 60-Day Subscription, 1-Year Limited Warranty

# Intel Core i7-720QM 1.60GHz Processor
# 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz Front Side Bus
# 6144MB DDR3 RAM (8192MB max.)
# 500GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
# 17.3" Diagonal HD+ High-Definition LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
# Webcam and Digital Microphone
# NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M (NB10P GE) Discrete 1024MB up to 2815MB total graphics memory with 1024MB dedicated
# Lightscribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer Drive
# Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/b/g/n
# Bluetooth
# 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
# High-speed 56K Modem
# 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader MMC, SD, MS, MS Pro, xD
# ExpressCard 54/34 Slot
# Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
# Altec Lansing with SRS Premium Sound and Sub-Woofer
# HP Espresso Imprint finish
# Connections: 3 x USB 2.0, Shared USB2.0/eSATA, IEEE 1394, 2 x Headphone out; Microphone-in, VGA, HDMI, RJ-11 (Modem), RJ-45 (LAN), 1 notebook Expansion port 3, 1 Consumer IR (Remote Receiver)

Price: 1300 $ (After -100$ instant rebate and -50$ mail-in rebate)



Questions for those of you who own this laptop:

I'm worried after reading some negative feedbacks about the screen, is it too glossy with lot of reflections? Not bright enough ?

Does it run hot ?

I'm willing to buy a laptop cooling pad, which one do you think would fit best with this laptop? Where are the cpu/gfx fans located? Do they blow air or suck it ?


And finally,

Are you guys satisfied with the overall performance of this laptop?

 

HI CONGRATS on your Purchase of the DV7t. I'm sure you were like me and searched for reviews before purchasing and were a little reluctant on buying. Well I can assure you THIS IS AN AMAZING laptop. I had the infinity screen and it was a little too glossy but the standard Brightview which you have is PERFECT, a little GLOSS is nice just not too much.

No it doesn't run hot unless your gaming but that's with every laptop. I personally have yet to game on this beast. Eggs scrambled has and he says it got to 80 degrees which is warm but compared to some other notebooks....cough the dell studio xps 16 thats amazing. If the notebook is sitting idle or your just browsing the internet its fine.

Performance is AWESOME, but as I said I have yet to game but just using Windows 7 its a super fast computer. Boots extremely fast. The 6GB of Ram and i7 processor and the gt230m all in one are BLAZING FAST. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

 

yeah like he said, any gaming laptop should get hot. Honestly the only problem with the heat is just that on a fluffy bed or similar, the vents can get blocked and thats what usually starts heating the laptop up in normal usage. I've started to hit 80 degrees while gaming, but I'm assuming it's normal, the heat is restricted to the back left bottom which is great compared to most laptops.

Any good discrete video card will heat while gaming, even macbooks with arguably the best integrated (non discrete) chipset, the 9400m, will get somewhat toasty while not even gaming, the only way to avoid this is to go for an ultra low power, ultra BAD intel integrated video card, and even those can surprise you sometimes.

I'm still wondering myself whether or not I would have liked the asus g51 or alienware m15x better, but i certainly wouldnt have (at least money-wise). I paid $733 for this, $1033 without my giftcard so it's certainly the cheapest and easiest way to get into the absolutely latest bleeding edge intel processor, with some good graphics to boot. With the dv7t you also get two HDDs, cool media options thrown in, and a SOLID 2.5 hrs battery life on power saver which is amazing for this powerful of a laptop.

 

After having a terrible time with an almost DOA HDX16T (bad touchpad) direct from HP last month, I returned it and found a better deal/coupon/computer specs in the quad DV7T. I was able to completely load it (except I went with the standard screen on purpose) and apply my coupons and spend the same money. It is currently stuck in indo-china and should be here around monday. I have already ordered and recieved a nushield dayshield antiglare screen for it (the hdx16 was absolultely terrible with glare) and have now learned via this forum that I am able to install a second HD in the DV7T if I buy the caddy/cable solution.

I am VERY interested in this! Almost ot the point of being exciting! I would like to be able to keep the factory harddrive in place for data and install a second SSD hardrive and load my operating system/programs on the SSD for superior performance. Has anyone done this yet? If so, what was your outcome and what steps/recommendations do you have in setup/installation??

 

is anyone having an issue where you put the laptop to sleep and upon waking it up at the win7 logon screen it says "reader not detected" for the fingerprint reader for a few seconds and then it will say the normal "swipe finger to login"? It has never failed to work for me, but the wait is annoying. assuming its a driver issue with win7.

 

dunno if you realize this or not but unless you got two hard drives with the laptop you need to spend an extra 70 bucks at the hp partsurfer for the caddy and special cable for a second hard drive. I think it was mentioned either earlier in this thread or in the dv7t thread.

I'm expecting my parts any day now, and am ready and waiting to put my intel x25 in there along with the stock drive so ill let you know how it goers if you want.

 

I cancelled my order for an HP Envy 15 and ordered the dv7t so I could do this SSD/HD setup. I know the Envy just came out with that option but when I ordered, that option wasn't available, and there were some other issues with it. I'll be installing an OCZ Agility 120GB SSD.

 

Are there advantages to dual hard drives or the Solid State Hard drives?

 

So guys.......

I get my dv7t delivered today. Maybe this morning...maybe early this afternoon.

Dear God, I hope that there are no defects (dead pixel/keyboard defect).

I have been waiting for this baby....soooo excited. I even ordered a Canon VIXIA HF200 HD camcorder from Newegg.com so I can utilize my massive 500GB hard drive and stock up on HD video featuring my 9 month old baby girl and wife!

I'm also excited to load up Command & Conquer: The First Decade. Booooya!

I really must give thanks to the forum here. I would have paid an extra $300.00 for the laptop if I had not used the coupon codes that were provided by this forum.

I know this is off topic, but has anyone played COD Modern Warfare 2? Man that game rocks on my PS3 (sorry to get off topic).

 

Some people might say no just because there are some driver issues, lack of TRIM support from some manufacturers, and of course price vs. size (I paid almost $400 for a 120GB Agility from OCZ and I was bordering crazy when I was considering a more expensive drive).

IMO there is definitely a performance advantage to Solid State Drives over traditional Hard Disk Drives. Read and write times are significantly faster than some of the best HDDs out there (ie. WD Raptor). There are also some pretty big advantages for laptops since SSDs consume less power, generate less heat, and have zero vibration (due to lack of moving parts).

Overall, I think it might be a case-by-case basis since people will have different needs. Some people won't have that second HDD to store their movies, music, etc., so a smaller capacity SSD probably won't be a good option for them. I think the way I'm planning on using the SSD will make it a performance gain for me.

 

Congrats, dude, I know yours will be fine, just carefully inspect it when you get it. One thing you might want to do is download the latest Nvidia driver from here so your screen doesn't flash as mine and a few others did. You'll love the DV7T just keep in mind that there is NO PERFECT laptop. Let us know how it is upon arrival.

Thanks for the info, I bet they'll be standard in a year or so lol.

 

In the below link someone put a picture of the infinity screen. If it looks good to you then fine else get the one without infinity view.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268054&page=245

I got 80c, when encoding dvd in x264 at the best settings using meGui software. It came back to 61 after the encoding was done, and in few minutes it was hovering around 50s...

FYI... The battery life is quite good on this laptop. It's already 2.75 hrs, and there's still 35% of juice left in it. (Normal browsing and also typing for this one included

 

Yeah the infinity screen is there for marketing. It is too glossy but that IMPO.

One thing I just did was order the 2yr Accidental Damage Plan from HP. The standard 2 yr warranty is $119 and really doesn't do much. They cover it completely under the accidental damage so I recommend you guys take that under consideration. When ordering new warranties though they count your 1 yr standard warranty so the 2 year is really only 1 yr. Now for me both 2 years are covered under accidental damage. I don't like how they do that. Oh well great peace of mind

 

Of course there is not thing as a perfect laptop! I am switching from a late 2007 Macbook Pro and it has quite a bit of serious problems.

 

3+ hours on battery, still 20% juice left (browsing web).... :wub:

 

Yup lol, honestly regarding Macs... all these people I have come across bash Windows and MS and yet Apple has just as many problems as PC's do. My 6 month year old iPod always has to be restored. Windows Vista and I'll say it was a very poorly designed OS and that made so many people think Mac's are the greatest things to come out since dental floss lol. But yeah.

But with Windows 7 and the newly designed DV7t using your computer is fun again lol.

 

The 8 Cell really is good, I do wanna get an extra one. Do wish they offered a 12 cell on this beast, now that would totally kick some.... yeah

 

I believe I read somewhere on one of these posts that a 12 cell battery is available on eBay or Amazon (can't remember which). You might want to do a little searching around here.

 

Quote: a few people.

COD MW2 runs great on this laptop, and not only that but its the best platform to play on because of the mouse support.

I didn't have any display driver issues, and windows 7 seems to be running rather fine on the stock install so im not in any hurry to reinstall 7 yet.

The laptop only gets hot in the back left underside, and it appears to be the coolest-running bleeding edge gaming laptop out there. The Asus G51J and likely any other gaming laptop with a 260m inside will "normally" get as high as 95 degrees celsius, and in comparison this only reaches about 80 degrees and is a cool 50 degrees even on high performance mode during low intensity tasks. 80 degrees is about the max it will usually get to if the vents are open enough and that is about the minimum "top temperature" gaming laptops usually can be expected to max out at. It also keeps the heat in a relatively small area, letting the rest of the laptop feel rather cold in comparison to the crazy back left underside. Most laptops nowadays are made to withstand as high as 105 degrees before parts start to degrade so keep that in mind.

In regards to the SSD, I know pretty much anything about them you could want to know.

The intel x25-Ms are the best out there, the G2 version of them is the hands down king (when considering the mainstream MLC versions that are less than half the cost with more space than the high end SLC models) with TRIM support and more aggressive garbage collection which helps to keep the write performance maxed out as much as possible. The G1 version which I have does not have TRIM support but handily beats any other SSD out there at a safe number two spot. The key defining difference between the X25s and others is the 5kb random file writing, which is the majority of windows writes during everyday operations. These puppies hit a good 40MB/s or more while the next best max out at about 11-15MB/s for this operation in particular.

The next best would be the indilinx drives, which comprise several companies but the most well know is the ocz vertex and agility series. These have good firmware updates and recently got TRIM support, which helps them, at leasat the vertex series, continue to achieve that 11-15MB/s 4k random writes over the life of the drive in windows 7. The only caveat is that the intel X25 G1, with its lack of TRIM support (not the G2) still beats this with a minimum of about 25 MB/s even when the drive is heavily written to or fragmented which sadly shows why intel is king. On the other hand, and this is not as important, the writes for large files are extremely high compared to the X25s, but this is never as important because especially with two hard drive slots you could throw your movies or DVDs onto a standard HDD. I don't know the performance numbers of the agility series but the only difference is that it uses a different brand of flash memory, sacrificing a little performance in the name of costing a significant amount less.

The only other consideration would be a samsung drive, but those pale in comparison to the indilinx and intels, except they are are on par with the other mentioned benefits of SSDs: battery life, noise, vibration and heat. SSDs are rather expensive still but one way to get the best bang for your buck is to get a low capacity indilinx or intel drive for your OS and also get a second caddy and standard HDD to store everything else. You'll be glad you did.

 

INITIAL thoughts (I just got finished installing some software and uninstalling bloatware):

THIS COMPUTER IS THE BEST LAPTOP I HAVE USED IN A COUPLE YEARS. It is responsive, smooth, and has an awesome display. I am really glad I did not get glossy. I will post a YouTube video later with a review. No dead pixel, no defects. Tiny, tiny, tiny, TINY scuff about 2 inches to the right of the webcam on the black plastic. My wife couldn't even tell when I asked her. I am very impressed by this laptop. What is it that happens with the graphics driver? It seems fine to me.

 

That was me that posted that only to find out the 12 cell on eBay will not work with the DV7t-3000 series.

Glad you like it. Some say they don't have issues with the Nvidia some do. You'll be on the desktop and your screen will flash then in the bottom right say Nvidia has stopped working. If this happens just install the latest driver from this site available a few posts back.

 

Got mine today! The moonlight white is very nice, not as glossy as the black finish I saw at bestbuy. Love the infinity display, yes it's pretty reflective, but so is the regular screen.

I'll be doing my fresh install soon. Looks like I'll lose a few programs: cyberdvd suite, corel video studio 12, corel paint shop pro photo x12. But that's fine.

 

If you want to do a clean install thats fine just back up the C:\SWsetup folder which contains all those programs.

Hey if you have the time could you post some pics of the Moonlight white. Wold love to see real pics lol.

 

Glad you are happy with yours. The glossy vs. matte argument is really just opinion. Some people like matte, some like glossy. I have had a couple Toshiba laptops that were REALLY glossy. LOL.

Congrats man, hope you love it as much as I do.

 

Hey Oceanfirehawk,

do you plan on doing a clean install? Have you tried gaming on it yet?

 

Sure, will get around to posting pics, hopefully later today or tomorrow. It's a busy day
Maybe the black just looked glossier since it was full of fingerprints at bestbuy.

Thanks for the info again!

 

One thing everyone has been asking for are benchmarks and I was unable to provide FULL benchmarks. Now since this laptop has been reviewed by PC Magazine benchmarks are available.


source: PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355766,00.asp

 

i bet hp nudged them to compare it to a holycrapOLD hdx18t. thats like a 3 year old laptop with those specs. 8600gt? PSH

I just cant wait to be talking to someone who has a 2.4ghz dual and starts scoffing at the 1.6ghz clock. How bout the 720qm is 20-30% better even at the same clock, and near constantly overclocks itself to 2.26/2.4ghz when using two cores and about 2.0ghz even when all 4 are active?

To anyone on the fence about this laptop, it actually hits a stange sweet spot that i dont really think HP had been going for. If you want a good amount more fps for your games, feel free to upgrade to a 160m or 280m but goodbye battery life, can you say 1 hour while browsing the internet? And like i said about the 720, it easily trumps any duals up to likely 2.5 or 2.6 ghz not only on expected performance but also on battery life.

 

I think I mentioned this before but now its really annoying me. Anyone else having to manually adjust the brightness for when you plug in the AC adapter.

I've changed the power plans and its on balanced now and no matter which power plan it still does this. Like i'll power on the computer from battery then plug into the AC adapter and the screen won't adjust so I open up power options and adjust the brightness settings from 50% to 100 but after each reboot it doesn't want to remember that ):

 

not yet. im so consumed with cod modern warfare 2 on ps3. i love this lappy!

 

I'm kicking myself now because I wanted to get the 80GB Intel which would've been a perfect size and price for me. I didn't because there wasn't any TRIM support. However, Intel will be re-releasing the firmware update with TRIM by the end of the this month:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...Intel_to_re_release_firmware_upgrade_for_SSDs

Yeah, definitely, Vertex and Agility are the best OCZ SSDs. The different brand of flash memory on the Agility is what makes it different from the Vertex. It sacrifices performance but really helps the cost. I saved about $100 by getting the Agility (would've loved to have gotten the Vertex but I was going to end up spending $550. A little nuts IMO.).

The OCZ Summit drives use the Samsung driver. I haven't heard too much about them and from what I just read from Eggs Scrambled, I'm happy I didn't pay $450 to be a guinea pig for those drives.

 

Oceanfirehawk, does yours do the thing with the brightness?