*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

Peter, you and Alan are either very lucky or fearless. I presume you knew that F.21 and F.24 are the same according to HP (except for an issue with displaying the BIOS date). How can that justify the risks? (Rhetorical question - needn't answer it) Glad it survived, tho'.

I'm sticking with F.06 until something useful TO ME is changed....

Regards,
- - Phil

 

You are probably wise to do so. I always suspect that there may be more changes than what they say. But also, I feel that they probably test the update from the previous to the latest version more rigorously so that I'm less likely to have problems updating in the future if I keep up with the updates.

But both of these hypotheses are totally unsupported by anything more than hunches that may be totally off base.

 

I guess that settles it... you're FEARLESS! Ha-Ha!

 

Yep.. thats why I posted my experiences.... when your messing with the fundamental foundation of everything.... things get weird... too bad its not a tad smoother.

 

I'm with you, Phil, and proud of it. For some reason the dv8 had particularly problematic BIOS flashes in the first couple of months - I recall f.06 to f.15 caused more than its share of bricks. What really annoys me is that, even if the "upgrades" are less trouble prone now (unconfirmed, right Peter?), they just *don't do anything* so why bother? It would be so nice to find a new BIOS with more things that were user-adjustable (don't ask me to name which off the top of my head, but compared to the present ONE user-adjustable BIOS option (fan always on/not, which most users find does not work anyway) it wouldn't take many changes to be, well radical! I do feel a certain sense of pride in running on a BIOS that was created before my computer was built

But seriously, Phil, could this possibly have anything to do with my BSODs when invoking some of those obscure nVidia options I mentioned a while back? Put another way, do you think that there are changes in these BIOS updates which improve overall stability, but HP just doesn't see fit to say so? Asked yet a third way, why do you think they came up with the now discredited F.12 and F.15, then the apparently trouble free F.17, 21 and 24 if, way back to F.06, NOTHING has changed, if you read the notes? For some reason, it feels like HP *wants* you to feel just a tad insecure about this computer, as good as it is. Always wondering if you don't need to update something to avoid having problems down the line. Ok, shutting up now.

 

I agree with most of that. The DV8 bios is unfortunately rather devoid of many useful user adjustable options that most bios' I've had the pleasure of getting to know in the past have had. This is indeed a shame. It's not a deal breaker or I wouldn't have bought/kept it but it is unfortunate. As I've said before, I really miss being able to set a hard disk password in the bios and also miss being able to shut off that annoying beep it makes if you do set one of the few password options the current bios provides.

Also, as I've said before, I do suspect some of these updates might include more fixes than HP is admitting to because I find it rather ridiculous that they would issue a bios update for the mostly trivial, if not inane, reasons that have been listed so far for most of the updates.

But these are relatively minor issues and I put up with this kind of stuff because of the great overall value that this model is. I mean you just try to find a 1080p screen resolution (of any size) along with most of the other specs for the price a careful and patient shopper can pick up a brand new DV8 for. Not easy to find a better value, imo.

Anyway, at least the new Bios seems to have updated fine (even if it did cause my blood pressure to shoot up) and it is working without any apparent problems so far, for which I'm grateful.

 

Jeff, I'm with you too, on that! You're off to a good start on this query...

I am extremely doubtful that the BIOS has anything to do with your nVidia control panel crashes. I would expect that, since there are huge numbers of Dv8's out there that have not experienced similar issues, it is not likely to be related to the BIOS. In my experience, most BIOSes offered by a manufacturer are updated to fix "universal" issues and are then described as addressing those issues.

Answered above I believe. Your concerns are now seeming to be a bit paranoid... Have you considered discussing these feelings with a therapist?

I'll stick with my original diagnosis that you have a corrupted file in either the nVidia drivers or in the nVidia Control panel... hence R&R-ing the drivers and software and running Scandisk should fix the nuisance and irritating BSODs. Did you ever write down the names of the files in the BSOD involved in the crashes?
Regards,
- - Phil

 

Er..ah... let me be sure I've got this right - sort of like the previous BIOS, eh? He-he-he!

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Just to be clear: I do agree that it is pretty foolish to risk bricking the machine by updating the Bios for such apparently trivial updates. I wouldn't have risked it if I didn't have a backup machine along with multiple current backups of all my stuff handy on several different hard drives. I don't recommend people upgrade the Bios unless it offers some tangible benefit.

 

I"m thinking two things.
1. Knowing the inherent dangers of bios flashes and the headaches and tech support headache bad flashes would cause HP, I'm hesitant to believe they do a whole bios update to fix one isolated insignificant issue.
I"m sure there are minor tweaks and stability issues addressed with each release.
Are they significant to worry about... prob not for most, but again, why would HP bother if something wasn't worth updating?
2. All bios updates never say all they are doing because not only would they be boring to most, they would gender fears and unfounded presumptions. They usually go by the addage, "what they dont' know won't hurt them".

One last thought....if HP indeed is releasing bios updates to fix one or two simple issues, they must have much more faith in the bios flash process than we do.

It may be more dangerous to flash so many generations than it is to just go step by step.

Remember, whenever you do the unusual, thats when your likely to have problems and be the exception the beta testers didn't foresee.

If someone wants to update from a very old version, I have stored as well as HP also makes available F.17, 21, and 24 if you think going in stages would be safer.

I somehow feel it would be safer to go in stages... I know that makes people nervous to consider doing several flashes instead of just one.

 

I have the vbm1ah1q firmware.... I found sites that talk about flashing from older versions but I haven't found a person successfully do it that started with the firware version I have.

Was curious Phil.... many had to find the magic machine before they could do the firmware update...

Are you saying all that was nill and all that really matters is that you make a suitable USB boot disk?

 

Hello, everyone, here I am again.

I'm just posting this for a quick answer, probably. Something is annoying me for the past few days (when I started being aware of it).

Even when I close my notebook's lid (not sleeping or anything, just lid closed) and the computer is having no activity at all, my HDD light keeps blinking incessantly. I can let it closed, with no action, forever. It just won't stop blinking.

Is this normal? I'm a bit concerned because this is something I haven't seen happening with my desktop or other notebooks and could probably reduce the HDD serviceable lifetime.
I know HDD lights can blink in an intermittent pattern when there's no activity, but not as constant and fast as this behavior (it blinks way more than a hundred times for minute). Perhaps someone can enlighten me with some useful information or this is just me acting paranoid?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

 

lol, it's called superfetch buddy. Welcome to 6 yrs ago..

 

Mine blinks incessantly too, much more than I have observed with my other notebook running W7. I leave mine running over night and it blinks all night (not sure about while I'm sleeping, of course). I don't know what the cause is. If it was indexing, I would think it would stop after a few days, at most.

 

Question: do you have your setting to do "nothing" when the lid is closed?

--

As far as BIOS updates go - I relate it to a PS3 firmware update. They for the most part do nothing, but do add a couple of things here and there, and something worthwhile maybe 1x a year.

 

Glad to hear your machine is disposable... (just pulling your chain )

I just hope the BIOS update works for you when there's something in a new BIOS that you really need.

 

Alan, I doubt that HP purposely puts out a BIOS update that they know will fail - they test it and decide to release it (regardless of how significant it is). I sure they have a team that works on BIOSes and when they fix something, they release it. It is pure speculation to suggest that they would NOT describe "other improvements" if there were any.

There's no evidence of that... In fact, if they would release a BIOS simply to fix the way a date displays, I'd take THAT as proof that HP will release BIOS updates for the most miniscule and trivial improvements!!!!!

I can actually agree with that. I DO believe that HP thinks that they have developed an effective BIOS update process. I'm just not as confident as they are...

I never seen ANY evidence of THAT! In fact, with HP's track record PARTICULARLY, frequent BIOS updating seems more likely to lead to failure. I'm glad you and Peter have been so lucky!!

Seriously, though, I believe that HP could learn a LOT from Asus in terms of how they handle BIOS updates. Asus boots from a floppy, copies/saves the old BIOS to confirm it is viable, and then verifies the new BIOS copy, and proceeds to erase the BIOS block and write the new BIOS to it. I've used Asus MoBos for 15 years and never heard of anyone having a problem with flashing their BIOSes (except when some idiot interrupted it while it was writing!).

It's the HP track record and method that causes me to avoid doing it "like the plague!"

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Two things, Alan ... have you read the Samsung firmware download guide 'procedure' pdf? It explains the requirements (all three of them) but doesn't mention anything about a "magic machine"...

What are the full model, version, etc., of your SSD? Have you found that there is actually firmware update available from Samsung for it?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Mine does that as well when I leave it running with nothing intentionally left running. I attribute it to indexing (that you mentioned) and to scanning by my antivirus and malware/spyware programs.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

They could definitely learn a few lessons... one thing Asus has been is rock solid.

While Abit if fun for all the options and tweaks in the bios, I finally stopped messing with abit stuff as they are mainly for the extreme tweaker who likes living dangerously.... but the stability stinks.....

I defaulted to Asus as the MB's are solid.

Anyway.... I've never had issues with bios updates other than that they are always unconventional and unrefined... but they usually work.

 

I read that manual, but thinking I must be missing something and remembered our discussion about how it only likes to work from certain motherboards.

I did find some flash updates, but they always came from a different bios version than what I had....

My SSD is IDE\DiskSamsung model "MMDOE56G5MXP-0VBH1"
I'm running bios version "VBM1AH1Q"

I haven't found that combination on the Samsung site yet for a bios update.

Seems several drives run that bios version.

 

Interesting.. I have indexing turned off on my primary, but its on on my secondary... must be why its blinking.

 

Alan, obviously I've been very satisfied with Asus. They are the 'Toyota" of the PC world (at least till Toyota screwed up the unintended acceleration resolution).

I had enjoyed my Abit MoBos when I was building RAID-0 servers... never tweaked them though. Always found their performance superb for business uses without it.

I'll concede that you and Peter have been darned lucky so far....

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I just did it on the first machine I could free up that met ALL three requirements (according to Samsung) and it worked easily - no screen "blank out", feedback on progress in each step, and concluding screen saying that firmware was successfully updated to version VBM1901Q. I was concerned that if it hadn't worked, I'd have to search around for other PC's to "try" it on. Now, after updating the firmware without incident, I have no reason to believe that and suspect 'operator error' and that others are not following procedure exactly as written.

I interpret that to be a clear "NO" in regard to locating proper firmware to update your firmware TO.

I took a quick look for an update for your firmware and couldn't find it, either. Obviously, until Samsung releases such an update, you have nothing to update with.

All Samsungs, I presume?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Yes. I do.

 

I think so.. but not sure... I do remember one was a 128gig drive..... don't have time to dig right now and don't think it would matter.

 

I experimented and turned caching off both drives, turned off indexing both drives, turned off my antivirus, closed Firefox and anything else that accesses the web and looked at task manager and has 99% free processes and my hd light still blinked....

 

I'm not letting the incessant disk activity light bother me, but it is pretty strange, imo. I guess you can't tell if the SSD is being accessed that way. I have a little app called Drive LED that puts virtual drive lights on the screen so I can see which specific drives/partitions are "blinking." On mine, it's the C drive (partition, in my case) only that accounts for almost continuous blinking. However, the virtual drive LED app does not blink quite as frequently as the real drive activity light. It's only blinking about once every 8 seconds or so when I let the machine settle down and nothing is going on. But the real LED light is still blinking away quite a bit more frequently. Perhaps the real LED light itself is simply too sensitive. Maybe it's lighting up whenever the on board disk cache memory is being accessed. I have a feeling that's part of the explanation.

 

Pardon me, Alan, but it might matter a LOT... all my descriptions relate to updating firmware on Samsung SSDs! If theirs aren't Samsungs, my advice, etc., is not necessarily applicable. In fact, I doubt that they could have the same firmware as yours unless they were made by Samsung.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Sorry for my total ignorance about SSD drive bios updates... my only experience is with motherboards, but I didn't know if the versions those guys were updating from may have simply been an older or newer versions than mine and I too could update to the trim equipped firmware they had.

I wasn't certain their drives were physically different than mine but maybe simply had a different version of firmware?

If a motherboard can update from F06, all the way to F.24 in one move, I figured my SSD could do the same.

I also assumed your drive was older than mine since your bios was older on your MB... Mine was F.15 when I got mine.

Why would they provide trim for an older drive but Drag their feet on a newer one?... seems it should be the other way around.

Here you can see those guys have 256gb Samsung SSD drives "as you do" but with different firmware and they updated.

 

Here are my Crystal Disk results:

5-26-10 No trim 1000mb
Seq 202.3 Read 146.2 write
512K 164.1 Read 78.32 write
4K 12.69 Read 6.641 write
4KQD32 21.44 Read 4.820 write

5-26-10 No trim 1000mb
Seq 201.1 Read 161.9 write
512K 160.3 Read 130.3 write
4K 13.58 Read 5.380 write
4KQD32 28.22 Read 7.053 write

 

@PMorgan:
Answered above I believe. Your concerns are now seeming to be a bit paranoid...

Paranoid? Why are you calling me paranoid? Are you trying to get me totally freaked out Who else is in this with you?

Have you considered discussing these feelings with a therapist?

Oh, so who's paranoid now? You think *i* need to see a therapist? Are my questions threatening to you, is that why you are accusing me of being paranoid and all but telling me I belong in a mental hospital???? What was that you said? Just then, you said it again!

LOL! I'm just playing with you, Phil. I think the word you're looking for is "obsessed (note my sig)." I am particularly "concerned" whenever my computer is doing something it ought not and I haven't been able to get it to stop, even though it doesn't affect day to day operations.

I think your BSOD fix ideas are excellent and will do them. Now that you mention it, I haven't noted the error messages with the BSOD's, just that they generally refer to memory issues and possibility of conflicting addresses. I will cause a few BSOD's before trying your fix and perhaps send the details to you in case you see something else (not that I think there is something else, I mean, no reason that I should have the only computer that has these problems unless, well, they know who I am and....ok, took a deep breath and now feel much better!)

Thanks, and my apologies to the truly paranoid and OCD sufferers out there. It really sucks for you and it is NOT YOUR FAULT. I meant no shame - I have had my share of diagnoses when life has become hard to deal with. Hang in there, get help and believe in yourselves!

Now, back to the computer forum you thought you had tuned into. (give me a break - note the time of this post! can't sleep due to relentless sciatica!)

 

G'day All,
Have just got my dv8 - and spent the last few days reading the 350+ pages of this thread - whew!
Some really good stuff in here - look forwarding to contributing in the future where I can.

As you can see I'm a bit of a dv addict!

Cheers,
Nice.

DV8t: dv8-1000CTO i7 720Q 4G 320G BD-ROM Bt'th
DV7 : dv7-2177cl C2D 4G 500G BD-ROM Bt'th
DV2 : dv2-1133ax AMD NeoX2 2G 500G Bt'th

 

A very nice housecleaning tip for "non trim" SSD drives...
Normally defragging an SSD drive is pointless since its electronic and it just puts more wear on the drive.... but in combination with refreshing the drive with freespacecleaner.. it may be a viable option.

From a privileged command prompt, execute the command "defrag C: /x" (assuming C is your Primary drive) and then run a program called freespacecleaner.exe with the FF option checked. This writes "1"s to the NAND (do not write "0"s)

For anyone who wants that cleaner:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12488&d=1257418520

 

Hi,

I just placed order for HP dv8t and here is my spec:

HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC
• 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
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
• 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
• FREE Upgrade to Lightscribe Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Espresso Black)
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• HP Keyboard
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Instant discounts you received:
$300.00 Coupon
$150.00 Notebook instant rebate

Order subtotal $1,374.99
Shipping
(Standard 5-7 Business Days) FREE


Couple of questions here:

1. What would be the weight of this notebook?
2. I checked up with the sales person and he mentioned that the display is not a LED. But, just a LCD. Is it ok to live with LCD? Ironically, the "Ready to ship" dv7t model comes with LED display. If just LCD, how bright and crisp is the display when compared to LED?
3. The sales guy also mentioned that the RAM speed is 1066Mhz and not 1333Mhz. I told him that I saw youtube video showing 1333MHz but he's saying nada. It is infact 1066. I'm confused here.
4. Does dv8t have additional space for a second hard drive and also has a extra PCI-e slot?

Thanks.

 

Nice and pretty good deal there. I wish they had had the free upgrade to Blueray ROM when I ordered mine (but I got a free upgrade to 6 GB Ram instead). I think it will weigh somewhere between 8 and 9 lbs not counting the power brick.

I find it's not the weight that makes it bit hard to carry . . . it's the size. Hard to find a nice backpack that will fit. Very few choices available. I'm still using my old Targus "Matrix" which isn't designed to handle a notebook the size of the DV8 so the DV8 sticks out the top by about 2 inches. I just zip up the zippers as far as they will go and let the top side of the notebook stick out exposed. I'm still looking for a nice looking backpack that will fit it better. But then again, I don't move it off my desk very often. Pretty much only when I go on a vacation somewhere.

 

Very close to my system... it sounds like your concerned about speed. I would either
A. Get the SSD instead as its much much faster than the HDD.... true the HDD is double the space.. but will you really use it?
B. Get the SSD in addition to the HDD and let the Hdd be the secondary.

I know the pennys keep adding up.. but your gonna kick yourself for not getting the SSD drive if you are really interested in speed.



The real bottleneck is your hardrive.. not your memory speed.

 

Alan, I can only speak for Samsung PM800 SSDs... Last time I checked, only two days ago, Samsung had released only two firmware updates for these drives hence IT matters a lot which one you have. They have released updates to VBM19C1Q and VBM1901Q. Your SSD appears to be newer than mine (I guess I benefited from getting HP's older stock) and until the firmware update for it is released, no point in searching for it.

I believe their drives are identical to mine (PM800) but yours may have differences based on the model number with the H1 on the end (that mine doesn't have).

Might be entirely possible if you had a drive for which the firmware update applied... Hardly matters because, unlike HP, AFAICT Samsumg hasn't yet offered two successive firmware updates for any of their SSDs.

Yes, your SSD is a newer version than mine. I wonder what Samsung changed in it from mine... Just to be clear, the Samsung instructions do not care what version of PM800 SSD you have as long as it has the correct version of firmware on it currently (aka old firmware).

They've problably been working on the older update since it was current (or new) and hadn't started on the newer one till it was released (actually after the new firmware for mine was released back in January!). Makes perfect sense to me! Capiche?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

You're a stitch!! Ha-Ha! Seriously, Jeff, I hope you can make real progress on the BSODs in the nVidia control panel, etc., with the basics I outlined. It should be a rather low risk process and may fix other problems you had seen but which hadn't risen to the level of "significant irritation". I run Scandisk on my drives aboout once a week just to be sure crashes or failure to flush cached writes hasn't left "orphans" on them.

Get some sleep before you try any of these things...

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Congrats! Welcome to the Dv8 forum! Anyone who can wade through 350 pages of our ramblings to exact the "goodies" is probably more knowledgeable than any of us posting here... i.e., there over 250 pages when I started posting here.

Good luck with your new Dv8 - I hope you enjoy it as much as 99% of us here do!

Regards,
- - Phil

 

This is generally known as "Tony-Trim" if you want to Google it and read more about it. I've done this procedure and my results weren't impressive BUT that may have been because I had run the Garbage Collection utility built into my 256gb Samsung PM800 only a day before. My WEI drive score jumped from 5.9 to 6.9 after running Garbage Collection so I don't see the need to perform Tony-Trim if you have a Samsung PM800 SSD.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Nice system - I'm sure you'll enjoy using it. The price seems very good and it's very well equipped.

If you're seeking maximum speed, going with the SSD as suggested by Windstrings is an excellent choice. Both he and I have SSDs and find they are significantly faster (about 3 times as fast) than any mechanical HDD. The extra cost is not excessive when you consider that the HDD is the #1 speed bottleneck in the Dv8 (and most all PCs, in fact). It is also worth noting that the 256gb SSD uses less than 25% of the power used by the 500gb HDD.

1) the Dv8 with one HDD weighs about 8.4 lb.

2) I find the display vivid, bright, clear, sharp, etc.. Totally satisfying display!

3) The memory in my Dv8t operates at 1333mHz according to monitoring utility.

4) Yes, there is a second HD bay and as well ExpressCard slot.


Regards,
- - Phil

 

An SSD is the most significant upgrade one can make, assuming one has sufficient ram to begin with, but there is no need to order your DV8 with an SSD from HP because one can always add an aftermarket one anytime or perhaps a bit later on when, hopefully, they get cheaper and have better firmware/controllers.

There are advantages as well as disadvantages to getting one installed by HP or getting an aftermarket one. If you get one from HP, you are stuck with the kind they decide to use (i.e., Samsung) but it should be protected by default by their anti shock technology (although I don't think SSD's are as sensitive to shock as mechanical HD's are), and your ability to upgrade the firmware may be more limited and it may be more difficult.

Based on some cursory research I've been doing on my own possibly impending SSD purchase, I've come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that currently the Intel SSD drives (and a few others that mostly use Intel technology) are the most highly regarded, at least for the consumer market.

I got my DV8 with two mechanical hard drives, mainly because the extra mechanical drive was fairly inexpensive and it would provide me with the mounting hardware that would be needed to add an after market SSD. Plus, after I swap out the mechanical HD for an SSD, I can use the mechanical HD in my HD dock for backups. One can buy the mounting hardware online from a 3rd party site for about $30 something but I thought ordering the extra drive with the DV8 was a pretty good deal especially considering that it includes the mounting hardware that otherwise would have to be purchased separately at additional expense.

But every time I look at the relatively higher capacity SSD's and think about hitting the buy button and spending the amount they currently cost, I think that, FOR ME, it just isn't worth the current cost for an SSD upgrade simply to have my system boot up 30 or so seconds faster and have apps launch a bit faster. I know a good SSD is a lot faster, but frankly, I don't find the 7200 rpm mechanical drives my system came with to be uncomfortably slow, at least for my modest purposes.

So, for the time being, I continue to wait for prices and capacities to get more reasonable and for the technology to mature a bit more. But perhaps one of these days I'll give in and just hit the buy button anyway. It's just a matter of time as I know I will eventually upgrade to an SSD.

 

SSDs based on Sandforce controller are probably the best. And cost the most per GB. SSDs based on Indilink controller and Intel each have their advantages and disadvantages. But Indilinks controllers tend to beat out Intel on many tests. Though the Intel G2s tend to have somewhat better read speeds. The other advantage is the capacity size of Intel over Indilinks based SSDs.

With dual drive systems like the DV8, the key to SSD use is to get a capacity size that you load OS and most used programs on. With the rest of programs and data on the mechanical drive.

I have a 120GB Vertex of which I'm only using 35GB. Has win7, office, Firefox, business software, utilities, media players, codecs, Pics, etc. On the 2nd HDD, which is a 320GB 7200RPM, are games, media files, data, Acronis backups.

Point of the example is that I could have easily done well with a 60GB SSD in this config.

 

New NVIDIA Beta drivers on the NVIDIA website. Ver. 257.15. Installed without issue.

 

Interesting, Peter. I agree with your assessment of the HDD performance in a Dv8 as quite good (if you haven't used it with an SSD). I'm surprised only by the conclusion.

I bought my Dv8 with a single HDD and was quite happy with its performance, too. I read up on the performance specs and that led me to order up an HP 256 gb SSD (Samsung) and installed it. I cloned the contents of my Seagate 7200 rpm to it with Ghost 11.5 and fired it up. I was blown away! ... the responsiveness was terrific as the latency (initial delay before anything happens) seemed to have disappeared! The overall speed is deceptively faster and smoother and a stopwatch shows the read speed at least twice as fast and writing is 3 times as fast.

IF YOU VALUE SPEED - THERE IS NOTHING ELSE YOU CAN GET FOR A NEW DV8 THAT WILL HAVE AS DRAMATIC AN EFFECT ON SPEED AS AN SSD! PERIOD!

For only $350, it seems a real bargain to me (tho' HP charges even less for it when ordered with a new Dv8t CTO). Yes, the Intel SSDs are 10% faster than Samsung but cost over 3 times as much per gigabyte of capacity! So, IMHO, the Samsung offers a far better price to performance jump than the Intel SSDs.

In addition, the SSD is lighter in weight, uses far less power than an HDD, and creates far less heat for the fans to get rid of!

If you don't want the bigtime speed gain or can't spend $350 right now (thru HP), don't consider an SSD right now.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Phil, that's why I prefaced my missive with "An SSD is the most significant upgrade one can make, . . . ."

 

I hope you'll come back after you've had a bit more time with the new driver and let us know how it works out for you.

 

And, Peter, that's why I prefaced my assessment with"I'm surprised only by the conclusion. " I agreed with the preface...

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Good point.... you can wait and get one that you know is trim equipped.

Now that trim is the wave of the future "I really see HDD's as antiquated mechanical sloths compared to the quick efficient SSD's they are coming out with.

For ages the hardrive has been the bottleneck... they kept opening up the buses and improving processor speed, memory, software etc but the hardrives barely ever moved showing marginal improvement "except for size" from the other bottlenecks being removed.

But now SSD's have removed that bottleneck and the sky is the limit.
HDD's are stuck with physically accessing information... that takes time and space to accomplish, whereas SSD's use electricity at the speed of light,.. now we have a new bottleneck..."memory speed within the SSD "... I see that as improving vastly quicker than physical hardrives could ever hope..... in other words....

The gap is ever widening between HDD's and SSD's.
I really see no hope of Hdd's ever catching up, but rather HDD's will finally fall by the wayside only being useful as backup bins for storing mass amounts of information that rarely needs to be accessed.

I think the market will concede and quit trying as the user will turn to SSD's for speed and use HDD's for mass storage of songs, video, DVD's, blueray etc.