My HP Pavilion dv6500t Special Edition Notebook Review

Hey guys! After spending months asking questions in this forum and this site about laptops and such, I finally went out and bought one. I also took the time to review my new laptop as well and wanted to share the article with you all. =)

Since I can't post in THIS forum area, I thought I would post this here for those of you that are interested and would like to comment and/or read the review that I wrote.

Anyhow, I wrote a review article on an HP Pavilion dv6500t Special Edition notebook. It went live today at the website where I do computer hardware reviews at, which is located here: HardwareLogic.com

The review article can be read here: HP Pavilion dv6500t Special Edition Notebook Review

Please let me know what you guys think. Criticism is good, but constructive criticism is even better. =)

Thanks!

 

Interesting, I had the exact opposite reaction. As opposed to my Dell laptop, the glossy finished trackpad actually made it harder to move my mouse around my desktop.

But nice review, glad to see something 'up-to-date' on this model.


Oh, the one thing annoying me right now is that I can't get my HDMI monitor to work correctly with my 6500t SE. VGA works pretty well (picture still not as clear as I want) but with HDMI it's all grainy and the colors are distorted. I think my cable is faulty so I took it back to Newegg. Won't get a replacement until Monday, so I'm hoping for the best when it arrives.

-Mike

 

Yeah, thats the one thing I hate about that notebook. Im buying the dv9700t and obviosly, it has the same thing. Anyway, great review.

 

Thanks for writing that great review! I was wondering how you found your motherboard info. The closest I could get to was the System Information, but that only showed the bios.

 

I had read a review on the dv6500t that this site published, and the reviewer said the same thing. However, I had no such problems with the dv6500t I reviewed at all. I felt that the glossy finish helped improve mouse tracking and made pointing the mouse more accurate. Perhaps HP has changed something with the pad itself or tweaked it to solve the myriad of problems that people were having with the glossy finish of the mousing area.

I used Everest Ultimate Edition to obtain all the model/part numbers for the components in my laptop. There are free utilities out there that do the same thing (such as CPU-Z), but are not quite as comprehensive as Everest is. Admittedly, for the RAM, I simply removed them from their slots and wrote down their part numbers then researched them on the 'net.

The RAM is made by Hynix and its part number is: HYMP512S64CP8-Y5

The Fujitsu 250GB hard drive that came with the laptop has the following information (this is mostly intended for those individuals that want to research how well this hard drive performs against similar HDD solutions):

Fujitsu 250GB 5,400RPM 8MB cache HDD
Model Number: MHY2250BH
Part Number: 457671-001
Firmware: 0080890B

Thank you guys very much for taking the time to read and comment on the review I wrote. I usually review cases and cooling solutions, never systems, so as this was my first foray into reviewing a complete computing solution, I was a bit nervous as to how well I did.

I do, however, have NotebookReview.com to thank for giving me a template to work with, so thanks very much for that! =)

 

Thanks. Looks like my motherboard is manufactured by Wistron with an Intel chipset GM965. Does that make it an intel motherboard?

 

How did you find out that your mobo is made by Wistron? Download the free version of Everest (or Sandra Si-Soft) and run their utility that identifies all the components on your laptop. In any event, if you have an Intel chipset on your laptop, then use, you are running an Intel based motherboard. Hope this helps! =)

 

Downloaded CPU-Z like you suggested and under Motherboard it says Wistron right beside Manufacturer

Do you have any difficulty removing your remote after putting it in the slot? I took 5 minutes (no kidding) trying to rip mine out.

 

Just push it in until the spring mechanism ejects it out.

 

Very nice review

 

Ah, okay. =)

Nope. As arinko mentioned, you just pop the remote in and feel it click. To remove it, push the remote in and you'll feel it click again and the remote is released. I know you're already aware of this, but you may want to ensure that the remote is being inserted the correct way.

That is, the buttons facing up and the tapered end pointing towards the rear of the notebook.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read it. =)

 

I just bought a new HDD and RAM for the laptop. I was thinking of doing a comparitave review (including benchmarks) between the stock dv6500t and the upgraded components I purchased for it.

I was also thinking of doing a "How-To" guide on removing and installing RAM DIMM modules, as well as laptop hard drives. Would this be someting you guys would be interested in?

The upgrades I purchased were:

HDD
Western Digital Scorpio WD3200BEVT 320GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache

RAM
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

I've also been toying with the idea of upgrading the processor to one of those new Intel T9xxx jobbies, but not sure if that would be cost effective since the laptop is equipped with a T7700 as it is.

.

 

I would love to see a comparison garetjax!

Will HP have another coupon anytime soon? I went to BestBuy and they only had the Turion processor in the white notebook. Is the special edition only available on HP's website?

 

Well you saw it at Best Buy

 

What's up with the Turion processors taking over all the HP notebooks at Best Buy? I went there today, and the only one that was still a Core2Duo was the copper lid model. I would prefer to buy the white special edition at BB, but not with the Turion. And the Turion model still costs a $1000! I know a good majority of HP owners on this board purchased their notebooks with the 30+% HP coupons. Do you think these will be available again anytime soon?

 

HP runs coupons/deals monthly (usually). The best thing you can do to keep abreast of the is to check back with Notebookreview and see what's cooking in either the Notebook & Tech Bargains or HP& Compaq specific forums. You may also want to check out THIS link for updated HP laptop deals as well.

No, the 15.4" Special Edition notebook with the "Influx" design is available at both Best Buy and the HP store. The difference is that you can configure the notebook at HP's website, which is what I recommend you do if you are interested in this notebook.

The HP's at Best Buy are designed to meet a certain target crowd, i.e. the budding college student who doesn't have the cash for an Alienware or Hypersonic, or those who need one for work that don't require top of the line components.

The laptops at Best Buy (and any other big name retailer) are simply meant to accomodate the 90% of consumers that don't need the "best", and can simply walk in and purchase one without having to wait for it to be built by ordering it from direct from the manufacturer.

Since this market segment is the most lucrative and largest, it makes sense to sell laptops that are cheap that 90% of consumers can afford, I would guess that's the reason for the AMD processors. As far as the 30% coupons go, HP tends to cycle those every 1-2 months depending on how many units they still need to ship a month. In any event, check back often at those links I gave you to see when new coupons are available.

 

I was wondering if anyone has seen issues with the firewire port. My laptop does not recognize any firewire gadget and has been to service 3 times.

 

Never used it before but you might be able to get a USB cable for your device. Its possible it could be your device, or the drivers. I dont think they actually test the firewire port when they service it

 

Yes I am beginning to wonder about how they do repair. They actually replaced the antenna when it first went for repair and there was nothing wrong with the antenna. I am sure firewire doesn't need drivers, USB would. My camcorder only has firewire for video transfer and it works when connected my regular desktop. The laptop is just 4 months old.

 

I think your better off getting a USB cable for your camcorder than relying on HP's service.

There is drivers for the firewire port, its bundled in the media readers drivers (not 100% sure)

 

From what I've seen, they have replaced the Core2Duo's with Turion's while keeping the price the same. Spending over $1000 for a Turion notebook is ridiculous. Anyone get the 6500SE for less than that at Best Buy? And if you own the Turion model (as I don't think they sell the Core2Duo special edition at BestBuy), how is the battery life?

Basically, I would like to know how the battery life in a Turion compares to a Core2Duo notebook system.

 

Also, do the Core2Duo systems still make a high pitched whine running on battery? How about the Turions?

 

NO whine here.. specs on sig

 

They fixed the whine noise awhile ago

 

No whine here. I've using my lappy for a while now, no problems whatsoever. Though I just got a fully loaded xps m1530 for $1000 so I think I'm gonna sell my special edition.

 

No, I don't think anyone will be able to purchase a dv6500t SE for what you can get it for at Best Buy, unless you take the stock configuration that HP offers on their site for $850 bucks if I remember correctly. It's important to note that this configuration does include a C2D, not a Turion processor.

As far as battery life goes, I would imagine that the dv6500t SE laptops configured with C2D processors would have slightly better battery life since they are manufactured with the 65nm and 45nm SOI process versus the 90 micron that the Turion processors use.

However, the SOI used in the manufacturer of these processors may not matter considering that the TL-60 that is used in the Best Buy dv6500t is a 2.0Ghz processor, while the processors offered by the HP store range from 1.83-2.50Ghz and are built on 45nm Penryn technology. The end result of all this is that a slower processor won't consume as much power as a faster processor would.

 

I have $300 in Best Buy gift certificates, so I would prefer to buy it there than from the HP website. I live in California and I assume I will have to pay sales tax either way. But I just read that the 6500SE has been out since last June. I had no idea it's been out that long. So I don't know if this is a good deal, or if I should just keep waiting.

 

Having lived in California nearly my entire life, I can say that I feel your pain when it comes to CA sales tax. For that HP Special Edition notebook you want to buy, you will be paying nearly an extra $60 bucks in sales tax. It sucks.

Technically, this is true. However, you are in luck as HP has recently refreshed the dv6xxxt Special Edition line by releasing the dv6700t Special Edition, which is only available on the HP wesbite. This new version (built upon the venerable dv6500t SE) has two (and only two!) important changes from the dv6500t SE:

1. Option to purchase the new Penryn C2D processors, as designated by their T9xxx number. These processors consume less power, are even more mobile friendly, and use the 45nm SOI process versus the 65nm SOI in the T7xxx series of processors.

2. The 8400M GS videocard has double the memory than the dv6500t SE. The memory now sits at a respectable 256MB versus 128MB for the older model. While this may matter to some, in the end, by upgrading your notebook RAM to 4GB, the videocard will "borrow" that RAM when you perform graphically intense activities. So really, the extra RAM that comes with the "new" dv6700t SE is situational at best if you intend to upgrade your RAM anyway.

Anyway, I encourage you to do your homework first, then decide on a notebook. Making such an important buy decision on the premise of gift certificates is a terrible way to shop. The fact of the matter is that HP is always offering coupon codes and discounts on their laptops anyway. If you are going to save $300 off a notebook, why not buy it from HP's site where you can configure your new toy exactly how you want it, and get a sweet $300 discount off of it?

That way you kill two birds with one stone: you get the laptop configured exactly the way you want and save some money, and you still get to keep your $300 in Best Buy gift certificate money.

If it were me, I would personally not spend $300 worth of Best Buy gift certificates on a notebook there unless I had absolutely no desire (or choice!) to purchase anything else from there. I would use the Best Buy route as a last ditch route if I were in the market for a laptop.