My New Hp Dv6z Custom Laptop/"Gaming" rig

okay guys after some heavy thinking i decided to forgo on the Refurbished Dv6-6135dx. The reason being that the current refurb i have is terrible, everyday i find more and more issues with it (i've had it for 5 days now and yesterday i noticed the laptop a "Refurbished Envy 14-11160nr" has been lagging alot even when browsing the web). Luckily walmart had issued me a refund and instead of having me ship it they have a courier coming to get it . Bottom line I just dont want to have to deal with sending a laptop in, and paying for shipping, faulty cards,RMA etc. I'm currently a University student or a "College kat" as my dad likes to say haha, and i have other things to worry about besides my laptop not working/having issues.

So i went ahead and bought a brand new DV6z from hp for $716.26 exact (i got a student discount ). It's way over what i wanted to spend originally but at least i can have some peace of mind knowing its completely new and i'll be the very first person ever to touch it haha. Also i have a 1yr warranty with hp so if anything does happen im covered, eventually i might buy an extended warranty from servicenet, or squaretrade

well without further adieu here's the specs for my new Laptop/Gaming rig

Dark Umber
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
AMD Quad-Core A8-3550MX Accelerated Processor (2.7GHz/2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache) (Newest High End Amd A-series CPU )
1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA] (Newer Graphics card )
FREE UPGRADE to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE UPGRADE to 640GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
No additional security software
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
15.6" High Def LED HP Brightview (1366x768)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
802.11b/g/n WLAN
Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad (i really wanted a backlit one but they don't offer it)
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope what is this???

this setup should allow me to play the BF3,MW3, Batman,Rage, etc at medium to high settings i hope, if not i will be very angry haha the only thing the Dv6-6135dx has over this is the blu-ray player which i highly doubt i'll play blu-rays on this laptop so im not worried about that.
Now my New Questions

1a. whats the max amount of ram allowed on this cpu because hp was offering a 16gb ram upgrade, but it was too expensive and also i thought the max amount of cpu was 8gb on A-series????

1b. since this is an A8 processor can i use k10stat to overclock it??

2. is the Radeon 7690m overclockable using the same methods used for the Radeon 6750M??

3. is the Radeon 7690 able to do Crossfire?

4. i believe this will make for a pretty decent Gaming rig right???

Now the sad part hp said my order should be built by 2/14/2012
that is a long time from now (has anyone ever received their custom laptop before hp's expected "built by" date?)
all i have now is an old gateway laptop that's missing a few keys due to my little sister, oh well i guess it'll make me cherish my new Laptop more when i get it haha.

 

Nice setup and I hope you enjoy it. If you game online, I hope you can do it with a Single Band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi card or connect via ethernet because HP isn't putting Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi cards in the new notebooks unless you get the higher end Envy notebook.

Good luck...

 

thanks OhioLefty

ah so no one has been able to answer my questions yet.

 

This is basically the same laptop with a better quality CPU that support higher TDP (better undervolt / overclock), with a little beefer GPU. Anything apply on the 6135dx would work on this, except maybe modd'd bios.

+Don't expect a "huge" performance increase from 6135dx

 

I'm not exactly the most qualified person to answer all your question but let me try. If I'm wrong, anyone feel free to correct me .

1. I'm sure you could upgrade the ram to 16gb, but it's far too expensive. I'm pretty sure there's only 2 ram slots in the laptop, so if you did decide to get 16gb's you'd have to buy 2 8gb sticks. Which turns out to be pretty expensive most of the time.

1b. The processor can be undervolted and overclocked using K10STAT. There is a guide on the internet you can find if you Google the term 'K10STAT' you should find another good guide.

2. I currently don't know anything about the 7690M, it's relatively new to me.

3. The 7690M should most likely do crossfire, but I'm sure that most of us turn it off due to the lack of driver support.

4. Yep. Hahah, enjoy it.

By the way, please check out HTWingNut's guide on the DV6ZQE optimization! It's incredibly helpful and it's a bunch of useful information compiled together.

 

Why didn't you get the 1080p screen? That's a very important upgrade imo.

 

1a. 16GB can be used.

1b. Use K10stat, see my guide in my sig

2. Use MSI Afterburner, see my guide in my sig

3. Radeon 7690m can do Crossfire, although I don't recommend it. Micro stutters galore. Working on info in my guide.

4. Yes, excellent gaming: BF3 @ 1080p medium/low @ 30+ FPS. 720P @ med/high 35+ fps (without crossfire). BF3 is probably one of the most resource intensive games to date, and the DV6z handles it fine. See my guide for tips on improving performance.

Frequently the laptops arrive by or before the "built by" date. And ten days isn't long to wait, really. Some of us waited as much as 30 days or more.

 

simple i dont have the money for it haha, i already went over my spending limit so i only added specs that were an absolute must for gaming. yes 1080p screen is nice but i can live without it, and if i really want hd i can do hdmi out

 

hey quick question will a jump from 6gb ram to 12gb-16gb benefit my gaming capabilities any? if it did about what percent would my fps in games increase?

 

Using the dedicated 7690m - No. Using the IGP, best to go with minimum 8GB dual channel (i.e. 2x4GB)

 

ok is there any specific brand you recomend??
i don't understand the differences in latency
and the higher the speed the better right?


okay i read up on ram and what i learned was the lower the cat latency the better so i bought this ram kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139481

this should be good, so now i need to sell my original 6gb ram kit to make some of this money back haha

 

Oooh, cancel if you can.

1333MHz is the "sweet spot" and 1600MHz is the best if you have an MX CPU, although marginal gains over the 1333. CAS latency AND speed are important, but speed is more important unless the latency is really high. In other words 1066 CAS 7 < 1333 MHz CAS 9 < 1600 MHz CAS 11.

Here's a good option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231295

Make sure to use the $5 off code they show there on the page too. $35 shipped for DDR3 1333 CAS 9

You can even save more money by just removing the 2GB module in your machine and buying a single 4GB chip to pair up with the existing one. The RAM in the DV6z should be DDR3 1333 CAS 9. So get something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231266

 

I'm not sure if you even need to spend more money on more RAM. I doubt you'll see any appreciable difference with 8gb.

 

I agree. But even if he wants full dual channel no need to buy a new kit, just a 4GB module.

 

aww man hp cancelled my order, and long story short hp said it was my card so talked to my bank and they said they had blocked the charge due to some fraud alert i have on my account, it was over the $150 limit i set or something like that so now i have to go reorder it but before i do i saw these computers on ebay and was wondering which was the best.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/643044-laptop-better-gaming.html#post8289838

 

The CPU's are better, but GPU's are weaker. The closest would be the Y470 with GT 550m.

 

So I'd be better of with ny original,order

 

If gaming is important to you, I'd say yes.

 

HTWingNut thank you very much you have helped me alot and im grateful for having a member like this on the forum

thanks to everyone else too

now i checked my bank account in the morning and the amount charged was refunded, but now i just checked my bank account and the amount of the laptop is pending again, but hp.com still says order declined . so tomorrow at 10:00 am i will call them to figure out what is going on


oh and one last question if i choose to buy just the single 4gb ram listed by HTWingNut would it still be dual channel?? , is a dual channel kit better
or is it the motherboard itself that makes it dual channel

 

Dual channel just means two chips being used simultaneously. You get a slight benefit from running dual channel instead of single channel. Doesn't matter if they're from two different manufacturers.

So two 4GB chips at same speed, timings, and latency (usually the faster one will run at the slower one's speed if there is a discrepency) regardless of manufacturer should work with 98% certainty. Buying a "dual channel kit" means it should work with 99% certainty. In other words, same manufacturer means they have near identical componentry so are pretty much guaranteed to work together. RAM is so near identical that it doesn't much matter where it comes from any more as long as specs are the same.

There can be occasional incompatibilities but it's rare.

 

i think ill just go with the dual kit for $35 that you mentioned, i want to have the best ram/gpu/cpu possible on this laptop for gaming.
well then i think im all set, is there anything else i should consider/purchase?

list of what i've got so far
HP 2.4GHz Wireless Optical Mobile Mouse
Case Logic 16" Laptop Backpack, Black
total of 43.84 from wal-mart

i'll hold of on ram until i get the laptop so i can make sure i buy the right one

only other thing i can think of is a cooling pad

other than that i think im set

 

I doubt that RAM will have any impact on your gaming unless you plan to run several instances of games at the same time or some other heavy applications in the background while you are gaming. Most games out there would only utilize 2-3GB of RAM at their maximum, so 6GB will be plenty. You are welcome to upgrade and you most certainly won't be worse off by doing so. However if you are expecting that your FPS will magically increase after you put in new RAM sticks, I predict that you will be left disappointed.

 

It will only increase if you use the IGP, 6620G/6520G. But 6GB asymmetrical dual channel vs 8GB dual channel is marginal. Your biggest improvement would be going with 1600MHz RAM. But if you don't plan on using the IGP for gaming, there's going to be little to no improvement.

I am doing some benchmarking right now with the 6750m using 2x4GB, 1x4GB 1600MHz and 2x2GB 1066 RAM to see the impact on gaming with the dedicated GPU. My guess is that it will be marginal gains, if any.

 

sweet i'll wait till after i see your report before i purchase any ram sticks, because i'll be using the dedicated graphics card for gaming since it will provide better results than the integrated one

 

Difference between DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 is only going to show up if your using the IGP. In which case it becomes a pretty big difference due to GPU's needing lots of memory bandwidth.

I'm questioning the benefit of using the "Dual Graphics" combination of the onboard GPU + 6750 discrete.

 

See my sig, link to 6750m... gives a good indication of overclocking dedicated GPU, Crossfire, and using slower RAM with dedicated.

 

5~10% (From 1333 to 1600) is pretty big in GPU world. Small would be from CAS 11 to CAS 9 type increase.