New DV8000t Review

Hey guys,

I just posted a review on my dv8000t at Short Media.com. If you are going to buy a dv8000t I suggest you read this first.

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47080

 

congrats on the notebook. nice review.

 

My brother got his last week (friday)

and for me it is a disappointment.. the keyboard looks like is not level.. the left side looks like is bulged upwards a little and on the right side.. where the sound buttons are located is is slightly bend downward and the right most sound button seems stuck

and we got this thing like this

and on top.. the lid got scratched right away sigh.. just bad quality there..

I am going to return this thing

by the way .. we got the one with the 7600 go video card..

 

sounds like it sat in the heat or something! I had no issues with mine... she is a champ

 

I HAVE MY FUTURE COMPUTER!!!!!!

only i want a 2.0GHz Core, 1GB of RAM and a 80GB 54000rpm HD (can up it later) and the regualar screen

 

hey Sledge, great review. Good write up.

I'm interested to know which drivers you are currently running and if you experience weird glitches when overclocking (not artifacts) seems like it's something else.

Winterymix, a user on the forum, said the trick was to revert back to the old bios and use a non-HP driver.

How did you go about overclocking?

 

With HP bios from what I can tell you are unable to OC the CPU, if you know of a way please let me know as I would love to push this CPU over what it has stock. As for the GPU I am using HP's new Video drivers and the coolbist hack which puts the GPU at 507/818 which is a pretty good OC from 450/700. I see no artifacting and it runs as smooth as butter. I know the 7400 is far from a 7800 but for all around gam ing purposes it does a great job.

Even running games on low settings but at full res dose not bother me a bit, as this huge screen is so fun to game on.

 

That's a nice review. I really like the quality of the pictures you took. What kind of camera do you use?

 

It is a Kodak 3.1 mega pixel cam. it is out fo date but still gets the job done. TBH I need a new Camera.

 

Wow, Thanks a lot, thats just what I needed to read! It looks Like I could get about 4 hours of battery life while just using basic office programs in class, which is really good for a 17" laptop like this, and it dosent look like the 2nd HD hinders battery life too much either

 

You know I forgot to mention I bought the 3 year extended warranty from HP, as it is well worth the cost. as it covers you from just about anything.

 

any other questions? Feel free to ask away

 

Nice review Sledgehammer! I am thinking about buying an HP dv8000t. I know there have been some keyboard issues that have been reported with it. I know you haven't encounted any problems, but I was just wondering how your experience has been with HP? Also does the keyboard seem of good quality in general? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks in advance.

 

Ask away that’s what we are all here for to give our opinions and experiences.

As for my experience with HP thus far is still in the B range. I had an issue with my hard drives that was resolved quickly and also with some windows settings.. other than that everything has been 100%. The laptop blows a bit warm while gaming, but the heat isn't something you feel as it ports it out the back side.

I couldn't be happier with my purchase, and I would recommend this notebook to anyone looking for an awesome 17" notebook.

 

What was the problem with your hard drives? I have pretty much narrowed my choices down to either the dv8000t or the Dell e1705. I really like the dv8000t, I just worry about the keyboard, but it always seems like HP is willing to send replacements and help. I still have a little while to think before I buy, but right now it is looking like the dv8000t. Thanks so much Sledgehammer, if I have anymore questions I will be sure to ask

 

The way windows formats and installs the OS it makes your 2nd HD NTFS and for security reasons you are unable to share it under a 2nd user on the laptop. To fix this issue you need to format that drive right off the get go before you install anything on it, and it solves the issue.

 

itaf1506, I can tell you I have some minor problems with my keyboard, usually when gaming. It's usually associated with one of the directional keys, be it the arrow keys, num pad or w.a.s.d...whatever the case may be depending on what u are playing. What usually happens is my character, or vehicle or whatever will get stuck going one direction & I have to tap that key again to get it to normalize. Over 7-8 hours of gaming, this may happen once... twice at most, so it's not a major issue.

This has happened with both dv8000t's I've had so they do appear to have some keyboard issues, but it isn't anything that is a real bother to me as it happens very infrequently. Also, HP is very fast at repairing notebooks. When I had to send my Compaq off three seperate times earlier this year, it was gone a total of 3 days all three times. HP Next-Day shipped it via FedEx both ways to the Memphis service center.

 

My 2 cents:
I bought a dv8280us with a bad experience from a 'jerk' manager in compusa who destroys the whole reputation of compusa. Sometimes people don't understand they represent a corporation and should keep aside their eccentricity when come for work.

Anyway,
I am planning to return my laptop and go for sony within 5 days of purchase. I had some serious issues:
1. After complete destructive recovery installation (went successful) my laptop would freeze after booting up. Keyboard, touchpad nothing will work. Power off and turn on is the only solution. It happened random. (i had to do recovery because it was a display model and wanted to register under my name). Well some can say because of display model, the problem arised. Still....

2. Keyboard really looks cheap to me. I didn't try all keys but my 'escape' will get stuck every time I press. And had to release to by nudging.

3. Touchpad: it is really worse. Not at all sensitive even after adjusting the settings. Got to lift and keep dragging to move across screen from one end to another. I have another laptop-satellite toshiba M35-320. Touchpad is great in it.

4. Speakers-I am really lost at words for this. No bass. Very very mediocre speakers. I have put my volume at 27 (maximum) and still sound is not enough at all.

5. TV tuner is separate attachment.

6. there might be many more issues, but I packed it back into the box right away. Can't spend time fixing things in this fast paced world.

There are ofcourse several positive things to the laptop (dv8280us) like gorgeous bright screen, keyboard with numpad included, many kinds of ports. better look than qosmio or P series in toshiba, cool blue color lights, etc.

Finally it is all the money's worth. Same expense to buy that, you will end up with lesser ram, less HD space etc for a competitor's model.

If you are lucky, you will end up like sledgehammer70 with a good system without problems. My case might be an isolated incident. so one should use their own judgement.

drb

 

Thank you everyone for your input I can live with some minor things if it doesn't happen a lot. I think I will go to Best Buy and check some of these models out and see if any of them have major problems. I know that it probably wont be the same, but at least I will get some idea. Again, thanks a lot everyone! I will let you know how it goes.

 

Itaf, I think drb's problem with the touchpad is probobly an isolated problem because like I said, I've had 2 dv8000t's and the touchpad is one of the things that I think is outstanding in them. Mine is super-sensitive and the scroll-sensitive area on the right side is great too. It responds to just a brush of my fingernail to scroll up or down and becomes very intuitive to use after a while. Touch area is also nice and big. I hate using touchpads in general, but it's a little more tolerable because it's done well on the 8000.

 

Same here I own 3 of the 8000t line with no issues...

 

Just ordered one about an hour ago!
Can't wait to get it.

Did you order from HP?
If so how long did it take after you ordered it to arrive? (I'm anxoius, as this is my 1st laptop lol)

 

Nice review.

Any chance you could post 3dmark03/05 scores?

Also is it possible to not run the drives in RAID? Be nice to have windoze on one and linux on the other

 

I'm not running in raid, I have them separate so a windows/ Linux could be used easily...

I didn't run 3DMark benchmarks for the pure fact I gave in game specs in the review. Thos to me are more valuable that what 3DMark gives you.

 

Took 4 business days for it to ship and 2 days to arive vis FedEx... so 6 days total or really 5 1/2 as it arrived mid day.

 

wow that's sweet...did you get the express shipping though? Cuz i just got the free one.

 

I understand your reasoning, but without any framerate measurement, either in-game, with fraps, or some type of quantitative benchmark, saying a game is "playable" is ambiguous at best regardless of what settings info is provided and here's why. Your idea of "playable" is going to be different than mine. I'll be the first to admit that using an app like 3dmark alone to gauge the performance of a system is useless as it doesn't relate to any actual game. You can, however, get an idea of how system A will perform in relation to system B with a 3dmark score alone when you've had experience with system B, gamed on it, and when it has had 3dmark run, since it gives you a number you can easily compare from one system to the next.

 

True, but I feel my tests provided are enough to show its gaming performance. I don't like to use 3Dmark for any compressions as with just a certain driver can give you huge number differences.

 

You know you could have said...

"3dmark scores would have been nice"

 

Does it matter?

 

Bump for the new viewers

 

Don't these laptops have serious keyboard problems?

 

Apparantly it's just bad luck I suppose.