What do you all think about the DV4T? (Specs inside)

I was looking at the HP DV4T with specs:

-Moonlight white
-Vista 64bit
-P8600 2.4Ghz or I can up it to the P8700 2.53Ghz
-4 GB Ram
-320 GB Hard Drive 5400 RPM
-512MB Nvidia GeForce G 105M
-14.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800) LED for better battery life.
-Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
-High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

I was wondering what you all think about this set up, or if I should tweak anything with like the processor.

Also how does this laptop run in your experience. Hot or loud? What does it score on performance index with these specs if anyone has them? Are there any concerns I should know about or tips. Like does the optical drive pull out if not using to save weight or add another hard drive? Maybe even steer me to another direction if you would like.

Also I have never owned a laptop before, but my friends use an external monitor when home. What do you all think about getting one?

This laptop will be for everything, school, entertainment, causal games.

Thank you.

 

It should work fine and the P8600 should do fine for the uses you list and upgrading to the P8700 wont help much. As far as the external monitor is concerned I would say try it without one and then decide. The 14" screens are right on the edge when it comes to too small or big enough to not have an external monitor.

 

Thank you for the information. Will HP be doing something from Microsoft for like a free upgrade to Windows 7 if purchase on a date. Someone in my class said they will do that. If that makes sense.

 

I say bump up the harddrive to 500 since its only 50$

 

Most likely. HP or Microsoft haven't announced anything yet(for obvious reasons) but most people expect such a program to start end June(the 26th is thrown around).

 

how much does it cost u?? I bought one few monthes ago, 925 something after coupon, spec different: Stay with 32 bit vista, doesn't really matter to me. Choose p8700 (all i can say is "it's FAST", well, can't tell the difference btw 8700 and 8600 -_-), 2 gb (since upgrade by myself is much cheaper if i want to, and highly recommend you do it this way, buy a pair from newegg.com with good quality is cheaper than upgrade from Hp), and 3 cell (mostly stay home, so didn't ask too m uch about battery)

I like everything, stylish design, very good looking, fantastic keyboard, excellent feeling. (Honestly, Hp really does well with their keyboard, just purelly good) G105M scores 4.0 in vista, i think is ok, if not a extreme gamer, good enough.

Things I dont like about this one: 1) touchpad has to get use to it, dont know how to explain, but not to easy to master~~ (compare to my old dell, dell touchpad is better) 2) No express card slot 3) only 2 usb -_- that's a pretty big problem for me, and they are all on the right. 4) Light indications, such as sound, forward and backward etc... are "WHITE" color, other than Bluetooth is blue, all white and red (when silent). To me, they are just not good looking, i like blue color, but white and red doesn't fit together with expresso design, i think.

5)The biggest downside (separate line to say it) the heat is so unbalance! divide it into half, center line starts from keyboard key G and H. If you runs game like warcraft (that's what i paly), left hand side gets heating up while right hand side is pretty cool~~ and when things heat up, fans start running , it's lound!! So my recommandation is to buy a cooler and help it cool only IF YOU PLAN TO GAME!! Otherwise, after a hour and half of watching rmvb video, just little warm on left hand side.

Just personal experience, not an expert, fair advice, hopefully help u decide! Check out coupons, they help out alot. and wait for stackable coupon, even better, good luck!

 

x2


i guess price isn't a factor.

its a pretty great setup. the P series run alot cooler than my other hp T series, so i think it'll be fine. not that loud either. (although i'm not a heavy gamer so take that into consideration). not sure if you need to upgrade to 8700... probably not, but then again i dont know exactly what your doing with the lappy.

if you dont already have a monitor, i would hold off until you decide you cannot live without one. or consider a 15.5 inch (dv5). i have had both sides, i would say they are about the same with the only noticeable difference being the weight, the dv5 gets heavy if your carrying it around all day on the train/plane

 

I would only suggest an external monitor if you like to multitask (dual monitor setup), if you like a lot of desktop real estate, or if you want a big screen as your primary screen when at home. If you don't really want to do any of those things, or if you don't really care about them, I would just stay with the laptop itself and save the money.

Hope this helps!
Eric

 

Thanks for the advise so far! Price is not an issue for me, but I will wait for a good coupon. I was just looking at portable laptops and came across this one. For the gaming part, games I will play will be like Sims 3, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2. Games in that area. The external monitor I will just wait and see how like it first. I am not dead set on this laptop yet, still looking around at a couple but this in the top so far. When you guys say this laptop is loud, could you give me an example or define loud. I dont want to be in class with a jet engine going off. Thanks for the help so far.

 

Now its a waiting game on coupon and see what Microsoft does with Windows 7.