dv4t processor/battery life?

Hi all,

i'm pretty interested in purchasing a dv4t from HP and have seen a lot of your discussions on this forum. I just had a few specific questions regarding the laptop and was hoping you dv4t owners could help! (oh, btw, the HP website seems to be down right now...)

do you guys know how long the high-capacity 6-cell lasts vs. the 6 cell? is it really worth the upgrade? it says something like 3 hours but is that a realistic estimate?

also, to make the dv4t purchase worthwhile, how good of a processor should I get with it? i know any of them is a significant upgrade from the dv2700t, but is there a certain processor that works best with the laptop?

lastly, are RAM upgrades difficult to do on your own? i.e. should I purchase it with less RAM and buy 4gbs of RAM and install it in myself? or would that be impossible for the dv4t?

thanks for your advice!

 

I don't know exactly how much longer the high-capacity 6-cell battery lasts than the normal 6-cell battery, but I guess it will give you additional 15~20 minutes. So, if you plan to use the dv4t with the battery a lot, I think the high-capacity 6-cell battery is worth the upgrade. If you plan to use the dv4t mostly at your work place or home, it is not worth the upgrade. One thing you should know is that you can't purchase the high-capacity 6-cell battery unless you buy it through HP's Parts Store. I got the high-capacity one.

The battery life depends on many factors. For example, if you use your notebook with the Wi-Fi function and Bluetooth function turned off, it should last longer. Your screen brightness will also affect the battery life. So, depending on how you use your notebook with the battery, you can see it last for more than 3 hours or less than 3 hours.

If you don't run or rarely run some CPU-demanding programs, I think the P8400 or P8600 is a great choice. You won't notice a huge difference in performance between the P8600 and the T9600 (or T9400) if you don't run some CPU-demanding programs very often.

Doing a RAM upgrade by yourself should not be difficult. You just have to remove the cover that protects the RAM sticks on the bottom of the dv4t and change the RAM. Choosing less RAM from HP and buying 4GB of RAM by yourself can save some money. You can do that. You might be interested in some nice RAM sticks at newegg.

 

Thanks for such a quick reply!

I was looking at some of the threads on the forums and I noticed a ton of complaints about the heat of the HDD and maybe even the wireless card? Is that *REALLY* an issue I should worry about? Will it be too hot to put on my lap when doing work?

Also one more question about batteries... can you buy a 12-cell battery for the dv4t yet? Has HP released one compatible for this model?

Thanks a lot!

 

Some dv4t users claim that their hard drives run without any heat issue, but I have the issue. And, I am the one you might have seen in the dv4t thread because I complained a lot about that in the thread.

I think you won't have this problem if you are lucky.

To me, it is really an issue. Right now, I don't have anything I have to type in for a long time, but I'm sure it will be very painful to type in something for a long time without any protection from the heat.

I hope you don't have this issue, but if you do have this issue and have to type in something for a long time, I suggest you put something between your left hand and the left side of the palmrest area because you might suffer from low-temperature burn.

I don't think you should put any laptop on your lap even if it is called an "LAP"top. Many notebook manufacturers say, "Don't put your notebook on your lap". That's because you can suffer from low-temperature burn or because you might block the vents through which air should pass.

About the batteries.... Right now, HP hasn't officially released 12-cell batteries for the dv4t series. But, I heard some people are planning to purchase them through HP's Parts Store. However, it seems like they are too expensive. I would wait until HP officially releases 12-cell batteries for the dv4t series.

 

HP claims that the Hi-Capacity 6-cell offer 16% more battery life than the standard 6-cell. If the standard one last 3:00, then the Hi-Capacity would last about 28-30 minutes longer. I haven't seen any reviews on the dv4t, so the dv5t is the closest reference I have.

The several reviews of the dv5t that I've seen show quite a variance in battery life. They range from as low as 2:30 up to 3:15. However, all of the dv5t's tested/reviewed have included the 512mb nVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics card. With the less powerful 9200M GS, battery life would improve a bit...and the standard Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics would have an even greater impact.

On a related note- HP will be offering a 12-cell battery upgrade in the near future, just as they did on the dv2700t and dv6700t. I'm not sure what's causing the delay, but plenty of existing and potential HP customers want and NEED it!

In my opinion, you really can't go wrong with any of the processors offfered. They're all from the new Intel "Montevina" line and even the base 2.0GHz P7350 is plenty poweful for all but the most demanding users. The ones with a model number beginning with "P" use less power than the "T" models. In the interest of battery life, stick to a "P" model.

I have a new dv7t and I chose the 2.26GHz P8400. I considered the P8600, but $50 for an increase of .14GHz didn't make much sense. The jump to a T9400 made even less sense ($150 more than the P8400 for .27GHz and 3mb L2..and uses more power/creates more heat). The P7350 or P8400 would be my suggestion.

RAM upgrades are very simple on most notebooks, including HP. Only two things to keep in mind- touch something metal before you touch the RAM modules to get rid of any static electricity AND don't be too forceful removing or re-installing anything!

At the moment, the dv4t gets a FREE upgrade from 2GB to 3GB of RAM. I have 3GB in my dv7t and it's more than enough to have Firefox, MediaPlayer or iTunes, Excel, Outlook AND QuickBooks running simultaneously without a hitch! I may decide to add more memory down the road (that's why I got Vista 64-bit) but for now 3GB is fine.

I'd suggest ordering it with the free 3GB and see how that works for you. Then, if for some reason you do need/want more, you can upgrade it anytime. Just DON'T pay for the 4GB upgrade thru HP- it's WAY overpriced at $125. You can buy 4GB for about $60 at newegg.com and do it yourself!

Hope this helps answer your questions. Have you decided which graphics option to get- the Intel integrated or discrete nVIDIA?

If you're planning to use the $500 coupon, it would be wise to place your order as soon as you can. HP coupons don't last very long and they can (and do) expire without warning!

 

thank you for your advice!

do you have any RAM advice for upgrades? does this look okay?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...C-DealNews&cm_mmc=AFC-DealNews-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

 

That wont work. 240 pins are all desktop memory. Look under the laptop section at newegg for 200pin DDR2 SODIMM's(DDR2 800 should do fine).

 

DDR2 800 works with the dv4t?

do you know if i can get as high as DDR2 1000?

 

Just curious here, has anyone gotten a dv4t with the Intel graphics? If so, two questions:

1. What kind of battery life do you get compared with the Nvidia graphics?

2. What is the performance of running some games (I have an ATI Xpress 200m and can run Doom3 with 20 - 30 fps)?

 

aeleneski...

I have the 9200M GS, so I can't answer your questions...
But, read the official dv4t thread. You should be able to find some posts about the Intel graphics. I think I saw some posts about it a few weeks ago.