dv6000 Improvements?

Well it's nearing that time now and I've been eyeing the dv6000t but have decided to hold off until the Centrino Pro refresh hits - my job profile has some really diverse demands and the dv6000 comes the closest to satisfying them all; adding Centrino Pro features would really cement this in my mind. However, if Toshiba were to refresh the Tecra M series to compete with the dv6000 series then I would buy another Toshiba, otherwise...

Does anyone know of any plans to refresh the dv6000 series with the Centrino Pro chipset (Santa Rosa)?

Also, given that this is the most popular laptop on this site, what, if any improvements would existing owners like to see in the next version?

Personally, I'd like to see the following:

• Upgrade to the nVidia 7600/8600 (when available)
• 7200 RPM HDD option available
• Solid State DD option available
• 3GB & 4GB memory options

Thanks,
Brad Turner

 

Well HP hasn't released any information about what they're going to do for Centrino Pro yet. In fact, I don't know of a single laptop manufacturer that has; Centrino Pro's release date hasn't even been set.

I would 100% buy a dv6000t if I see the 7200 RPM HD available, and a better video card. Maybe we should write a proposal, get signatures for the petition, and then send it to HP

 

I would definitely wait for the centrino pro refresh. It is supposed to be out
the second quarter of this year, from what I have read probably around April. With that you are going to get intel's new wireless n card which has already been released not to mention it is going to have wimax built into the chipset as well. Also nvidia is already sampling directx 10 mobile gpu's, which will probably come out at the same time. SSD's are also supposed to be released in the second quarter. I would be very surprised if the new chipset doesn't support more than 2GB of ram. If you buy one now you can't get more than 2GB from HP. 4GB of ram is going to quickly become the norm especially with everything moving to 64 bit. Even on top of that, the FSB is going to be bumped up to 800 mhz. I am definitely waiting to get a laptop with wireless n and directx 10 that supports more ram than 2GB.

 

Actually, WiMAX was originally planned to be part of the Santa Rosa platform, however, it was dropped and will not be out until 2008, when Intel releases the Montevina platform, which is the next generation of Centrino after Santa Rosa.

 

Agreed, one of the things I use my laptop a lot for is running virtual machines to do demo's or testing. Having more than 2GB of RAM would be a great boon here! At least the dual-core's work nicely in this arena, but having an SSD to run the OS from and perhaps a second large HDD to store VM's on would be ideal.

Brad Turner

 

You are correct about the WiMax, although I could live without that just give me the wireless n.

 

I don't know what I'd do on a computer with more than 2 GB RAM. I just don't need it. A refresh to stay on top of current technology is all I need

 

lol i agree

 

I see from your sig that you use the 6 cell battery, one of the reasons I really like the dv6000 is the 12 cell option. I use my 12 cell Toshiba Tecra M2 and it's awesome - I can still get over 5 hours of use after 3 years of charges. I also spend lots of time flying between customer sites or sitting in long meetings, so the added battery life is a nice benefit.

As for the 2GB, as I said, it comes in handy when running VM's, or when doing large documentation sets and you have Outlook, Word, Excel, and Visio all running along with several browser sessions.

Brad Turner

 

i dont need the 12 cell because im almost always by an outlet, if i travel, then i travel to another place where there is an outlet... and i do not want that huge bulky thing sticking out of the back, it would get very annoying!

 

If you're after 2 HDs then you should look at the dv9000 series. There just instant space in the dv6000 series for 2 HDs.

 

Thanks, the dv9000 is just too big to lug around for me. That's the problem in my line of work, 17" laptops are too big and 14.1" is too small - the 15.4" WS on the dv6000 is sweet spot (if only it had a slightly faster video card). My Toshiba Tecra M2 has an option to remove the DVD drive and insert a second HDD - this should be theoretically possible in the dv6000 as well since it's just an IDE interface. The M2 has served it's purpose and now it's time to upgrade and now I'm making my wish list.

Brad Turner

 

Yeah, I agree. 2GB of RAM is far more than enough for nearly any user...

 

I have a feeling that people will quickly revise that statement when they start running Vista. My 2GB desktop is now running Vista Ultimate and I'm idleing at nearly a GIG!

Mark my words, Vista will do to RAM what Windows 95 did way back when, lower the price of memory and double the average recommended baseline; 2GB will be the new "norm" soon.

 

Excellent article regarding memory and Vista performance:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vista-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/

Brad Turner

 

Okay, I agree with you there.

I'm using Vista 64-bit on my desktop, and I just noticed it's using about 700MB of RAM out of my total 1GB.

I'm sure once I install 2GB sometime, Windows will get comfy and spread out to use more space like it did when I upgraded RAM on my old notebook.