dv7 for $800!!!! Wats the catch?

Hello All....

I hv never posted in this forum but it had been a gr8 help whenever I had any laptop related problem or wanted to buy one.......

I am helping out my frnd who wants a mid-level gaming laptop....I saw this deal on newegg for a dv7-4296nr at $800

Config:
HP Pavilion dv7-4296nr Notebook
Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz
17.3"
4GB Memory DDR3
500GB HDD 5400rpm
DVD Super Multi
AMD Radeon HD 6570M 1 GB DDR5 (thr is absolutely no info on this graphics card...not even on notebookcheck.com)

I can see dv7's sold by HP costing a lot more (~1000) with of course higher RAM and HDD, but the newegg one seemed a gud fit.......
I was just wondering if this is a gud deal or is thr some catch here.....any kind of help appreciated......

I apologize if I posted this into the wrong sub-forum...

Regards,
Zed

 

It is very similar to moving out last year's automobile stock.... nothing is wrong other than it is last year's chassis (but the CPU IS a SB!). However no USB 3.0, and the (6000) GPUs have gotten better. The Trackpad buttons are of questionable design, and need to be gotten used to. It is a NICE laptop if you understand the limitations of what you are buying ... not necessarily a BAD thing... at a good price

 

with 30% off on the new dv7's at HP.com (NB4151) plus the 3.6% off using fatwallet...you can get a new dv7qe for basically the same price (give or take $70 dollars).

I'd recommend that. Plus I think you mixed the 5 and 7 up...i think the graphics card is a 6750M. HP has been offering that or the 6770M ($25 more) since around January (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

@Jerohm
Thnks Jerohm
Can you pls explain wat do u mean by "last year's chassis", it looks really similar to the dv7t sold rt now.....I saw the SB in there and the 6-Series graphics chip and thought this was pretty new, a 5400 RPM HDD isnt pretty bad, is it?......
Also it pretty odd tht even HP.com doesnt hv this config, so maybe it is old...

@obscurehero
I am sorry, I totally forgot to add the newegg link in here:
Newegg.com - HP Pavilion dv7-4296nr Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 6570M
Well, it is a 6570, but no other laptop is using this chip (I find tht a bit fishy)....THe current HP deals r pretty gud, but actually my frnd increased his budget to $800, I dont think he can go any further.....we r still students
Thnks for ur advice obscurehero

 

the 4000(5000 dv7t??) series is what they offered in Jan 2011 and is silver. The 6000 series (the refreshed dv6t/dv7t) started shipping in Mar 2011 and is brown. There is a lot of confusion in pictures being posted. If you KNOW the actual color, you can easily determine if it is a 4000 series or 6000 series ... and you already stated it was a 4000 series. The 6570M IS the GPU that shipped with the 4000(5000 dv7t??) Sandy Bridge models and you should be able to google "6570m ati"

 

Thank you Jerohm for the explanation.....I had no idea bout tht......Hmm so this being a Jan 2011 model, this wouldnt contain those defective SB chips (i think it happened in the same time frame), would they?

 

yes, but they were recalled and I am SURE they are only selling models with updated support chips. I wouldn't worry about THAT. The trackpad is another story ... The buttons are integrated with the Trackpad as a single piece. I found them too hard to push and use the trackpad... even though I use a wireless mouse 95% of the time. I think the older silver series is probably more roadworthy, but doesn't offer quite the same state of the art components (GPU/USB 3.0) ... which may, or may not make a difference to you.

 

Tht was assuring, thnks Jerohm....
The touchpad seems like sth he shud get used to......the reviews dont speak well of it, but also read tht recent Synaptic drivers hv mitigated the issue a bit.....
Would you hv ne idea about the GPU: how gud it is or wat it is compared to......Surprsingly notebookcheck.com doesnt say much....
THnks again....

 

I have the dv7-4294nr And the specs are pretty much the same. So far I'm loving it like a few people have said the track pad is a little iffy, but the drivers make up for it (i generally use a mouse either way)

Everything else is pretty awesome, I don't play very demanding games but all of the steam games i have (l4d, l4d2, hl2, portal, portal2, bioshock, bioshock 2, crysis runs decent on full settings at 1600x900 a little lag sometimes, deep space 2 runs good at full settings a little lag as well sometimes) Generally great performance.

Next notebook I will purchase is an envy 17, if you can afford it i would jump for that as well.
If you don't have the money the dv7 is your best bet. I got a quick ship model because I needed it for school immediately, if you can wait order one of the customizable models if the price point is okay.

 

Now tht sums it up.......
Tht is usually wat we play too.....I guess this will definitely convince my frnd to go for this......
We tried configuring the dv5qe and dv7qe, but it didnt match our budget irrespective of the coupons we used.....so I guess this is the safest bet for now.....
Just few more things, I just want to know the quality of the speakers.....is the bass any good...??...Also I heard about coolsense in HP laptops, is it only limited to the Envy series?
Thnk you so much fauxsoul

 

So the speakers are pretty good really, the bass is better than I've heard in any notebook.

Coolsense is also included in the dv7. To be honest hp's coolsense isn't that amazing. It only really gives you a few options and is really kind of dumbed down. I have my computer set to fan always on, in my opinion I would take a little noise over heat any day. Even when i have the fan on conservatively it doesn't tend to run hot either way.

With fans always on while on balanced setting while typing this the temps are:
System : 125f, 52c
CPU : 113-125f, 45-52c
GPU : 112f, 44c

Btw windows predicts I have about 2.5 hours of batter time left, I had my notebook running on high performance doing autocad work for about an hour so I can expect about 4-4.5 hours.. (I am using an SSD as boot drive btw...)