I have 2 of the previous generation of this laptop. It has some serious design flaws with the motherboard. The processor cooks the video chip causing bad connections resulting in loss of video. I have to wrap the laptop in blankets and leave it on for a couple of hours to melt the solder to get a connection again. The left hinge on both of them also broke, I assume that is also heat related as it is very close to the processor. Last HP I'll own.

I have a year old DV7 but mine has an Intel 2.26 dual core, and a radeon HD 4650, which is about the minimum for gaming, which it handles quite well. It's a bit difficult to find a laptop under a grand with a decent video card.
That said it is true that the fan/heat situation is a bit troublesome. My fan was not spinning a few days ago, but I seem to have fixed it with a lot of canned air and cursing.
It is a bit heavy, but I knew that I would not be trucking all over town with it. Students and addicts should stick with netbooks or tablets. I found a Swissgear by Wenger bag for about 35 bucks which enabled me to carry it to Florida. It wasn't NEAR as heavy as my suitcase! No problem tossing it in the car for the office (as if I had a job!).
I would say these and the Asus models are about the best bargain for gaming.

CoveAxe wrote:I have to echo the comment about this getting hot. This model is using the 45nm quad-core CPUs that get extremely hot. I know a few people who own these and they complain a lot about the heat and the battery life. If you're looking at this as a portable computer, forget it. Get yourself a dual-core i5/i7 laptop instead since it's 32nm and runs much much cooler.

If you're just going to stick this on a desk and won't move it much, then this is right up your alley.

And to echo another comment, you're going to want to uninstall most if not all of the HP software. It really is a resource hog. Preferably, you'll want to format it when you get it.

What are your thoughts on the Samsung's R580 with the Intel i5 430?
Or, as a bit of a cheaper alternative, Best Buy has the R580 with an i3, 500GB HDD and 4GB memory for $749.99.

Anyone have any thoughts, or experience with Samsung?

KidKobun wrote:What are your thoughts on the Samsung's R580 with the Intel i5 430?
Or, as a bit of a cheaper alternative, Best Buy has the R580 with an i3, 500GB HDD and 4GB memory for $749.99.

Anyone have any thoughts, or experience with Samsung?

Honestly, I didn't know Samsumg made a computer...

Edit: On doing more research they make 17 total notebooks

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/office/mobile-computing/notebooks/index.idx?pagetype=subtype

Despite running my HP DV7 24/7, and frequently running the dual cores at 90-100% (while converting videos), I've never had a problem with overheating but this seems to be a common complaint. Here's a suggestion: would a laptop cooling pad help? If you don't want to drain power off your laptop, run it off a USB wall adapter.

My friend invented a laptop cooling pad based on the standard fans and a Peltier cooling element. The Peltier cooler was bought off Woot for $4.99! Seems to work great, like an air conditioner rather than just a fan. It runs off the USB port.

anyting to say on this Woot Deal vs http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666180154&categoryId=8198552921644692000&XID=A:552179:10383604:TI3NrwoBCjUAABd6e@cAAAJt:CJ&ref=http://dealnews.com/Sony-VAIO-Core-i7-Quad-1.73-GHz-16-Laptop-for-1-000-free-shipping/389102.html

???

rileyper wrote:I found a hidden deal, since i read the descriptions :D

That hidden deal is not really that good. It's actually pretty bad.

shamcy wrote:That hidden deal is not really that good. It's actually pretty bad.

How is that?

froogled

Seems to be at least $120 shipped if you buy elsewhere.

KidKobun wrote:What are your thoughts on the Samsung's R580 with the Intel i5 430?
Or, as a bit of a cheaper alternative, Best Buy has the R580 with an i3, 500GB HDD and 4GB memory for $749.99.

Anyone have any thoughts, or experience with Samsung?

That Samsung looks good. Of all the models, at least it has a GeForce 310M, which is equivalent to the Radeon 4650.
If you game, stay away from Intel Graphics(plain), HD4500, GMX, all of that. If you doubt, go to notebookcheck.net and see for yourself. Any graphics rated middle midrange or above should do for most laptop gamers.

NightGhost wrote:How is that?

froogled

Seems to be at least $120 shipped if you buy elsewhere.

NG, Do you ever sleep? Or are you an insomniac like me?

cheroke55 wrote:Honestly, I didn't know Samsumg made a computer...

Edit: On doing more research they make 17 total notebooks

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/office/mobile-computing/notebooks/index.idx?pagetype=subtype

Yeah, I didn't know that either until I walked in there the other day looking for a new laptop. I am in desperate need of a new one. If anyone has any experience with them or thinks that it's a good deal, I'd love to have a second opinion. :3

Video card rant- since I'm a gamer, I assume everybody else is!
A word on laptops- DON'T use them on your lap! Most have vents on the bottom and need a flat, hard surface to cool properly. I have a small desk fan that I aim at mt computer if I'm doing video encoding or something intensive.
I see too many people plop their laptops on their beds...at least use a board or a stiff cooler!

KidKobun wrote:Yeah, I didn't know that either until I walked in there the other day looking for a new laptop. I am in desperate need of a new one. If anyone has any experience with them or thinks that it's a good deal, I'd love to have a second opinion. :3

I know they make quality TV's but nothing about their computers. Sorry.

cheroke55 wrote:I know they make quality TV's but nothing about their computers. Sorry.

No worries, but thanks for the response.

sdc100 wrote:The most graphics intensive thing I've displayed is a 1080p MKV video and it played smoothly (despite having 6 other things running in the background, incluidng Firefox with 82 tabs opened!).

Here is the CNET review, which states, "The good: Blu-ray player and dedicated graphics not normally included at this price; competitive application performance; nice-looking design; touch-sensitive media control keys."

So you're saying it allows you to have 82 separate explicit images open and a 1080p "movie" running at the same time without lag? I'm in.

For the price, the hardware layout, brand new despite the brand name... very nice. Quad core i7, bluray, 6g ddr3, nvidia graphics, 17" wide screen. It will run Starcraft II.

Quentin2 wrote:Video card rant- since I'm a gamer, I assume everybody else is!
A word on laptops- DON'T use them on your lap! Most have vents on the bottom and need a flat, hard surface to cool properly. I have a small desk fan that I aim at mt computer if I'm doing video encoding or something intensive.
I see too many people plop their laptops on their beds...at least use a board or a stiff cooler!

that goes without saying, no matter what you are doing with it. laying it on the carpet, a blanket, or even on your legs, if you're not careful, and you block the vents, and all hot air stays in and things get sad

Why does no one ever discuss the battery life on these over powered laptops? I'm guessing it is about five minutes on a full charge.

If I have to plug it in to use it, I'll stick with a desktop.

Terry47 wrote:RUN...don't walk from this woot. Cores x4 @ 1.6 ghz boostable to 2.8? And its i7? Not for $900. Invest in an Alienware laptop if you are gonna spend that kind of cash. NOT on this HP. Sorry guys but this one is a steal. Right outta your pocket!!!

rofl Alienware....yes spend 500 dollars more than the machine costs for shiny lights and glitter. If you're going to recommend something high end at least do something decent like a Sager NP8960. What a nublet.

How is this thing game-wise?

vixro wrote:So you're saying it allows you to have 82 separate explicit images open and a 1080p "movie" running at the same time without lag? I'm in.

"Explicit"? Well, if you consider monitoring neurological patients, their vitals, a couple of cell cultures, lots of medical databases, some music videos on YouTube, CNN, etc, etc and of course, Woot to be explicit, yeah they were pretty explicit. As opposed to implicit, I suppose.

As for the movie, it was Dark City ripped from a BluRay disc and it played at full screen without lag. Of course, I only got to watch for 15 mins before work beckoned. Another 1080p MKV of American Psycho played similarly well. 720p videos also played well. The videis varied in size from 1gig - 8 gigs I used Media Player Classic.

Two things to keep in mind: My version has an inferior CPU (only a Dual Core AMD Turion) and only 4 gigs of RAM, and most likely, an inferior graphics card. But mine does have a faster HD at 7200rpm. I'd assume that this would be way better but you never know. I simply don't have enough experience to say for sure so don't buy this based on my viewing of a few movies.

I have this laptop without the bluray and I love it! With the bluray - even better!

mikehsk wrote:Why does no one ever discuss the battery life on these over powered laptops? I'm guessing it is about five minutes on a full charge.

If I have to plug it in to use it, I'll stick with a desktop.

My dual core version runs for about 2 hours without any power saving turned on (i.e. maximum brightness -- although it does blank out after 10 mins of inactivity), and doing lots of graphics work. in other words, CPU intensive and lots of disk access. My guess is that you can squeeze another hour if you use the maximum power saving profile. This quad core CPU uses more energy than my dual core AMD but this 5400rpm drive uses less energy than my 7200rpm hd. If you can turn off 3 of the 4 cores, you'd save lots of energy .. but of course, you'd end up with a really large netbook.

The LED backlighting probably helps save a lot of energy. The screen certainly feels cooler than my other laptops which are backlit with fluorescent tubes.

WaddellWoot wrote:WARNING!!! Both NVIDIA & HP have pending lawsuits for defective NVIDIA graphics chips over heating and failing after 2-3 years. The screen goes black & will also cause the laptop to shut down. I have one now that worked perfectly for 2 years until a month ago then went belly up. There are fixes but many times they don't work or the damage to the motherboard and sometimes processor is beyond repair. Both the CPU & NVIDIA chip share a single heat-sync. Check online for HP Black Screen or NVIDIA Black Screen. This is a major concern with any pc which has a NVIDIA chip. HP isn't bad as long as you stay away from models with NVIDIA! Note: Neither HP or NVIDIA have extended a recall on this problem so once the warranty expires so does the PC! I'll go with a Toshiba next time!

DITTO...my dv7 overheated and shut down all the time...pos! Hp's are junk....sold it on craigeslist.

kcfoster wrote:I have 2 of the previous generation of this laptop. It has some serious design flaws with the motherboard. The processor cooks the video chip causing bad connections resulting in loss of video. I have to wrap the laptop in blankets and leave it on for a couple of hours to melt the solder to get a connection again. The left hinge on both of them also broke, I assume that is also heat related as it is very close to the processor. Last HP I'll own.

But you don't have this one, so unless they are using the same chasis, etc., your comment means little.

NightGhost wrote:How is that?

froogled

Seems to be at least $120 shipped if you buy elsewhere.

At $119, it's not that great. A few months ago, I bought a 2gb GreenDrive for about $109 (after rebate) and it has eSATA, which this doesn't. Newegg does offer a rebate making the final cost $99, which makes it a good deal if you're willing to settle for "Turbo USB 2.0."

The problem with this Hitachi is that the speed, cache size, etc isn't listed so you really can't compare its performance with other similarly priced drives. I, for one, cannot go back to USB speeds after having gotten used to eSATA. In fact, one of the major reasons I bought an earlier version of this HP multimedia laptop is because it has eSATA, which is still rare in laptops. I need it because I do a lot of video editing off an external drive and streaming data across USB really slows down the process. It's also painfully slow when backing up lots of data.

I have had the worst computing and support experience in my life thanks to this very laptop.

It started in January, when the first one i ordered would run for about 15 minutes [watching videos on that lovely bd-rom] and i would get screen flashes, win7 saying that the display driver stopped working but recovered. This quickly accelerated to full-stop with no chance of recovery on the advice of their tech support, whose supposed fixes successfully destroyed a month's worth of work just in time for tour.

The second machine came 6 weeks [really!] later after my tour which i had to resort to buying a different (and so far flawless) Asus with an i7. There was no claim of being broken or overheated or anything, but i would say the motherboard fried by the time they were done diagnosing it or something, because this was a new machine again. But you see, the i7 is a very hot processor, it needs more than one pimpy, quarter-sized vent on the bottom to get adequate circulation. Even the lowest end i7 is hotter than the fastest Core2 Duo. Unfortunately even with the fans running as much as they can with such poor case ventilation, the CPU, GPU, and BD all emit more than enough heat to destroy your life's work if you're pushing the machine even a little bit. Plan on gaming with it? Good luck. My second machine started flipping out about 2 weeks into light usage, again mostly as an expensive BD-player and primarily internet. I went ahead and installed Torchlight on it just to have something to test it with and about 10 minutes into play the volume and tone controls started functioning on their own, each time the on-screen display being triggered and dropping me back to desktop. HP claimed it could be fixed by software YET AGAIN and i demanded a refund, which took at least 6 hours to get through to no less than 3 different techs and finally a manager, who still didn't want to give me a refund. Instead he insisted going through the boot manager disc he would send for free before moving forward with a refund or further service.

Fast forward to now, i just received the disc a few days ago and cannot get the machine to boot. i figure the HD died or something.

I hope that your machines do more for you than just break, and i realize i'm kinda late in posting this anecdotal evidence. But i'm not the first, you'll see plenty of bad reviews for the entire DV line of HP laptops if you search for them. If at all possible, i would advise getting your money back before the crap starts happening and drop $100 more for a better brand. HP will never have any of my money ever again.

Terry47 wrote:RUN...don't walk from this woot. Cores x4 @ 1.6 ghz boostable to 2.8? And its i7? Not for $900. Invest in an Alienware laptop if you are gonna spend that kind of cash. NOT on this HP. Sorry guys but this one is a steal. Right outta your pocket!!!

Just a quick note: Even tho core i7's look nice and work well, they are really designed for multi tasking above anything else. With each core you have more processing power for different applications, but a lot of applications on the market are not designed to take proper advantage to quad core.

A good example is that I have a friend with a triple core 2.1ghz and she can't even play farmville without massive load times and freezing of flash. Granted farmville is a pos in its own, but this is also attributed to the low clock speeds.

As to over clocking a laptop from a 1.6 to a 2.8, I really would not recommended it. If it was meant to be at those speeds they would surely market it that high and raise the price. Higher clock speed means more power used and much higher temps. In a laptop this isn't usually a good thing.

Just my 3 cents.

darkinc wrote:Just a quick note: Even tho core i7's look nice and work well, they are really designed for multi tasking above anything else. With each core you have more processing power for different applications, but a lot of applications on the market are not designed to take proper advantage to quad core.

A good example is that I have a friend with a triple core 2.1ghz and she can't even play farmville without massive load times and freezing of flash. Granted farmville is a pos in its own, but this is also attributed to the low clock speeds.

As to over clocking a laptop from a 1.6 to a 2.8, I really would not recommended it. If it was meant to be at those speeds they would surely market it that high and raise the price. Higher clock speed means more power used and much higher temps. In a laptop this isn't usually a good thing.

Just my 3 cents.

Just FYI, all core7s scale in speed this way. You don't overclock anything, the processor does it automatically, it's called turbo boost.

Also, lower clocked multicore processors don't run worse than higher clocked ones with fewer processors, and farmville is not a processing powerhouse, it's a piece of crap, so I doubt her chugging is due to the processor, it's more likley bad zynga programming.

Would not recommend. The HP DV series is notorious for overheating, due to a poor design with the nVidia chip heatsink. Just look up anything regarding "HP DV black screen".

Just recently had to buy a new laptop because of this problem. Motherboard was beyond repair. Repair guy said he had seen many customers bring in the DV series with that problem; some could be fixed, some not.

HP HP HP = Heat Heat Heat = Junk Junk Junk

kcfoster wrote:I have 2 of the previous generation of this laptop. It has some serious design flaws with the motherboard. The processor cooks the video chip causing bad connections resulting in loss of video. I have to wrap the laptop in blankets and leave it on for a couple of hours to melt the solder to get a connection again. The left hinge on both of them also broke, I assume that is also heat related as it is very close to the processor. Last HP I'll own.

Sheesh. Sounds similar to my first real laptop (an old Dell from 2001 or so) that got so hot that it melted the rubber feet off the bottom of the computer. That was quite an experience.

I'm not a frequent commenter but have bought about 20 things from this website over the last couple of years.

I have a question for the Woot Staff.

What is up with all of these super expensive Woots? I don't come here to buy laptops and deskop computers every day and certainly not for refurb Phillips TVs.

Woot seems to have lost it's way as to what made it great.

Sorry to see that this website has decided to move in this direction.

It is a shame.....

I have come to this website every day for the last 2 years. Now I'm thinking about removing this bookmark from my laptop.

These are very good specs for the price. HOWEVER, I have given up on HP and Dell (or any other brand) consumer laptops. They are just garbage anymore (I work on them so I see a lot). I would definitely spend a few extra bucks and get a business laptop. They are a lot more rugged, solid, and generally much higher quality. I know it's harder to find one with all of the entertainment features like this one, but if you can custom build one (and have a promotional code to save some money) you will have a laptop that will last a lot longer and cause you fewer problems. Plus you can get descent screen resolution. The current crop of consumer laptops all have surprisingly low resolution screens.

WaddellWoot wrote:WARNING!!! Both NVIDIA & HP have pending lawsuits for defective NVIDIA graphics chips over heating and failing after 2-3 years. The screen goes black & will also cause the laptop to shut down. I have one now that worked perfectly for 2 years until a month ago then went belly up. There are fixes but many times they don't work or the damage to the motherboard and sometimes processor is beyond repair. Both the CPU & NVIDIA chip share a single heat-sync. Check online for HP Black Screen or NVIDIA Black Screen. This is a major concern with any pc which has a NVIDIA chip. HP isn't bad as long as you stay away from models with NVIDIA! Note: Neither HP or NVIDIA have extended a recall on this problem so once the warranty expires so does the PC! I'll go with a Toshiba next time!

I have to agree with you. I have a HP Pavilion TX1000 with a NVIDIA chip and I had to replace it Twice (thanks to warranty )!! My 6 year old HP laptop I bought from Walmart, still works!! I don't understand. I after my warrenty ends, I am going to buy an Acer or a Toshiba laptop.

radi0j0hn wrote:You bought a knock off, not an iPad. Enjoy.

Agreed

I bought one of these with very high hopes. They turned out to be total junk. My Droid cell phone is twice the iPad wannabe that this thing was. I say "was" because I sent it back.

It was truly terrible. No one wants anything that runs like a 486 computer in this day and age which is exactly how the the thing functioned.

omnipotentq wrote:Highly disagree on the Alienware bit. I have had three (yes, 3) replacements for a top of the line m17x that all have had various hardware problems stemming from their motherboards and graphics cards. The one I'm on right now barely functions, but I'm sick and tired of calling Dell every 2 weeks to get them to send me another new one because of the problems its having.

Lenovo, on the other hand, I can't say enough good things about. 2+ years on a little laptop from them, and the only thing its needed is a keyboard replaced since I use it 16-18 hours/day.

You're on your laptop for 16-18 hours a day? How is that even possible?

jjj611 wrote:I recently had my first experience with HP customer support. I had been given a pair of HP wireless mice and neither worked. I called in, did the troubleshooting and during the call probably spent half an hour on silent holds for an unknown reason. Overall the call took an hour and fifteen minutes.

They decided to replace one to make sure it wasn't the computer and then replace the second after I had tested the first. When I called in again I got the pleasure of spending over an hour again while I did the exact same troubleshooting/silent holding.

Obviously this may not be the case with their laptops but I will no longer purchase any HP products based on this experience.

Spent 5 hours on phone to Dell over a bad laptop. Hung up on me 3 times, kept on hold for 4 of the 5 hours, tech accused me of lying about the spelling of my name (if you can believe that one). Overall, I'd rather someone poke me in the eye with a sharp stick.

Mescalero wrote:You're on your laptop for 16-18 hours a day? How is that even possible?

Lets see, Meth, Coke (not the drink), etc...

RidgeChris wrote:I'm not a frequent commenter but have bought about 20 things from this website over the last couple of years.

I have a question for the Woot Staff.

What is up with all of these super expensive Woots? I don't come here to buy laptops and deskop computers every day and certainly not for refurb Phillips TVs.

Woot seems to have lost it's way as to what made it great.

Sorry to see that this website has decided to move in this direction.

It is a shame.....

I have come to this website every day for the last 2 years. Now I'm thinking about removing this bookmark from my laptop.

I just looked through the last 15 Woots and they don't seem too different from what I've seen in the past. The prices range from about $7 to $899 (this laptop). Lots of their regular stuff: Roombas, TVs, camcorders, laptops.