coolbro12389 wrote:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1883068&CatId=4938

same price at tigerdirect

Not really...it's $499 AFTER rebates.

Can this support Skype when conference calling (with those calling in on webcams)? - I can't see enough of the specs. thanks

coolbro12389 wrote:i thought they had horrible support period :P

Blueray is not supported on Ubuntu or any distro.

bovidsta wrote:If you don't mind your brand new laptop being dead in 18 months, by all means, buy an HP.

If you don't want to have to replace it that soon, buy a different brand.

Seriously, any quick search on failure rates of lap tops will make you think twice..

It's all about planned obsolescence with laptops- all brands are guilty of this. I have seen issue with HP, Acer and Toshiba but I'm sure that it is not just limited to those brands. It's just trying to turn over the market, and after 2-3 years things go wrong that are not easily replaced by most users like ribbon cables for displays, or displays themselves, or motherboard issues- these end up costing $150+ to repair if you need to take it to a shop. After a couple years though is it worth putting $150+ back into a laptop that was $500 when bought, when now you can go out and buy one that is better spec-wise for $350 today? At least it makes for a good excuse to get a new toy.

jcasaurus wrote:because openoffice is garbage

Look it's free, and considering what it can do- it's pretty decent- although Libre Office is better.

pfxk wrote:Any idea how long this seemingly small battery lasts?

I have a similar HP laptop with the same battery. The battery generally lasts 2 - 2 1/2 hours, which is enough to watch a few shows on Hulu or do a fair amount of web surfing/buying things from Woot.

jengl wrote:Can this support Skype when conference calling (with those calling in on webcams)? - I can't see enough of the specs. thanks

Skype will work just fine on single calls. I'd expect it to run suitably if not perfectly on conference calls.

I remember when just a Blu-Ray player use to cost $449.99! Keeping that in mind, this is a steal of a Woot!

frericjk wrote:I'm pretty much computer illiterate as far as specifics go. Basically I have a couple really simple questions. Can this thing play a DVD too? And overall is it worth it for normal web browsing, Internet video watching, and Microsoft word processing? It seems like a good deal but after reading some of the comments here I'm not sure. Thanks!

This computer is ideal for basic computer usage. It is perfectly suited for playing DVD's or Bluray. You'll never find something you can't do while doing normal web browsing or streaming video. Microsoft Word comes pre-installed (trial version; you'd need to buy an activation key after 90 days).

Just bought one of these (with-out) the blu-ray and refurbished from newegg for 399 no tax no shipping. It's a pretty nice laptop, can't really beat the price. however it's 1600x900 resolution which is less than max blu-ray output, it will still look really good. http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A4-3300M-Notebook-Processor.55741.0.html says it's just above 2 generations old, really good processors. Battery lasts for about 3 hours, For basic tasks, streaming and playing movies it will suffice.

Just hope you don't ever have to use HP tech support. They are the WORST!!!!

Wondering if this HP notebook is like the HP laptops which have difficulty connecting to wireless networks unless they're just a few feet away from the router with no walls in between

Great information availble here this morning!
I'm looking to replace an elderly desktop at a reasonable price,so this could do it for me. Anyone have any experience or advice on one of those TV tuner sticks? I have a Digital Transport Adapter from Comcast, so I want something that I can cable from the DTA to the tuner. I am in an area where I can't use an antenna to pick up over the air signals. You can tell from my question that I have very limited technical skills so any info would be helpful.

/thumbs up/ if the Bounty ad featuring a juicer reminds you to check woot.

gusvonpooch wrote:Great information availble here this morning!
I'm looking to replace an elderly desktop at a reasonable price,so this could do it for me. Anyone have any experience or advice on one of those TV tuner sticks? I have a Digital Transport Adapter from Comcast, so I want something that I can cable from the DTA to the tuner. I am in an area where I can't use an antenna to pick up over the air signals. You can tell from my question that I have very limited technical skills so any info would be helpful.

Did you ever think of using something like a slingbox or vulkano. Basically you hook cable box into this item and it sends it over the network (and internet) and you can control the cable box and change channels remotely from the PC. I have this item and it works great:
http://www.myvulkano.com/products_volcano_flow.html

ThunderThighs wrote:Isn't this a great community? Group hug!

God bless us...every one!

Meh. For $100 more I just got an ACER that's 50% faster and has 8GB ram.

Anyone use this as their entertainment system? That is, hook it to a TV and play blu-rays/DVDs, or stream Netflix or downloaded content, etc. Looking for a quiet computer I can leave hooked to my TV and receiver in the living room. Not really going to play games on it. What else would I need besides the computer - like software or adapters? Thanks.

bugbytescafe wrote:I purchased this unit in August...It has crashed twice! Not happy at all...

Only twice!!! I'm impressed. Our system(s) do that and more in a day.

maybejet wrote:Only twice!!! I'm impressed. Our system(s) do that and more in a day.

Time to fire your IT staff and get some competent folks.

Agree with the comment "it's ok for the price". Basically if you want a cheap laptop that has blu-ray then this deal is ok for that. Just want to point out that the average technology life of a laptop is 18 months to 3 years as opposed to 2 to 5 years for a desktop. The lower side of those ranges covers laptops like this one. The processor is lower end but not lowest. Memory at 6 gb is good, hard drive at 500gb is good. This laptop will get you through about 2 years imo.

honestmonkey wrote:Anyone use this as their entertainment system? That is, hook it to a TV and play blu-rays/DVDs, or stream Netflix or downloaded content, etc. Looking for a quiet computer I can leave hooked to my TV and receiver in the living room. Not really going to play games on it. What else would I need besides the computer - like software or adapters? Thanks.

For the blu-ray, HP should have software included, Windows has mediacenter, if you add downloaded movie files you may need to install a codec pack like Shark or K-lite or CCC, if you notice they don't play in mediacenter- but I would not bother with a codec pack unless playing your files is a problem. You will need a mediacenter remote (newegg has them ,for about $20-$30- get one with an IR USB receiver just in case you need to position the receiver in a certain place in your media center (the laptop may have one built it but it may get obscured in your setup). If you want OTA digital TV you will need to buy a USB tuner- just read the reviews and make sure it integrates well with windows 7 mediacenter- most do- but read the reviews- dont go cheap (also Newegg or Amazon for this). Finally 2 HDMI cables if you have an AV receiver with good HDMI switching-laptop to receiver then receiver to TV. for and older receiver 1 HDMI PC to TV, and either optical or RCA audio from TV to receiver (optical preferred). Then just run set-up in windows 7 mediacenter. Sometimes bluray software needs to run separately from mediacenter (just FYI). Besides the remote, a wireless keyboard with a built in trackball is something I add to my mediacenters also.

First off very amusing description

But I work at a place that gets government off lease computer and I can assure you hp Is the worst brand by far to the point when we get them we assume they have bad video already and hp doesn'trepair after warranty even though it's clearly a design flaw we have gotten in maybe 100 and a handful will be working and these are three year old laptops yet we get IBM r40s that are 2001 and dell d600 that are 2003 and the large majority of then are still working

My recommendation buy a Lenovo they aren't as shiny and pretty but man can they take a beating and last a Long time and I'm worried dell is going down the same road as hp worrying about the shiny case instead of what's inside


Sorry about typos on an iphone

It's an AMD APU chip. The graphics GPU is actually located in the APU (CPU + GPU = APU) chip. This setup actually does very well over Intel's integrated graphics. The faster the RAM...the better the graphics performance you'll get.

Should be fine for mild gaming...at mid to low settings. I'm talking about games like first shooter games, not FB games. Gaming on laptops seems at little like NASCAR racing in mini-vans or SUV's. It Not what they were designed specifically for. You can do it...but don't expect the performance of a specifically designed race car/laptop. Most gaming designed laptops easily cost between 1,000 to 1,500, and some over 2,000. For this price....your getting a decent all around setup. Please be realistic in your expectations.

ionman wrote:Time to fire your IT staff and get some competent folks.

That was a snap judgment without having all of the facts. In my experience it does no good to ask a user a general question like "how is your computer doing?" Because the answer will invariably be something like "it crashes all the time" or "it runs really slow". A deeper analysis quite often finds that the hardware is not at fault. More often it is the software or the user that is at fault. If they are using proprietary software, IT usually has little to do with the problem. In that case it's more likely the software vendor that needs to fix their software. Disparaging the IT department is the easy thing to do, but the IT department needs full cooperation and at least some basic knowledge level from the users.

thrill wrote:That was a snap judgment without having all of the facts. In my experience it does no good to ask a user a general question like "how is your computer doing?" Because the answer will invariably be something like "it crashes all the time" or "it runs really slow". A deeper analysis quite often finds that the hardware is not at fault. More often it is the software or the user that is at fault. If they are using proprietary software, IT usually has little to do with the problem. In that case it's more likely the software vendor that needs to fix their software. Disparaging the IT department is the easy thing to do, but the IT department needs full cooperation and at least some basic knowledge level from the users.

Lol I work it and we do not expect any basic computer knowledge from our users if we did we'd be in trouble I get the this is broken fix it lol

philipthegreat wrote:This computer is ideal for basic computer usage. It is perfectly suited for playing DVD's or Bluray. You'll never find something you can't do while doing normal web browsing or streaming video. Microsoft Word comes pre-installed (trial version; you'd need to buy an activation key after 90 days).

Or download OpenOffice for free. Basically it's an opensource product that is compatible with MS Office products, so you can open any MS file with it and save a document as an MS compatible file (.DOC, .XLS, etc.). I believe it is even compatible with the new office suite file extensions (.DOCX, .XlSX, etc.). At least check it out before shelling out money for MS Office if Word is the only thing you need. Just Google Open Office.

gotthumbs wrote:Or download OpenOffice for free. Basically it's an opensource product that is compatible with MS Office products, so you can open any MS file with it and save a document as an MS compatible file (.DOC, .XLS, etc.). I believe it is even compatible with the new office suite file extensions (.DOCX, .XlSX, etc.). At least check it out before shelling out money for MS Office if Word is the only thing you need. Just Google Open Office.

Agrees with this 100% never buy office again and he's correct does work with all old extensions and the new ones

theguruguys wrote:I've been trying to find comparably priced laptops with a blu-ray drive. There are some with the I3-330M which scores almost identically to this system as far as speed, but not many out there. Without the blu-ray drive there are many with faster processors in this price range.

Feel free to post some links to alternatives with an i3, I seriously doubt you will find a $450 laptop with and i5 and bluray drive, but feel free to surprise me!

The i3 does not have the integrated GPU that this APU has. Check out some REAL reviews at sites like AnandTech, or TomsHardware. Intel graphics are historically BAD, bad, bad. Now look for an Intel system with Nvidia GPU....whats the cost? You pay lots more for just the Intel name. Buy what you want, but AMD has always provided me with the power I've ever needed.

thrill wrote:That was a snap judgment without having all of the facts. In my experience it does no good to ask a user a general question like "how is your computer doing?" Because the answer will invariably be something like "it crashes all the time" or "it runs really slow". A deeper analysis quite often finds that the hardware is not at fault. More often it is the software or the user that is at fault. If they are using proprietary software, IT usually has little to do with the problem. In that case it's more likely the software vendor that needs to fix their software. Disparaging the IT department is the easy thing to do, but the IT department needs full cooperation and at least some basic knowledge level from the users.

Dude- IT gets no respect. They are the fall guy for everything. I'm a pharmacist in a very technologically advanced hospital, and I hear first hand what gets reported and blamed on IT. Physicians, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dietary, Admissions- they all let you have it. So my apologies (even though the comment was not from me) to IT people. People need to own up to what their technological limit of understanding is, and not blame someone else when they get frustrated.

Looking to see if it shows those sweet angles on SKype if you know what I'm saying@!

thesidefxs wrote:I've been holding off for 5 years with a SONY VAIO Vista laptop that runs very slow. Today's Woot is tempting.

Would love to know how loud the speakers are.

If you haven't wiped your computer in 5 years....guaranteed its slow. Since laptop memory is dirt cheap...you could look at upgrading memory for maybe $40 and do a fresh install.

If you can get your hands on a Win7 disk, you'll do even better. If you or someone you know is attending a university, Some colleges give students DEEP discounts on MS OS and Office products...I'm talking like 10.00 to download Win7 or 20.00 for the DVD.

Was a little annoyed at first seeing this deal, just bought the refurb on sell-out for $520 a few days ago, but looking at the details, happier with that one for what I'll be using it for.

My last experience with HP was a work laptop, I got it used and beat up already, it ran for 3+ more years with me, then the controller for the CD drive died. My work replaced the chassis and I used that one for several months without issue. I forget the model though.
Overall I think the machine lasted well, given my work involved extensive air travel, and it had seen more miles in its life than most.

Made sure to get the SquareTrade warranty on the refurb I got from sell-out though, given that it will NOT be replaced at the drop of a hat like my work machine if/when it bites the dust ;)

This is a great computer, esp for media and things. I my laptop is very similar to this one, the only difference being that mine has a faster processor. For those non-techy people 1.9 ghz is fast, but for alot of games and programs that require more cpu space this isnt the computer for you. Mine runs at 2.6 ghz and it can barely handle all the things i throw at it (albeit the graphics card isnt super amazing but still). But for your basics and media needs thins is a great computer

martyflynn3 wrote:Lol I work it and we do not expect any basic computer knowledge from our users if we did we'd be in trouble I get the this is broken fix it lol

Exactly my point. Users do not help so basing an opinion about IT staff from someone who appears to be a user and not an IT person saying their computer crashes a lot is basing an opinion on someone who is basically without knowledge.

According to this website, the processor isn't that good. I have always preferred Intel over AMD either way. But it is still a great deal for the price!
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A4-3300M-Notebook-Processor.55741.0.html

Someone was wondering about the speakers. I have two HP laptops, one 13" and one 17", and they both have excellent sound quality and really good projection. I would say that my 17" sounds almost as good as my desktop with speakers. I've never had an HP laptop I didn't love, so at this price, you're getting a gem. Wish I had the Simoleons, I'd buy another one at this price!

Buyers be warned: I have a UEFI enabled HP laptop only thing is you cannot use custom UEFI binaries with HP. They only allow signed .efi programs to be ran(at least on mine). They might have changed this but I am not sure.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/305869/Lenovo-G570-4334-9MU-Laptop-Computer/

For $370, the i3 CPU on this lenovo is close to 3000 passmark score, while the AMD processor on this woot machine is close to 2000.

It is also a Lenovo, which is generally a lot more reliable than HP labtops.

honestmonkey wrote:Anyone use this as their entertainment system? That is, hook it to a TV and play blu-rays/DVDs, or stream Netflix or downloaded content, etc. Looking for a quiet computer I can leave hooked to my TV and receiver in the living room. Not really going to play games on it. What else would I need besides the computer - like software or adapters? Thanks.

My "TV" is an old (2006) HP desktop. I love it, it's the best thing ever.

-I don't have pay-for TV, but if you have and want that, a TV tuner will connect you to your TV channels.

-Bought a wireless keyboard and mouse so I could easily switch between Netflix and Hulu, or pick a .avi file that's on my computer, or play a DVD.

-Bought a shiny 23" monitor to go with it, but you can hook up whatever you want (I have low-maintanence TV needs...).

Someone mentioned Media Center. I have Windows XP Media Center, and I don't think I've actually used MC once. I do hop around Netflix and Hulu a lot, so MC would be useless, but...you might find it useful. But I found that a keyboard/mouse and Firefox are a better bet.