gak0090 wrote:That's my point though. If you're going to go all high end on everything and then cut corners on a device that would complete the system- just doesn't make sense. Would you buy a $70K Porsche and put aluminum hubcaps on it, because the wheels would increase the price to $72K? If so then you are Gangnam style:

It's not all high end on everything. The graphics card being intel integrated, cuts costs. The chassis build, cuts cost. The omission of blu-ray and SSD cuts cost. This is a BUDGET machine with tons of power for people who need a fast reliable machine for cheap. You won't find these specs with all the goodies you seem to want for under $1,200-$1,500. Heck, Apple sells a machine with a 13" screen and no guts for $1,300!

Bought one last offering. Put a solid state hard drive in it and moved original drive into second bay. Love it, except it is a little big for traveling. (Boot time 25 seconds with all the software loaded on it with the soldid state hard drive.)

sdc100 wrote:This is a near-perfect desktop replacement at a great price. Being nit-picky, here are my minor quibbles:

1) Drive doesn't record or even play Blu-Rays. That's surprising since HP has always used Blu-Ray playable drives in their high-end laptops.

2) NO multimedia buttons, which probably means that you'll have to use software buttons to control media functions.

3) Hard drive is 5400rpm which saves energy but may not be fast enough for media editing. A 7200rpm is better for desktop replacements.

4) Has Windows 7, not Windows 8. The jury is still out on which is better.

5) Uses "island" style keys, which used to be derisively called "chiclet keys" after the gum. They were a sign of a cheap computer and may have even doomed the IBM PC Jr ("Peanut"). Touch typists generally prefer normal full travel keys.

6) No eSATA port for a 7200rpm external drive. While USB3.0 may be faster on paper, it may bog down with multiple USB devices connected. eSATA/SATA is dedicated to drives.

These are minor quibbles and I would grab it if I had the money.

Regarding #6 - unless you have an SSD as an external drive, you will not come close to saturating that USB 3.0 bus, I don't care how many other things you have plugged into your USBs. There is not nearly enough through put on a regular HD platter to even come close to challenging that BUS.

I like this, but my MacBook Air=Mini John Cooper Works Rally car. ;)

evanscg wrote:Bought one last offering. Put a solid state hard drive in it and moved original drive into second bay. Love it, except it is a little big for traveling. (Boot time 25 seconds with all the software loaded on it with the soldid state hard drive.)

I guess size does matter.

sdc100 wrote:This is a near-perfect desktop replacement at a great price. Being nit-picky, here are my minor quibbles:

1) Drive doesn't record or even play Blu-Rays. That's surprising since HP has always used Blu-Ray playable drives in their high-end laptops.

2) NO multimedia buttons, which probably means that you'll have to use software buttons to control media functions.

3) Hard drive is 5400rpm which saves energy but may not be fast enough for media editing. A 7200rpm is better for desktop replacements.

4) Has Windows 7, not Windows 8. The jury is still out on which is better.

5) Uses "island" style keys, which used to be derisively called "chiclet keys" after the gum. They were a sign of a cheap computer and may have even doomed the IBM PC Jr ("Peanut"). Touch typists generally prefer normal full travel keys.

6) No eSATA port for a 7200rpm external drive. While USB3.0 may be faster on paper, it may bog down with multiple USB devices connected. eSATA/SATA is dedicated to drives.

These are minor quibbles and I would grab it if I had the money.

"Island style" or chiclet style keys are bad? Then how the hell did so many macs get sold?

I've never understood why these behemoths are so popular. If it had blu-ray and a 1080p display, it'd be an excellent deal. As it is, it's merely a decent deal. If you're the kind that likes desktop replacements.

I accidentally placed an order for the laptop. I intended to by Side Sleeper Pro pillows. Can I cancel the order?

So I mostly use my laptop for things like word and excel (which any laptop could pretty easily handle), but I'd like to know if the graphics adapter on this could handle Starcraft II and Portal II at all reasonably. I like the price on this, and the 9 cell battery, but I'm wondering if I'd be better off buying something with a dedicated graphics card.

ThunderThighs wrote:Whoops. Please email support@woot.com for assistance. Include your Woot username and order number for faster service.

Thank You. Just got an email from support, order is cancelled.

govind666 wrote:I already sent couple of emails to Support, starting from 4:30 AM EST no response and the shipping status just changed from Accepted to Awaiting Shipping. My order# is 43503707. I appreciate your help on this.

Should be taken care of! Please let us know if there are more issues.

inkycatz wrote:Should be taken care of! Please let us know if there aer more issues.

Thank You. Just received an email from support. Order is cancelled, you guys rock.

If you are thinking@ buying this computer, check out qvc.com first! Just purchased a new HP with same memory, win8 + full Office, photoshop , anti virus for life of the computer & corel included. It is slightly higher ($100 more) in cost....but hey, they have easy pay options.
Better return policy & a manufacturer warranty.
I've had great luck with refurb electronics here, but I think qvc had a better deal on this one!

cmuntz wrote:If you are thinking@ buying this computer, check out qvc.com first! Just purchased a new HP with same memory, win8 + full Office, photoshop , anti virus for life of the computer & corel included. It is slightly higher ($100 more) in cost....but hey, they have easy pay options.
Better return policy & a manufacturer warranty.
I've had great luck with refurb electronics here, but I think qvc had a better deal on this one!

I had my eye on that deal, too. Unfortunately, that computer is sold out on QVC.

sdc100 wrote:
4) Has Windows 7, not Windows 8. The jury is still out on which is better.

No the jury is not still out. Windows 8 totally sucks. Using a keyboard and mouse it is unwieldy and hard to navigate. If the market place was really the true arbiter of deciding which companies survive then this O/S would sink Microsoft.

I bought one of these the last time Woot had them on sale: I love it!

ThunderThighs wrote:I'm sorry for the problems. Please email support@woot.com so they can help you out. Be sure to explain everything you've tried.

Include your woot username and order number for faster service.

thank you. I just sent them an email

PLEASE save yourself a lot of money, time and heartache. HP DOES NOT care about their customer.

I purchased a very simular "refurbished" HP in November 2011. I was having a problem booting the machine, the system simply would not boot. By the time I used the warrantee (January 15, 2012) the 90 day warrantee was almost expired.

Customer support was pretty useless and told me the system was having a PROM issue and for me to simply reset the prom with the procedure they gave me. Till this day I still have to perform this procedure because the system refuses to boot once shut down.

HP is glad to sell me service though... I don't think so! Especially when the entire customer service department is working a mid shift in India, if you can understand them at all.

Save yourself... NOW

How well does this handle high end games? (Far Cry 3, Skyrim, etc.)

Does it have bluetooth?

eq5150 wrote:How well does this handle high end games? (Far Cry 3, Skyrim, etc.)

1)go here:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/Requirements/Far-Cry-3/11465

Search for you game. It has minimal, optimal and recommended requirements. If your particular videocard is not mentioned go to step 2

2)go here to passmark:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

alternatively you can just google the type of videocard and the word passmark and it will link to that value. For instance HD4000 passmark will lead to a link that tells you it has a avg G3D of 471. Compare this passmark with the representive videocards in step 1 and see how close you get.

For Far Cry 3
min req: Radeon HD2900 passmark is 532
so this laptop probably won't cut it since HD4000 is 471.

Now I realize that these benchmarks and these sites might not be the end-all cure-all for determining if a videocard/chipset can play a certain game, but at least it can give you some idea.

I've always been curious as to the origin of the refurb as a category. Obviously a unit returned as defective could turn up as a refurb, but what other sources are there? Demonstrator models? What else?

coolbreeze wrote:I've always been curious as to the origin of the refurb as a category. Obviously a unit returned as defective could turn up as a refurb, but what other sources are there? Demonstrator models? What else?

http://lifehacker.com/5885492/when-should-i-buy-refurbished-electronics

anybody know if this is a good Autocad laptop

thanatos60 wrote:I bought one of these from woot a month ago and I am quite happy. Fast. The battery lasts for a long time. The only problem I have had is that the fingerprint thingy drops out coming out of hibernation. Reset the computer and it works fine until next sleepytime. Wishing I had the money so I could get the b&c one so she will leave mine alone.

I find rubbing my finger sideways along the sensor will wake it up.

hauz43 wrote:anybody know if this is a good Autocad laptop

For 100 more you can get one with a discrete card which will probably be better. I'm not sure whether the Integrated 4000 series is good for AutoCAD or not.

Is Woot still charging Sales Tax (wrongly) on the shipping charge?

coolbreeze wrote:I've always been curious as to the origin of the refurb as a category. Obviously a unit returned as defective could turn up as a refurb, but what other sources are there? Demonstrator models? What else?

An item which someone decided they were unhappy with.

I'm writing on a refurbished Toshiba I received from Woot a while back which came with no scratches. The HP I received from them had some scuffs on the rubber footings.

hauz43 wrote:anybody know if this is a good Autocad laptop

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/AutoDesk-AutoCAD-2013-GPU-Acceleration-164

The onboard Intel HD graphics did decently, actually performing better than the Quadro NVS 450. It's still near the very bottom of the charts, but the gap between it and the lower-end discrete cards was not as large as we expected. Don't expect to do any complex modeling with it, but if you just need it for very light tasks it should actually be able to keep up.

kfergus wrote:No the jury is not still out. Windows 8 totally sucks. Using a keyboard and mouse it is unwieldy and hard to navigate. If the market place was really the true arbiter of deciding which companies survive then this O/S would sink Microsoft.

I prefer the Windows 8 interface and find that I navigate much faster using it. The Windows key and typing a letter or two to find a program is your friend.

I bought a similar 15.6" machine from Sams Club for 600 over the holidays. I am very happy with the purchase. The only difference is my machine has slightly less space and a slightly updated (3630) processor. I haven't seen a similarly specced laptop at this price until this Woot. The chassis is of much higher quality than the budget laptops I've purchased from HP and Dell in the past. It is similar to the Lenovo and Toshiba that I have purchased but the bezel seems to be much more sturdy. The most common problem I have is on broken bezels (2 of my 4 machines).

Are these Hackintosh-able? Or will they at least run a decent Linux distro?

tomaweezi wrote:Does it have bluetooth?

Maybe HP doesn't like "blues" No Bluetooth and no Blu-Ray.

It is always an excellent bet that if something is not listed in the specs, it doesn't have it!

I am very surprised this doesn't have Blu-ray DVD burner. They just aren't that expensive anymore!

RetiredGuru wrote:Maybe HP doesn't like "blues" No Bluetooth and no Blu-Ray.

It is always an excellent bet that if something is not listed in the specs, it doesn't have it!

I am very surprised this doesn't have Blu-ray DVD burner. They just aren't that expensive anymore!

It's HP engineering at its best- I went on a rant in an earlier post. I don't complain about their quality, they are no worst or no better than anyone else. I just think the combinations of components for both desktop and laptop systems all seem unbalanced.

tomaweezi wrote:Does it have bluetooth?

no.

pchamp wrote:I had my eye on that deal, too. Unfortunately, that computer is sold out on QVC.

closest thing to this (spec wise) on QVC is $1,100.

bretbeermann wrote:I find rubbing my finger sideways along the sensor will wake it up.

That's what she said.

I bought an almost identical HP model except for it having an i-5 processor for my daughter for school a little more than a year ago and it has been the most reliable laptop we’ve ever had. It is fast and works absolutely great for her. I think most people’s issues are battery life (because they don’t understand how to maintain a laptop battery, and typical PC issues (slowness after time).
The HP laptops come inundated with bloatware, teaseware and crapware. Just go into Add/Remove Programs and remove Symantic (Norton) antivirus, Mcaffee, MS Office teaseware and ANYTHING with a HP attached to it. You don’t need any of that crap. Do this BEFORE you do anything else with it. Install AVG or something similar and the thing will fly. This model with an i-7 processor should be like a rocket. I think this is an excellent deal.
Oh, Windows 8? Absolute garbage (Vista for 2013).
Win 8 is a tablet OS.

Bought this last month when Woot featured it. Today I started to get black screen error messages and lock ups. Now it tells me I have a catastrophic malfunction! I would pass on this one!