helmatj wrote:Wonderful computer! My girlfriend has this same one, and she loves it. I only recommend that if you buy this one, you keep the anti virus up to date, because not doing so has caused a large number of issues foe her.

I think this is a great bit of advice for any computer. Viruses, as far as I know (and I don't claim to have any knowledge on that particular subject) aren't specific to manufacturers other than a windows based versus a mac based. It doen't matter if its HP or Gateway....you can get the same virus if your protection isn't up to date.

“Oh, oh my darling Jason Chen, whatever data device you possess, my 5-in-1 Integrated Digital Media Reader will accept it, and if it doesn’t, I pledge all four of my USB 2.0 ports to you and only you!”

Swoon

Oh, W!~

sdc100 wrote:This would be almost perfect. It's best seen as a portable desktop replacement. In fact, it's likely more powerful then your desktop. I Say "almost perfect" became at 17" and 8 lbs, it may be too heavy to bring on flights. The 5+ hrs battery life is great though. Since your 5 yr old desktop is likely out of date, I'd recommend making this your primary computer, especially since it's running Windows 7. I believe this also comes with a remote control.

As for sitting on the couch websurfing, this may be too heavy to place on your lap.

A netbook would work but they're generally underpowered, and may sputter playing HiDef video. It won't multitask well either. And very few have a built-in drive for DVDs. That means you'll need an outlet to plug in an external drive, which may not be possible on planes. Furthermore, the screen is pretty small.

I usually don't have a problem with the weight when I have this on my lap, however, the cooling fan is on the left side directly where my leg tends to end up, so I end up with a pretty unhappy computer due to the heat not having anywhere to go. As long as you are aware of this and try not to place the fan vent on your leg, it really isn't all that bad.

This computer has been great to me. I had a Dell Inspirion before, and the biggest "upgrade" that I've noticed is the wake-up time from hybernation. This one is very quick compared to computers I've had in the past. When it comes to problems, I have personally had none, although I do have a friend that had a DV6 that had problems with hers not charging correctly. She sent it in 3 or 4 times only to eventually find out that it was simply the wrong plug for that particular computer (HP's fault when they packaged the computer).

juzijuzi wrote:How would something like this be for running programs like photoshop? Would it be ok or should I wait for more powerful desktop?

The resolution is a little low for photoshop but you could use an external monitor. My concern is the Ram, as I do heavy Photoshop and CS in general. Unsure if you could upgrade it?

danmanx wrote:Pass this up. Turion's are garbage. I owned one for a year in a Dell E1501 series. (The TL-50). Such garbage. Horrible performance.

The Turion is most definitely not garbage. It's a great lower power processor. This particular processor is one of the better mobile processors on the market. Why? It's not because it's the fastest (it's not). It's not because it's the lowest power (it's not). But because it has virtualization built in (the newest Intel i3/i5 Mobile processors do, as well as HIGH END Core 2 mobile).

You may be thinking "What do I need virtualization for?"... Well, this processor lets some code run MUCH more efficiently (even if you aren't using VMWare or the like). If I was buying a laptop today, this CPU is one that I'd look at quite seriously.

The reason you think Turion is garbage, is because you don't realize the levels and the generations. The TL-50 was an old generation processor. The problems it faced were more to the design of the motherboard by the manfucaturer than the CPU itself (I had a TL-56, and it performed GREAT)... This CPU is the newest generation, and the top of the line series. So for the same money, you could get a bottom of the barrel Core 2 mobile, or a high end Turion II. Chances are good that you're better off with the AMD...

Jeff162534 wrote:I think this is a great bit of advice for any computer. Viruses, as far as I know (and I don't claim to have any knowledge on that particular subject) aren't specific to manufacturers other than a windows based versus a mac based. It doen't matter if its HP or Gateway....you can get the same virus if your protection isn't up to date.

Actually 99.9% of viruses are caused by user error/ignorance. Like someone downloading something and not really knowing what they're doing, or the download being a fake. The other .1% is for when that really really EXTREME MEGA virus gets through and even the L33TS catch it. If it means anything, I don't run any firewalls on windows, and I use Avast Antivirus Free Edition and I haven't had a virus in at least 5 years. But that's mainly because I know what I'm doing, and I don't download fishy looking stuff. Also, I really like Avast Antivirus not only because it's free, but because if you connect to a website and will automatically stop the connection and tell you a threat has been detected. Also, if you download a file with a virus in it, it will usually scream at you instantly. Just thought I'd throw in my two cents about viruses.

Read here for more information: http://www.avast.com/security-software-home-office

Here's the download link: http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?part=dl-85737&subj=dl&tag=button

safarigrl wrote:The resolution is a little low for photoshop but you could use an external monitor. My concern is the Ram, as I do heavy Photoshop and CS in general. Unsure if you could upgrade it?

It comes with 4GB and it is upgradeable to 8GB. I still have the 4 on mine, and I have no problems multi-tasking. I don't run photoshop, but it isn't uncommon for me to have 4 or 5 low to mid-range memory hogs up at once.

You guys have given good info-- I appreciate and rely upon your combined experience as I have no experience at all in these departments. Here's my question: As a youth pastor, I need to use power point quite a bit and project it on a screen. I also use quite a bit of video in my powerpoints. Will THIS computer power the projection and allow me to follow on the computer without slowing down or clogging my presentations on the screen?

safarigrl wrote:The resolution is a little low for photoshop but you could use an external monitor. My concern is the Ram, as I do heavy Photoshop and CS in general. Unsure if you could upgrade it?

*taken from features listed on the woot page*
4096 MB of RAM installed, upgradeable to 8192 MB

mridlen wrote:HP and Compaq do this really annoying thing a lot. Notice how the touchpad is not centered under the spacebar? You will accidentally bump it from time to time with your thumb. I bought one that was like this without realizing it, and it was a bad mistake.

I have that problem regardless of where the touchpad is located - I have to turn off the touchpad on all the laptops i've had, because otherwise i keep palm/thumb clicking on accident.

ryoshin wrote: Also, I really like Avast Antivirus not only because it's free, but because if you connect to a website and will automatically stop the connection and tell you a threat has been detected.

Read here for more information: http://www.avast.com/security-software-home-office

Here's the download link: http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?part=dl-85737&subj=dl&tag=button

I use Avast too. It's miles better than the Norton that will come with this HP.

DrAzzy wrote:I have that problem regardless of where the touchpad is located - I have to turn off the touchpad on all the laptops i've had, because otherwise i keep palm/thumb clicking on accident.

Ditto. (Again,) HP/Compaq puts a button in/or around the touchpad which turns off the touchpad. It's one of the stupid little things that makes me love my HP.

And it's a lot of fun to watch someone else use my puter and not be able to figure why the touchpad doesn't work.. lol

foreverspyder wrote:Hey I agree with your message almost completely. I think too many people are jumping on the Quad Core band wagon without realizing how powerful Dual Cores can still be.

I have 2.6ghz HP Dual Core and a 2.3ghz Quad Core Gateway desktops. While I know that there is more to performance than cores and ghz's, I time to say that the Quad core is running WAY faster than the HP when compressing and converting videos, i.e. creating DVDs from RMVBs. It's fascinating to watch all four cores out max out in the process.

mridlen wrote:
...Notice how the touchpad is not centered under the spacebar? You will accidentally bump it from time to time with your thumb.

I have an HP - different model, but almost identical keyboard and features. Just to clarify, it's not as off-center as it looks. This laptop has the number pad of a full keyboard - that can be a cool feature and it doesn't fit on a lot of laptops. The touch-pad is actually centered with the standard keyboard minus the number pad.

It's true, as mridlen said, the touch pad is a little off center from the space-bar. I have an HP with the same touchpad/keyboard layout. I turned down the sensitivity of the touch pad so that it wasn't so easy to inadvertently hit. Plus I disabled the touch pad tap-to-click feature so only the buttons click. I can still use my touch pad when I don't have the mouse, but I don't have problems with it when typing. It's completely customizable.

how would this laptop perform as a desktop replacement?

This is a great laptop. It's good for mid-range gaming great as a desktop replacement.

I bought my wife a HP G70 17" two years ago,from HP,32 bit with Vista,Then I upgraded to Windows 7 and paid around the same as this one,I like this one on woot,due to it has 64 bit,blue-ray.My wifes loves her's,and it has had no problems.I love it,when you buy any type of computer,and it is outdated before you get it.LOL

Jeff162534 wrote:It comes with 4GB and it is upgradeable to 8GB. I still have the 4 on mine, and I have no problems multi-tasking. I don't run photoshop, but it isn't uncommon for me to have 4 or 5 low to mid-range memory hogs up at once.

i only have 2 gigs of ram in my 4 year old hp and it runs photoshop and all other adobe software fine

Jeff162534 wrote:It comes with 4GB and it is upgradeable to 8GB. I still have the 4 on mine, and I have no problems multi-tasking.

Unless you're using Windows 64 (insert Linux joke here) all you'll ever see on it is 4gb of memory. Anything over that, windows 32 wont see.

bwagner54 wrote:You guys have given good info-- I appreciate and rely upon your combined experience as I have no experience at all in these departments. Here's my question: As a youth pastor, I need to use power point quite a bit and project it on a screen. I also use quite a bit of video in my powerpoints. Will THIS computer power the projection and allow me to follow on the computer without slowing down or clogging my presentations on the screen?

I mentioned before that I use my computer a lot for school. Our school employs a ton of power point presentations on a weekly basis given by both the teachers and the students.

Powerpoint is a relatively low memory user, and the 4GB coupled with the processor speed is more than enough to let power point run smoothly. In fact, we have a "programmer" in one of my learning teams who is constantly writing his own code that creates very eloborate presentations that otherwise couldn't be acheived (or at least not that I know of) through the normail power point features, and we never have any problems running these on my computer.

I don't see any reason why this wouldn't be good for something like what you need.

My husband and I bought two of this exact laptop last time it was featured on Woot. We love them.

I just have to say about this commenter:

mridlen wrote:HP and Compaq do this really annoying thing a lot. Notice how the touchpad is not centered under the spacebar? You will accidentally bump it from time to time with your thumb. I bought one that was like this without realizing it, and it was a bad mistake.

There is enough space between the space bar and the touch pad that you shouldn't be touching it at all when you are typing. If you are correctly typing, your thumbs should be resting on the space bar, no? Also, if you really have wild, sporadic thumbs that have minds of their own, that is why there is a button to disable your touch pad.
If they centered the touch pad with the space bar, it would make the touch pad even more off-center to the whole laptop and I think that would be more annoying (especially to left-handed people.)

kevlward wrote:how would this laptop perform as a desktop replacement?

That's WAY too vague of a question.. What did you have and what do you use it for?

I like the addition of a 10-key. Especially the fact that the 10-key has a full 0 button like on regular keyboards. I currently have an ASUS 15.6" laptop which has a 10-key, but it's a little squished so the right arrow is in the bottom left corner of the 10-key and the 0 is half the size and in the center position. This causes me to right arrow rather than press 0 a lot when I'm *trying* to type numbers faster. Anyway, it's good that that won't happen here, for those of you who do a lot of number inputting.

contemporaryscarlett wrote:Please be nice, I'm not tech savy. We want a laptop to replace/supplement our 5+yr old desktop. My plans for it include:

1. Skype using the webcam
2. Checking email and surfing the web. For example, on the weekend I'd like to sit on the couch watching baseball or football with this running so I can track my fantasy team.
3. Entertain my husband with movies on long plane flights.
4. I-tunes
5. Windows functions- Excel, Word, etc.
6. Work remotely from home (I'm an admin).

NO GAMING.

Is this a good one for me? Is it too much? Would I be better served with something cheaper like a netbook?

Thank you- Courtney

I wouldn't expect to use this one on a plane. You'll probably never get it open and in a comfortable position to work on or watch movies. This thing is huge and you usually barely have room for a 15 inch laptop. A netbook (with movies on a flash drive) or portable dvd player would probably work better for watching movies on a flight.

It will work fine for everything on that list, though.

Rule number one. A laptop will never replace a desktop. Cannot be did. Just not enuff available internal space for anything with any kind of moxy. A $500 desktop will outrun any $1000 laptop.

Now if you're comparing a new $1000 laptop to a 3 or 4 year old computer... maybe. Technology is just better. Gets better every year. But it's still only a "maybe". And if it is faster, it'll be slightly and won't compare to a new desktop.

As far as HP... they've come a long way. They used to be a total wreck when they started. That was way back when you couldn't upgrade them. Everything was proprietary. And even if you wanted to up the hard drive... you'd need a drill to cut out the rivets. They didn't believe in screws. They're still trying to outlive that reputation.

I bought an almost identical model here and use it for work(computer programmer)

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=3794564

1) Gloss finish does get alot of smudges and fingerprints.
2) Touch pad is in the way while typing, but can be turned off and on with 1 button.
3) Battery life is great for normal operation, but while playing blu-ray, lasts for just over 1 movie.
4) Monitor is great, large, bright and can easily plug in second monitor for programming, etc.
5) Haven't played high end games on it but system seems very responsive including compiling large programs(very CPU intensive)
6) 500 GB is lots of space, PLUS has room for another drive upgrade.
7) Arrow keys are a little smushed, I keep hitting shift instead of up.

All together, I am very happy with this product. I recommend it for most users.

Who spilled the water on the HP notebook cover?

garyoa1 wrote:

As far as HP... they've come a long way. They used to be a total wreck when they started. That was way back when you couldn't upgrade them. Everything was proprietary.

I remember those days, thats exactly why I bashed HP back then. (Compaq Presario too.)

riocobra wrote:I wouldn't expect to use this one on a plane. You'll probably never get it open and in a comfortable position to work on or watch movies. This thing is huge and you usually barely have room for a 15 inch laptop. A netbook (with movies on a flash drive) or portable dvd player would probably work better for watching movies on a flight.

It will work fine for everything on that list, though.

The depth on this laptop in 10.9 inches. That's not that big... I'm sure she would easily be able to use this on an airplane.

garyoa1 wrote:Rule number one. A laptop will never replace a desktop. Cannot be did. Just not enuff available internal space for anything with any kind of moxy. A $500 desktop will outrun any $1000 laptop.

I don't necessarily agree. It -ALL- depends on what they do with it.. My mom's email machine could be a 1.3gb mhz laptop, the 3gb desktop would be lost on her.

But yeah, a $500 desktop will smoke a $1000 laptop.

jaybaird wrote:The depth on this laptop in 10.9 inches. That's not that big... I'm sure she would easily be able to use this on an airplane.

I have a big belly and was not able to get it to fit perfectly when the person in front of me leaned back, however my normal sized travel companion next to me looked like he had enough space in front of him. Propping it between the chair back and my belly worked though, watched a movie on the plane.

i bought this last time around. its a good deal, but there are a TON of little things i hate about this laptop. my dell was a little outdated, but i would switch back in a second.

the screen has to be aimed directly at your face

the buttons below the touchpad are too small, your thumb ends up touching the pad and makes the pointer jump around. not to mention they click!

theres a bright light on the back of the screen whenever its on, and i leave it on all night. i had to duct-tape that spit.

ah well

foreverspyder wrote:Hey I agree with your message almost completely. I think too many people are jumping on the Quad Core band wagon without realizing how powerful Dual Cores can still be.

Although, I do think this could play COD4 mostly maxed (maybe all up), and COD6 pretty high (COD6 is surprisingly well optimized) BF:BC2 probably wouldn't do to well at all. But, then again, no one's buying this laptop to play the latest and greatest. Still a really nice machine with more powerful then average (notebook) GPU to tackle a bucket full of good games.

edit; Gratz on your Bowl of Cereal, that was my first to, good luck getting something nice ;)

This would do very poorly with BFBC2 if it would even run at all. The graphics card is outdated and onboard, the game does not even support onboard chipsets so it's a hit or miss if it would even run. Also, that game designates an entire core to rendering audio, so yes a quad core is highly recommended. MW2 is using an outdated quake engine, essentially the same as COD4, so those will play decently but certainly not at high frame rates for higher settings. If you intend to game and play anything from COD4 and more current titles than that, don't plan on this to perform well if at all on the most current demanding games out there. Newer releases like Metro 2033 and Crysis, BFBC2, and others will bring even some nice desktop systems to their knees at high settings. Anything under medium settings and it looks like your playing a playstation 1 game so it's not even worth it. I'm running a desktop with a core i7 920 OC'd to 3.8ghz, ATI radeon 5850HD vid card with OCZ 6GB 1600mhz DDR3 RAM and BFBC2 runs at 70-90 FPS on all maxed settings, 1920x1080 res, max anti aliasing and anistropic filtering, if thats a bench mark for some people to use as to whether this laptop is good for gaming.....which is a no.

I have a 11 year old dell dimension 8200...it has been upgraded some but it is just old and worn....this laptop I am sure will out perform my desktop...I am just using it for streaming videos and music, running Quickbooks, email and word processing....I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and external backup hard drive to hook up to it...still think I need another desktop?

garyoa1 wrote:Rule number one. A laptop will never replace a desktop. Cannot be did. Just not enuff available internal space for anything with any kind of moxy. A $500 desktop will outrun any $1000 laptop.

Now if you're comparing a new $1000 laptop to a 3 or 4 year old computer... maybe. Technology is just better. Gets better every year. But it's still only a "maybe". And if it is faster, it'll be slightly and won't compare to a new desktop.

As far as HP... they've come a long way. They used to be a total wreck when they started. That was way back when you couldn't upgrade them. Everything was proprietary. And even if you wanted to up the hard drive... you'd need a drill to cut out the rivets. They didn't believe in screws. They're still trying to outlive that reputation.

bwagner54 wrote:You guys have given good info-- I appreciate and rely upon your combined experience as I have no experience at all in these departments. Here's my question: As a youth pastor, I need to use power point quite a bit and project it on a screen. I also use quite a bit of video in my powerpoints. Will THIS computer power the projection and allow me to follow on the computer without slowing down or clogging my presentations on the screen?

I own a very similar model and use it for almost weekly presentations via VGA. The Windows 7 that it's installed with automatically duplicates the desktop across both you screen and the projector and preserves the aspect ratio of the new projector display. If you wish, you can edit it to extend the desktop, rather than duplicate the desktop by default.

The HDMI is slightly less intelligent and requires manual enabling, but works VERY well.

A note on the Blu-Ray: you'll find hooking this up to an HDTV via HDMI and displaying Blu-Ray movies a challenge. There's lots of protection on them, and they don't like running on a machine with multiple displays for piracy reasons.

garyoa1 wrote:Rule number one. A laptop will never replace a desktop. Cannot be did. Just not enuff available internal space for anything with any kind of moxy. A $500 desktop will outrun any $1000 laptop.

Now if you're comparing a new $1000 laptop to a 3 or 4 year old computer... maybe. Technology is just better. Gets better every year. But it's still only a "maybe". And if it is faster, it'll be slightly and won't compare to a new desktop.

As far as HP... they've come a long way. They used to be a total wreck when they started. That was way back when you couldn't upgrade them. Everything was proprietary. And even if you wanted to up the hard drive... you'd need a drill to cut out the rivets. They didn't believe in screws. They're still trying to outlive that reputation.

Hmmm...I agree that you can definitely upgrade and have more room for cool stuff in a desktop, but I'm not so sure I agree with the $500 desktop smoking a $1,000 laptop. My HP has the 3GHz processor, 4 GB ram 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, and the Nvidia Geforce 300M series graphics card....Windows 7, blue ray, and all that fun stuff, and it still only cost me $800 about 3 months ago. Granted, I had to shop around quite a bit to find that deal, but I haven't found a desktop w/monitor that comes close for less than $500.

All in all, it depends on what it is used for. This one on woot is for sure not going to play all the latest and greatest games, but it will do anything the average computer user needs it to do.

I bought a similar machine with the same screen a bit more than a year ago. I learned that if you DO want portability, 17" is too big. It's a good machine for using while watching TV, but too big and heavy to carry around for school or work.

When I travel, I'm going to use a netbook that I bought this week in the Acer AOD250 woot.

Another comment - the HP laptop I bought did develop a motherboard problem after a year, but I had a SquareTrade warranty - they paid shipping both ways and fixed it quickly. TOP marks to Square Trade, and I'll definitely buy a warranty from them on any refurb electronics that cost over $100.

kevlward wrote:I have a 11 year old dell dimension 8200...it has been upgraded some but it is just old and worn....this laptop I am sure will out perform my desktop...I am just using it for streaming videos and music, running Quickbooks, email and word processing....I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and external backup hard drive to hook up to it...still think I need another desktop?

ANYTHING new will outrun an 11 year old computer. I'm surprised you can stream videos with an 11 year old computer.

This puter will be just fine for streaming videos, music, quickbook, email and word processing. I can process videos on my HP, which is a year old now.

I do second the Avast antivirus msg from earlier. It probably comes with a 30 day trial of Norton.

I bought this last time woot had it. I really like mine so far, the display looks great and is nice and large. Having the 10-key is great.

The only thing I don't like is the fact that it shows ALL the fingerprints. Everything on this is shiny including the keys on the keyboard and the touch pad.It is hard to keep the fingerprints off but it performs great.

Staples add just came out for 5/2 same thing $479.00