Wootalyzer's Pricing Post! - The price of today's woot item is saved here for future reference
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HP Pavilion Triple-Core Notebook with 15.6" BrightView LED & Blu-ray
$399.99 + $5 Shipping
Condition: Refurbished

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

Video resolution is a bit low...

Anyone know if the graphics are upgradeable?

$400 for a blu-ray laptop...what's the catch woot?
Is it just an HP touchpad with a keyboard stuck on it?
Is it really green-rays and ham
I refuse woot-I-am

64 bit ?

Passmark rates the processor at almost 1900. They only have 24 samples to go by but that should still be a pretty accurate score. Its on par with laptops of this price lately.

Overall there have been better value per price/performance overall laptops on woot! lately. Not a terrible deal, but I would wait for a better one if time isn't a concern.

rcbutchko wrote:Anyone know if the graphics are upgradeable?

Its a laptop lower end notebook. No.

A question: are triple core processors chips that started life as quad cores and had one not work right? Or do they start life as triple cores?

mollytim wrote:64 bit ?

That's what the man said.

Anyone know what the battery life on this is like?
It looks like a great deal.(aside from the low warranty)

sandman69 wrote:That's what the man said.

Thanks-missed it

I had a pavilion with an AMD in it and man did it die hard. It overheats like crazy and the surface becomes a frying pan after a while. Don't mess around with the optical drive either, it breaks off easily and the laser becomes faulty after a while.

Still the price is pretty good.

stevesds wrote:Anyone know what the battery life on this is like?
It looks like a great deal.(aside from the low warranty)

I can't say for sure but with six cell, I would expect about 4-5 hours.

Skimming reviews I found a couple of caveats for potential buyers:

"Complaints: the mouse pad is awful. Its taken me awhile to get used to it. Its awkward and it takes effort to use it. The majority of the time I do dock, so its not an issue for work stuff. Battery life is the pits, which I expected..so I figured I'd just buy an extended life battery from HP, no big deal (I have purchased them for my old laptop). Yes, it apparently IS a big deal. HP is completely sold out of the 9 cells. So I figured, Ill just buy another adaptor for my living room, well guess what, HP is sold out of those too. Thankfully I was able to find a geniune HP 9cell from a trusted vendor my company uses. Watch your model # when buying parts- this is NOT just a dv6 , its a dv6-3000 series, and in HPs infinite wisdom not all DV6 series computers fit the same batteries/chargers."

rcspang wrote:Video resolution is a bit low...

HP 15.6" Resolution: 1366 x 768 $400
Apple 15" 1440 by 900 (native) $1800

15-inch Technical Specifications
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

Another quibble, this uses Windows 7 Home (NOT PREMIUM)

baqui63 wrote:A question: are triple core processors chips that started life as quad cores and had one not work right? Or do they start life as triple cores?

It's a quad core with one disabled, cheaper than having a separate product line. On the plus side that means less heat and power consumption.

geo8rge wrote:
Another quibble, this uses Windows 7 Home (NOT PREMIUM)

It says in the descrip:
"Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit"

Support page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=5048747

including manuals on a subpage:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5048747&

and the walmart reviews:
http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/15657799/hp-15-6-pavilion-dv6-3259wm-laptop-pc-with-amd-phenom-ii-triple-core-p860-mobile-processor-and-windows-7-home-premium-reviews/reviews.htm

and froogled edit: although it comes up with no other prices on the computer itself other than walmart, but shows replacement part prices including batteries/ac adapters.

Me and the girl just bought a $7xx 15.6" HP laptop last night...

This one isn't quite as nice, but we might've agreed it was worth the money saved.


Why Woot, whyyyyy.

stevesds wrote:Skimming reviews I found a couple of caveats for potential buyers:

"Complaints: the mouse pad is awful. Its taken me awhile to get used to it. Its awkward and it takes effort to use it. The majority of the time I do dock, so its not an issue for work stuff. Battery life is the pits, which I expected..so I figured I'd just buy an extended life battery from HP, no big deal (I have purchased them for my old laptop). Yes, it apparently IS a big deal. HP is completely sold out of the 9 cells. So I figured, Ill just buy another adaptor for my living room, well guess what, HP is sold out of those too. Thankfully I was able to find a geniune HP 9cell from a trusted vendor my company uses. Watch your model # when buying parts- this is NOT just a dv6 , its a dv6-3000 series, and in HPs infinite wisdom not all DV6 series computers fit the same batteries/chargers."

Well, laptops aren't meant to be mousepads anyway.

stevesds wrote:It says in the descrip:
"Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit"

ooops I was looking at the description on top where is says "W7H". Woot should fix this to read "W7H Premium"

baqui63 wrote:A question: are triple core processors chips that started life as quad cores and had one not work right? Or do they start life as triple cores?

wouldn't matter if they did... All processors start life as the top of the line, and when they statistically won't fail en masse at a certain point, that's how they're sold. Same for LCD panels for about everything you buy also.

mogexpres wrote:I had a pavilion with an AMD in it and man did it die hard. It overheats like crazy and the surface becomes a frying pan after a while. Don't mess around with the optical drive either, it breaks off easily and the laser becomes faulty after a while.

Still the price is pretty good.

Mine had a meltdown(70 Celsius) after about 8 months, sent in for repairs. They fixed it. Then the blu ray drive broke. Another 5-6 months passed, it goes nuclear again. Never doing another AMD laptop from HP again.

wootmehardnow wrote:wouldn't matter if they did... All processors start life as the top of the line, and when they statistically won't fail en masse at a certain point, that's how they're sold. Same for LCD panels for about everything you buy also.

I was gonna let it go but that's not even remotely correct. Every microprocessor has an architecture type, manufacturing process and distinct number of dies. Many share features in common (black editions, or Pentium vs Core i3 for example) but to tell someone a Celeron is an i7-970 that failed QC is just absurd.

Aww man! I bought this 8mo ago for $649!! Damn..

Amazingly fast for a laptop, and more RAM/CPU than you will ever need for basic home use.

sandman69 wrote:I can't say for sure but with six cell, I would expect about 4-5 hours.

I bought this on a previous sale and it works great. The battery life is good, although I haven't really measured the time it will last. Battery life depends upon a lot of settings, so it all depends upon how you set it up, But the battery life is plently good enough - not a concern.

dahai88 wrote:I bought this on a previous sale and it works great. The battery life is good, although I haven't really measured the time it will last. Battery life depends upon a lot of settings, so it all depends upon how you set it up, But the battery life is plently good enough - not a concern.

Can you run some decent games on it? Minecraft, HL2, L4D, etc?

TIA

rcbutchko wrote:Anyone know if the graphics are upgradeable?

Graphics on a laptop are rarely upgradable- this is why people still buy desktops. I have an HP DM4 in the same product line, though - Intel Integrated HD graphics 'card'. It plays Starcraft 2 on Low without much of a hiccup.

how good is this for gaming? How would you compare it to say an dell xps 1530?

I have an HP notebook that has somewhat the same specs as this, with the exception of the Blu-Ray (mine has the LightScribe labeling DVD). Mine has 4Gb RAM, 64 bit, etc.

Paid $400 for mine with a $50 rebate. I also paid $100 online for a 3-year Square Trade warranty (lots of notebooks fail, heat issues).

These are not top of the line Toshiba Satellites that cost $1200, but for $400 IMO these are good value.

I have left mine on 24/7 for weeks on end to see if any heat related issues pop up because as others said, these get really hot (the AMD chip).

As far as graphics, I've been pleased with online streaming of video, like on Netflix. And I even loaded some games that played fine, albeit I would never use these as a game machine. I was just trying it out to see what would happen. (Played Call of Duty Black Ops on it).

Worth the $ IMO, but buy a Square Trade warranty as the refurb warranty period is way too low.

Bad motherboard design: screen freezes possibly due to proximity to chip with thermal shutdowns--- lots of complaints.

Shinespark wrote:I was gonna let it go but that's not even remotely correct. Every microprocessor has an architecture type, manufacturing process and distinct number of dies. Many share features in common (black editions, or Pentium vs Core i3 for example) but to tell someone a Celeron is an i7-970 that failed QC is just absurd.

Lol I was going to let it go to. But, you are both right. You are more right then he is. However, he is right as far as they really don't know what they have till they test it. Take the I7 core models. They will aim for what ever CPU is in demand. But truth be told its a gamble for them to. It depends on how much heat it gives off, if it gives off to much heat they lower the clock and sell it as a cheaper CPU. Same with the AMD CPUS. There really is no way to tell what some 2million transistors are going to make until you test it.

But on the same side they don't go willy nilly with the concept. CPUs have more or less cache/design then their other models. But, if you notice, there is normally a set of 3 sub-models per model line. This number is not picked out of thin air, its because they can't guarantee what the CPU will turn out to be until they make it, and then they place it accordingly.

Shinespark wrote:It's a quad core with one disabled, cheaper than having a separate product line. On the plus side that means less heat and power consumption.

It's a quad core with one core that did not pass testing. The outcome look the same to the user, but is much better for AMDs bottom line.

Shinespark wrote:I was gonna let it go but that's not even remotely correct. Every microprocessor has an architecture type, manufacturing process and distinct number of dies. Many share features in common (black editions, or Pentium vs Core i3 for example) but to tell someone a Celeron is an i7-970 that failed QC is just absurd.

Actually, how do they rate the speed of the processor (GHZ value)? They run it up until it starts failing. Back in history and 386DX vs 386SX was a chip where the Math CoProcessor had a bug. Disable the Math COProcessor and the SX is born.

Ray D

baqui63 wrote:A question: are triple core processors chips that started life as quad cores and had one not work right? Or do they start life as triple cores?

Yup pretty much, some have the core disabled but mostly their faulty, the first few major runs of the processor had a defect on the 4th core.

rdaignault wrote:Actually, how do they rate the speed of the processor (GHZ value)? They run it up until it starts failing. Back in history and 386DX vs 386SX was a chip where the Math CoProcessor had a bug. Disable the Math COProcessor and the SX is born.

Ray D

Yep, 100% correct.

They run it up until it starts failing

Could also be said,

They run it up till it gets to hot.

Heat=Failure

Also in some cases you have a hardware defect and that changes what they do with the CPU, but a defect normally changes it to a different CPU model line that is less demanding. They almost never scrap them its to much work.

rcbutchko wrote:Anyone know if the graphics are upgradeable?

No, I doubt internally, as in, I doubt the graphics chipset is on a seperate rise card and not on the motherboard itself. Even more doubtful that you could find a better graphics chipset to fit the riser if it existed, and then you'd need to find a new heatsink+fan for it...

Anyway, the only option would be to get a Vidock!
It is an external enclosure that houses a desktop video card, and it is connected through the expresscard slot on the laptop.. I think they are up to Vidock 2.0 now..

theguruguys wrote:Its a laptop lower end notebook. No.

Yes, the graphics are upgradable. Vidock 2.0

stevedubb wrote:Mine had a meltdown(70 Celsius) after about 8 months, sent in for repairs. They fixed it. Then the blu ray drive broke. Another 5-6 months passed, it goes nuclear again. Never doing another AMD laptop from HP again.

Did you try dusting it out? You have to block the fan from turning somehow if your using a dust can so dust doesn't get into the bearings though, so the fan won't wear out