adamchatfield wrote:I like it other than the fact that it has Intel HD graphics, which means this laptop would never be able to run games smoothly (although it's good for everything else.)

This is my concern as well. Why else would you need an i7 processor with 8 GB of RAM if you're not doing intense Graphics? Yes the Intel HD3000 is their best embedded video card to-date, but it pales in comparison to almost any dedicated video card released within the last 2-3 years.

So my question would be, is there a socket on this MB for a separate video card that could be added later?

Quite! Why can't they put in those expansion slots for video on most laptops?

wookie7 wrote:This would be the golden goose if it had a decent video card, or even a slot to add one in aftermarket.

all that beautiful processing power just goes completely to waste without one.

what's the point?

I'm still confused by the comments above. If you don't play games or do video editing, aren't these graphics good enough? The reason I would think you have more memory and a faster processor is that the computer can handle the future software and not get outdated as quickly. I have a 5+ year laptop now that's slow, but still works and acceptable, that I bought the 2nd fastest processor at the time and max memory but integrated graphics.

whatsamattaU wrote:I'm still confused by the comments above. If you don't play games or do video editing, aren't these graphics good enough? The reason I would think you have more memory and a faster processor is that the computer can handle the future software and not get outdated as quickly. I have a 5+ year laptop now that's slow, but still works and acceptable, that I bought the 2nd fastest processor at the time and max memory but integrated graphics.

yes, and they are also good enough for those of us that do heavy data crunching work (i.e. processing database queries constantly). Don't need a high end graphics card to watch "Running Query" with a status bar, but the CPU speed and memory do make a difference.

Want one, but it has that $@#$ %#$@#% $#@%(#* gloss screen. I refuse to buy anything with a glossy display.

Who LIKES glossy screens with their massive reflectivity? My guess is total narcissists, but I'd be interested to hear about what others consider the Pros of this major Con.

I'll wait for a nice i7 without a glossy screen. Passe until matte!

I'm literally typing this out on the Pavilion dv7 with the core i5 though. My point is that this computer has a problem with weak hinges. The hinges consist of four metal screws going through a metal mount into PLASTIC. They break and then your monitor won't stay up. I love this laptop but my hinges are broken and it's no longer a laptop more like a keyboard computer with a stand alone monitor.

I have a DV7 Quad Edition that is a bit like this one except it has a Radeon graphics card. My thinkpad has nvidia graphics built in that switch off when it's running on batteries. I can notice the difference in redraw speeds, perhaps because I'm using the external monitor port, not sure.

There are some applications where graphics power isn't important but CPU power is. Generally a dedicated graphics card is nice to have but like all things it's a tradoff (money vs. functionality, power vs. battery life etc)

The worst thing about my lappy is the touchpad. It's a one piece deal from synaptics and it doesn't feel good when you press the left or right 'button'. What's worse is that those 'buttons' are part of the touch pad so when your finger hovers there it interferes with the actual touch pad interaction. When I complained with HP they offered to repair it but of course that would just be a replacement with the same crappy pad. Nice to offer of course but pointless.

My wife has a slightly older HP laptop with an excellent touchpad with separate buttons for left and right click. My lenovo also has that, as well as the gateway I had before. To me the touchpad is a deal breaker. I won't buy another laptop with a single piece touchpad like this one. In addition the touchpad sometimes 'gives up' and needs to be reset in the Synaptics control panel. Keep a small USB mouse close by.

I like the aluminum panels. They're pretty sturdy.

The screen brightness F-keys don't always work.

Laptop is generally very stable with W7-x64. I can have it run for weeks with dozens on sleep/wake cycles.

The fan comes on pretty quickly, even with just 10% CPU load. That can get annoying fast. Battery life is fine. Weight is fine for what it is. Don't buy a monster laptop if you want light weight. The weight is published so no surprises.

Nearly all of my HPs run hot and are quite noisy trying to cool them off. This generation any better?

Would buy if 1080p.

This one is probably way more than you need. For the things you need it for you could get a dual-core with decent RAM for $300 and it would work just fine.

lmrobbins wrote:I'm looking to replace my laptop and will likely be using it often but really only for the internet -- browsing, watching hulu/netflix -- and for watching movies. I don't mind the size of the machine because I won't often be travelling with it.

Is this a good buy for me or is it more machine than I need?

I just bought this laptop's brother on wal-mart.com with a Blu-Ray player for $530. I spent another $100 on their 2-year drop-and-spill warranty.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=20666939

About the only downside to the wal-mart one (other than supporting evil wal-mart) is that the memory is already maxed out at 8GB and not expandable to 16gb like the one on woot is.

No no no no no. The only reason anyone should ever consider getting a computer with this kind of processing power is if they are going to be using it, and in all reality, the only thing that the average person is going to do that requires this kind of processing ability is gaming. If you're not in to that, good for you, in fact, I'm a little envious, I can only imaging what my level of productivity would be at home if I never knew what a video game was. HOWEVER, if all you want to do is stream the internet, watch movies, and listen to music, then you can get a laptop with the same memory and HDD capacity, but with a processor that's only a little faster than you'll ever need, rather than 100X faster than you'll ever need. Save your money, or save your frustration, and get a computer that makes sense for how you use your technology.

Ive had this since december. Beats audio is okay. Never lags, even with heavy gaming. FPS isnt the best on the market, but its still a good entry level gaming laptop. I love it, wouldnt trade it in for anything (for a while anyways)

Finger print scanner works surprisingly well

This is a pretty good deal. Purchased this exact model new from Best Buy for my husband 2 week ago for about $830 w/ tax. The speakers sounded good and the battery life was great. He really liked the finger print scanner, which worked well, but broke in less than a week, so we returned it. When we returned it, the manager said this model is rarely returned (compared to other brands). Has about 4.4/5 stars on BB website http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP---17.3%22-Pavilion-Laptop---8GB-Memory---750GB-Hard-Drive---Dark-Umber/4810952.p?id=1218532171061&skuId=4810952. However, if you don't need the i7 computing power, keep your eyes open for a similar refurb that has an AMD quad core processor and blu-ray drive for under $500.

dave bug wrote:I'm disappointed in you all. I thought certainly someone would've catalogued examples of the items listed in the write-up by now!

For the want of a kiss sung by Johnny Hartman

Termion wrote:I'm literally typing this out on the Pavilion dv7 with the core i5 though. My point is that this computer has a problem with weak hinges. The hinges consist of four metal screws going through a metal mount into PLASTIC. They break and then your monitor won't stay up. I love this laptop but my hinges are broken and it's no longer a laptop more like a keyboard computer with a stand alone monitor.

too late already wooted
wifes HP made it 7 years and stopped posting 2 weeks ago
I fear for my life until she gets another laptop.

bunchesofroses wrote:First, a couple of things. I repair laptops for a living. I've been repairing laptops for 4 years, 3 and a half of those 4 were spent almost exclusively repairing HPs, and I still occasionally fix them.

I've repaired HPs, Gateways (Acers and Emachines), Apples, Toshibas, Sonys, and Dells (as well as Alienwares, since Dell now owns the brand.)

I've literally had my hands in thousands of laptops.

I am biased because I only see laptops that aren't working.

However, HP, out of all the brands, is by far one of the worst. The dv7 line is plagued with some of the most awful problems.

All laptops have issues, they are not meant to last. They expire. Some people have really good luck with HPs, some don't. You may buy one and it may last you ten years, it may last you ten days.

I'm not telling anyone to not buy this. There are some things you need to remember.

- The brushed aluminum casing looks nice, but it's like buying a car that's painted black or white. Every single scratch, dent and piece of dust will show. If you drop it, it will dent very easily. I've seen plastic casing take a lot more abuse than any of HPs newer units with brushed aluminum cases.
- These particular models have several specific issues that span across the different versions that have been released (because even with different CPUs, they generally use all the same type of parts other than that.)
- - One being a lid switch that is part of the power circuit that has a tendency to short out, causing the entire thing not to power.
- - Another is the way the LCD cable is positioned as well as the length of it causes the webcam cable (which is part of the LCD cable) to pull out of the webcam.
- - Also, I've seen several of these units come in where the tiny wires that come off the LCD cable that power the backlit logo on the casing catch fire, and destroy the cable, and usually take the LCD and motherboard with it as well.
- - This unit has a speaker bar (across the top of the palm rest), two speakers in the front, and a subwoofer located in the top right corner. Because of this there is a crazy nest of wires in the bottomcase that are ran through and under plastics that have a tendency to already be crimped coming from the MFR and cause sound issues.
- - The access panel door on the bottom has no screws in it and is released as part of the battery latch and is very easily broken (as in when the battery is out you push the latch the other way to release the door.)
- - As some of have already noted, this is a large laptop and it is very heavy as far as laptops go.

Again, I'm not telling anyone to not buy this. If it has all the things you want and need, it may end up being the best laptop ever. I don't buy laptops, and don't intend on owning any unless I honestly need one for travel, or work, et cetera.

You may get this and it may be perfect, just be warned of it's inherent defects caused by poor design/parts.

aaronshall wrote:Seems like it's in with the processor...

http://ark.intel.com/products/53469

Thanks for the product site! BUT, it says a Memory max of 32 Meg; while the WOOT site says the max is 16Megs. Curious?

Mines just arrived to and my battery wont charge. Isn't that an RMA issue? Just checking before I put in the request. Any suggestions?

Mine just arrived and the box was crushed and 90% open But it seems to have all the parts - PC, AC cord and battery. I'm getting ready to test it out but wanted to know, do these come with the operating system CDs? Or any CDs? Mine had none. Also, if they don't have the operating system CDs, how do we reinstall? I assume we have one valid operating system with this.

Just got mine and the LED backlight was DOA. HP is shipping me a box as we speak. Isn't life wonderful!

P.S. Kudos to Woot for having the item arrive before the shipping confirmation email. That's service!

ThunderThighs wrote:Egads, sorry about the box shake. I think your delivery service hired Hulk.

I don't think any computers come with install disks any more. They create a backup partition on your hard drive. You can create a boot & recover CD from that. There should be instructions on the computer or HP site on doing this.

It was so destroyed it was almost funny (as long as nothing broke). I have another laptop that is dying - I guess I should try to find how to recreate my disk - I wanted to try to reinstall the operating system but couldn't figure out how. I guess it is a good thing to do to create the disks first thing?

Thanks for your help! I am looking forward to midnight!

Only negative is the sound. Is better running thru external speakers. Internal Beats audio/subwoofer is junk.