Ugh. Now I have buyer's remorse over the m7 I picked up on 1-Feb!

I picked-up the Asus laptop last week (very happy with it), and immediately decided that I wanted my start menu back, after seeing this youtube video- I went with Classic shell. I did not imbed this because some people may consider the language being used offensive- if you're like me, you'll just be entertained. warning:contains explicit language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N1J5PZ-9zg

No 1.44MB floppy drive? ¡Ponga esto en el cubo de la basura!

I'm considering buying this computer to use while I convert about 100 or so analog 8mm cassette tapes as well as many, many analog VHS tapes to digital. Then I can burn DVDs for all my Grand Kids...will this machine make this happen? If not, what specifically do I need? Thanks

Typical HP engineering: 1920x1080 resolution, I7 processor, 12GB RAM, 1TB HD-> now where's the blu-ray? HP... always 1 can shy of a six pack.

degause wrote:I'm considering buying this computer to use while I convert about 100 or so analog 8mm cassette tapes as well as many, many analog VHS tapes to digital. Then I can burn DVDs for all my Grand Kids...will this machine make this happen? If not, what specifically do I need? Thanks

You need an analog capture device similar to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815153019. I don't know if this one is any good since it is so cheap. I have used the Encore routers and repeaters and they are cheap and work great- but thats a whole different thing.

auctionsaver wrote:Buy American man... and I don't mean cars "built" in America where the profits go overseas.

HP is one of the oldest american computing companies around....

Buying American isn't as simple as going for an American name brand. It needs to be comprised of over 50% components also made in the US. Many Toyota models fall into the 'American' category with over 80% of their parts made in the US as well as being assembled here.

You defend HP as being a name brand that produces American products, yet as an employee of said company I can tell you with fact that the parts of all HP computers are manufactured outside of the US and 99.9% of the machines are also assembled outside of the country too. Over the last two decades HP worked very hard to eliminate US jobs and send them overseas where the pay is roughly 1/5 of what ours is. I lost many colleagues to many rounds of layoffs.

"Buy American" means to support the average US worker. HP has it structured so the ones you're supporting now are executives, shareholders and foreign line workers. Buying that Toyota will put more food per dollar spent on more US tables than any HP product will.

To keep this post on topic: This unit may look sharp, have a big screen an "i7" core (note to self - we still need to do a benchmark compare here to see how fast this one really is) and a popular brand name, but I wouldn't touch it unless I have someone else's money to burn. I personally have had no luck with HPs.

gak0090 wrote:Typical HP engineering: 1920x1080 resolution, I7 processor, 12GB RAM, 1TB HD-> now where's the blu-ray? HP... always 1 can shy of a six pack.

Yeah, only HP could think of such a thing... oh wait:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/apple-bans-blu-ray-from-macs-discs-are-holding-us-back-50009616/
If you do actually need/want one it's a heck of a lot easier to install one in this than in a Macbook though.

xninjagrrl wrote:I feel for you. Never buy Hp anything, they make garbage. The problems with my Hp were basically design flaws and subpar components that could not be fxed. I have heard the newer ivy bridge ones run a little cooler, but in Hp's universe that means really hot vs scorching hot. I literally just bought a new lappy last night on Amazon to replace my 2 year old Dv6. For under a grand I scored a brand new i7, 8gb ram, 1 TB hd, 1080p resolution, and get this 2 X 2gb 650M gpus running in sli

makes these daily deal sites' refurb'd lappies seem like a huge waste of cash. But I guess if Hp tried to shove even one 650M in there it would turn to dust.

link to the one on amazon??

deesam wrote:Have a 92 Corolla with 240000 miles on it..Going to have to change the break in oil one of these days..Which has noting to do with laptops....

Took a 93 Camry Wagon to 250K and I put that car through so much hell. Still on the fence about the laptop though

auctionsaver wrote:Buy American man... and I don't mean cars "built" in America where the profits go overseas.

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So you are telling me that the American workers that manufactured my Toyota Sequoia and Subaru Legacy built them for free here in Indiana?

To address your other comment about not having a bluray DVD burner not being a big deal- let me explain it like this. The resolution is too high for the graphics processor to be able handle decent frame rates for your high-end games- so it can't really be a gaming computer. But what it does have is a fast I7, ton of RAM and a 1920x1080 resolution which would make it an ideal HD video authoring PC. If you are going to use this and make HD video- wouldn't it make sense to be able to burn it onto a medium that can support HD video? Not having a blu-ray burner on a machine that has all these other attributes is like having a Porsche with Chevy vega rims

Is this laptop sufficient for video editing?

I bought a couple of HPs, and what I have now are a couple of laptops that must be plugged in 100% of the time, and regret.

This would be fantastic for testing vmware virtualiation right? I'm seeing a portable VMware training lab here. Has anyone run virtual ESXI on one of these?

TheRizz wrote:I've got one of these.
Worst. Laptop. Ever.

It has been nothing but problems for me since I got it. Overheating issues, the sound stutters while playing, random lockups, etc. etc. Overall one of the worst purchases I have ever made.

Thanks for your post. You saved me from a bad purchase.

I bought one of these a while back. I promptly returned it. Some Milton thought it was a good idea to offset the touch pad to the right. That means that every time you type you right palm touches the pad and causes the cursor to jump around. Really dumb design. Is it really that difficult to figure out that the touch pad has to be centered on the letter "B"? Otherwise this is a high end machine with plenty of RAM and a nice hi res panel.

jeffflanagan wrote:Thanks for your post. You saved me from a bad purchase.

Except that the post didn't even relate to this particular model...
Some people use the term "one of these" very loosely, you know "I once got a Hewlett-Packard, or was it Packard Bell, or.. Bell and Howell?" :-/
Not to mention the one person that gets a lemon always seems to make sure to tell everyone how awful they think it is, but the hundreds of people who have no problems seem to rarely mention it.
My brother in law's Dell laptop literally fell apart in use, but I don't think that means all Dells are junk.

alsayr wrote:This would be fantastic for testing vmware virtualiation right? I'm seeing a portable VMware training lab here. Has anyone run virtual ESXI on one of these?

That's the direction I'm headed with the m7 I picked up a couple of weeks ago.

valebar wrote:Is this laptop sufficient for video editing?

This would be great for video editing- full HD resolution and an I7 processor. If you're planning on burning to bluray will need to either to replace the drive in the laptop or get an external bluray burner. If you go with external- I recommend USB 3.0. Here is one that is hit and miss on reviews for $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827190026

auctionsaver wrote:Buy American man... and I don't mean cars "built" in America where the profits go overseas.

HP is one of the oldest american computing companies around. I have had 3 DV7s and loved them all. I currently went with a DV6 this time around for size and love it.

The size makes this more of a desktop replacement because the i7 is going to eat battery life and the size alone makes it tough to lug around. Nice computer though, and HP is great about provided what you need. They also don't completely overwhelm your computer with bloatware like many others due.

Seems pricey, but the i7 is about as good a mobile processor as you can get. 12GB is huge. Graphics are adequate, but this isn't meant to be a gaming laptop.

If you are looking for a bluray, it is easy enough to add it. You undo one screw and the drive pops right out. I personally wouldn't bother. Are you really going to notice that much of a difference between bluray and DVD at 17"???

Another great thing about HPs is that their service manuals are REALLY easy to find.

Here is the guide for taking it apart and the specs:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/CoreRedirect.jsp?redirectReason=DocIndexPDF&prodSeriesId=5328067&targetPage=http%3A%2F%2Fbizsupport1.austin.hp.com%2Fbc%2Fdocs%2Fsupport%2FSupportManual%2Fc03591253%2Fc03591253.pdf

Buy American? HP offshores 87% of their workforce. Lenovo has 31% of their staff here. As far as keeping the money in the US, check out the bonuses they hand out to top execs.

vbexpert wrote:I very much disagree with your statement above. First of all, I've leased a number (>20 each) of Intel i7 quad-core laptops from both HP and Dell for consulting professionals, and the service records on both sets of machines are pretty similar.

In general, we've been quite pleased with the HP machines, which has caused us to acquire even more.

To be fair, if they were leased for consultants they were likely from the business line. The HP EliteBooks are rock solid (and often with 3 year standard warranty), but also pricey to match. It does look like the consumer models are improving in build quality in recent years though, with brushed aluminum, and less plastic, etc.

Just missing blu-ray how sad

does it have a back lit keyboard?

Just picked up this same laptop brand new from the local big box warehouse club for $700 (with a rebate)

It's a big screen, not a GREAT screen. Sitting back at arms length there's contrast issues from top to bottom... the middle 80% looks good, the top and bottom edges fade out a bit.

It's kind of slow on the start, but software runs fine once it's loaded.

Wouldn't even try to use it for games.

Still learning Windows 8, but without a touch screen I can tell there's some limits. (that's a con to Windows 8, not the HP Dv7)

All and all, it's worth $700.

Does the laptop come with the pictured chunk out of it?

http://i.imgur.com/RqUgkf6.png

daddybackdoor wrote:does it have a back lit keyboard?

It does look like it's supposed to have a backlit keyboard. The Microcenter listing says the DV7-7243CL they sell has one, and in looking at HP's PartSurfer page under product number C2H74UA, which this probably is, the only keyboard part number listed is 698782-001, which is backlit.
If it does, once again Woot! didn't provide this information in their listed specifications though (this is at least the second or third time it's happened) so there's no guarantee from them one way or the other so far.

17" should be considered a desktop... Get some nice 14" laptops on here Woot!

HughHemington wrote:12GB RAM for $700?
Now it has "quad-core", but the software is written like such dog meat that it doesn't run a bit faster than a single core with 1GB used to!

Why are we paying a premium to compensate for abysmal software from lazy programmers?

As software becomes more advanced it requires more resources. It's not about the software being poorly written, it's that the software needs to utilize the resources available because it uses much more data. Think about the days when software fit on a floppy disk. These days most software won't fit on a CD. The adobe suite uses 15.5gb or over 11,000 floppy disks worth of data (or 22 cd's).

Does anyone have any feedback on how well this might operate CS6? My wife and I own a graphic design company and have particular reasons we dont want to jump to Mac just yet. Some feedback would greatly help our decision.

rwillard86 wrote:Does anyone have any feedback on how well this might operate CS6? My wife and I own a graphic design company and have particular reasons we dont want to jump to Mac just yet. Some feedback would greatly help our decision.

The processor should be more than fast enough, and 12GB RAM is usually also more than adequate, although you could replace the 4GB DIMM with another 8GB to get it up to 16GB total if you wanted to max it out. Ideally for max performance you might want up to 2-3GB of RAM per CPU core, plus an extra 4GB. The screen is pretty good for this price range, but don't expect a really high-end IPS panel on these consumer models. You may want to connect a large, high quality external monitor for serious work.

The possibly tricky thing is going to be the HD4000 graphics. I don't think Adobe has officially certified the HD4000 for CS6. If you want full ISV certifications you seem to have to pay the big bucks for professional "workstation class" models (which are also more durable as well).

There was one on Woot! a while back, but with lower specs than this model (I remember it because it was another case of Woot! not knowing whether it has a backlit keyboard or not; in that case it actually did have one).
http://tech.woot.com/offers/hp-15-6-dual-core-i5-elitebook-2

Anyway, I suspect Photoshop and such, would be fine, but you could potentially run into at least minor difficulties with Premiere Pro/After Effects on an HD4000. For example, downloading the latest driver directly from Intel (bypassing HP) might be necessary if it doesn't like the HP-provided driver.

The other thing that might slow you down a bit is the 5400RPM hard drive. For a really fast system you'd want to either replace that with a large SSD (which is probably cost-prohibitive), or purchase a second internal disk tray and cable to allow you to add a smaller SSD (like 128G or so) to put the OS and what you're currently working on onto, plus also keep the original 1TB drive in there for large data.

Even with just the original 1TB 5400RPM drive I think it should perform pretty well with CS6 and enough RAM though, just not lightning quick.

Edit: Looks like Adobe did at least test Photoshop CS6 with the Intel HD P4000, which is very similar to (but not quite exactly identical to) the HD 4000.
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cs6-gpu-faq.html
It should still work though.

rwillard86 wrote:Does anyone have any feedback on how well this might operate CS6? My wife and I own a graphic design company and have particular reasons we dont want to jump to Mac just yet. Some feedback would greatly help our decision.

Hardware-wise no problem. Windows 8 might have some issues though. When you Google it some people say the program crashes, but there is at least one person that says:

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/cs6_runs_slicker_than_snot_in_windows_8_64_bit

CS6 Runs Really Well in Windows 8 64-bit.

I've been using CS6 Design & Web Premium in Windows 8 (64). It's been a seamless experience, and lightning fast. So fast. So, so fast.

It's just nice to see a Windows version of Photoshop feel as fast as it does on a Mac. I realize Adobe can't take all the credit for this (both Microsoft and my hardware obviously play a significant role), but you certainly deserve recognition for your part.

I've been using Adobe software since 1998, and it's nice to see that you continue to improve the user experience and performance of your product line, and innovate in the various spaces where your products are so heavily relied upon.

It seems the HD4000 should work too...see this forum:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4440539

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221186673357

[MOD NOTE: appreciate the effort, but we don't usually use ebay as a viable comp. apologies.

Gonna weigh in on pros and cons a bit too
pros
1TB HDD - lotsa storage
12GB of RAM - more than you will need anytime soon, unless you are photoshopping something like a 50 mega-pixel image.
i7 2.4GHz processor - pretty good. Actually runs faster than my AMD, which runs around 3.0 GHz

Cons
prolly 5400 rpm HDD - slow boot, wakeup from hibernation.
no GFX card - the HD4000 is pretty decent, compared to what older computers had, but dedicated gaming is still going to suffer.

I currently have a lenovo Y580 gaming laptop that came with similar specs (drop 4GB of RAM, and get a GTX660m GFX for delicious gaming, and you pretty much have the same computer - same cpu model, same HDD). Good laptop, although I swapped the HDD for a SSD, and it runs so silky smooth. The Y580 was $850 when I got it, so 20% off of that for refurb would be 680. I would still prefer the lenovo if possible, just because the graphics card means a lot to me.

techsmart07 wrote:I currently have a lenovo Y580 gaming laptop that came with similar specs (drop 4GB of RAM, and get a GTX660m GFX for delicious gaming, and you pretty much have the same computer - same cpu model, same HDD). Good laptop, although I swapped the HDD for a SSD, and it runs so silky smooth. The Y580 was $850 when I got it, so 20% off of that for refurb would be 680.

The Y580 is a 15" laptop though, so might not be quite directly comparable, and the less expensive versions of it tend to come with the crappy 1366x768 screen.

gak0090 wrote:So you are telling me that the American workers that manufactured my Toyota Sequoia and Subaru Legacy built them for free here in Indiana?

But where did the profits go? It doesn't have to do with money going to execs. It has to do with a trade imbalance. If we send more overseas that we take in, it affects our economy.

The people that build the cars will get paid regardless of whether you buy american or an "american built" foreign car because the money paid to workers stays here. It is the profits that go overseas. And those profits impact everyone because it creates a trade deficit.

I drive a 12 year old Ford Escape that has 110K miles on it and have one minor thing go wrong in that time. It runs great and just took it out on a 10 hour trip the other day. If you take care of your car, it will take care of you. On the other hand, everytime I turn around, there is another Toyota recall.

The same goes for Dell, HP and the likes. All the hardware comes from overseas for the most part otherwise your computer would be twice as much. BUT the profits stay here.

Buying a foreign car says a lot about you. And BTW, I am not the only one who thinks this way. I worked for a place once where they changed vendors because the rep bought a Camry.

If you want to make a change and improve our economy, it starts with yourself.

auctionsaver wrote:But where did the profits go? It doesn't have to do with money going to execs. It has to do with a trade imbalance. If we send more overseas that we take in, it affects our economy.

The people that build the cars will get paid regardless of whether you buy american or an "american built" foreign car because the money paid to workers stays here. It is the profits that go overseas. And those profits impact everyone because it creates a trade deficit.

I drive a 12 year old Ford Escape that has 110K miles on it and have one minor thing go wrong in that time. It runs great and just took it out on a 10 hour trip the other day. If you take care of your car, it will take care of you. On the other hand, everytime I turn around, there is another Toyota recall.

The same goes for Dell, HP and the likes. All the hardware comes from overseas for the most part otherwise your computer would be twice as much. BUT the profits stay here.

Buying a foreign car says a lot about you. And BTW, I am not the only one who thinks this way. I worked for a place once where they changed vendors because the rep bought a Camry.

If you want to make a change and improve our economy, it starts with yourself.

Well said!

Support US companies.

"Apple Paid $6 Billion in Federal Income Tax in 2012, 1/40 of All U.S. Corporate Income Tax Collected"

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/business/an-inquiry-into-tech-giants-tax-strategies-nears-an-end.html?_r=1&

ALRIGHT PEOPLE.



okie doke. i think we've digressed enough for today.

let's try to keep the discussion on-topic, plz. if you'd like to discuss in-depth the challenges of buying American in a global economy, feel free to create a thread for that in Everything But Woot. this thread is for discussing the HP ENVY 17.3" quad-core i7 laptop!

kmartind wrote:I'm guessing when you say "one of these" you might actually mean "something vaguely called 'DV7' at some point," and probably with at least two-generations-older processor; perhaps even AMD, and a totally different design. If so, that's like saying a 2013 Camry hybrid I've never driven is rubbish because I didn't like a 1992 Camry 4-cylinder I got cheap from Vinny's Discount Auto Emporium.
Then again if you do actually happen to have a 7243CL, it's valid feedback, but then I'd like to know why you didn't just get them to fix it if it had problems.

I've worked on several of this model and have found them often problematic myself. Have sent a few back for clients under the warranty. One I had to send back 3 times because they kept not fixing the problem. They ended up replacing the whole laptop after sending the original back the first 3 times.

It seems to me that heat would really become an issue with a quad-core laptop. Does it leave grill marks on your legs after holding it in your lap? Or does it simply have a ginormous, noisy fan instead? I've seen complaints about heat with similar laptops elsewhere. And Windows 8? What a deal breaker!

grenade01 wrote:I've worked on several of this model

And by "this model" you mean an Envy DV7-7243CL? Or at least a DV7 7200 series with third-generation Intel quad-core i7?