balazone
60 billion
Premium
join:2002-04-01
Wheeling, WV
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
|  New HP Laptop buying questions
My 6 year old Dell Inspiron 8200 is on it's last legs, the screen hinge snapped today.
Luckly, I was planning to buy a new laptop anyways, this just pushes up my timetable.
My absolute must have in my laptop is a number pad built in, so I am looking at the 17" screen models.
I configured an HP and the specs are below, my friend has almost the same model and I really like it.
HP dv9700t.
$1802.99
A few questions-
Is it worth an extra $250 for a blu-ray drive?
Has anyone use the HP ExpressCard Digital/Analog Tuner? Is it worth it? ($100)
Should I add a 2 year warrenty as it seems everything breaks after you have the laptop for 364 days? ($170)
I am trying to stay under or around $2000. So if I get blu-ray I probably can't get the warrenty and vice-versa.
Thanks. |
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
 ·AT&T Yahoo
| Normally, I am not big on "add-on" warrantys for most products, but when it comes to notebooks, I am not so sure...
IMHO, blu-ray at this point in time comes down to one question, personal usage: Do you watch hi-def movies frequently, and would that be an important part of this computer's usage?
If so, then it is likely worth it, however, short of that? Forget it! blu-ray will only come down in price over time, and it will always be possible to add replace the standard DVD Writer after. After all, it is not a real cost-effective storage medium. I'm not knocking it, btw, but just am saying don't get blu-ray just to "be prepared"...get it if you will really use it now otherwise, you are going to be a bit hacked when you see it drop in price later, and you had not really been using it...
Before buying this model, do keep in mind that HP is just coming out with the new "DV" series, which sports some nice cosmetic changes, but more importantly, adds a new hard disk crash-prevention technology that may well be worth having...
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dadkins
Merry Whatever
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
edit:
June 26th, @03:30PM
| reply to balazone
$250 for BD burner... not too bad for a laptop drive.
$250 for a BD ROM... eh.
BD drives have that neat factor (if the machine has HDMI) in that you can take it with you and connect to a HDTV somewhere(friend/relative) and blast away with a Blu-ray.
BD Burners are good for storage(lowest price I have found was $8.61 $8.55 for a BD25 blank)
»www.amazon.com/Verbatim-BD-R-25G···7&sr=8-5
As Pete said, prices are dropping and drive replacement on most upper level laptops is fairly painless. See pic(my AR)
Replacement for some other laptops is similar.
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Think outside the Fox... Opera |
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balazone
60 billion
Premium
join:2002-04-01
Wheeling, WV
·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to PeteC2
The blu-ray is not a huge deal, I don't own any br movies and as you said, I could always upgrade it.
But thanks for the heads up on the new series comming out. The dv7 line will be released in August and they look great. I found I can get a replacement screen hinge for $10 on ebay so I will do that and put up with this Dell until Aug. |
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by balazone  :The blu-ray is not a huge deal, I don't own any br movies and as you said, I could always upgrade it. But thanks for the heads up on the new series comming out. The dv7 line will be released in August and they look great. I found I can get a replacement screen hinge for $10 on ebay so I will do that and put up with this Dell until Aug. Yeah, the current dv line, although very good, is a bit long in the tooth now, and at the end of it's current "cycle". If I could hold out for a couple of months???? I do like the looks and hard drive protection in the upcoming series...
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...something is happening here but you don't know what it is...do you, Mr. Jones? |
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jima032
@comcast.net
| reply to balazone
Just some constructive feedback,
Why are you getting dual 120 GB hard drives? A single 250 GB or 320 GB drive would be cheaper. Dual drives won't make your laptop faster and will drain the battery like crazy.
Also, I would recommend a higher resolution display if possible. 1680 x 1050 is great for a 15.5 inch display. For 17 inch I would go a little higher but it's a personal choice.
Also, I would drop the tv tuner, as it will probably be very inconvenient to use. You'll still have to use the coaxial F-cables which are annoying as can be. Other than that, your laptop looks good. Are you getting 3 GB ram? |
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balazone
60 billion
Premium
join:2002-04-01
Wheeling, WV
·Comcast Formerly ..
| I picked the dual drives because they are 7200rpm. I had a 5400 rpm drive in my current laptop and I could tell the diffrence when I went to 7200rpm. I'm not worried about battery life. I almost always have a plug nearby.
As for the display, the max HP offers on this line is 1680x1050. This may change on the new dv7 line.
I will be getting at least 4gb ram. |
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by balazone :I will be getting at least 4gb ram. 4gb is usually the max ram that most notebooks can be configured with at this point in time. There may be a few exceptions...but not many that I've seen.
Sometimes, it is less expensive to add ram yourself, rather than order a notebook with extra ram...in other words, if it is configured with 3gb ram, it will likely be cheaper to replace the 1gb stick, with a 2gb stick that you buy, versus ordering it with more ram.
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...something is happening here but you don't know what it is...do you, Mr. Jones? |
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jima032
@comcast.net | reply to balazone
That's a nice price you got there if it includes two 7200 rpm drives. |
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