Hardware Input need on my new laptop

[RevPokemon]

Name - HP Envy m6-1205dx
Specs
Price - 199 USD
Ram - 6 GB DDR3 (upgradeable to 16)
CPU - AMD A series A10-4600M / 2.3 GHz and Max Turbo Speed 3.2 GHz
Screen Resolution - 1366 x 768
Gpu - Intergraded AMD Radeon HD 7660G
Storage - 750 GB HD
Operating System - Windows 10 currently (I plan dual booting with Ubuntu MATE)

Potential upgrades - I plan on getting an more ram on my system to max out at 16GB. I am debating or not to get an SSD for my OSes as I dont want to spend too much on a cheapish laptop (although atleast i can reuse the ssd if i get a new laptop which justifies the purchase).

Anyway I want to know/ be clarified about

1. Gaming
I know it being an older laptop i wont get great gaming (no crysis) but i was wondering if i could run games. I checked those "run it" websites but i know they generally over estimate how good your computer is. The games i would like to play are Civ 5, Spore, HL, TF2, Portal, Left for Dead, Super Meat Boy, Doom 3, Faster then light, Oblivion, Shovel Knight, BioShock, Knights of the Old republic, Her story and Minecraft. I would like to run them in 720p on medium setting but am willing to go to the lowest settins if needed.

2. Emulators
I know that AMD chips are bad for emulation but how good will it do with 64, PS1, Dreamcast and PSP games? I would think it could probably handle PS1 games as my Android tablet does them great but i am not familiar with the emulation of the other 3 but my guess is that mamy Dreamcast games will run poorly but if i could atleast get Sonic advemture battle and shenmue to work then i would be a happy camper.

3 HP quality
My mom got me it since it is an HP (my godfather works there and has for 24 plus years in California) so she respects the bramd (keep in mind she is a technophobe). I know hp's generally are poor in quality (atleast compared to other vendors) but in your experoence how bad are they really?

4. Upgrades
I plan on getting more ram and a ssd but in your opinion which one should i get first?

5. value
Considering my budget (200 USD) and that most laptops in this range are chromebooks or machines with 2gb ram, did i get a good deal?

Thanks in advanced!

(EDIT 1 - damn I meant needed not need in the title )

 

[Originality]

Gaming, it will run those games. APUs have better performance in gaming than their Intel equivolents, although your mileage may vary in how far you can push the settings. Expect some of the more demanding games to need low settings, but most should be fine in medium settings.

Emulation is heavily influenced by the Ghz. I don't know about dreamcast, but n64 and ps1 will be no problem. It should even be able to handle some ps2 games. I would think it could handle PSP games, but I never actually tried PSP emulation to find out the required specs (why bother when I have a PSP and PSV?).

HP? My experience is that they make bad design choices when it comes to cooling. The HP laptops I've worked with in the past have all had tiny fans in one corner and expect copper heat pipes to efficiently transfer all the heat from the entire laptop to that one fan, with predictable consequences. Average lifespan is 1-4 years. Of course, that's only from my experience. There are many laptops in their range so who knows about all of them. Also I like to keep throwing around Rydian's statistics of 30% of all laptops regardless of brand having a critical failure in 3 years. That much hasn't changed in the last 10 years or so.

Upgrades, you will see a good performance boost (around 30% generally) from a SSD. You won't see much boost from increasing the RAM, unless you're one of those that likes to keep 100-300 Firefox tabs open at once.

Value.... Well, you get what you pay for. For that price, it's not a very strong laptop, but it should be enough for your needs. That said, you're actually getting better specs than I'd expect for $200, so I guess it is good value, considering it's a budget range laptop.

 

[Armadillo]

+1 for shocking cooling on hp. I fully expect a hp laptop to overheat and shutdown if you try to do anything that taxes the system.

I have an old hp laptop, same shitty fan in the corner design. Junk, do anything taxing on the system and sooner or later it shuts down because overheated. Completely ridiculous to put a cooler system in that can't actually deal with the heat when doing anything. Oh have this cpu, but make sure you don't go over 30% because we couldn't be bothered to design a proper cooling system.

Quick look on google, would seem that model uses the same single fan in the corner. Apparently hp still can't be bothered with decent cooling.

 

[RevPokemon]

+1 for shocking cooling on hp. I fully expect a hp laptop to overheat and shutdown if you try to do anything that taxes the system.

I have an old hp laptop, same shitty fan in the corner design. Junk, do anything taxing on the system and sooner or later it shuts down because overheated. Completely ridiculous to put a cooler system in that can't actually deal with the heat when doing anything. Oh have this cpu, but make sure you don't go over 30% because we couldn't be bothered to design a proper cooling system.

Quick look on google, would seem that model uses the same single fan in the corner. Apparently hp still can't be bothered with decent cooling.

Any cooling product that you recommend?

Upgrades, you will see a good performance boost (around 30% generally) from a SSD. You won't see much boost from increasing the RAM, unless you're one of those that likes to keep 100-300 Firefox tabs open at once.

Yeah I am looking around at SSDs to see what my options are but I think i will get that for now and get ram latter if i need it (I might only get 10gb or 8 total rather than 16)

Value.... Well, you get what you pay for. For that price, it's not a very strong laptop, but it should be enough for your needs. That said, you're actually getting better specs than I'd expect for $200, so I guess it is good value, considering it's a budget range laptop.

Well that is good to know. Hopefully I can get it to last 3-4 years or so until I can spend quite a bit more and get a better laptop.

 

[Originality]

In choosing an SSD I would generally get the cheapest available that scores at least 7/10 in reviews (usually Sandisk or Crucial). Since the laptop won't be strong enough to make use of high performance Samsung SSDs.

For cooling a HP laptop, take your pic out of the following page: http://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Cooling-Pads/SubCategory/ID-319

 

[RevPokemon]

In choosing an SSD I would generally get the cheapest available that scores at least 7/10 in reviews (usually Sandisk or Crucial). Since the laptop won't be strong enough to make use of high performance Samsung SSDs.

Yeah I will look around for a good one that fits my needs. I checked the Crucial website and they do sell SSDs still that are compatible with my laptop but they are quite expensive (The cheapest is 75 USD which is more then I want to spend on this cheap laptop).I plan on perhaps just seeing what is in my range and then deciding as I know it can use a SATA 2.5 inch 7.0MM SSD so I am trying to find one relatively cheap but I will come back to you on that.

For cooling a HP laptop, take your pic out of the following page: http://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Cooling-Pads/SubCategory/ID-319

For some reason I once remember hearing that those were nothing but snake oil. Do they really work?

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Potential upgrades - I plan on getting an more ram on my system to max out at 16GB. I am debating or not to get an SSD for my OSes as I dont want to spend too much on a cheapish laptop (although atleast i can reuse the ssd if i get a new laptop which justifies the purchase).

Do it, get a cheap SATA III SSD. you can get one for about 30 - 40 bucks.

1. Gaming
I know it being an older laptop i wont get great gaming (no crysis) but i was wondering if i could run games. I checked those "run it" websites but i know they generally over estimate how good your computer is. The games i would like to play are Civ 5, Spore, HL, TF2, Portal, Left for Dead, Super Meat Boy, Doom 3, Faster then light, Oblivion, Shovel Knight, BioShock, Knights of the Old republic, Her story and Minecraft. I would like to run them in 720p on medium setting but am willing to go to the lowest settins if needed.

TF2, Portal, Left For Dead, Super Meat Boy, Doom III, Shovel Knight, Minecraft among others, will play with 0 issues.

2. Emulators
I know that AMD chips are bad for emulation but how good will it do with 64, PS1, Dreamcast and PSP games? I would think it could probably handle PS1 games as my Android tablet does them great but i am not familiar with the emulation of the other 3 but my guess is that mamy Dreamcast games will run poorly but if i could atleast get Sonic advemture battle and shenmue to work then i would be a happy camper.

N64 will run at full speed, as for PS1 and PSP, you might, MIGHT, get some framedrops, just tweaks the settings and dont max out everything.

3 HP quality
My mom got me it since it is an HP (my godfather works there and has for 24 plus years in California) so she respects the bramd (keep in mind she is a technophobe). I know hp's generally are poor in quality (atleast compared to other vendors) but in your experoence how bad are they really?

All my laptops are been HP, 4 of them, the only issues i got with 1, was the first one, wich was an OLD DV6000, the one with the reballing issue, but every HP i had since that one, 0 issue, i love these laptops, ho always make Budgets laptops and pcs, with decent build quality and specs, as atm, i got an https://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-17-e049wm-A10-5750m-2-5ghz-silver/dp/B00EP09B4M, and i totally love it. got a AMD A10 5750M with AMD Radeon HD 8650G.

4. Upgrades
I plan on getting more ram and a ssd but in your opinion which one should i get first?

SSD. try to get your SSD then max out the ram if possible.

5. value
Considering my budget (200 USD) and that most laptops in this range are chromebooks or machines with 2gb ram, did i get a good deal?

Yes.

Thanks in advanced!

No Problem ;D

 

[RevPokemon]

TF2, Portal, Left For Dead, Super Meat Boy, Doom III, Shovel Knight, Minecraft among others, will play with 0 issues.

That's good, for the others I will probably just fiddle around with settings to see works best.

N64 will run at full speed, as for PS1 and PSP, you might, MIGHT, get some framedrops, just tweaks the settings and dont max out everything

Why? I was always told that the N64 was a harder console to emulate then the ps1. As for psp I have absolutely no clue as I am not used to the emulator. Either Way again I guess I will download a few games and see how they play and then fiddle with the settings (If I have to go to native IR that will be ok).

All my laptops are been HP, 4 of them, the only issues i got with 1, was the first one, wich was an OLD DV6000, the one with the reballing issue, but every HP i had since that one, 0 issue, i love these laptops, ho always make Budgets laptops and pcs, with decent build quality and specs, as atm, i got an https://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-17-e049wm-A10-5750m-2-5ghz-silver/dp/B00EP09B4M, and i totally love it. got a AMD A10 5750M with AMD Radeon HD 8650G.

That is re-assuring.

Yes.

No Problem ;D

Well thanks again for the imput!

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Why? I was always told that the N64 was a harder console to emulate then the ps1. As for psp I have absolutely no clue as I am not used to the emulator. Either Way again I guess I will download a few games and see how they play and then fiddle with the settings (If I have to go to native IR that will be ok).

n64 its a hard console to emulate, or at least it was in past years, but i never had an issue running n64 games, even when project64 1.6 came out, which is like a thousand years ago, you wont be having issues with n64, and as far as i know neither with the PSX running with ePSXe.

That is re-assuring.

What? D:

Well thanks again for the imput!

No biggy ;D

 

[RevPokemon]

n64 its a hard console to emulate, or at least it was in past years, but i never had an issue running n64 games, even when project64 1.6 came out, which is like a thousand years ago, you wont be having issues with n64, and as far as i know neither with the PSX running with ePSXe.


What? D:



No biggy ;D

Iwas being honest with the re-assuring part. It is nice to know that your experience with HP laptops has been good.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Iwas being honest with the re-assuring part. It is nice to know that your experience with HP laptops has been good.

O, yeah, never had a bad time with HP. dont quite understand with people hate them so much, they are budgets with great specs.

 

[Originality]

For some reason I once remember hearing that those were nothing but snake oil. Do they really work?

Generally the amount of improvement they give is minimal. All it does is help the laptop breath, which if it is on a flat surface with no obstructions to airflow, it can breath plenty already. It does little to help with a laptop with poor cooling anyway. But it can reduce temps by 1-5C, depending on some circumstances. Do note that some fans are designed instead to pull air away from the laptop, which can in effect suffocate the laptop and fry its insides.

But the question was, "any cooling product you can recommend?", to which this is one of only two possible ways to improve cooling. A cooling fan is the easiest method, and replacing the thermal paste (and optionally delidding the APU) is a little more complex.

 

[RevPokemon]

Generally the amount of improvement they give is minimal. All it does is help the laptop breath, which if it is on a flat surface with no obstructions to airflow, it can breath plenty already. It does little to help with a laptop with poor cooling anyway. But it can reduce temps by 1-5C, depending on some circumstances. Do note that some fans are designed instead to pull air away from the laptop, which can in effect suffocate the laptop and fry its insides.

Hmm, I never actually knew about that so it sounds good as long as I can find the right fan.

But the question was, "any cooling product you can recommend?", to which this is one of only two possible ways to improve cooling. A cooling fan is the easiest method, and replacing the thermal paste (and optionally delidding the APU) is a little more complex.

Probably not worth the cost and hassle I would assume.