Gaming Is this a good laptop

[Madridi]

Hey guys.
I'm just wondering what you guys think about the following laptop (Click on specs)
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/compute...WQ874UA%2523ABA

I got it for about $730 + tax

Thanks in advance

 

[Jotokun]

For the pice you payed, its not bad but at the same time you could have gotten better specs if you shopped around (*cough*dell*cough*). HP/Compaq laptops have a reputation for being not very reliable, but I know several people who swear by them so I guess it depends on how rough you are with it.

The CPU is good, and that hard drive is practically a steal as its not common to have a 7200RPM drive in a laptop, at least not in this price range. Everything else is average.

 

[Madridi]

I should mention that I was looking for a PC smaller than 15.4, i5 processor, and has good storage (7200 RPM was a plus), and good battery life (its announced to have up to 6 hours 30 minutes but I doubt thats the case) .. and less than a 1000 (getting it for $730 made buy it on the spot!)

This is the only one I found that meets my criteria..
How is the Graphics?

 

[Jotokun]

The smaller than 15.4 part would be rather hard to find at a good price with good specs.

The graphics card is this computer's weak spot. I haven't had a chance to play around with an Intel Integrated card in a while but from what I can tell they haven't changed much. You might be able to run some less demanding games at low settings, but don't expect anything current and/or super demanding to run on it.

On the plus side, they are known for being quite battery friendly in comparison to ATi and NVidia graphics cards.

 

[Madridi]

well I'm not into games such as crysis or whatever (besides I have built myself an awesome i7 desktop so I'll use that if I need) .. but I'm assuming I wont have any problems with such games as Fifa?

oh and smaller than 15.4 was one of my main requirments, and yeah I knew it would be hard to find one that which has good specs for less than $1000 (I found sony ones that look good but they are around $1700!)

 

[murkurie]

When you get the laptop go to this site to test it, you choose a game, and it will say if it will run or not

 

[Madridi]

nice site. Thanks (Even my current laptop runs fifa!)

 

[Maz7006]

not a big fan of HP but yeah looks alright i suppose, good for the price.

i would have personally gone for some Toshiba Satellite.

 

[Madridi]

My previous laptop was a toshiba satellite. However most toshibas I see are at least 15.4 .. which is not what I was looking for

 

[Infinite Zero]

Brand is just your own preference. I use HP notebooks for a long time and never had any major problems with it.

And yes, you're specs are good

 

[Originality]

Surprisingly, the specs are not too different from the Acer Aspire 5740 my dad got (Core i5 430M with the typical GMA HD4500 built in).

First thing I'll say is that the CPU is nice and fast for computing chess (which is what my dad got it for), and this Acer has a battery life of up to 4.5h, which it really does achieve. I'm guessing that to make the HP DM4 get a 6.5h battery life, it just uses a lower output battery, or "eco" parts like a lower energy screen.

In any case, as mentioned, the graphics are the weak point to the system. I can play Borderlands pretty well on near minimal specs and output video onto my 42" HDTV (via HDMI) without much problems (slight stuttering every now and again, but mostly good), so at least the GPU deserves the "HD" in its name. Fifa of course should prove no problem (although I've not played any since earlier in the decade). Technically however, it's about 25% weaker than the ATI HD4500 range (which itself is fairly low in the HD4 scale), so don't expect to be able to run many of the modern games from it - it was never designed for gaming. Just an example - I can't get Mass Effect 1 to run off it no matter what I tried.

The only problem I've had so far is that attempting to update the Intel GMA drivers causes the laptop to stop recognising the laptop screen, forcing me to output onto a monitor or TV. I can always roll-back the drivers to get back to the stock drivers, but it's annoying that an update exists that it can't use. Maybe your HP DM4 will have better luck.

On a side note, the difference between 5400RPM and 7200RPM HDDs aren't actually that great. Sure, it's around 8% faster (in read/write speeds), but it's also around 10% hotter, louder, and takes more energy (I don't know the specifics for energy consumption on laptop drives). It also tends to fail around 15-20% sooner, depending on how you handle it. Early generation iPods showed how moving mechanical parts in a HDD can lead to a short life expectancy (which for Apple, meant lasting exactly as long as it took to release a new generation of iPod - a pattern they've reproduced for the iTouch and iPhone).

EDIT: Consider reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch to eliminate the majority of bloat-ware that HP saddles all their laptops with. That'll make it noticeably faster. On the other hand, some of the bloatware may be useful to the average user, such as the atuomatic backup programs they include.

 

[Madridi]

Surprisingly, the specs are not too different from the Acer Aspire 5740 my dad got (Core i5 430M with the typical GMA HD4500 built in).

First thing I'll say is that the CPU is nice and fast for computing chess (which is what my dad got it for), and this Acer has a battery life of up to 4.5h, which it really does achieve. I'm guessing that to make the HP DM4 get a 6.5h battery life, it just uses a lower output battery, or "eco" parts like a lower energy screen.
I didnt have the time to look at it closely yet, as I'm out of the country. When I get back I want to put an antivirus on it and then fiddle around with it for a while.
But from what I have seen, I lose about 20% of the battery in 45 minutes during regular internet browsing. So its no where near its 6h30m spec.
As I said though, I still have to check this closely.

In any case, as mentioned, the graphics are the weak point to the system. I can play Borderlands pretty well on near minimal specs and output video onto my 42" HDTV (via HDMI) without much problems (slight stuttering every now and again, but mostly good), so at least the GPU deserves the "HD" in its name. Fifa of course should prove no problem (although I've not played any since earlier in the decade). Technically however, it's about 25% weaker than the ATI HD4500 range (which itself is fairly low in the HD4 scale), so don't expect to be able to run many of the modern games from it - it was never designed for gaming. Just an example - I can't get Mass Effect 1 to run off it no matter what I tried.
I figured as much. Luckily I dont do PC gaming much, and as I mentioned earlier, my i7 desktop will handle that if needed. I'm probably most interested in the video quality I get when watching/editing movies or any videos I have.
Any idea if the graphics is 512MB or 1GB? It said something like (1696MB of shared graphics memory) but I'm sure its not 1.5GB graphics.. right?

The only problem I've had so far is that attempting to update the Intel GMA drivers causes the laptop to stop recognising the laptop screen, forcing me to output onto a monitor or TV. I can always roll-back the drivers to get back to the stock drivers, but it's annoying that an update exists that it can't use. Maybe your HP DM4 will have better luck.
Heh, yeah I know that feeling.. good luck with that

QUOTE(Originality @ Jul 21 2010, 01:45 PM) On a side note, the difference between 5400RPM and 7200RPM HDDs aren't actually that great. Sure, it's around 8% faster (in read/write speeds), but it's also around 10% hotter, louder, and takes more energy (I don't know the specifics for energy consumption on laptop drives). It also tends to fail around 15-20% sooner, depending on how you handle it. Early generation iPods showed how moving mechanical parts in a HDD can lead to a short life expectancy (which for Apple, meant lasting exactly as long as it took to release a new generation of iPod - a pattern they've reproduced for the iTouch and iPhone).

Well, I have never had an HDD fail on me so I feel pretty confident about this one. I have always used 5400RPM HDDs. But when I built my i7, I stuck 2 1TB caviar black HDDs 7200RPMs, and I was VERY impressed with the transfer rate.
Also I should note that during the short period of the laptop use, it didnt feel hot at all, and was very quiet (then again I'm used to high sounds so maybe I didnt notice)

ipods and iphones, really? I have a second generation ipod (or was it third?), ipod video, ipod nano, ipod touch, and a 3GS (I'm not really a fan of apple products, each product had a story for me lol). Never had a problem with any of them so far. In fact, I'm still using the olderst ipod as an HDD (60GB only)

QUOTE(Originality @ Jul 21 2010, 01:45 PM)

EDIT: Consider reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch to eliminate the majority of bloat-ware that HP saddles all their laptops with. That'll make it noticeably faster. On the other hand, some of the bloatware may be useful to the average user, such as the atuomatic backup programs they include.

I will most likely do that. I'm planning to use the backup option to create recovery discs (just in case I need them for some reason in the future), then use a copy of a legit windows 7 enterprise to my laptop. Then look for kaspersky or something to have as an antivirus (which is what I have on my i7)

out of curiousity, how much did that acer cost? and is the screen big?
I originally was looking for a 13.3 laptop, but I was fine with a 14.1 one. 15.4 is just too big..

 

[Berthenk]

In any case, as mentioned, the graphics are the weak point to the system. I can play Borderlands pretty well on near minimal specs and output video onto my 42" HDTV (via HDMI) without much problems (slight stuttering every now and again, but mostly good), so at least the GPU deserves the "HD" in its name. Fifa of course should prove no problem (although I've not played any since earlier in the decade). Technically however, it's about 25% weaker than the ATI HD4500 range (which itself is fairly low in the HD4 scale), so don't expect to be able to run many of the modern games from it - it was never designed for gaming. Just an example - I can't get Mass Effect 1 to run off it no matter what I tried.

I figured as much. Luckily I dont do PC gaming much, and as I mentioned earlier, my i7 desktop will handle that if needed. I'm probably most interested in the video quality I get when watching/editing movies or any videos I have.
Any idea if the graphics is 512MB or 1GB? It said something like (1696MB of shared graphics memory) but I'm sure its not 1.5GB graphics.. right?

It's probably neither. It doesn't have its own Graphics Memory. At least, as far as I know. It uses system RAM, so, as for the RAM mentioned it should have, according to the specs? Not going to happen. You'll never have the full RAM available, ever, due to an IGP (Intergrated Graphics Processor).
In general, all IGP's suck. A. Big. Freaking. Lot. If you wanted to play games, you should've chosen a laptop with a dedicated GPU.

 

[Madridi]

yeah I saw that. I have 3.80 of RAM available. from my understanding the 0.2 left is what the graphics use.

As I said, I'm not gonna game alot, and more concerned and video quality I will be getting.
Also I could've gotten the same laptop from HP with better specs, such as its own dedicated graphics card (I think it was 5450 or something.. definetly the 5xxx series) .. but the overall build would've cost me something around 1100, and honestly I didnt see a reason to pay that much of a difference over such a detail (I couldnt pass the $730 deal)

I would have also have to wait a few days for my build to finish and get ship to me. But being on vacation and all, I didnt have much waiting time..

 

[Originality]

The Acer Aspire 5740 cost my dad £550, and is a 15.4" model (that takes up a 17" sleeve). That's approx $700-750. The price difference between the DM4 series and (guessing here) DV6/7/8 series is little more than the discreet graphics, the better screen, and whatever premium features HP likes to put on their higher range laptops (typically a media remote control, amongst other things). Since the DM4 and Acer Aspire 5740 only have the CPU and IGP on the same chip, they save a lot of money (at the cost of weaker graphics, although it does greatly improve battery life).

Some of the better laptops in the market offer both, the Core i IGP and a discreet GPU, with a button or software to switch between them depending on your needs - graphical power, or battery life.

For the "shared memory", it's as described - shared with the RAM. DXDaig tells me it has 1.2GB available video memory of the 1274MB it states on the sticker. "Up to 1274 MB DVMT", whatever that means. Still, video memory is by no means a measure of strength or quality in graphics.

 

[Madridi]

Thanks for the info originality.
I never knew what shared memory was. Now I do.. Thanks