HP dv8000t Review

[Sledgehamer70]

Hey guys,

I just finished up my review of my new dv8000t from HP. For those of you looking to buy a new notebook from HP I would suggest reading it, as it will seal the deal on you buying from HP.

dv8000t Review

 

[corkyg]

Nice review! Being an H-P Pavilion fan, I noted some key omissions. What is the weight with battery? Does the touchpad still have H-P's wonderful on/off switch? What kind of tray/caddy does the HDD use? Can a spare be obtained for a backup drive?

Looks like a good notebook for a non-travelling gamer - more of a desktop replacement. The size makes it impractical for a road warrior. Opening a 17-in laptop screen on an airline seat tray ain't easy! (Especially if the sucker in front of you has reclined.)

 

[Fraggable]

I love my HP dv8000nr. It's got a go7400 512MB, two 100GB HDDs in RAID 0, and the 17" screen is lovely. I take it to school once a week and to a friend's house for gaming maybe once or twice a week and I can't complain about the size or weight.

Only thing I might have liked to have is a 1920 X 1200 screen. I know Dell has a 17" wide with that resolution so it must be possible. Though at that res I wouldn't be able to game like I do now, so I dunno.

 

[Sledgehamer70]

The weight without the battery is about 6.8lbs with the batt 8.1lbs, no the touch pad is new to HP it offers a scroll side bar, double tap click, and smooth functionality. The trays seem to be more of a heat cover than anything. they fasten with 1 screw in the center which holds the HD in place to connect to its SATA interface. If you order the Laptop with 1 drive I have heard HP will not put the 2nd drive try inside the Laptop, I have heard you can order it but it isn't an easy process.

I travel with my dv800t everyday, the 8.1lbs isn't much of an issue with a backpack, I carry the charger a mouse some external HD's and a few other gadgets in the backpack. I am 6'5 and 250lbs so I guess 9 to 10lbs isn't much of an issue for me. But to note most comparable Laptops from HP's competitors are over 12lbs.

Also I fly once a week with this bad boy and it makes as a good movie player on any plane I have been on thus far.

 

[xit2nowhere]

Hi Sledge,
how is reliability of HPs notebooks?
I'm currently looking into buying one and saw your review.

Thanks.

 

[Sledgehamer70]

It is very reliable. I have no complaints.

 

[railer]

How's that 7400? Doesn't HP offer something more like a 7900GS?

 

[Sledgehamer70]

Nope when I first got my laptop the 7400 Go was the only offering. The card performs great for my needs as I know with laptops you sacrifice graphics for portability. But just 2 months after I got my laptop HP put the 7600 Go series card in its place. Both cards will play all of today?s games at descent frame rates. But I do agree a higher level Graphics card would have been a better choice.

 

[Sledgehamer70]

any other questions?

 

[ai42]

OCZ makes much better RAM than anything HP offers, so this route not only saved me money but significantly increased the performance.

I disagree with this statment (or at least the last part of it). Maybe OCZ makes better RAM can overclock, or do better CAS timings but I highly doubt you can actually make the BIOS settings to take advantage of that.

 

[Sledgehamer70]

Actually the stock timming shown in CPU-Z are much better than the stock ram! much better

 

[Fraggable]

As far as graphics, mine plays BF2 at midrange settings but with no or very low AA/AF settings. I haven't tried any other current gen games though.

Mine shows 512MB of video ram, I think it's 256 dedicated/256 shared.

 

[Sledgehamer70]

it is actually a 128MB card with 367MB ram shared. If you read the fine print you will see that it is indeed evil. and you are not able to adjust how much ram you want it to use and not use. But i did notice when I use the coolbits hack on the Graphics card with the OCZ ram, it will allow the OC on the GPU to go about 22% higher than it did with the stock ram.

 

[Fraggable]

I don't think I'll be OCing my laptop's video, that just doesn't sound like a good idea. Besides it would void my 3-year BB warranty.

I plan to upgrade to 2 GB of ram someday when I have the money, then sharing the 367mb won't be an issue.

 

[6000SUX]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I don't think I'll be OCing my laptop's video, that just doesn't sound like a good idea. Besides it would void my 3-year BB warranty.

I plan to upgrade to 2 GB of ram someday when I have the money, then sharing the 367mb won't be an issue.

It's probably not an issue now. The graphics card should not adversely affect your system performance. I have an x1400 with 512MB including Hypermemory, which is just system shared memory. The key word there is "shared". I have a laptop with 1.5 gigs of RAM, but it commonly uses under 512MB if I'm not heavily multitasking. Even on an OS that needs 256MB to run decently at all, and which often uses more, and with a graphics card that can use up to 512MB of RAM itself, my total megabytes of RAM in use is often below 512.

Some areas where you'd potentially run into problems are where programs and video both need lots of memory at once: video editing (? dunno firsthand), CAD work, and gaming. Photo editing would NOT tax the graphics card heavily or require large amounts of graphics memory.

 

[railer]

any reason to get this hp over an Inspiron 9400 with the 7900gs for ~ $1300?

 

[wearetheborg]

How does it compare to nx9420 ? And to XPS M1710 ?

 

[erwos]

*Rant mode on*

Why can't manufacturers include DVI rather than VGA for external video out? Would it REALLY add that much cost to the laptop?

*Rant mode off*

Looks like a nice laptop, reminds me of my own zv6000, just bigger and better. The resolution is a welcome improvement over those idiots who were trying to sell 17" 1280x800 screens. I'm not sure I quite understand why you would want two hard drives in your laptop, seeing as one 7200RPM one is probably faster, cheaper (per mb), and more reliable (compared to RAID0), but maybe if you ran them in RAID1.... well, whatever. Some talk about Linux compatibility would have been nice, too.

The biggest problem with HP laptops is HP's ABSOLUTELY AWFUL dock, the xb2000. I cannot even fathom how they decided to not put a VGA-out or DVI-out on that thing, and the ugly, awkward way the laptop connects to the dock (a cable!!!) is a disgrace. They may as well have just gone the USB dock route like Dell - they wouldn't have lost much.

That said, the Dell E1705 would be my hands-down choice for a new laptop in that price range, especially once all the crazy coupon deals get factored in. It's nice that Dell is finally starting to include excellent video and sound options at reasonable prices... maybe in a couple years, once the sheen has worn off my 360. About my only complaint is the lack of a "real" docking solution - am I the only one who remembers the glory days of docks, when they had actual PCI slots in them?

-Erwos

 

[Sledgehamer70]

The problem with the dv8000t vs the XPS M1710 is in the grphics. that is the only think Dell has over HP at the moment. 7600 vs a 7900GTX...

 

[wearetheborg]

What about the build quality of XPS M1710 vs dv8000t ?
nx9420 vs dv8000t ?

 

[Sledgehamer70]

My roomate owns a XPS M1710 and to tell you the truth my HP seems to be much more durable. also the XPS is about 4lbs heavier and man do you notice the difference. also the HP dv8000t seems to have a much more sleek and moderen look to it. I havent seen the nx9420 so i can't comment.

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: erwos
*Rant mode on*

Why can't manufacturers include DVI rather than VGA for external video out? Would it REALLY add that much cost to the laptop?

*Rant mode off*


-Erwos

I abosultely agree. I am looking in the next moth at a DTR.. but my choices are very limited by the fact that I don't want to use VGA to connect to my 19" LCD. Really, my only choice is Dell, and I really dislike not having choices. DVI out on this machine.... and I'd do it.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: dnuggett
I abosultely agree. I am looking in the next moth at a DTR.. but my choices are very limited by the fact that I don't want to use VGA to connect to my 19" LCD. Really, my only choice is Dell, and I really dislike not having choices. DVI out on this machine.... and I'd do it.

The MacBook (and MB Pro) also supports DVI. Not sure it'd be my first choice, due to some ugly compromises in other areas, but if DVI is extremely important, it's an option.

Some implementations only support DVI-D (and not DVI-I, which can do analog), so that's also something to be cautious of. Given the choice between DVI-D and analog VGA, I'd have to take the latter, because of compatibility.

-Erwos

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: dnuggett
I abosultely agree. I am looking in the next moth at a DTR.. but my choices are very limited by the fact that I don't want to use VGA to connect to my 19" LCD. Really, my only choice is Dell, and I really dislike not having choices. DVI out on this machine.... and I'd do it.

The MacBook (and MB Pro) also supports DVI. Not sure it'd be my first choice, due to some ugly compromises in other areas, but if DVI is extremely important, it's an option.

Some implementations only support DVI-D (and not DVI-I, which can do analog), so that's also something to be cautious of. Given the choice between DVI-D and analog VGA, I'd have to take the latter, because of compatibility.

-Erwos

I am aware of the DVI prospect for the Macs. I guess those can be considered options, but last time I did a benefit analysis, they didn't win out. I'll take a look again...