new laptop! Zoggy zog, check in

[DocTrebor Profile]

ok so my family decided to just go out and buy me a laptop the other day from office depot, i was told they dropped like a 1000 bucks on it, apparantly they want me home for the holidays lol...here are the specs i found for the model (i think its the one they got me)


HP Pavilion Notebook Computer with Intel® Centrino® Duo processor technology

17" BRIGHTVIEW WIDESCREEN
Watch, Pause and Record Live TV with built in TV Tuner and Remote
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5250
• 2048MB DDR2 memory
• 320GB hard drive
• Reads and Writes DVDs and CDs and plays HD DVDs
• Integrated Webcam and Microphone
• Windows Vista™ Home Premium with TV tuner and remote
• Integrated 802.11 a/g/n wireless LAN
Model DV9650US


i asked em why they didnt wait untill friday after thanksgiving, but there is a 30 day return policy no questions asked if a better deal gets out. so, does this look good? is there somethin better i could do for less? also, ive heard nothin but crap about vista, not lookin forward to the vista...but with this tv tuner thing is downgrading an option? id much rather stick with xp pro if i can. and, when that time comes around, ill be makin another thread

im going to be using it for business and law school mainly, but being that i have the attention span of a goldfish i want somethin i can game on too. seeing as how my current laptop could barely run BF2, i wanna make sure it can at least support cod4. anyway, i appreciate the input guys!

[Lord ZOG Profile]

I bought a similar laptop for my girlfriend, a dv6325 (same form factor, only a 15.4 WXGA screen and an AMD Turion X2) It was under $800.00, which is probably the only reason I got it. It came with Vista Home Premium and 1GB of RAM. I upgraded it to 2GB and used my TechNet subscription to bump it up to Vista Ultimate. (I did try Vista Ultimate 64-bit, but there were way too many driver issues for me to let my g/f use it without bugging me every day...64-bit OS = pain in the ass right now, even though Vista's 64-bit is far better than XP's 64.bit).

I bet that 320GB HD is a 4200rpm unit. Probably bottlenecks the entire system. If you right-click your "My Computer" icon and choose "Properties", you'll see your "System Rating". It's not a true benchmarking means, but it gives you a decent idea of where your machine lies in the performance Totem Pole. Mine rates 3.1, with the "Gaming Graphics" holding it down (the next lowest score is the HD at 4.5). What's yours?

I still don't like Vista, but it's a decent machine. It performed only "OK" with 1GB, but the extra GB makes it tolerable (I still strongly think Microsoft is going to regret pushing Vista on people). The machine gets finger prints on it very easily. I've gone through a few gallons of Windex keeping it clean.

As far as gaming, I don't think there are many off-the-shelf laptops even meant for gaming. You might be able to play lower end games (ET, Wolfenstein), but you're in for a lot of disappointment if you're looking solely at gaming performance. I'd never seriously game on any laptop I've ever owned or worked on.

Still, I'm happy with mine.