Solved! HP DV6t Quad Edition or Dell Studio 15 i7

[mikeynavy1976]

I'm looking into purchasing an i7 laptop in the next week and am seriously looking at the following two laptops. I want a 15" screen but I also want an i7 so it lasts a while. I'm open to other ideas as well if you know of one besides these two that I should look at:

HPDV6t:
Intel Core i7 720
8 GB RAM (I might actually go with 6GB)
320GB 7200 RPM hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 230M (1GB)
Cost: ~$1400

Dell Studio 15
Same as above except 1080p screen and 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4570
$~1700

The only other difference is that dell has a longer warranty (although you pay for it).

I'm leaning towards the HP simply for the cost, but any thoughts? I'm a Navy Engineer (currently sent back to grad school) so I'm in need of a laptop for school, and then for travel afterwards. I'm obviously looking for the best performance and value.

 

[Maziar]

Go for the HP model its cheaper and also GT 230M should perform better than HD 4570 in games.

 

[buwish]

It's a close call between the two graphics chips, but I agree, as I think the HP is the best deal. But as I always tell anyone who wants to buy an HP, get an extended warranty!

 

[ibnsina]

Why don’t you lean toward ASUS G51J-A1

Intel Core i7 720QM

640GB 2 x 320GB 7200rpm

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M 1GB VRAM DDR3

Screen Size 15.6" Resolution 1920 x 1080.full hd.

4GB Memory.

2 years Warranty , 1 year ASUS Accidental Damage

30 days Zero Bright Dot LCD Warranty

Carry Bag

Optical Mouse

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

$1,499.99

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220605

 

[mikeynavy1976]

Is there anyplace where I can "customize" the Asus...add more memory? Also, how is their customer service and quality? I had an ASUS motherboard go bad and it was impossible to get a hold of anyone except by e-mail. My brother also had a brand new motherboard get bricked during a firmware update. They took a month to fix and return it.

 

[ibnsina]

You can customise it here. http/www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-asus-laptops-ct-95_51_163.html

What applications do you use, that you want to upgrade the memory? I think you would gain much more performance, if you upgrade one of the hard drive to SSD(80GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive). You still get your second 320GB 7200RPM for backup.

As far as I know Asus is a respectable brand, worked with many Asus products, especially motherboards but I have never dealt with their service department, so I leave that for others to answer.

 

[Maziar]

The ASUS model is a very good choice but if the OP doesn't want to play games then i think the HP model would be a better choice

 

[Guest]

Check out Costco.com, they have an HP and Dell i7 for $999. I ordered the HP.

 

[donniet1977]

I also ordered the HP from costco. I customized it a bit though. Costco adds an additional year warranty for free and offers 90 days cashback. I was in the Navy too Mikey. I just got my degree from Thomas Edison State College.

Donnie

 

[Guest]

The first Dell Studio I received kept crashing all time. I sent that one back. This replacement has a defective wireless card and the cursor keeps jumping around all over the place. I'm sending this one back and getting a Hewlett Packard DV6t Quad. I've had Dell computers for many years but I'm switching over to HPs. Hope this helps.

 

[fknight1]

Costco has a 15” HP dv6t with an i7 720, 4G-DDR3, 320G and Gforce 220 w 1G for $999 and a Dell Studio 15 with an i7 720, 8G-DDR3, 500G and ATI 4570 w 512M and a 9-cell battery for $1199. Both systems appear to be fairly good values but I haven’t found many industry reviews of the new Dell. Are the additional 4G memory, larger HDD and 9 cell battery worth $200?

 

[amric]

I am in the same boat. Dell Studio 15 i7 or HP dv6 quad i7 from Costco. The HP is not shipping due to a delay on parts availablity (no further details). The specs favor the HP due to the better GPU, but who knows when it will ship. Does it make sense to switch to the Dell, or wait it out on the HP? Thanks!

 

[fknight1]

I still haven't pulled the trigger on an i7 quad laptop. I'm leaning toward the HP dv6t quad over the Dell
Studio 15 w i7 quad due to reviewer comments on several sites about high temperatures. Notebookcheck.net has a comprehensive performance review of the Dell with some scary temperatures for the chassis and ac adapter. Have u looked at the new i7 sony and toshiba laptops? good luck

 

[amric]

Thanks - I'll check out the notebookcheck.net review. I thought the i7 was supposed to run cooler due to the slower speed when not under load. Do you know if the high temps are exclusive to the Dell, or is it the i7?

 

[Guest]

I have the SAME problem, I dont know what to get, the Dv6 Quad edition i7 or the Dell XPS 16 Quad edition i7. .whats you all's opinion. .

Specs:

HP Dv6 Quad-
-Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
-Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor
-4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
-320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
-1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 320M
-15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768) Primary optical drive ---LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
-Webcam
-Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
-6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
$976.44 (with the student discount)

XPS 16:
-Windows® 7 Home Premium
-Processor Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz
-4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
-Full HD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP
-ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
-500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
-Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish
-Integrated 10/100 Network Card
-Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9, Multiple Languages
-CD ROM/DVD ROM 8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
-Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB
-Intel® 5300 WLAN Wireless-N (3x3) Mini Card-
-Microsoft Works
-Anti-Virus Software McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
-85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
-1 Year Basic Service Plan
-1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection
-Dell Online Backup 30GB for 1 year
-Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR)
$1469.00