I want to buy an hp laptop but i cant decide which one is better.i have the opti

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i want to buy an hp laptop but i cant decide which one is better.i have the option of choosing an amd phenom ii x4 p960 or the intel core i5-480m version with almost the same specs..pls help me decide..p.s..i will be gaming a lot
 

userxvi-JOE

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Jul 29, 2012
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i want to buy an hp laptop but i cant decide which one is better.i have the option of choosing an amd phenom ii x4 p960 or the intel core i5-480m version with almost the same specs..pls help me decide..p.s..i will be gaming a lot

First of all, my Apologies for possible grammar and Spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.
2nd prepare for a wall of, Hopefully useful facts, rants and related material.

I have the last quorters model of the DV6Z, A8 MX 3500 APU + 6670 GPU, the performance is very good-exceptional for gaming, while plugged in and capable while plugged in I.E. running on the APU quadcore alone, when it runs on battery theres simply not enough juice in that thing to power everything to 100%

Also, I want to note, I do my gaming on a 120 sony 40 inch HDTV on maximum possible resolution and im planning on upgrading to 3 20-25 inch monitors because im hearing impeccable things about EyeFinity and again, This laptop is a keeper, very satisfied customer.

The MX series chips, are sadly no longer available for the DV6 laptops, but I believe the A10 is a nice just better then the A8

I can also see they offer 7670 and 7730 ATi right now, the 7670 is an aging GPU, re-branded several generations, its 50$ cheaper and you should be good for at least 2 years with the 7670

the 7730 is "Rumored" but apparently HP is integrating them already! its a very nice GPU, its a heavily under-clocked 7750 Desktop chip, this should give you high to ultra settings in every single game out there, combine that with a competent quadcore and you should be pretty good especially with the prices HP offers.

I believe AMD is redoing their entire Driver operation, because lets be honest, their current drivers are not for the novice user frankly its appalling to see such sheer innovation looking like doo because of drivers, even myself, coming from 12 some odd years in the IT industry it took me 2 weeks to figure out how to switch the graphics to run on a single GPU, back to Dual GPU's and so on, but if you are a novice user, Just keep the drivers up to date, and just let it run itself, Set graphics settings to maximum and wait for AMD to keep adding special support for modern games 1-10 games at a time.

Hardware wise, for the 650 I spent I would give it a 10 out of 10 on that front, AMD+ATi have yet to give my any lagg, during startup processor intensive everything, Gaming, I mean seriously, Six hundred and 50 dollars for superb performance.

Everything except the screen itself is very fingerprint foodstuff and scratch resistant, another very nice surprise.
The screen is actually pretty good quality manufacture, Nits output is drop above average, Viewing angles are good, although when looking at it from more then 50 or so angle, colors begin to warp into a purple, still words are legible on black and white setting.

The heat temps are almost acceptable at absolute FULL blast benchmarks out the Kazoo multiple monitors wifi and everything just blasting away like there's no tomorrow, stock settings max out at 78c in the hottest part of the laptop while plugged in and when on battery only the APU hits 78c on stock settings everything else remains lower, While most professionals will argue about acceptable hardware temperatures, Most people simply dont know what their talking about, instead they just repeat what they heard or read from a "Seems legit" post, Let me explain in detail what happened to the ISO compliant parts inside of the laptop and which ones are in danger of going much faster then expected under which temperatures.

-120 and 1c (When water and air can turn into tiny pieces of ICE)
The Hard drive will lose information, the Engine mechanism will take damage over time, Because the hard drive is a big DISH, with tiny little metallic slivers standing up, now picture this dish spinning at 7200 revolutions every minute, NOW picture throwing a n ice cube at this dish while its spinning.
The Engine Mechanism is a hollow tube, lets say its made out of a Magnet, for simplicity sake, with a Metallic rod id the middle, if you take tiny little shards of ice and throw it into this electric engine, nothing will happen, I mean common those are some seriously sturdy materials designed over 100 years to handle this, Right?
Right, except the Hard drive motor is a very fine tuned mechanism designed to last as long as possible while spinning at the same exact speed, so that the read and right heads can function properly.

1c and 65c
Absolutely normal operational temperatures, as long as the component manufacturers adhere to ISO9001 standards and don't get cheapo on the solder or skilled workers salary's

66-83c
Sometimes, component manufacturers find a cheaper Solder supplier ( china ) who ships the right stuff the first few batches, then somewhere down the line, one of the batches Failed ISO standards or for whatever reason more lead is added to the mix, this mix somehow ends up inside of components or as the solder to hold the components onto the Boards and then we can have a problem, but generally speaking to be honest, its very rare for this to happen, there was one MAJOR, HUGE problem back in 2006 when this happened to Nvidia, I don't remember how much they got sued for, but im sure the damages amount into the tens of billions of dollars, Im pretty darn sure all the big manufactures put this lesson into their bibles closer to page 1.

Now as for what temperature should the computer read to stay in the green zone?
Generally speaking, as long as the heat doesnt build up near speaker assembly, Touchpad assembly and external peripherals of that nature (these are generally 3rd party suppliers who sometimes use less then perfect solder but SHOULD hold up to 86c then your perfectly fine on that end, then come the Major, costly components, CPU, GPU, APU, Chipset, Ram and other processor based devices like micro controllers Wireless modules use the good stuff, else they go out of business in a very fast hurry, or have butloads of cash to lose, should hold up to 86c.

Personally, I play it safe, 80c is my threshold, else I return, repair or modify my toy to conform to per personal standards.

87c and 93c
This is where high quality solder will hold out on the costly components, but CD rom might fail, Sound might work or begin to Malfunction, battery cells begin to die speakers begin to fail, hard drive takes damage and shortens the lifespan of the electronic device very considerably, even for the major components, because heat makes molecules move apart and cold contracts them, theres only so much the connection between the Chips and Plastic can take before one of the hair thin wires just gives.

93c+
good luck with that!


Peripherals ports etc:
At first sight I was a little bit surprised on how perfectly the ports where set up for my table/TV laptop contraption ( its that big plastic BIN you can get at target or walmart for 40 or whatever dollars-with the top shelf modified for my laptop and of course a comfy recliner with me in it looking at the TV on top of the plastic BIN)

I was surprised to see not one, but 2 3.0 USB slots, this was the very first hint at the quality of the motherboard, It a very reassuring sigh that corners where not cut.

About 2 weeks into my ownership, I found out when the laptop hits 77c, my Keyboard began acting up, random letters etc, a restart fixed this.. Anomaly, then I found out that my USB 3.0 was the culprit, you see I do extensive travel and I will tether my Phone for internet, so now I just plug it into the USB 2.0 slots and no more funny stuff has happened to me over the past 3 months, Im not sure if this is an Isolated incident or has this happened to any one else with things other then USB tethered Android devices?

Now, the parts that I dont like:

I didnt like not having enough money in the bank at that time to get the good screen upgrade, because this one isnt to great, although I spend most of my gaming time VIA HDMI HDTV Not a big problem but yhe, the screen is only acceptable, Still its much better then Matte, screens.

The USB 3.0 thing, Its not a game breaker but its a little bit, Unreasoning, still not a game breaker.

The Laptop shipped from China, but atleast these guys are actually honest about it, right?

The build quality is surprisingly good, except for that one thing which was confidently the last drop which absolutely convinced me to get this laptop.
On the bottom, there is now a Single click plate, when removed, exposes a good chunk of the internal components, for ease of cleaning of dust and upgrading RAM
Sounds really effing awesome right?
Well, this one click button, is also the button for the Battery, you know in a Moving car when I use it as my GPS system this button can, sometimes release the battery, especially when im in a Rush.
This one click cover is easy to get odd but not so user friendly when you put it back on, as I was showing this laptop off to a coworker, it took us a good 5 min to figure it out.
We Jammed the battery and lock mechanism first, put the cover back in, Jammed the cover removed the battery and then finally put the battery back in unlocking the mechanism back to normal position, even thought Im not to trilled about this feature, coming from 4 years of just working on laptops, this is a MAJOR innovation, Maintenance and upgrading are on a whole different level now, because what takes the average used 1 hour to do, has become a 2 min, 2 step process.


Hopefully iv helped you with information that could lead you to a competent choice when you make your decide to make a laptop purchase.