Sign In:     

Forum: General Discussion

Topic: laptop--is this laptop good?

This topic is old and might contain outdated or incorrect information.

i need to replace my laptop having too many issues with virtual dj and my asus m70vn (nividia 9650gt 1gb)

will i have issue with this one anyone? or what do the virtualdj/atomic recommend?

Brand HP
Series Pavilion
Model DV6-2144NR
Part# VM286UA#ABA
General
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU Type AMD Turion II M520(2.3GHz)
Screen 15.6"
Memory Size 4GB DDR2
Hard Disk 320GB
Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
Graphics Card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
Video Memory 1024MB
Communication Modem, Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Card slot 1 x Express Card
Dimensions 14.90" x 10.15" x 1.33" - 1.61"
Weight 6.47 lbs.
Other Features HP Mobile Remote Control

Kensington MicroSaver lock slot
Power-on password
Accepts 3rd party security lock devices
CPU
CPU Type AMD Turion II
CPU Speed M520(2.3GHz)
Display
Screen Size 15.6"
Wide Screen Support Yes
Resolution 1366 x 768
LCD Features LED backlight & BrightView
Operating Systems
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Graphics
GPU/VPU ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
Video Memory up to 2815MB total available graphics memory with 1024MB dedicated
Graphic Type Dedicated Card
Hard Drive
HDD 320GB
HDD RPM 7200rpm
HDD Interface SATA
Memory
Memory 4GB
Memory Spec 2GB x 2
Memory Type 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM
Memory Slot (Total) 2
Memory Slot (Available) 0
Max Memory Supported 8GB
Optical Drive
Optical Drive Type DVD Super Multi
Optical Drive Interface Integrated
Optical Drive Spec LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Communications
Modem 56K
LAN 10/100/1000Mbps
WLAN 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Ports
Card Slot 1 x ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
USB 4 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 4th port shared with eSATA
IEEE 1394 1
Video Port 1 x VGA, 1 x HDMI
Other port 1 x Consumer IR (Remote Receiver)
Port Replicator 1 x notebook expansion port 3
Audio Ports 2 x Headphone out
1 x microphone-in
Audio
Audio Integrated Sound card
Speaker Altec Lansing with SRS Premium Sound
Input Device
Touchpad Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
Keyboard 101-key compatible with full size keyboard with integrated numeric keypad
Supplemental Drive
Card Reader 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reade for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Webcam Yes
 
Posted Wed 25 Nov 09 @ 3:13 pm
If I were you I wouldn't look towards HP laptops.

They have a HUGE reputation of crashing and other horrendous things, like not booting windows.

My uncle bought an hp laptop tx1000 for my dad and after a couple months, the laptop doesn't start up anymore.

From that day I said to my self: Never associate yourself with HP laptops again... lol


At the end of the day, its your choice. I'm just giving you advice so that you don't take the same road I did.

Hope this helps!
 
Got a bigger version with a 17" WS (DV9680) running on Vista, upgraded to 4 GB, other specs are about the same. Been working with it over a year now and had no issues whatsoever. Best part of these laptops is the amount of ports: 4x USB (1 for controller, 1 for external HD, 2 for CM200USB-mixer without the need of a hub), a FireWire (if needed I can hook up my M-Audio FW410) and an internal cardreader (which I use if an artist brings his/her backingtracks on a card).
For me it's perfect.
 
I just saw something on tv the other day about best computers.
According to what they say Toshiba and Asus are the top 2. Sony is very good as well.
 
I would never buy a HP laptop, but that's just my personal opinion. They have poor quality components and are not very reliable. The spec of the one you're looking at is not that great either. I have always used mid to top range Sony Vaio for over 10 years with no issues whatsoever.
 
thanks...so what does VIRTUALDJ recommend as far as video cards,processors,etc???
i know hardrives should be 7200rpm or better

which nvidia cards suck? ati?
 
If you want batter quality buy Toshiba or Lenovo, but it is not true that HP is poor quality, I had equally the same problems with HP, Toshiba, MSI or HP, you name it. That is what warranty is for ;) I sell laptops BTW.
The specs are good on mentioned laptop, not sure if video card is up to the task for video mixing.
 
ok thanks so which video cards should i look for?

right now my laptop has nvidia 9650 gt 1gb dedicated....and i have issues with freezing,happy face and when i search it takes 1 minute per key i hit..i have tried every setting on the boards and from virtuals team and nothing....so im giving it the last try with a different laptop with a different video card....i just need which are the best video cards i should look for?
 
I just gone done shopping for a new laptop. I had bought an HP low end G60 series (which has an Intel T4300 Duo Core chip) back in March 2009. It is really a solid laptop, especially with Windows 7. However I had to disable almost every piece of hardware (including the battery meter) before it would without any latency.

I recently went out shopping again. I sold my older, but powerful Gateway to a friend who needed a solid laptop to start out. Although I have had great luck with my HP, I wanted it to still function as backup and recording only. I was not wanting to spend more than $700-800 right now. Perhaps in the spring I will go for a quad core laptop when they come down. I would love to do a MAC, but it would me an island in the middle of my PC ocean (2 laptops and 1 Quad Core desktop). I would not be able to use the same HD to copy exact images of my music files to/from my computers.

I first bought a Asus from Best Buy. It was a U60A (I think?) The processor was amazing. T6600 Duo Core 2 Processor with 500gb HD (5400rpm) and 4gb of RAM. Everything else was pretty standard, but it did have an external e-SATA port so you could go buy the cheaper Desktop internal hard drives and use it externally with the right connector. It also passed the DPC Latency checker without having to disable a SINGLE piece of hardware!!!!! It went into the yellow every 15 seconds or so when the WiFi was enabled. You disable that is it is all green. However, I returned it a week later. Why? 1) the right front part of the laptop wobbled. You would not notice if you were typing slowly. But if you were really typing faster, the whole laptop would wobble. 2) The finish was nice to look at, but it was a finger print magnet! 3) The construction felt flemsy. 4) When I tried to repartition the hard drive using professional software, it crashed the HD. Now all of those may seem sort of nit picky, but if I am paying $700 I better feel good about it. Instead I had this nervy feeling and you just cant have that if you are going to put your DJ career in the diodes of this piece of machinery. The tech industry is all about Asus, as they have been the leader in laptops for AGES. I have to agree, as far as processing goes... they are unmatched! When it comes to construction and style of the laptop... they need some work. Also the bloatware they had pre-installed was OUTRAGOUS! I bet there was a list of 15 things that was Asus in the Control Panel Uninstall a Program window. (For $100, best buy will remove it all for you! If you know what you are doing, dont pay for it. Just go home, block off an hour and just start peeling out anything that does not belong!)

I went back to Best Buy, 5 days later. The wobble part appeared to be just the unit I got. The demo unit did not do it. I could have exchanged for an exact Asus model or change my mind. I went with the Sony in my price range (which just had the intel graphics card, not an ATI or NVDIA.) It just seemed more solid and was exactly the same specifications. The DPC latency hit red with Wifi enabled, but as soon as I disabled that it would go green and yellow ever 15 seconds. I disabled the batter meter, and it stopped. (I really wish Microsoft of whoever would address this... if the laptop is plugged in, then stop pinging the dang battery every 15 seconds! lol)

When buying a laptop here are the 3 things you CAN NOT change later. Processor (speed and chipset), Video Card (no one makes an external video device like they do audio), and number of installed ports (ie USB, FW, eSata, HDMI, etc...) Memory, hard drive, and such can be upgraded later and is not all that expensive to do so. So if you can get buy with 2GB of RAM and a smaller HD (ie 250 or 320gb) then do that and get all the other things you want, but cant change later. Get the most processor, graphics and ports you can afford. Upgrade it all later. Most laptops com with a 5400 rpm hard drive. Which is fine, however a 7200 will give you a lift in the read times of the files you load, especially video.

The HP you are looking at... I almost went there. But this time around I really wanted to feel like I bought something nice and powerful. The HP's have been very solid... especially if you are a bit techy and know how to manage a computer.
 
DJ Pancho wrote :
ok thanks so which video cards should i look for?

right now my laptop has nvidia 9650 gt 1gb dedicated....and i have issues with freezing,happy face and when i search it takes 1 minute per key i hit..i have tried every setting on the boards and from virtuals team and nothing....so im giving it the last try with a different laptop with a different video card....i just need which are the best video cards i should look for?


NVIDIA 9600GT DDR3 512MB (not M which stands for Mobile) or ATI 3850 512MB should be fine for video mixing of DVD or 720P quality videos. For higher, you will need NVIDIA GTX260 or ATI 4870 - 4890 cards.
 
k but all laptops have the m on for mobile...
how is this one?
ProcessorIntel® Core™2 QuadProcessor Speed2.0GHzBattery Type8-cell lithium-ionDisplay TypeHigh-definition LED-backlit widescreen LCD (1600 x 900)Screen Size (Measured Diagonally)17.3"System Bus1066MHzCache Memory6MB on die Level 2System Memory (RAM)6GBType of Memory (RAM)DDR2Hard Drive TypeSATA (7200 rpm)Computer Hard Drive Size640GBOptical DriveDouble-layer DVD±RW/CD-RWOptical Drive SpeedsDrive speeds not specifiedDirect-Disc LabelingNoDigital Media Reader or SlotsYes, digital media card reader
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260MVideo Memory1GB GDDR3
 


(Old topics and forums are automatically closed)