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Originally Posted by NickWelder  DavidTx, how about some benchmarks from you're machine? 
I want to get 8GB not so much because I _NEED_ it, but because I am such a geek that I have to get it because I can. But if I DID have 8GB, I would probably max it out with Workstation loaded with multiple instances of assorted operating systems. One reason I like this laptop so much is because Firefox has not yet made an option to save all open tabs OFFLINE and load them up from cache upon restarting. I like to open 50+ tabs at the same time when doing research and then reading them later when I am out and about, most of the time being internetless. If I restart, I have to find internet access to load those pages, not always possible when out of the office. VMWare lets me start the machine right where it was before which is one of my #1 reasons why I like this machine. It runs an instance of XP 100% seamlessly with no glitches, twitches, or flinches during operation.
So DavidTx, what made you decide to settle with the dv7-2040US? Was it the fancy artwork that did you in too?  I am getting the case silkscreened with the Rebel Flag. Waiting on finishing the design of a top secret laptop mod that will revolutionize the way mobile geeks "borrow" internet when on the road and it may involve putting the HP under the dremel to make things fit. I'll post the details, and possibly the schematics and parts list when I am done. Would have been close to completed but I had to order a new Arduino board that was small enough to fit where the TV Tuner went. Going to have to figure out how to either edit HP's hardware whitelist, or spoof the TV Tuner or WIFI Card's hardware IDs. I've said too much already. >)
Also, why do you have 2 posts, -60 Credits, and have been a member since Jan 2005? :P Weird... |
@NickWelder, sorry I've been busting my hump on a business project that had me travelling quite a bit and am just now getting back to reading web forums such as this.
To answer your question, I have both a Macbook Pro Al and a Dell Inspiron 1520 completely tricked-out. Both notebooks were serving my needs very well for work and gaming, but would start to bog down when I'd need to run Eclipse plus any number more than two VM's, regardless of the CPU speed. I had looked at the Dell Precision M6400 when quad-core became available, but at nearly $7K for a quad-core 8GB model, the price, IMHO, was unreasonable. So I waited...
Then, when Intel released the Q9000/9100, I knew that more reasonably priced notebooks would follow and the Friday Fry's ad eventually bore fruit. I checked out several HP and Toshiba models, but they either only had one HD, crappy integrated graphics, or a really low-rez LCD. As it turns out, the dv7-2040us was actually an accident: I had gone to purchase another HP model, but it was out of stock. I had picked out the dv7 model with a Q9000 and Nvidia 9600GT graphics. However, it was out of stock when I arrived (Fry's must have only had 2 of them as I got there around 8:30 a.m.) So the salesman convinced me to check out the dv7-2040us. After a bit of in-store research, I realized it was a much better buy: better graphics, two drives (I had thought they were raided, but oh well), and an LED backlit panel. Plus it was $500 *less* than the advertised model. So I snatched it up along with a pair of 500gb Seagate drives. I haven't looked back since. It handles all of my work and play needs flawlessly. The only thing I haven't been able to do yet is hook it up to the 60" plasma/surround in the den via HDMI and see how that looks running WoW.
If I had a single complaint, it would be that the unit doesn't support either dual-link DVI or Displayport, so it can't run a 30" monitor at 2560x1920. If it did, I'd buy a docking station and ditch my desktop completely. Not giving up my Apple Cinema Display tho...
