How is ubuntu treating you on this laptop? I just bought one and I'm going to dual boot Vista(for audio production) and ubuntu(for every day use). I was wondering what caveats you may know about.

Any issues with the ATI card? I've always used nvidia, but this laptop was too good of a deal to pass it up just because it had ATI graphics. (Not saying ati sucks, I just know nvidia stuff is easier to get going with linux)

Anything you could share about functionality would be helpful!

Thanks!

Ubuntu 9.04 x64 installs, boots, and runs flawlessly.
ATI GFX Card is very nice
Touchpad sucks ass. I hate the slick style. The buttons are recessed lower than the touchpad so I am always accidentally touching the pad with my thumb which gives random mouse movement.
IDT Audio driver crashes at startup sometimes.
Volume slider above keyboard will randomly stop showing the volume level meter on the screen when you adjust it, but it still adjusts the volume.
You can't upgrade internal wireless or video cards

The screen is SUPER bright and vivid!
It is a total battery hog.
Surprisingly, it does not overheat! I have had it get to scorching 170 degrees ferenheit when sitting on the passenger seat of my truck, but when I opened it up and used it, there were no issues. It cooled down with no problems. Other than that, I usually see from 100-120 degrees for core temp when anywhere from idle to semi-cpu-intensive tasks on a table. 113 degrees is average.

Audio is very clear. Has a subwoofer and a REALLY NICE Audio control panel! Very useful when dealing with HDMI output.

Boots certain Intel-based operating systems from Apple without modifications.

I wiped the HD clean and installed Vista Ultimate. I then downloaded all the drivers from HP and left off all the extra crap. BIG problem with this is the 3D HD Accellerometer protection thingy inside wasn't working. There was no driver listed for this computer!! So after some heavy googling, I found the driver! When I installed it, it toasted my computer and I couldn't boot. Tried it 3 times with no luck. I just gave up because it's better to not have that feature than to deal with HP's customer "service". Plus, my solid state drive doesn't need protection from impact and I backup on external drives daily.

For the price it's a good machine as long as you don't mind the little quirks and a big bright illuminated HP advertisement on the case on the opposite side of the screen. Going to figure out a way to make it illuminate Tux (that's the Linux Penguin for you Linux GNUbies. lol)

I've been seriously considering getting rid of my Thinkpad and grabbing one of these bad boys. What kinda of battery life are you getting, I'm sure its not much. Any other complaints other than the trackpad. Would you buy it over again?

A lot of great info there, thanks for that! Yeah the IDT audio had me worried too because I've never even heard of them and their website doesn't even offer windows drivers. Good to know the functionality is there even if it isn't very mature.

Are you using the proprietary catalyst drivers, or open source ones for the ATI card?
I was reading the latest catalyst release notes and they don't state that they support the mobility 4650...

Complaints I have are the stupid designs it has on it.
It is not upgradable (i.e. gfx/network cards)
Each core is only 2.0GHz so programs that don't take advantage of multiple cores can run slower than a 2.6GHz P4.

Cool thing is that it overclocks itself 13% to almost 2.3GHz!!!
From what I read, this is only when one core is being utilized heavily such as when compiling source code. The CPU Multiplier is set to 7.5x w/ 266MHz FSB during normal operation which ends up at 2GHz. And is at 6x or about 1.5GHz during power saving modes. But when needed, the multiplier jumps to 8.5x which brings it just under 2.3GHz which is super cool! Everest shows an overclock of 13% when it does this because it actually is overclocked. Intel's newer SpeedStep is responsible for this and acts in the same way the i7 does. I found that keeping the CPU temperatures low increases the time you are overclocked. I removed the bottom cover of my laptop and turned my truck's A/C all the way up. Temperature outside was about 45 degrees so the A/C dropped it down deep into the 30's. I got my CPU core temperature down to 79 degrees but I could have had it colder if I was patient but holding a 50lb laptop up like that is tiring to say the least... I ran the Everest Ultimate benchmarks and blew my old benchmarks out of the f'in water!

The laptop is huge. Makes a great desktop computer that can be brought with you WHEN NEEDED, but I don't like the weight and physical dimensions. My Acer Aspire 5535 is my "daily driver" laptop I keep on the center console/armrest in my Dodge Ram.

If I was to do it all over again, I would not buy it ONLY because HP locks the hardware in tighter than a dog shittin' razorblades. Can't swap out any hardware on this machine and can't mess with any settings for overclocking the CPU. I have only been able to hack the multiplier to stay consistently at 8.0x, not the 8.5x max. And forget about changing the FSB frequency!

The touchpad is seriously the biggest annoyance of all. I would get a new laptop just to get one with a matte finish (both the touchpad & laptop case) similar to my Acer, and with some solid separation between the mouse buttons and the pad such as the Aspire 1640's. Even my Aspire 5535 gets jumpy mouse movement but at least there is a 1/8" or so separator. I would also get one that was modifiable.

But the internals are pretty sweet on this machine so I am content with what I paid for. It is upgradable to 8GB of RAM and the CPU came out this year so it will keep up with technology changes for a while. The Q9XXX series chips are in demand by enthusiasts. The Q9000 is on the bottom of the series, but it is still near the top on the list of all current processors out there. It's rumored that Apple is putting it in the new MacBook Pro and you know they don't f'ck around when it comes to hardware in their Pro series computers.

Let me know what you end up with and be sure to post your thoughts on it!
Make sure you get the dv7-2040US if you want the same laptop. Many stores sell the dv7-1xxx series and they are much weaker. The dv7-2040US is actually kinda harder to find but Fry's Electronics has it and many places online have it. The other dv7's are setup similarly externally so you can test the feel of them and decide if it feels comfortable to you before you order one online.

http://shop2.frys.com/product/587580...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

$50 rebate too.

Thanks for the info. BH Photo Video has it for 1229 with a 50 MIR, so its tempting. I love my Thinkpad T500 alot tho. T9400, 4GB DDR3...so idk if the dv7 would really perform any better or if it would be worth it. I'll keep thinking, what kinda battery life are you getting again?

Let's not go into battery life. Let's just leave it at "it's better off as a desktop"

I haven't timed it but if I had to guess a number, I would say somewhere between "Piss Poor" and "F'in horrible...Ridiculous"

Thanks for bringing up memory! That's another big thing I wish was different! DDR2-800? That motherboard/CPU can support DDR3-1066 and not void the warranties! That means you could get away with much faster DDR3 without any problems. BUT NOOOOO, they put slots for DDR2...bah With everything else they packed in there, why DDR2? Oh well, it gets 5.9 on Windows Performance Index, but that doesn't mean crap with the real world CPU intensive stuff I do....

Btw, It has an LED screen, NOT LCD! Wow, I didn't know that. I just left the computer store out here because I was looking for some upgrades to this dv7, and they were telling me about the new LED displays in the $5,000 MacBook Pros and how super amazing they are. I never heard of them and I had one in my hands during the entire conversation haha!

Yeah I did know about the LED screen, def a nice feature, i'm sure its super bright...a family member of mine has a dv4t with the LED screen and it looked really nice.

I have been thinking about getting this laptop for a while. I haven't found anything with comparable specs. I did find it at newegg.com for $1349 then a $50 dollar rebate making it $1299

That's where I got mine :-)

Best deal on the market currently, very reputuable seller as well...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Notebook.html

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...num=1&ct=title

B&H has it for $1229 out the door with tax + free shipping included in that total.
Newegg has it for $1365 out the door including with tax + shipping included in that total.

Hmm. I paid $1525 out the door. Getting $50 back in the mail. Guess I shoulda ordered it online. Oh well, I hate the wait!! When I put down money, I wanna be starting it up and start installing Adobe Creative Suite in my truck in the parking lot.

Buydig one sells it for $1189 not sure about tax/shipping.

Amazon has it for $1199 after $50 rebate. I think shipping is free.
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-DV.../dp/B0020HRI4M

MSRP is $1731.00 so they are all good deals.