An i7? It's about time.

Too bad it's Sandy Bridge and has no discrete graphics, and too bad HP refurbs fail just as easily as they would when new, but this isn't a bad deal for an i7.

Here are your updated benchmark results
PassMark - CPU Mark
High End CPUs - Updated 6th of August 2012

I want it! To bad I'm poor

conhopper wrote: too bad HP refurbs fail just as easily as they would when new

That's because the refurb won't ever fix a design flaw, like their laptops from a few years ago. Won't ever make that mistake again. HP won't get another penny from me for a laptop.

Sweet baby jane I want one. Also too poor.

As far as HP reliability goes, I have a 3 year old i3 17 inch HP laptop that overall has been a joy to own. It spent 6 months working out of a car and has been in active use every day since purchased.

I had to replace the battery two weeks ago. And about a year ago I had to replace the lcd screen because some punk decided that he'd break it since he couldn't steal it (thanks, Kensington lock!). Those are my only equipment failures.

I did double the RAM and swap the DVD drive for an additional HD bay, tough.

Make sure you understand what "refurbished" really means. These are usually computers that were out on a one or two year lease to business users. Years ago there were computers that returned after a week or a month under warranty, when a lot of times the customer simply changed their mind. Refurbs now have been used hard.

Not relevant to this particular laptop, but purchased an HP i7 desktop refurb from Woot earlier this summer that had immediate blue screens from day1. Three months later and i am STILL battling with HP tech support.

Terrible customer service, don't expect any support. They refused to replace the unit and have been unable to fix the problem.

There's a similar one on walmart.com with a AMD A6-3400M processor
2.30GHz for $529
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurbished-Steel-Gray-17.3-Pavilion-dv7-6b57nr-Laptop-PC-with-AMD-A6-3400M-Processor-Blu-ray-Disc-Player-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium/20666939

I'd be in for two if it had a dedicated graphics card, without one I'm going to have to pass. Sucks since I'm actively looking and weighing my options for at least one laptop upgrade, possible two.

fleshtwister wrote:There's a similar one on walmart.com with a AMD A6-3400M processor
2.30GHz for $529
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurbished-Steel-Gray-17.3-Pavilion-dv7-6b57nr-Laptop-PC-with-AMD-A6-3400M-Processor-Blu-ray-Disc-Player-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium/20666939

In terms of CPU performance, how much better is the i7 to the A6-3400?

Personal experience with HP customer service...

simply OUTSTANDING.

I needed a recovery disk to sell a laptop and it was shipped overnight to me at THEIR expense. They did not even charge for the item.

My desktop and laptop are both HP and I could not be happier.

haloman800 wrote:In terms of CPU performance, how much better is the i7 to the A6-3400?

CPU wise, the i-7 will destroy the A6. If you look at the benchmarks, the a6-3400 rates a 2950 while the i-7 rates a 6781.

In case you want to know why, the a-series processors cut out the l3 cache, if I remember right, and did a couple of other things to save room, doubled the l2 cache, and then shoved a graphics processor in with the cpu. The benefit of that is you get MUCH better integrated graphics, but slower processing.

For games, I would go for the A6 (I have heard the i-series integrated is supposed to be better than in the past, but still fails in many ways). For intense cpu stuff, I would definitely go with the i-7.

If someone has more knowledge on the subject and which one is actually better, I would probably go with what they say...

Same here...HP support is crap

darwingotcha wrote:Not relevant to this particular laptop, but purchased an HP i7 desktop refurb from Woot earlier this summer that had immediate blue screens from day1. Three months later and i am STILL battling with HP tech support.

Terrible customer service, don't expect any support. They refused to replace the unit and have been unable to fix the problem.

HP Refurbs suck ... mine failed within 3 months... i should have just built my own computer for what I paid

conhopper wrote:An i7? It's about time.

Too bad it's Sandy Bridge and has no discrete graphics, and too bad HP refurbs fail just as easily as they would when new, but this isn't a bad deal for an i7.

When you do have the money don't ever buy an HP Refurb... not without a warranty... and at that point it may not be worth it...

jseureau wrote:I want it! To bad I'm poor

No, it probably will not play Diablo 3... If it did, it would be on very low graphics settings.

The processor is the intel 2nd gen i7 sandy bridge model. The most current processor model is 3rd gen Ivy bridge, so this is one generation back.

No dedicated video makes this a poor candidate for games more recent than 2007, but just fine if you do a lot of word processing, music encoding, or dvd ripping.

My hat's off to the description writer for using that song. Really, that's very classy. :') I had a good laugh once I realized what it was and got the rhythm. But seriously. I thought it was a good deal until I saw the graphics.

I have the previous-generation DV7 with an i7 and 4GB RAM and it does get worryingly hot. One a cool day, just booting it up and leaving it idle (5%ish CPU, 35% RAM) will have the processor running at 64-65 °C (145-149 °F for all of you who haven't realized the world in not Farenheit-centric). With a mere average load, I could literally almost boil a cup of tea with the processor. Ventilation is truly an issue with this machine and HP has taken a deserved beating in consumer forums for that.

Despite that, I bought this new DV7 with higher specs after a household hydraulic incident splashed the laptop, rendering the keyboard and subwoofer useless and making the clock go crazy. I still haven't laid my hands on this new computer since it's at a friend's house waiting for me to go there pick it up -- living overseas has its downsides -- but it's been reported to run pretty cool to the touch compared to both the old DV7 and my friend's Envy.

TL;DR: If you're afraid of buying this thinking it will be a frying pan with a keyboard and screen, be afraid no more: it will run cool enough to be safe.

I'm a humble computer repair guy who works on PCs of all brands 5 days a week.

Buying an HP computer is usually a bad idea. Buying a refurbished one is quite a worse idea because of previous use and only a 90 day warranty. One with an i7? HP laptops with i7's have never been adequately cooled, badly designed cooling assembly and terrible thermal paste is a recipe for disaster. Add a bit of dust and a year of thermal paste decay and see what happens.

Their prices are low and attractive for a reason. Be sure to factor in the cost of a third party warranty/failure insurance if you buy because you'll be needing it pretty soon.

I don't mean to put down woot for selling them, but I see enough people who don't do research drawn in and screwed by the price every day not to try and help.

They are a mess of a company. They decided last year to get out of the home pc business and focus on software for business then they changed their minds. Wouldn't bet my money on them for support. They probably drop out again.

liquidblue1 wrote:No, it probably will not play Diablo 3... If it did, it would be on very low graphics settings.

The processor is the intel 2nd gen i7 sandy bridge model. The most current processor model is 3rd gen Ivy bridge, so this is one generation back.

No dedicated video makes this a poor candidate for games more recent than 2007, but just fine if you do a lot of word processing, music encoding, or dvd ripping.

Actually, Diablo3 plays nicely on a wide range of systems. Even at lower graphics settings, it's still a beautiful game. Blizzard does well with their graphics scaling over a wide variety of low and high end computers. I have it running on my crappy work laptop with less ram, C2D and a lower end ati video chiset, and it runs just fine. The i7 is a powerhouse, the Sandybridge and newer just can't be beat for price over incredible performance.

Do want but... No money... *sadface*

I bought this lapper after having success with my dv6 about a year ago, and as a engineering student I knew I need processsor and ram to plow through autodesk's hungry products, let me just say this guy can hang with the best as far as performance goes, I did outfit it with the premo i7 and a graphics card but i can't imagine this setup is much behind mine; Seriously high performance CAD tool.

Also, on their customer support, I've never had people more willing to replace my things, I called in to ask if there is a way to ground the PC because the hoopty electrical where I stay at school is known to electricute people, and they wanted to send me a replacement even after I explained it probably wasnt the laptops.

mozambique wrote:

Would appreciate your recommendation on a laptop to purchase...

1600 X 900?!?! At 17"? Should be at LEAST 1050 if not 1080. Pass!

McGuffy wrote:1600 X 900?!?! At 17"? Should be at LEAST 1050 if not 1080. Pass!

I have nearly the same model (but with blu-ray). The display is fine. It does switch to 1080 when I close the monitor and just use my big screen.

This is a great media PC. I don't game much, but watching 1080 MKV movies rocks.

mozambique wrote:Would appreciate your recommendation on a laptop to purchase...

It depends on many things. First, if you don't absolutely need the portability of a laptop, don't get one just because. A desktop will give you more bang for buck, likely last many years longer, and probably won't ever be accidentally damaged.

Second, only get the hardware you need. Play any 3d games? Dedicated graphics are necessary. If you don't, they're a big waste of money and battery life. If you're just a web surfing-emailing-media consuming kind of user, get an i3/a4 CPU. Gamer or like a bit of oomph? i5/A8. Only if you encode video or run VM's or some other CPU intensive task do you want an i7 with all it's power and drawbacks. They're nice but use a lot of battery, cost more, and generate more heat.

I recommend ASUS for all price points for their reliability (best in the biz), but they have bad customer service so they're not for people who call in constantly because they don't know how to do something or need help with it and are unable to google for it and do it themselves.

Dells are sturdy, especially over $700-$800 or so. They probably have the best customer service reputation as well.

Most brands are acceptable with a few exceptions. Never buy an HP/Compaq or Acer/Gateway. Fujitsu and Sony are more expensive to buy and repair with no benefit. Apple only has middling reliability despite what they'd have you believe (they just work, magically.)

Hope this helps!

airhead72 wrote:It depends on many things. First, if you don't absolutely need the portability of a laptop, don't get one just because. A desktop will give you more bang for buck, likely last many years longer, and probably won't ever be accidentally damaged.

Second, only get the hardware you need. Play any 3d games? Dedicated graphics are necessary. If you don't, they're a big waste of money and battery life. If you're just a web surfing-emailing-media consuming kind of user, get an i3/a4 CPU. Gamer or like a bit of oomph? i5/A8. Only if you encode video or run VM's or some other CPU intensive task do you want an i7 with all it's power and drawbacks. They're nice but use a lot of battery, cost more, and generate more heat.

I recommend ASUS for all price points for their reliability (best in the biz), but they have bad customer service so they're not for people who call in constantly because they don't know how to do something or need help with it and are unable to google for it and do it themselves.....

Hope this helps!

Thank you for a very nicely done assessment of the field. I'm in the market also for portability and the landscape is impressively confusing. Somewhere between a Tablet and this big seven pounder is the machine for me. But I've been at it for a while and the only thing I've done right so far is not pull the trigger on any of them. I last had a big 17" HP that fried itself as you and others have warned against.
I'd like a machine that I could use as a carry around for reading, email, and web walking; and that also, with less portability could show movies and/or TV stuff with the option of looking into content on the air with IMDb or NFL.com. All the while I'd want MS-Word and XL available for writing and figuring. This seems like a home base with WIN7 (media player and HDMI) and a "Tablet" walkabout with android at about the Ice Cream Sandwich level. For some reason such a device makes "natural" sense to me but has yet to find a manufacturer with compatible taste.
But again, I thank you for being one of the many Woot brethren who have contributed to my beginning to say what it is that I think I want with increasing specificity.
Be well, justfarley

liquidblue1 wrote:No, it probably will not play Diablo 3... If it did, it would be on very low graphics settings.

The processor is the intel 2nd gen i7 sandy bridge model. The most current processor model is 3rd gen Ivy bridge, so this is one generation back.

No dedicated video makes this a poor candidate for games more recent than 2007, but just fine if you do a lot of word processing, music encoding, or dvd ripping.

There's nothing wrong with being a generation back in this case. Sandy Bridge was an awesome release and will get anyone by for a while to come, if they're not looking at a gaming laptop (and good luck at this range even w/refurb). If you look for Ivy 17", you'll probably be looking at the $1,000 range.

haloman800 wrote:In terms of CPU performance, how much better is the i7 to the A6-3400?

It's over 2x better.
benchmark scores for high end cpu
2950 = amd
6781 = i7

farley1guy wrote:Thank you for a very nicely done assessment of the field. I'm in the market also for portability and the landscape is impressively confusing. Somewhere between a Tablet and this big seven pounder is the machine for me. But I've been at it for a while and the only thing I've done right so far is not pull the trigger on any of them. I last had a big 17" HP that fried itself as you and others have warned against.
I'd like a machine that I could use as a carry around for reading, email, and web walking; and that also, with less portability could show movies and/or TV stuff with the option of looking into content on the air with IMDb or NFL.com. All the while I'd want MS-Word and XL available for writing and figuring. This seems like a home base with WIN7 (media player and HDMI) and a "Tablet" walkabout with android at about the Ice Cream Sandwich level. For some reason such a device makes "natural" sense to me but has yet to find a manufacturer with compatible taste.
But again, I thank you for being one of the many Woot brethren who have contributed to my beginning to say what it is that I think I want with increasing specificity.
Be well, justfarley

Personally, I have my big desktop with win 7 as you said, my roomate's computer is connected to our tv and doubles as an HTPC. We constantly stream things over the network and ignore the ads we get mailed to set up cable TV.

I had a lack of portability and yet no need for a full on laptop, so I decided to buy a Nexus 7.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7

All those impressive specs are amplified by Jelly Bean, official Googleness, $200 pricetag, and to top it off it's made by ASUS, which always gives me a semi. The android customizability and compatibility with windows is always desired.

If you need something bigger, get one of ASUS's 10" tablets, they're more expensive but very high quality and will likely get jelly bean in the future.

The Nexus 7 plays up to 720p video flawlessly, and even had no problem playing 1080p though you lose some pixels. That quad core tegra 3 with GPU makes it fly. Happy shopping!

airhead72 wrote:It depends on many things. First, if you don't absolutely need the portability of a laptop, don't get one just because. A desktop will give you more bang for buck, likely last many years longer, and probably won't ever be accidentally damaged.

Second, only get the hardware you need. Play any 3d games? Dedicated graphics are necessary. If you don't, they're a big waste of money and battery life. If you're just a web surfing-emailing-media consuming kind of user, get an i3/a4 CPU. Gamer or like a bit of oomph? i5/A8. Only if you encode video or run VM's or some other CPU intensive task do you want an i7 with all it's power and drawbacks. They're nice but use a lot of battery, cost more, and generate more heat.

I recommend ASUS for all price points for their reliability (best in the biz), but they have bad customer service so they're not for people who call in constantly because they don't know how to do something or need help with it and are unable to google for it and do it themselves.

Dells are sturdy, especially over $700-$800 or so. They probably have the best customer service reputation as well.

Most brands are acceptable with a few exceptions. Never buy an HP/Compaq or Acer/Gateway. Fujitsu and Sony are more expensive to buy and repair with no benefit. Apple only has middling reliability despite what they'd have you believe (they just work, magically.)

Hope this helps!

Thank you...you're awesome!

mozambique wrote:Thank you...you're awesome!

i think 17.3" screen isn't suitable for me, cause large-sized screen makes me dizziness.

Well, mine arrived the other day. I set it up, downloaded and installed all the Microsoft updates, and all I can say is that I finally managed to score one of Woot's Bags O' Crap. It has BSOD'd or crashed after hibernation over half a dozen times. I am not looking forward at all to what I expect will be a marathon session this weekend with HP support.

It's disappointing, because the HP EliteBook that I have from my employer is a solid performer.

UPDATE: After running the built-in diagnostics, I have pinpointed the issue to a faulty SIMM that has what appears to be a temperature-related failure mode that happens after at least 30 minutes but no more than two hours after booting. HP is shipping a replacement SIMM; I'm running the computer on 4GB in the meantime.

bought it and it SUCKS. keeps getting the blue screen of death and have been on the phone with HP support for 4 hours. its basically a big pile of junk. What a RIPOFF!!! Hope Woot compensates me for all this time I'm wasting trying to fix their piece of crap laptop.

I have had this laptop for about 3 weeks now and frankly I couldn't be happier. I had an older dv5 laptop and this runs about a thousand degrees cooler than that. That being said I have yet to have any issues with HP or their support. Cheers!

HP with Core i7 is a good choice! The process of the speed must be very well!