well, its been a few weeks since my last post again and i thought i'd check in as the holidays approach ever faster. its been a while since i've blogged about my previous laptop purchase, HP DV6700T CTO so i thought i'd do a quick recap/followup on it.
also, thought i'd drop a few notes about some upcoming projects i have in the works (most of them involving my new fav netbook, msi wind).
my HP DV6700T follow-up review:
-original purchase date: 8/2/2008
-setup/configuration: DV6700T model w/T9300 CPU, Bluray drive, HDMI/Nvidia Graphics, Vista Ultimate.
back in early August, i finally broke down and purchased my HP DV6700T. my main goal in purchasing this laptop was to eventually replace my desktop with a powerful entertainment laptop. i built my laptop via HP's site and basically maxed it out w/the top CPU (penryn T9300), all the bells and whistles (webcam, biometric, array mic, bluray drive, hdtv tuner expresscard, both 6 and 12cell batteries, docking station). I'll make my followup short and sweet by doing the typical likes, dislikes, overall.
likes:
-still love the design of the HP DV6700T
-bluray drive + hdmi port = portable High-Def anywhere;
-Vista's media center; i use it to show my photos, music, watch my mp4 movies, and also record HDTV OTA w/the HP HDTV Tuner kit; very nice interface for using on an HDTV
-raw power of the T9300 cpu
dislikes:
-not being able to map the Quickplay keys to other applications (can in xp but not in vista)
-cost if purchased without any coupons (my build would have cost around $1600 before some killer coupons, which HP offers most of the time)
overall:
HP's entertainment line lives up to being what it claims; a portable high-def system. if you have an HDTV and want to use a PC w/it; the dv6700t works great on an HDTV and media center is a very solid GUI to make using on a tv worthwhile (again, i did have the mce remote and hdtv tuner). if i had to do it again i still would buy it!
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my current/future projects:
this next month or so i plan on doning a few more hacks/mods to my MSI Wind netbook. just recently over at msiwind.net, a solderless touchscreen kit has surfaced. prior to this kit, soldering was required for getting power and data to the motherboard and in turn was a big no go for me since my soldering skills are in need of some practice. so hopefully i will have a few posts in the next few weeks on installing this.
while i'm on the topic of my msi wind, the above touchkit also adds an internal usb hub to 'allow future items to be added'. so i may try to find a usb gps receiver and integrate into it also. we'll see how ambitous i am.
three weeks back i upgraded my PS3's harddrive, again. this time i went up to a 500GB Western Digital drive. i hope to do one more upgrade when 1TB laptop drives are introduced.
finally, i thought i'd also make a note about my Olevia 237V HDTV. i've now owned my Olevia HDTV for 2 years. I purchased it from Newegg. a ton of users have noted on my blog/review page for my tv that they have had tons of problems with the tv itself and with customer support over at Olevia. i personally (knocks on wood) have not had any problems yet with my tv.  however, i realized that the reason why i may not have had problems yet is the fact that i do not use the TV's builtin ATSC tuner; rather i use my HDTV mainly as a monitor. Prior to my HP laptop; i had a cable dvr box that i used for hdtv.
Picture quality and lighting on my 237V has remained consistent and even; quality still looks as good as my parents brand new Samsung 720P HDTV they bought 2 months ago. I do use my HDTV on avg about 3-5 hours a day.
My PS3 and bluray movies and games look great, minimal/if any ghosting and pixelation. So in short, it works just as good as it did from day one.
so with that note, i'll end this semi-long post. expect to see further msi wind hacks/mods once my kit arrives!
have a happy, safe, and geeky holidays!
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