This DV5 specs a Core 2 Duo P7350 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 250GB of HDD, and most impressively, it has a NVidia GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics card with 512MB of dedicated memory. Usually laptops with this kind of specs are sold around S$2400+, but curiously this dv5 sells at a 'special student promotion' price of S$1699. The most exciting thing is: they will sell to me anyway even though I told them in unequivocal terms I am no longer a student.
Needless to say, the price seems good and tempting. Being an alert shopper, I searched the web to check on user reviews as a final stage of my purchase, and I found out this model of laptop tends to overheat (See the discussion forum posts here). From the posts, the laptop is reported to have problem in cooling and the 9600M chipset tends to be so hot that it would be disabled to protect the circuitries and therefore making the whole system lag. Though this could be limited to individual units, the pricing of it corroborates with the suspicion something isn't really right.
Here I am, back to square one. What caught me unexpected (and drooling) is Apple's new line of MacBook. For so long I had been a big critic to the then MacBook's flimsy Intel integrated graphics chipset, and now things have changed. The new MacBooks are equipped with much more decent nVidia GeForce 9400M GT. That makes my heart to beat much much faster... I just can't breathe!!
Also, HP's potential overheat problem reminds me of why the new MacBook's body is made of a solid piece of aluminum. On top of the better look, I suspect the metal body also serves as a giant heat-sink.
Will Cuppa give in to Uncle Jobs and get a shiny MacBook on his next trip to the IT mall? Stay tuned...
2 comments:
The only thing I have against the macs is the fact that you're paying for the MacOS tax, much like the Windows tax. For someone who puts Linux into everything, not sure if a macbook is worth it.
Probably someone will now come up and say that the macOS is superior anyway. :P
However if you want a laptop, almost all laptops in Asia come with OS pre-installed. In other words, you have to choose either Vista, or Mac OS X, and now their prices are very similar.
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