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HP Pavilion DV3510NR Laptop

Started by scuzzy, March 04, 2009, 04:55 hrs

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scuzzy

After a lot of poking, prodding, reading reviews, etc., I finally settled on a laptop. Initially I passed up on this one, but I ended up coming back to the HP Pavilion DV3510NR at BestBuy. At $1,000, it wasn't cheap. I'm not going into a big review here, but I'll try to hit on some of the main points for choosing this beauty over others.

Pros:

13.3" LED WXGA (1200x800) screen - WOW
Beautiful backlit keyboard
eSATA connection
Wireless A/G/Draft-N
Bluetooth
Dedicated nVidia 9300M 512MB graphics
Intel P7350 Core 2 Duo processor
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB 5200 rpm HDD
Fingerprint reader
Webcam
Less than 5 lbs
4 hr battery
Full size keyboard gives excellent feedback
2 year warranty
Norton Internet Security with 12-month subscription included
Did not come loaded with crapware

Not so hot:

Noisy mouse buttons
Does not have a physical volume control
Sound is adequate, but is lacking in bass

The unit came with 64-bit Vista Premium SP1 installed, but to be honest this computer provided the best "out-of-box" experience that I have ever had. Windows was about 90% setup, and I did not have to deal with uninstalling a bunch of unneeded junk and trial ware. I just had to go through the usual Windows Updates, which as always took too long.

Customizing the computer was uneventful until I installed 64-bit Java. It was a lot of heartache to learn that I needed 32-bit Java, since I have the 32-bit versions of IE7 and Firefox. Once I got that figured out and changed over, everything worked fine.

Overall, the laptop is a pleasure to look at and to use. I would have much preferred a physical volume control as opposed to the sliding touch control, but it's a minor annoyance. The mouse buttons are also louder than I prefer, so I'm finding myself tapping the touch pad instead.

The 13.3 inch LED screen provides a stunning picture. So much so, that my 20" Samsung on my main computer suddenly looks dull in comparison. The computer is also much faster than what I was accustomed to with the old laptop.

I might someday regret not getting the Lenovo instead, but so far I am very pleased with this unit - despite Windows Vista.
Antec Performance TX640B Case | WinXP Pro SP3 & Win7 64-bit | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R | Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale LGA 775 3.16GHz Dual-Core | 8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 G-Skill RAM | eVGA 7600GT 256MB PCI-E | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 16MB Cache | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 8MB Cache | 320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 16MB Cache | External 640GB WD Caviar SATA 32MB Cache | Sony DRU-V200S DVD/RW | PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W | Samsung SyncMaster 2494 (24") LCD Monitor | LG Flatron W2361V (23") LCD Monitor

Bill

Best of luck with your new system.

Bill
Antec 3700 | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz | 4 GB (4x1GB) DDR2 PC 5300 Kingston RAM | Antec NeoPower 550W | eVGA GeForce 9500GT 1GB 128 bit PCI Express 2.0 | Intel SSD X25-M 80GB | VelociRaptor 150GB | WD 80GB 7200rpm |Samsung 22x SATA Burner |Windows 7 32-bit

Mark H

I'm surprised they put the 32 bit IE7 instead of the 64 bit version I have on my Vista 64 machine (self built).

Congrats on the purchase!

Mark H
Enjoy the nature that is around you rather than destroying it.

scuzzy

I am adept with Vista... but I am quite sure that I will never like it. I have tolerated it since its inception, and I have always looked forward to returning Vista computers to my customers. I swore that I would never own it, but here I am stuck with it. I will hopefully replace it with WinXP someday.

I wanted a small laptop for portability, and the last thing I need is to lug around any extra items. I already have a nice laptop mouse that has been gathering dust for the last 5 years.
Antec Performance TX640B Case | WinXP Pro SP3 & Win7 64-bit | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R | Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale LGA 775 3.16GHz Dual-Core | 8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 G-Skill RAM | eVGA 7600GT 256MB PCI-E | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 16MB Cache | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 8MB Cache | 320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 16MB Cache | External 640GB WD Caviar SATA 32MB Cache | Sony DRU-V200S DVD/RW | PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W | Samsung SyncMaster 2494 (24") LCD Monitor | LG Flatron W2361V (23") LCD Monitor