I hate myself for having to ask this but can anyone tell me about the gaming potential of these computers? Specifically the quad cores with the Radeon HD 7660D or Radeon HD 7560D graphics cards.
If anyone is looking at the 6 core AMD machines. If you do not spend the extra $10 or so for the better CPU, GPU, HD, and power supply you are a fool (with all due respect…lol).
Better CPU, better GPU, 500GB more on the HD, and 160W more on the HD all for $10…
I got the H8-1417C the last time Woot had these. It looked brand new when I took it out of the box, and it hasn’t had any problems at all other than issues with Windows 8, which isn’t HP’s fault. I spent a couple hundred more and have 28GB of RAM and 6TB of disk storage. That should be enough to last for a while. Not a gamer so I haven’t been able to put any stress at all on the CPU or the graphics card. They run at about 5% of capacity typically. Photo editing in Photoshop is pretty much instantaneous; my old machine which was no slouch would take a second or two to process a 25MB photo file. This one doesn’t. I suspect it would be pretty good for gaming but I’m talking about the most expensive one they’re offering. Can’t say about the others. BTW, the AOC 27 inch IPS monitor is quite good for the price; this one on Woot is the old model; if you want the current model you can find it here:
Another thing to consider: the cost of a SquareTrade extended warranty. I was able to buy the expired moofi deal and a three year warranty was $69.99 for 3 years vs. $75.99 for 1 year. Not quite as good a deal on the computer, but great value on the warranty.
I got a refurb P7-1414 a short while ago from another merchant that’s very similar to a lot of these machines. Quad-core, 3.2GHz, 6GB RAM. I’d like to up the RAM at some point, but I run BORDERLANDS 2 full-blast and it’s great. I wish the APU was upgradeable to something past quad-core but I’ve got lots of gaming to catch up on that won’t need anything tougher. and I’m still not going back to consoles after this.
The AMD quad core refurb deals (P6-2427C) aren’t exactly unique price points around the interwebs once tax comes into play (turns an awesome deal into a meh deal), but it’s still decent and has a 90 day factory warranty.
The base hardware should be able to handle anything you throw at, with the integrated APU (A8-5500 chipset) being the only weak point in terms of gaming. Reviews still say it will handle 1080p without issues and most modern games at mid to low settings. I have a ge650 to throw in, so it’ll make for a nice machine for damn near everything.
People have even overclocked these things to nearly 4ghz, so it’s not exactly without potential. In for one.
Anyone have any knowledge about replacing the hard drive? I’m thinking about purchasing the Envy i7 and replacing its 2TB hard drive with a solid state drive as the primary HD. My question is: can I reinstall factory Windows 8 on a new HD? There doesn’t appear to be an OS CD in the box. Does HP/Windows allow me to download the OS from them and create a bootable CD or USB?
Any one have any experience here?
I’d bet against OS CDs as well. You’ll probably get a restore partition like most laptops. You could probably image the entire goddamn HDD over to the SSD. Plug them both into the computer at the same time, image the drive over (using, say, Norton Ghost or something open source), power down, revert the SATA HDD to slave and the SSD to master.
Secondly, you might be able to simply copy the restore partition (assuming one exists) to the new SSD and simply rebuild. That’s theoretical and Windows might have a problem with drive letters and such in both cases, but work arounds are easily found on google.
Best I can think of ATM
AMD was nice enough to make their latest APU’s FM2 sockets. In other words, they will fit the motherboard you currently have. So if you are are looking to upgrade research AMD new APU (i.e. A10-6800K is the best new one out).
Just a FYI.
AHHHHHhhhhh! enough with the windows 8! Throw us a bone with some refurbed windows 7 models!!!
I hope “fitting” means “working” But if an FM2 is an FM2 is an FM2 then I’ll be set should an upgrade opportunity arise. Thanks for your time!
Oh, PS: I jumped from Windows XP to Windows 8 and I’m just fine with it. Stardock’s START8 helps a lot. The only Metro apps I use are Netflix, Comixology, and Kindle.
Poll for those in the know:
I’m still on an aging 32-bit XP machine nearing end-of-life, so it’s time to upgrade.
I want space for my music and, especially, photos (since the latter are getting bigger by the minute with two kids in the home). I don’t need the latest and greatest in gaming (Skyrim with normal settings would be the most I would tax the new system with).
Therefore, should I go for the i5 with less RAM and less max RAM or the P7-1467C with 12 GB of RAM (the $30 difference is inconsequential). BTW, I am planning on changing the boot to an SSD in any case for faster boot and performance.
I would love your opinions!
Haha. Yes it also meant “working.”
The i5 is easily the better CPU but the APU chip (CPU/GPU combo chip) in the other (A10-5700) has better integrated graphics than the dedicated GPU in the i5.
So, IMO, if your only modification is going to be adding a SSD I would go with the P7 machine that has the AMD A10-5700 APU in it. The CPU is powerful enough to do most anything you want and the added graphics will come in handy for Skyrim.
As far as Skyrim these show you on “medium” settings what FPS you will get. Use the A10-5800K line as it has the same integraded graphics as the A10-5700 listed here.
You have an open bay inside the machine, you could add the SSD along side the HDD and keep both. No, you don’t get any system disks or recovery disks at all, nor can you download them from HP. The HDD has a recovery partition which contains the data to restore the computer to how it came out of the box. When you do the initial setup on the computer it will encourage you to create system recovery files using the Windows utility. That’s about 10GB which you can put on DVDs or a flash drive. You should be able to restore the OS to your SSD using the system recovery files. You can also create a system image using the backup and restore utility.
Anyone can offer the knowledge about the (+) and (-) of these IPS LED monitors ?
I’m mulling between this AOC 27 refur.ips monitor ($229.00) VS the 27 LED superslim Samsung ($279),new with 1 yr warr. at Costco .
Many thanks.
Thanks a ton! It’s really made the choice easier (I was leaning in that direction, but this will help me stop vacilating). I knew I could count on the Woot! brain!
The HP 3520 Printer has 3 stars on amazon. Seems to have many complaints on paper jams. http://www.amazon.com/HP-Deskjet-3520-All-One/dp/B008N187I0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
A wooter posted this on the HP 4620 printer we sold recently. Maybe the same thing will solve it for this printer?