[Solved] HP dv6z vs. Y470p : Best buy for the price? (need advice by 2/14!)

OK. I've found these 2 laptops for the purpose of gaming (swtor) med/high settings. Obviously cheaper is better, but is it worth the loss in power? Can I please ask for advice as to which would be the best performance for the money, and why by Feb 14! (as the deal ends on the dv6z).

1st one:
HP Pavilion dv6z Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC ****689.33****

A1M39AV

•dark umber
•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
•AMD Quad-Core A8-3550MX Accelerated Processor (2.7GHz/2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
•1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
•FREE UPGRADE to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
•FREE UPGRADE to 640GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
•Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
•No additional security software
•6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
•15.6" High Def LED HP Brightview (1366x768)
•SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
•HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
•802.11b/g/n WLAN
•Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad
•HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

2nd one:
IdeaPad Y470p Laptop - 08552NU - Dusk Black ****798.55****

Processor
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2450M Processor ( 2.50GHz 1333MHz 3MB )
Operating system
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Graphics
AMD Radeon HD 7690 1GB
Total memory
6 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz
Display
14.0" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768
Camera
Integrated 2.0MP Camera
Pointing device
Industry Standard Touchpad
Hard Drive
500GB 5400
Optical Drive
DVD Recordable (Dual Layer)
Battery
6 Cell Lithium-Ion
Network Card
Intel 1000 BGN Wireless
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Version 2.1 + EDR
HDMI
HDMI (Out)
Finger Print Reader
None
Warranty
One Year

I like the Lenovo chassis look vs. HP.
I like the 14" Lenovo screen vs. 15.6"
I like the HP a8 chip vs i5 for gaming performance & battery life.
I like the Lenovo i5 chip vs a8 for heavy cpu processing.
And HDD/camera/battery/software/OS dont matter to me much.

Is the Lenovo worth the 100ish more?! Is there a reason why/why not?

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Reply to Kahlbanor

The lenovo has a superior processor. It is worth the extra 100.

Edit: I am unsure if that HP's integrated GPU and discreet work in crossfire mode? Can someone let us know if it does? I am unable to confirm whether or not it does. If the HP does have Xfire with the 7690 + 6620 integrated it will definately give better gaming performance.

However, the lenovo still has the better processor. Plus it will definately give you longer battery life, as the A8 is somewhat of a power hungry processor - and if Xfire doesn't work on the HP - it would make a pointless drain on your battery life due to the integrated GPU.

Message edited by Chainzsaw on 02-13-2012 at 06:16:07 PM

Reply to Chainzsaw

I've found a similar battle here:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1212378 [...] ilion-dv6t

I assume that the A8 will crossfire.

Message edited by Kahlbanor on 02-13-2012 at 07:06:09 PM

Reply to Kahlbanor

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/01 [...] re-i7-kil/

Video showing the A8 vs a higher i7

Main use is for gaming so.....

This is swaying me to the HP, I just wish it was 14" screen, 15.6 is a bit bulky IMHO. And it looks like your little sisters laptop from 09 =(.

Reply to Kahlbanor

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp [...] g-rig.html

Found that. If you read near the middle apparently it can crossfire, but there might be a problem with "micro-stuttering".

So I would say it's a toss up. If you go for the HP you will get better graphics performance, but if you go with the lenovo you will get better CPU performance.

For the price - I'm going to change my mind and reccomend the HP, for 100 dollars less with pretty much similar performance (overall), plus the bigger screen would really help.

Reply to Chainzsaw

7690m is a slightly faster 6770m - so Im guessing it will have the same APU Dual Graphics capability:

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Reply to WR2

Best answer

Kahlbanor wrote :

I like the HP a8 chip vs i5 for gaming performance & battery life.

When gaming with the HD 6620G IGP active the APU won't have any turbo core headroom - it will run at 2.0Ghz.
Battery life should be roughly equal - APU laptop with a discrete graphics card has no battery life advantage.

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Reply to WR2

Just putting in my 2 cents...

As an owner of a Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 (not the "P" model), the CPU tends to run very hot when playing games. CPU temps tends to be in the 88C - 92C range depending on the game. The exception is GTA 4 which hit 99C and the CPU started to throttle down. However, there was no issue with the nVidia GT 550m graphics card; I forgot the max temp I measured, but it's somewhere in between 62C - 65C.

Additionally, a cooling pad does not cool down the Y470. I purchased a Cooler Master U2 with 2 movable 92mm fans. Placing them directly under the vents did not improve temps. When reading reviews of the U2 people stated that their laptops cooled down between 3C - 5C. They did not specify which laptops they had, but for the Lenovo IdeaPad it was 0C.

The Y470p probably uses the same chassis as the Y470 laptop with or without any modifications is anyone's guess. You should research for Y470p reviews and see what they have to say about CPU temps under gaming conditions.

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My Y470 has an i5-2410 CPU.

I'm still teetering... I just read that DX9 software is not accellerated by ACF(Assymetrical CrossFire), so enabling it for SWTOR which uses DX9 exclusively is actually going to hinder my performance (7-10%) & power consumption. DX10&11 software is increased an average of 24-30% over a single discrete card though.

So basically... If I play SWTOR, the graphics performance will be higher on the Lenovo, but other DX10/11 games will be slightly lower.

so my new pro's.

HP dv6z

Price 100 less
Graphics for DX10/11 games

Lenovo

CPU
Style
Screen size (to me)
Graphics for SWTOR

Reply to Kahlbanor

jaguarskx wrote :

Just putting in my 2 cents...

As an owner of a Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 (not the "P" model), the CPU tends to run very hot when playing games. CPU temps tends to be in the 88C - 92C range depending on the game. The exception is GTA 4 which hit 99C and the CPU started to throttle down. However, there was no issue with the nVidia GT 550m graphics card; I forgot the max temp I measured, but it's somewhere in between 62C - 65C.

Additionally, a cooling pad does not cool down the Y470. I purchased a Cooler Master U2 with 2 movable 92mm fans. Placing them directly under the vents did not improve temps. When reading reviews of the U2 people stated that their laptops cooled down between 3C - 5C. They did not specify which laptops they had, but for the Lenovo IdeaPad it was 0C.

The Y470p probably uses the same chassis as the Y470 laptop with or without any modifications is anyone's guess. You should research for Y470p reviews and see what they have to say about CPU temps under gaming conditions.

Since the P model is so new, there is like next to nothing on reviews/information on the unit itself, only the guts. Try to You-tube it, you'll find only the lenovo videos ><.

I'm almost positive that the chasis is the same for the P model, as they have the exact same videos for introducing the laptop on the website, so there is a high probability that it can have the same heat issues your talking about.

However, what kind of conditions is the laptop in? how long have you had yours? Is it in a dusty enviroment?
I know theres tons of factors that can play a role in heat generation for laptops. Does anything come to mind for you?
(Lord I hope you dont play on your couch pillow.)

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Reply to Kahlbanor

That's about how I see the breakout too. The $100 savings would be a big factor.
But I'd breakout the gaming performance one more step. FPS better on HP & some RPGs/SIMs better on Lenovo. I think RPGs & SIMs can benefit more from the Core i5 CPU as long as the GPUs are reasonably close.

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Reply to WR2

WR2 wrote :

That's about how I see the breakout too. The $100 savings would be a big factor.
But I'd breakout the gaming performance one more step. FPS better on HP & some RPGs/SIMs better on Lenovo. I think RPGs & SIMs can benefit more from the Core i5 CPU as long as the GPUs are reasonably close.

I agree... can the "benefit more" be worth $100.

You did say the APU when being ACF'd will stonewall the CPU power to 2.0ghz w/no turbo room. That seems like it could be a big factor in the long run, considering load times as the i5 can still use its turbo, correct? Maybe not a graphical increase in performance from the i5, but a huge cpu increase.

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Reply to Kahlbanor

Best answer selected by Kahlbanor.

Reply to Kahlbanor

WR2 wrote :

When gaming with the HD 6620G IGP active the APU won't have any turbo core headroom - it will run at 2.0Ghz.
Battery life should be roughly equal - APU laptop with a discrete graphics card has no battery life advantage.

Chalked up the $100 for the Lenovo for the large boost in CPU vs small graphics boost in HP.

Thank you all for the help!

Reply to Kahlbanor

Kahlbanor wrote :

You did say the APU when being ACF'd will stonewall the CPU power to 2.0ghz w/no turbo room.

Even without ACF - if the integrated GPU is active the thermal headroom for TurboCore to run isn't there.

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Reply to WR2

Kahlbanor wrote :

Since the P model is so new, there is like next to nothing on reviews/information on the unit itself, only the guts. Try to You-tube it, you'll find only the lenovo videos ><.

I'm almost positive that the chasis is the same for the P model, as they have the exact same videos for introducing the laptop on the website, so there is a high probability that it can have the same heat issues your talking about.

However, what kind of conditions is the laptop in? how long have you had yours? Is it in a dusty enviroment?
I know theres tons of factors that can play a role in heat generation for laptops. Does anything come to mind for you?
(Lord I hope you dont play on your couch pillow.)

It is set on top of a table in an average clean room. Professionally reviews of the Y470 has confirmed that 88C - 92C is the normal CPU temps when playing games. But since games ran stable and there were no CPU throttling during their testing (obviously they did not test with GTA 4) they were not concerned about the heat.

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