Help with My New Setup

[i7man]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum. I just received my Dv6 Quad Ed from HP and had a few things that I wanted checked out before the 21day return period was up. I'm stepping up from a slower heavier Dv7 that was a good laptop, but felt I needed more performance as I am now getting into video editing(mostly 1080p GoPro clips) and running programs such as SolidWorks for my engineering classes. I wasn't looking to spend over a grand and wanted a high WEI subscore. The dv6 seemed to offer what I wanted for only $60 over my limit after tax.

Here are the specs:

dv6t Quad Ed
• steel gray
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz
• 2GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 750GB 7200 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
• 30% OFF High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 15.6" Full HD HP Anti-glare LED (1920 x 1080)
• FREE UPGRADE to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• 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


I checked the WEI scores and I wasn't too impressed.


Processor 7.5
Memory 7.6
Graphics (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family) 5.9
Gaming Graphics (5861MB Total Available Memory) 6.6
Primary Hard disk (630GB Free / 673GB Total) 5.9

Now I know 5.9 was the best for Vista but now it's 7.9 for Windows7. I was hoping to see at least 6.5+ for the graphics card as other similar setups have achieved that.

Here is a link to a Dv7 that is setup very close to mine and pulled a 6.6 WEI vs my 5.9 WEI:

HP dv7t Quad Review

That Dv7 scored a much higher benchmark score compared to mine:

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,Hewlett-Packard 17FA score: 2445 PCMarks
(You can see the Error message telling me the graphics card isn't recognized. What's up with that???)

Here are some more details on my setup:
file:///C:/Program Files (x86)/Belarc/Advisor/System/tmp/(Garrett-HP).html

Please let me know if HP provided me with everything I paid for and if everything is performing a 100%.

I'm really thinking about sending this unit back and building something with at least a 6.5+ WEI subscore.

Thanks for your input in advance.

 

[tj_extreme]

Well, no matter what the overall WEI score is going to be limited to 5.9 because of your HDD. But, to be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about the WEI score, it's not a very good benchmark of your system at all. As long as the laptop is performing well with what you need it to do, what's the problem?

 

[i7man]

I want to make sure I get every cent of performance out of this 1000 dollars I just dropped. I know I will get down the road later on after I've had time to research and learn everything and wish I would have done something different. I was just hoping some of you on here with more expertise could help critique my exact setup. I don't mind sending this unit back to HP if I can get a better setup for around the same amount of money.

On the bright side I just switched my card from dynamic to fixed and ran wei again and now my scores are 7.5, 7.6, 6.9, 6.9, 5.9. I feel much better seeing those numbers. Are there any disadvantages from switching my card to "fixed" over "dynamic"?

Ok I've been using YouTube to get quicker feedback..come on guys don't let that be the case. Help me out! Anyways this is the response I got after asking about the fixed vs dynamic:

Just that the screen will blink every time u plug and unplug the computer. plugged will be always running the amd even if is not necessary. On battery only the intel HD3000, unless you change the settings (right clic on the desktop) with the shorten battery life as side effect if you do so.
​

 

[tj_extreme]

I think you got a great laptop for $1000. You're WEI score is likely as high as it'll go, and like I said before, it doesn't matter anyways.

 

[Trotter]

The only way you could improve it right now would be to go with a solid state drive.

 

[tj_extreme]

The only way you could improve it right now would be to go with a solid state drive.

^this. Even that would only really improve boot times, and load his apps faster. I just don't see the point in worrying about WEI scores.

 

[i7man]

thanks for the input fellas..so far it's been a great computer and seems to only be limited by my sorry ass internet provider

 

[tj_extreme]

thanks for the input fellas..so far it's been a great computer and seems to only be limited by my sorry ass internet provider

Yeah, don't stress over what Windows thinks of your computer, because that score is honestly garbage. My 2600k @5.2ghz only gets a 7.7.

 

[Mischa]

Yeah, don't stress over what Windows thinks of your computer, because that score is honestly garbage. My 2600k @5.2ghz only gets a 7.7.

7.7 out of 7.9 isnt bad though. anyways, your right it doest make sense, my 8gb ram at 1600mhz gets 7.7 which is nearly top score even though you can get lots more ram and better speeds.
My ssd gets a rating of 5.9 for disk data transfer rate, not sure how that works.