HP’s new Pavilion dv8t series is in a word, beastly. This entertainment machine is a desktop replacement notebook, which means it’s big, bad, and not meant for you to lug back and forth to class every day. With an 18.4″ monitor, 4 GBs of RAM, an Intel’s Core i5 or Intel Core i7 processor, and Nvidia GeForce GT 230M graphics card with 1GB of discrete memory, this monster is meant to sit right there on your desk, blowing your mind.

This machine is geared incredibly well toward movie streaming, DVD viewing, and video game playing. With an impressive graphics card, a 1080p Hi-Def 16:9 aspect ratio monitor that is huge by notebook standards, and the RAM and processor speeds to make full use of both, this machine is capable of amazing detail with crisp textures and amazing color depth. This machine also delivers home theater quality audio to back up its amazing display capabilities. The wonderful thing about all this being in a laptop is you can take it on the go and hook it up to any other display as well with its handy audio connectors and HDMI output to enjoy your media on any newer big screen, or just at your friend’s house.

But this machine isn’t just a powerhouse for your media. Packaged with Windows 7 64-bit, this machine is built around being able to do anything your old desktop could do, and maybe even better. If you have the cash, upgrading to the quad core processor will put you on the cutting edge of market technology. Couple that with HP offering a free upgrade to 6 GBs of RAM, and your friends will be playing catch up to your new toy for quite some time. To put the RAM in perspective, 2 GBs is about what you need to run typical software out there today, 4 GB will have you sitting pretty and able to handle the big new stuff coming out. 6 GBs right now is just ready for whatever’s coming for at least the rest of this year.

One thing to be aware of though, this is not going to replace your school laptop. Weighing in at almost nine pounds, this machine will destroy your shoulder trying to lug it around, and eat through its battery like nothing (even with the nice 8-cell battery that comes standard with the machine). If you’re looking for something to take back and forth, you may want to look into a netbook for classes and notes, in addition to this bad boy. That way no matter what you need to do, you’ve got the best machine for the job.

Popularity: 1% [ ? ]