Top A' The World Ma...

...well, maybe I am not at the top of the world by I am now a member of the Lap Top crowd. That pretty much makes me feel at the top of the world anyhow. My wife gave me a Hewlett Packard (HP) Lap Top Computer for Christmas. I almost fell over when I realized what it was in the box. I really was floored. It is the most thoughtful gift i have received from her in years, something I would be bound to like and something I will definitely use a lot of the time. It is especially a nice gift because I am leaving for Phoenix on Monday for 3 months and was not going to have computer access in the apartment complex in which my job is putting me up. Yeah, they have Wi-fi and all that but unlike a hotel with a business center and a computer or two for the guests, this is a bring your own computer type of deal. Now I can bring my own.

As for the new computer, it seems to have a good number of bells and whistles. It is the HP Pavilion dv7, dv7-3065xdx model. What that model means, at least in this particular case, is that it comes with:

An AMD Turion II Ultra Dual Core Mobile Processor running at 2.4 Ghz with 2 MB of L2 cache

17.3 inch HD screen

500 GB Hard drive

4MB of RAM

802 11bg WLAN

Blue Ray ROM with LightScribe SuperMulti DVD R/RW drive

ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics card with 128 MB

Windows 7 Home Premium

8 Cell Lithium Battery

HP Webcam

5 in 1 Digital Card reader

3 Expansion ports

An HP Remote Control (Why I would need a remote for a laptop is beyond me)

Here is a link to the specs from the HP site:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01868468&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=4041777

I suppose that is a lot of bells and whistles for a notebook computer. Still though there is one thing I cannot figure, the 128MB video card. I would have expected at least a 256MB or better yet a 512MB card for today's video memory hungry applications. That is, I hope, an easy fix and I expect to get a new video card pronto. I may bring it back today to see if they will exchange it for one with a better graphics card. Then again the website seems to indicate that this particular video card can have memory added to it (is that possible?). If they can somehow put more memory on the graphics card I will upgrade it to 512 MB or 1GB. Don't tell my wife about me wanting an upgrade for the video card, it is just I am pretty sure some of my PC games will not play on that little memory. She is upset because I said something already about it - me and my big mouth.

The only other thing I really wish that would have been different about the whole set-up is I wish my wife had bought it at someplace other than Worst Best Buy. I cannot stand the place and try not to do business there unless they are the only ones with a product I need. Of course, Linda would not have known that I guess. She bought it there and they talked her into buying a useless security plan for $99.99 under which they made up restore discs and installed an unheard of brand of antivirus software. I did call them to tell them I want to opt out of the plan and will admit that surprisingly they said bring it in for an exchange for a new one without the virus software installed on it. Maybe they are improving.

As for the computer, despite my being picky, I really do love it! It is probably the best present I have gotten in years, certainly the best one ever from my dear wife.

All the best,
Glenn B