Well I bought my laptop after much searching in all the online places but I ended up buying instore at Comet! I did wangle the internet price though which I think is good. I found a HP, with this spec:

HP dv8333 Pavillion
17" 1440x900
Core Duo T2300 1.6Ghz
XP Home
1GB
160GB hard disc
Nvidia 7600 256 dedicated
Lightscribe dvd rw
DVB TV
Media Remote
Bluetooth/wireless integrated
6in1 card reader

£920 inc vat

So far I'm very impressed. The HP has a nice solid build and looks very stylish with a black gloss finish around the keyboard sporting blue indicator lights and some media based quick-play buttoms. The 17" widescreen is gloss finish and on a par with my colegues new Sony Vaio and larger than most in this range at 17". Also the track pad is way nicer to operate in terms of smoothness and sensitivity, compared to the Vaio.

A 7200rpm would have been preferable but a good size 5200rpm hard drive for this price is useful for me as I use this for Music production. The dv8333 is running SX3 lovely and smooth with no problems at. The digital tv was a bonus really but a welcome one, although the HP software isnt nice at all, Nvidia software would have been better so im on the hunt for some new software for that if possable?

A 256mb 7600 is nice and again good as most others have either the 7400/200 or Ati X1400 at this price range. It seems to run reasonably cool even when on for long stints which i assume is mainly thanks to the core duo. The 9 cell battery is running Cubase SX3 for nearly three hours at the mo I think, although I haven't properly timed this yet.

Integrated wi-fi and blutooth have proved usful already. Iv'e never used any Light scribe media as I've found disc pens just as effective albeit not as proffesional looking, never the less it's there and you even get one light scribe disc free to dabble with woot... So first impressions seem really good alround, I'm a happy chap


I would reccommend this laptop to anyone looking for a media based laptop under £1000.
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