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Written by
Edited February 6, 2023
at 06:47 AM
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HP Victus 15.6" Gaming Laptop - $499.99 at Micro Center
https://www.microcenter.com/produ...sku=539411
Specs:
Victus 15-fa0031dx 15.6" Gaming Laptop Computer - Silver
Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12450H 1.5GHz Processor; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR6; 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM; 512GB Solid State Drive
Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12450H 1.5GHz Processor
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR6
8GB DDR4-3200 RAM
512GB Solid State Drive
Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Multi-Format SD Media Card Reader
10/100/1000 Network
Wi-Fi 6 (2x2)+Bluetooth Combo
15.6" FHD IPS Micro-Edge Anti-Glare 144Hz Display
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Microcenter also has DDR4 laptop ram on sale that works well with this pc. $500 for laptop $80 for a 32GB kit and now the laptop is pretty banging!
Screen quality is impressive, and will be good for my sister's photo editing needs. Should last her quite a while I hope !
PROTIP: If you do Windows Update -> Optional, some of the "HP" updates are A BIOS FLASH! THIS WILL RESET YOUR BITLOCKER KEY AND YOU CAN'T BOOT UNTIL YOU GET THE RECOVERY CODES FROM YOUR MICROSOFT ACCOUNT ! I totally got stuck in a bitlocker reboot cycle, so I ended up disabling it. My recommendation is to disable BitLocker drive encryption before you update the BIOS on this bad boy.
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seriously, the people who have problems with their machines are the ones most likely to speak out about them, causing confirmation bias. i've had dell, asus, acer, sony, evoo, msi..only the sony broke (like two decades ago, the gpu crapped out and they had to replace the entire mobo because it was soldered), but i'm not about to boycott any one particular manufacturer. but hey to each their own. also not sure what people are expecting at $500..it's 1080p @ 144hz, about 5lbs. sounds about right.
great deal, op! basically matches the black friday prices for the last couple years on this level of machine. also i like microcenter too because there's one not too far from me https://static.slickdealscdn.com/ima...lies/smile.gif
Every brand will have their duds and their good ones. Laptops in general have many points of failure without much reparability, so it's always a risk you have to take. Don't expect too much longevity out of laptops.
Most people haven't tried enough brands to know, and when their laptop eventually craps out, they complain about the entire brand. Similarly with cars (I just don't get it).
I still like laptops, but I try to stick to desktops unless I absolutely need the portability. Desktops that I've personally built have been more reliable than most OEM laptops/desktops I've encountered.
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Throw another 8gb 3200mhz ram stick (Crucial stick on Amazon is $22) and upgrade the NVMe to 1 TB and this thing is super powerful. It boots up in about 9 seconds once I nuked all the bloatware and reinstalled Windows 11 clean along with some optimizations. I tried installing windows 10 on this and it surprisingly came with a verified windows 10 license, but I couldn't get the Realtek Audio drivers to work nor the Touchpad. The screen is actually quite good and the refresh rate was the main selling point for me. It's hard to beat this price for what you get and what you could upgrade it to. There's a lot of mediocre laptops in the same price range with no dedicated GPU and same ram with only a 60hz screen.
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Microcenter also has DDR4 laptop ram on sale that works well with this pc. $500 for laptop $80 for a 32GB kit and now the laptop is pretty banging!
Screen quality is impressive, and will be good for my sister's photo editing needs. Should last her quite a while I hope !
PROTIP: If you do Windows Update -> Optional, some of the "HP" updates are A BIOS FLASH! THIS WILL RESET YOUR BITLOCKER KEY AND YOU CAN'T BOOT UNTIL YOU GET THE RECOVERY CODES FROM YOUR MICROSOFT ACCOUNT ! I totally got stuck in a bitlocker reboot cycle, so I ended up disabling it. My recommendation is to disable BitLocker drive encryption before you update the BIOS on this bad boy.
seriously, the people who have problems with their machines are the ones most likely to speak out about them, causing confirmation bias. i've had dell, asus, acer, sony, evoo, msi..only the sony broke (like two decades ago, the gpu crapped out and they had to replace the entire mobo because it was soldered), but i'm not about to boycott any one particular manufacturer. but hey to each their own. also not sure what people are expecting at $500..it's 1080p @ 144hz, about 5lbs. sounds about right.
great deal, op! basically matches the black friday prices for the last couple years on this level of machine. also i like microcenter too because there's one not too far from me
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Only Dell ( and maybe Lenovo)
From a quality stand point, esp. Inital Lenovo is better than dell. Just my observation. I work in IT overseeing a campus of approx. 1500 computers. For the last 12 years, Lenovo has constantly been more reliable.
its not a shot a dell, they are fine. but ive worked in IT for 17 years, ive seen thousands of computers come and go. in my time ive seen dell slip in quality over recent years
Only Dell ( and maybe Lenovo)
Me too
HP and Dell only good for enterprise level PC
Throw another 8gb 3200mhz ram stick (Crucial stick on Amazon is $22) and upgrade the NVMe to 1 TB and this thing is super powerful. It boots up in about 9 seconds once I nuked all the bloatware and reinstalled Windows 11 clean along with some optimizations. I tried installing windows 10 on this and it surprisingly came with a verified windows 10 license, but I couldn't get the Realtek Audio drivers to work nor the Touchpad. The screen is actually quite good and the refresh rate was the main selling point for me. It's hard to beat this price for what you get and what you could upgrade it to. There's a lot of mediocre laptops in the same price range with no dedicated GPU and same ram with only a 60hz screen.
Is the license on a sticker?
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Microcenter also has DDR4 laptop ram on sale that works well with this pc. $500 for laptop $80 for a 32GB kit and now the laptop is pretty banging!
Screen quality is impressive, and will be good for my sister's photo editing needs. Should last her quite a while I hope !
PROTIP: If you do Windows Update -> Optional, some of the "HP" updates are A BIOS FLASH! THIS WILL RESET YOUR BITLOCKER KEY AND YOU CAN'T BOOT UNTIL YOU GET THE RECOVERY CODES FROM YOUR MICROSOFT ACCOUNT ! I totally got stuck in a bitlocker reboot cycle, so I ended up disabling it. My recommendation is to disable BitLocker drive encryption before you update the BIOS on this bad boy.