Others say...

"great bang for the price"
As everyone else, I did a lot of research online, in-stores such as bestbuy,costco, CC. I knew I was looking first, a 17" laptop, I'm not much into traveling or carrying, so 17" was my choice. Then 2nd, I looked for graphics slighlty above average, not high end to broke me, but enough to play some FPS.
My first choice was Dell, but then wanted to have a nice looking one, which is what I got with this DV9540. It's heavy, but this is what you'd expect for a 17 incher.
I like the feature of finger reading, but I could live without it. I'd rather have integrated bluetooth.
Windows vista has all the looks and whistles, but I'd rather have XP's speed.
It takes a while to load Vista..you paid the price..
Note it was Hifef playing capabilities, but not through the CD/DVD bay.
Blue touch-buttons give a nice looking.
Overall is a good computer to surf, play music, but not for harcore gamers..great value for the price.


"A great, reasonably priced movable desktop"
The HP 9540 laptop is a well designed and equipped desktop replacement, with the only major drawback being that given its weight and width it is more of a movable desktop than a laptop. If you are not planning on traveling much with the 9540, this is one of the better featured machines available today. 5 stars for the combination of price and features despite its bulk.

This review was written on a HP 9543, with the only major differences between that model and the 9540 being that the 9543 has a T7300 processor and a whopping 320 GB of hard drive space between the two 5400 rpm 160 GB SATA drives installed, likely the largest storage space available on a laptop below the two thousand dollar range. The first thing noticeable about the 9540 series is the screen, which compares favorably to anything Sony or Apple puts out and is simply huge at 17" and usable for business software with 1440x900 resolution. Compared to some 15" widescreens, this 17" is very difficult to abandon for a smaller laptop since it does pretty much everything well and is just far too nice to look at. The second is the keyboard, which is essentially full sized, with a number key pad and a fairly responsive touchpad. It's worth noting a minor feature - the neon blue accessory lights that turn to orange when they're either used or off. While push buttons are normally more functional, the blue lights gave this almost a Dell XPS look and were surprisingly easy to get used to.

As far as the rest of the machine, it's got everything it should; input and output slots ranging from HDMI to what looks to be a PCMCIA slot, although like most modern laptops it omits parallel and serial ports for printers. The integrated webcam is not bad - think Creative Labs rather than Logitech - although the dual mic inputs are a nice touch. The highlight is the NVidia 8600, with a cooling system that pushes a solid amount of air out of the back of the machine and keeps it running quite cool for a laptop with a high end graphics card.

Two drawbacks. First, Vista is sluggish and a memory and battery hog, and HP doesn't offer this with XP Pro. (About the only good news is the sidebar with the clock and PC/Memory monitor integrate well primarily because the screen is so large.) Second, it's not a laptop. At 12ish pounds with battery and carrying case, like the old Compaqs this is a portable desktop. Traveling with this bulky a machine requires extremely wide carrying cases and the weight will give you a pinched nerve if you're not careful. Carrying it around campus is one thing, but if you're a road warrior this is probably not the machine for you.

Still, this is a great machine for the price. 5 stars, and if you can handle the size this should go to the top of your list.

"A great PC, if only it was lighter"
The HP DV9500 series is one of the best bang for your buck PCs I've seen when it comes to power and price. It isn't for everyone though. Notice the poundage (7.8lb) then add the power adapter and a carrying case and you'll be dealing with 11lbs+. Do not delude yourself and think you'll be carrying this PC around with you a lot. You won't. Its a desktop replacement with a beautiful screen, high horsepower and an affordable price compared to its peers.

This version of the 9500 comes with plenty of perks such as the Vista Ultimate and HD DVD player that I personally see as a bit unnecessary considering the price. If want to wait to see who wins the high definition battle before siding with blue ray or HD then you may want to order from HP where you can customize it and cut $200 from the price. Also, for a homeuser or student Ultimate just doesn't have enough features to make it worth the $150 extra I saw it added to the price at HP. That money would be better spent getting a real copy of Microsoft office that won't disappear after 60 days.

Still, its a great gaming PC and has plenty of power as long as you only travel with it occasionally. The hard drive is not above average (with only 5400rpm) but it just means you won't have the best loading times but the processor is definitely cutting edge and will show it when you start multitasking. Overall a great buy, but if you aren't going to use all the expensive features it will probably be way cheaper to custom order it from HP.

Final note: Be really careful with the fingerprint readers on any dv9500 series notebook mine worked wonderfully for 3 months and then I dropped it (luckily knowing I'm clumsy I bought accidental damage insurance from HP) but the fingerprint reader somehow sank deeper into the case so now it doesn't pick up anything when I run my finger across it. Everything else seems to work fine though.

"WOW!!"
I've never written a review before but bare with me for a sec,

After five years of using my old eMachines Desktop, I decided to finally upgrade to a better PC. When I was looking for a good PC, I was looking for something that would not only be able to hold all of the songs I have for my ipod, but would be capable of doing multiple things such as Downloading Songs , Listening to Songs, and even playings Online Games at the same time. With my old PC, Every time I alt+tab out of game (switch in and out of game.) My computer would always lag out or freeze. With this laptop, I'm even capable of doing more then what I even expected. With the Core 2 Duo, I can Burn a CD, while I'm downloading, Listening to music, AND playing games at the same time without slowing my PC at all. Amazing eh?

For a hardcore gamer such as myself that cant really afford those amazing $5,000 PC's. I decided to go with this notebook do to its 8600 Geforce Video Card. It gives me not only amazing graphics but constantly keeps me over 99.99 FPS in game every second (which is very important in game.) Because of this amazing graphic card, my shots and accuracy has increased a lot since my old PC, and I can play at top notch settings to give me the best gaming experience I can ever have. The Screen is 17 Inches and good enough for me even though I dock everything to my laptop (HD widescreen LCD, Keyboard, USB Mouse.) If your a gamer and Cant afford a $5000 PC such as myself, go with this laptop. I promise you wont regret a thing. Oh and just one more thing. I suggest you dock everything with yoru Laptop meaning isntead of using your notebook monitor you have a seperated one connected to it so along with a keyboard and mouse. Since this does contain a very high quality graphic card, it uses a lot of CPU and makes your notebook get pretty hot. Other then that, amazing PC!