HP OMEN (17.3", Core i7 9th gen, gtx 1660ti)

[Ash_G]

My 2011 Toshiba Qosmio is reaching its end of life so I want to replace it. The HP OMEN model available to buy is this one: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c06523192#AbT0

French PDF: https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c06517605.pdf

QUESTIONS:

1. The spec sheet makes no mention of screen refresh rate. Do you guys know if this is 144Hz or just 60Hz? When they don't mention it, I think it will be the lousy refresh rate.

2. The hard-drive is 1TB 7200rpm which I thought was so typical of branded laptops like Sony. Good specs but a hard-drive which you will have to upgrade asap. Is it easy to upgrade the drive in HP Omen? Can you add an NVMe drive in this model?

3. New laptops don't come with DVD drives now, so how do you do a factory restore on a newly installed hard-drive nowadays? Does HP provide a USB stick with the recovery system software?

Thanks for any help you can bring.

[banhien · Accepted solution]

@Ash_G 

A1. When the specs says nothing, normally means it has standard 60Hz screen. My Omen specs clearly says

              15.6" diagonal FHD 144 Hz IPS anti-glare micro-edge WLED-backlit (1920 x 1080)

A2. HP uses HDD's from few suppliers, it can be HDS, Sony, Toshiba .... On my Omen, it has HGST Drive

               

You can add M.2 NVMe SSD to your machine, mine has 256GB Samsung, you can use larger (capacity drive). It is very easy, but will take time . The following manual will help you to make the work easier:

                 http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06367528.pdf

A3.  You don't need Optical drive, you can always use USB drive to restore your machine back or install fresh Windows 10. HP has Cloud Recovery site and you can create USB stick yourself.

Regards.

[Ash_G]

Thank you so much for your answers. I am sad I didn't check at the store which refresh rate the screen was.

I live in Mauritius, where that oil-tanker just crashed. Here is the model in question, they want USD 1900 for it. 17.3" gaming laptops are absolutely rare in my country.

My other choices are 15.6" ASUS models (FX505DV-71610MT and X571GD-BQ395R (Harman Kardon speakers)) which come with equipped with SSD and 120Hz 178° screen. But their colour accuracy is 50% or below. I was shocked. Good screen (for Photoshop) and good speakers (for movies) are kind of important to me.