HP Pavilion dv4000 (Pentium M 1.73GHz, ATI X700) Review (pics, specs)

by Patten Williams, Maine USA

HP Dv4000 with ATI X700 GPU

HP dv4000 (view larger image)

HP has a reputation for being conservative with the graphics packages on their notebooks. But the company made some real noise in September of 2005 when it released a re-worked Dv4000 with the ATI X700 GPU. I'd read some good reviews of the HP dv4000 and had been impressed with it, but I'd been put off because it only offered Intel integrated graphics.
I'd been looking for a mainstream notebook and the size and weight of the Dv4000 were right in the ballpark, a 15.4" widescreen and it weighed a shade over 6.5 pounds with the 6 cell battery. Now it was being offered with good graphics AND the price seemed too good to be true. Here's what I ordered:

• Processor Sonoma 740, 1.73 GHz
• 15.4 WXGA Bright View Widescreen
• 128MB ATI MOBILITY(TM) RADEON(R) X700
• 512MB DDR2 SDRAM (1x512MB)
• 80 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
• DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
• Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG WLAN
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery with free second battery
• XP Home Edition

With a 6% academic discount and the $50.00 rebate I ended up paying $1170.11 for my new machine.

Reasons for Buying:

I bought this machine primarily because my wife and I will be traveling a lot in the cold months. We live in Maine so "the cold months" means anytime between September and May; we want to spend some time the sun and we need a computer to travel with. I'm semi-retired and must connect with my associates here in Maine while I'm away. Besides communication for work and social purposes, we'll use the new notebook for watching DVDs, burning music, digital photography and last, but certainly most demanding, gaming. I like to play some pretty demanding 3D games and that of course is "where the cheese gets bindin'" as we like to say here in Maine. Being a Scot, I have a pronounced affection for retaining my money. Bang for the Buck is a very high value with me.

I'd looked at Fujitsu N3500s, great machines with terrific screens but not the strongest GPUs and a bit heavy. The Sony FS790 caught my eye, again I loved the display and the weight was right, but the 4200 RPM HDD, weak GPU and reputation for poor support held me back. ASUS I liked a lot, I almost bought a Chembook 2370Va but the cost and the WSXGA resolution got in the way (I like WXGA just fine).

So after way, way too much research we reached the point where my wife demanded that I choose a machine. You see, there were leaves to rake, boats to put away, yada yada ... and my obsessing over this purchase was getting in the way. I just knew I wouldn't find a machine that had the same strong graphics package, the right size and the low cost so I pulled the trigger.

I bought the machine through HP Shopping; I think the only way to go. Going directly through HP may not be the only way you can custom configure your notebook but I think it's the best. They offer free shipping most of the time and in most states you don't pay sales tax. I also don't want to get caught between a reseller and the builder if a warranty issue comes up. The HP sales representatives were helpful and allowed me to change my mind about my warranty option (actually, cancel the extra time and accidental damage options that I bought in a moment of extreme dumbness). I took the standard no cost shipping option and the machine was delivered to me prior to the time HP had promised it to start the shipping from Kunchan, China.

Since I've gotten the machine I have called tech support a handful of times and I've been pleasantly surprised. I'd heard lots of horror stories about HP's support and I was concerned about how that would go (I'm a long time Gateway customer...from back when they were a better company and gave really good support). In every instance, HP got on the line quickly, had good answers and went the extra mile with me. I have pretty poor hearing (my wife maintains that it's a classic case of gender deafness) and the rampant tales of poor support provided by incomprehensible people from exotic Asian lands was another worry for me...but so far, not a problem. The HP technical support staffers from India have proven to be knowledgeable, helpful, courteous and concerned about customer satisfaction. I have been even more surprised to have received follow up calls to survey my satisfaction.

So, I got the machine I wanted at a great price and so far the tech support has been very good. I'm happy.

Build & Design:

While the Dv4000 isn't as sexy looking as an ASUS Z70va or a Sony FS 790, it's no dog either. It's 1.32" thick and has a nice black grill across the entire front. The HP logo is small and in lower case italics...pretty cool. The machine seems well built; it has a solid feel and good tolerances on the joints and such. There is some flex on the bottom of the machine on the right front of the box where the optical drive resides. The unit weighs about 6.6 lbs. with a 6 cell battery. The closure mechanism/latch is nearly silent, it's nice to close it and not hear a click. It looks rugged too; it has two metal loops spaced about 3.5 inches apart. The HP version (the Compaq version is the V4000T) has a silver outer case and is black when opened for use. The Compaq has the opposite color scheme. The case is hard plastic (hey, what do you expect at this price?) rather than metal or carbon fiber. I've read some folks are dissatisfied with this as they feel it scratches easily...can't prove it by me as yet.

HP dv4000 above view (view larger image)

There is a bit of flex in the LCD lid, particularly at the top and if finger pressure is firmly applied to the back, distortion can be seen on the screen.

HP dv4000 under side (view larger image)

The HDD and RAM slots are very accessible and swapping these out will not be a problem. There are very good posting on theses processes at: this location.

Screen:

The display is excellent (I mean it's not a Fujitsu or Sony, but its multi-hundreds of dollars cheaper and has much more GPU power than either a N3500 or Vaio FS790). I ordered the glossy screen and really like it; however, this is something one would need to decide for oneself based on how the machine is to be used; I use mine inside and out of the direct light of the sun most of the time. If using often in strong sunlight one would be much better off with the matte screen. I play games, edit/look at digital pictures, and watch DVDs on mine; for these purposes the widescreen glossy display is perfect. The only display resolution available is WXGA Widescreen (1280x800), a concern when I bought the machine; I thought I might want WSXGA. As it turns out I'm happy I got the lower resolution, it's still sharp and detailed with vivid colors. I think I might have a problem with the smaller images on a WSXGA or WUXGA display. There is plenty of available real estate on the 15.4 widescreen; two windows can be opened and worked with side-by-side with no problem. There were no dead pixels detected by pixel buddy, the brightness is consistent from top to bottom and side to side. There are no light leaks around the edges of the screen.

For me, the biggest selling point of the machine is the X700 GPU...a very solid component. I can play Doom3 at medium settings, Call of Duty, Halo and Unreal Tourney II at highest settings with no problem or slowdowns. This is with only 512MB of RAM, with 1 or 2 Gigs I expect the gaming performance would really be impressive.

Speakers and audio:

I have hearing deficits so I paid extra attention to this when I fondled different models at Best Buy, Staples and Circuit City. Many notebooks just don't work for me because of weak speakers...but not this one; the Altec Lansing speakers are really good. Sure, they're a tinny, there is no on-board sub-woofer, but that's to be expected with a notebook. The audio output is impressive in volume and when cranked I can hear them from across the room without severe clipping. But the Sound Max audio support is only OK. Sound Max doesn't support its own graphic equalizer so the only option I could find for Bass/Treble controls was to implement the graphic equalizer in Media Player. I find myself using headphones with the unit and I'll certainly get a pair of small self powered speakers when we hit the road and use the machine as an entertainment center.

Processor and Performance:

The Pentium M is really a very impressive processor... this was my first P-M based machine and the performance surprised me; I'd read that P-Ms perform like P4s rated at twice the MHz, a claim I once didn't accept but now believe is close to right on. I bought the 740 processor (I think many people suffer from testosterone poisoning when they select a processor...I mean, how fast can you roller-skate?) and it's quick in this machine. This processor doesn't even heat up most of the time, even when 6 or 8 applications are open (except 3D games of course) and the wifi is on.

I became dissatisfied with the amount of time it took to boot up and shut down the machine. HP does put its share of bloatware on machines. I didn't want to go through a complete clean install however, so I ran msconfig and cleaned up the start up and services registries. I also use CCleaner and RegScrub XP regularly. These are great utilities I'd recommend to anyone, well...almost anyone as one does need to pay some attention when using these tools. I also de-frag, run disc clean up and do frequent anti-virus and spyware scans. The difference in performance is astounding.

The unit runs pretty cool, doing word processing, email and such (with the wifi on) the fans can hardly be heard. Right now the processor temp is 44c and the HDD 36c. Converting a saved CD to burn a copy jumps the CPU temp up to 69c to 75c and results in a CPU load of between 91 and 95 percent. After 25 minutes of playing Unreal Tourney II ( with the AC adopter plugged in) then getting out of the game and running PC wizard the processor and HDD temps had changed only a degree each. This, I think, is a testimony to the efficiency of the cooling fan and how fast the P-M scales down when the high processing demand is removed. Of course when gaming the temps DO increase a lot, especially Doom3, and it's not comfortable to hold the machine in one's lap with shorts on; care must be taken to keep the fan vent open... I ignored this once and the machine shut itself due to thermal overload.

I Love the 5400 RPM HDD. Of course a 7200 would be nice, but they do cost a few bucks and cause more heat. I've read a study (link to study)which makes the case that 7200s don't draw more power than 5400s but I have trouble accepting that; physics would seem to require that it takes requires work to spin an object at a higher speed and as such it should require more power to do the additional work. Anyway, the 5400 is adequate for my needs and fetches information quickly enough.

I bought 512Mb or RAM in one stick because I was lazy. I'd recommend saving some dough by purchasing 256MB and then get a gig from Newegg, Tiger Direct or someplace else.

Benchmarks:

Below are some benchmarks run on the dv4000. The machine calculated Pi to 2 million digits in 1m44s. Buying the Pentium M 770 will cut 20s off that speed ,but will cost almost $300 more.

Notebook	Time
HP Pavilion dv4000(1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 44s
Dell Inspiron 9300 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Pentium M)	1m 57s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

Here are some results from PCMark04, 3DMark05 and HDTune:

[/TD]

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores
	ThinkPadT43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics)	HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	3.33 MB/s	3.203 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	27.19 MB/s	25.573MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	23.4 MB/s	22.521MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing	10.88 MPixels/s	10.127MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	1914.17 MB/s	1675.262MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check	2.82 KB/s	2.690KB/s
File Decryption	54.11 MB/s	50.725 MB/s
Audio Conversion	2496.87 KB/s	2555.25 KB/s
Web Page Rendering	5.27 Pages/s	4.941Pages/s
DivX Video Compression	51.71 FPS	47.116FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D	159.19 FPS	169.398FPS
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines	868.44 FPS	1739.148FPS
Futuremark 3DMark05 Scores
3DMark Score	727 3DMarks	2,4393D Marks
CPU Score	3414 CPUMarks	-
Gaming Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon	3.3 FPS	-
GT2 - Firefly Forest	2.2 FPS	-
GT3 - Canyon Flight	3.4 FPS	-
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1	1.18 FPS	-
CPU Test 2	2.9 FPS	-

HD Tune Results
Temperature	38 C
Transfer rate min	17.3MB/S
Transfer rate max	38.0 MB/S
Transfer rate mvg	29.5 MB/s

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Keyboard and touchpad (view larger image)

The keyboard is solid, stiff and the keys have a nice feel. The delete, esc, ctrl keys and arrow key set are on the corners of the keyboard and easily findable in the dark (The keyboard is not lit). Likewise the home/pg up/pg dn/end key set is in a nice location placed vertically on right side of the keyboard. There are a full sized "enter", "backspace", "caps lock", "tab" and (both) "shift" keys...all of which I appreciate given my stubby fingers. They did a good job on keyboard of this machine.

The touch pad works great. I've heard some negatives about it on the forums but I've had no problems. It has a scroll bar on the right side that is pretty slick. The default settings are just right for me in terms of sensitivity. Clicking with the left and right buttons works well and the buttons are huge.

There is a key set (with soft blue lights) above the keyboard. These control the DVD, WiFi and, to set off to the left the On/Off function of the computer. The Dv4000 allows using these keys to operate the DVD without booting up windows.

Input and Output Ports:

There are 4 USB ports, two on each side of the case as well as a PC card slot, Express Card slot, 6 in 1 reader, IEEE 1394 video port, network jack, telephone jack, and AC power adapter jack on the left side. On the right side, the optical drive, earphone jack, mike jack, VGA monitor port, S-video jack and security lock fitting. There is nothing but a fan vent on the back of the machine. I like having all the ports and jacks on the sides... I also like that HP has provided icons on the edges of the keyboard over each of the jacks and ports so you can find them while using the keyboard. There is no parallel port for printers.

Left side (view larger image)

Right side (view larger image)

HP dv4000 above view (view larger image)

On the left front, in the speaker grill, are the on, charging, and HDD indicator lights.

Wireless:

The PRO/Wireless 2200BG wifi works great, nary a drop on my home wireless router or out and about. How great was it to find all those wireless networks in most urban areas; its like that old cartoon about what goes on behind closed doors, where you see a picture of an ordinary walled-in yard and behind the walls dinosaurs chatting while having cocktails and a Bar-B-Q... Who knew? I can get on line almost anywhere free (except Starbucks and Barnes and Noble who charge a fee for the service....bad marketing move I'm thinkin'). I didn't buy the Bluetooth option, but it's only a few bucks more if one needs that. I figured if I need it later I'll buy a Bluetooth mouse (I know the Targus model has a receiver that will support 5 or more devices in addition to the mouse). There is an infrared port and the little remote I bought works fine.

The power adapter:

Is small, gets warm and works. It has nice long cords, so it will span some distance from outlet to the machine. What more can one say about power adapters... Oh, yes, I did read about one user whose adapter went bad and HP couldn't find one to replace it.

Operating System and Software:

I bought Windows Home Edition and it works fine for most folks, unless one is on a big network or is VERY concerned about security or VERY serious about gaming. I think the extra $79 for Pro could better be used for MORE RAM. The machine came with MS Works, which I don't use as I have my own copy of Office Pro. It also has the usual array of HD video/camera software, Itunes, and all the bloat ware that everyone hates so much. HP has supplied an OS disc and recovery discs. The Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition is...well, I guess weak would be the kindest term. I think the software that comes with most any good digital camera would serve better.

Battery:

I get not great, but not terrible battery life from a 6 cell... just around 2.5 hours with the wifi on and doing office type tasks. I got a second 6 cell free with my machine (an offer that HP took off about a week after the new Dv4000 was made available). The battery does not protrude from the bottom of the notebook; the 12 cell protrudes about inch from the bottom of the case. Some believe it makes a good grip when carrying the machine with one hand but I think the notebook is thick enough as is without the extra.

Customer Support:

As stated previously, the quality of customer support has been a welcome surprise. HP gets rapped hard in forums and didn't score well in the last PC Magazine Reader Survey so I was expecting problems here...knock on wood, but it's been a pleasure. I want to iron out all the problems I can early because I opted for the basic 1 year of warranty and support...I bought the machine with a gold MasterCard, so the 1 year of warranty gets doubled; for $15.00 a year I added a rider for replacement value to my homeowners that covers the notebook for damage, including loss, with a $250 deductible.

Complaints:

I wish I got better battery life, but that's not realistic considering the 15.4 display and the GPU in this machine. I wish there was no flex at all in the area of the optical drive and the lid could be a bit stiffer. I'd love a metal alloy or carbon fiber case. Understand that none of these are real problems, but I'm reaching to find something to complain about.

Praises:

Overall I'm very happy with this unit. The display is crisp and clear with good color, it is very fast, and the keyboard has a nice feel. The GPU is, if not a beast, a real strong component that plays everything I've thrown at it. I think it is an absolute steal for the money, far and away the best value I found.

Conclusion:

It's not as sexy looking as an ASUS, Fujitsu or Sony but it's a solid machine. Only time will tell about the build quality but this machine cost half what a Ferrari cost, almost a third what a Qosmio G25 cost and the performance isn't that far off either of these. I'd recommend it to anyone on a budget who wants a pretty powerful 32 bit machine.

Pricing and Availability: HP dv4000

Other HP dv4000 Reviews from NBR:

• HP dv4000 1.86GHz, X700 Notebook Review by slappy
• HP dv4170us Review by HumanTorch
• HP dv4000 integrated graphics Review by BobJones

 

darn popular notebook this dv4000 and another great review! HP has sold so many of these notebooks purely based on the fact they put an X700 in the mix, a great move by them.

That's great that the support has been so good for you, kudos to HP!

 

Hey, Togus, great review! I knew you were in the fold, but now I'm not the only one with the x700 in his review. Just a note on the benchmarks: My computer has the 1.86 GHz P-M, and I got 1 min 39 sec. Don't you have the 1.73? {More of a note to Andrew than you, Togus! I know you didn't make the chart.}

 

I've heard several people complain about the DV4000's silver exterior scrathing easily and that the V4000's black exterior doesn't scratch as easily.

I've had mine for about 3.5 months and I've tossed it and pulled it out of my notebook case and I haven't babied my notebook but it has no scrathes or blemishes period which I am very surprised and pleased by. I wouldn't worry about your case scratching that easily.


Man, I'm so jealous of you guys owning the newer DV4000. I bought mine with the %(#@ Intel integrated GMA 900 graphics just a month before they announced they'd give it the option of the X700, if only I had known about that and waited.
Well, thats notebook technology for ya, always advanced far too fast for us.

 

rats, i screwed that up...togus has a 1.73GHz, fixing it now...

 

Great Review Togus! I love seeing the 4000 and its beautiful screen. Its very stylish to and good luck with it in the future!

 

Great review togus! Really looks like HP is stepping it up these days... same good price, but getting more bang for the buck.

 

Beautifully done Togus! Congrats on a job well done.

Nice machine - it's very balanced, and overall, that's a difficult to beat deal.

Hmm...2.5 hours on a 6-cell isn't bad at all! I have an 8-cell and I get the same. Then again, my laptop consumes a heck of a lot more power.

Once again, well done.

 

Yeah, your Sager consumes more battery resource, but it's a pretty smokin' machine. Thanks for the kind words; you got the main point of my review...the Dv4000 is all about the value/performance relationship.

 

Great review on the HP machine. I've always been a fan of HP and I think they are the most underated manufacturers in mainstream notebooks.

 

I've bought nothing but Toshiba laptops in the past. This is my first HP laptop and I'm very happy with it thus far.

r,
eagle07

 

i know this is a dumb question but im new here so please forgive me.. what is a flex??? u said theres a flex near d optical drive? what do u mean by that? im sorry just dont know what that is... im planning to buy dv4000 at the end of this week.. (excited)

 

Flex is when the plastic or material bends when pressure is applied, etc. Better built notebooks do not give in easily or at all when you apply pressure (as in, shut the lid and push down on that).

 

Congrats on a good review. I've had my dv4000 for week now. My first notebook and my first non-Apple PC, and I'm very pleased with it. Mine is similar to yours except I went w/ the 750 processor, 1 Gig of RAM, DVDR/RW & XP Pro.

Glad to hear about HP Technical Support, but also glad I haven't needed to contact them thus far. I was really impressed w/ HP order processing and delivery. I ordered on 11/29 and was given a probable ship date of 12/7. I opted for the free, standard shipping. Got an email on 12/5 that the unit had shipped that day. Early on 12/7, the FedEx man was at the door. I was very happy and quite impressed.

 

It's amazing how badly HP gets trashed in some circles, totally at odds with my experience. Of course, every time I read a savage rant about any product I wonder how the writer conducted him/herself when interacting with the support person...catch more flys with honey that vineger as they say.

 

Just installed a gig of crutial RAM in the machine I reviewed here... what a difference that made! My new machine is like a newer machine...

 

Hi,

Im planning to buy a customized:

HP Pavilion dv4000 customizable Notebook PC
EC681AV

* – Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
* – Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 735A (1.70 GHz)
* – FREE Upgrade to 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!
* – 128MB ATI MOBILITY(TM) RADEON(R) X700
* – 512MB DDR2 SDRAM (1x512MB)
* – 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
* – DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
* – Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG & Bluetooth(TM)
* – 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
* – Microsoft(R) Works/Money
* – Earbud Headphones with In-Line Volume Control
* – hpshopping in-box envelope

If ever this would be my first laptop. I am really used on upgrading hardware stuffs on a PC (Desktop). And i dont have any idea's yet on a laptop.

A few options did prompt me when i tried to customized the DV4000. Things like:

1. Processor,
- I chose, Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 735A (1.70 GHz)
2. Memory
- I chose, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM (1x512MB)
3. Hard Drive
- I chose, 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive

If ever in the future, would it be possible to upgrade to a much higher specs for this 3 hardware on a DV4000?

On the memory, i decided to choose only 1x512mb. But it would be less -$25 if chose the 2x256mb. If ever i choose the 2x256mb, can i remove this afterwards? and change it to a 1.0G?

Hard drive, this i think can be upgraded.

Hope someone could help me out.

Thanks.

 

1. Yes the cpu can be upgaded. HP has manuals on their website explaning the process. It is not easy but if you take time to read the instructions and do it carefully. It can be done. The Pentium M line run upto 2.13GHz, so that is probably the max you can upgrade to.

2. The RAM is also quite easy to upgrade. Both the slots are easily accessible. So you can change to 1GB by removing the 2X256(if you take that route).

3. Again Yes. The HDD is also upgradable.If you are not going to upgrade immediately then I suggest getting the 5400rpm HDD as it will give you a nice performance boost over the 4200rpm and you can them later jump to a 7200rpm HDD.

 

miner,

thank you very much for that info. Are all laptop brands upgradeable? How about DELL? IBM?

I have another question regarding this model and to hp. Im getting only a Windows XP home, will a cd of Windows XP Home Installer be also included when i purchased a Pavilion DV4000?

 

Does anyone know how to open the hp pavilion dv 4000 to replace the keyboard?

 

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=r...6rFiqobChF0jiwb_A&sig2=YB3aEFZuVpLpzuj5dNL_SQ

Page 120 on the .pdf

It just looks like an issue of removing a few screws on the bottom and popping off the top bezel, then carefully sliding and unplugging the keyboard.