HP Pavilion dv5z Review

by Jerry Jackson

The newest 15-inch notebook from HP arrives just in time to make a big impact for back-to-school shoppers in 2008. The HP Pavilion dv5 features the latest AMD dual-core processors, cutting edge graphics that slaughter the competition, and a price that's so competitive you'll have a hard time coming up with reasons not to buy this notebook. Take a look at our full review and find out what makes this notebook so impressive.

Our HP Pavilion dv5 (dv5z) has the following specifications:

• Processor: 2.1GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra dual-core processor ZM-80
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3200
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium with SP 1 (64-bit)
• Screen: 15.4" WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050)
• Memory: 2GB (up to 4GB configurable)
• Storage: 160GB SATA HDD (5400rpm)
• Optical Drive: SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Wireless and Communications: 802.11b/g WLAN
• Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion (10.8V, 47Wh)
• Dimensions: 14.05" (W) x 10.2" (D) x 1.37" (min H)/1.65" (max H)
• Weight: 5.84lbs
• Warranty: 1-year

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The pricing on the dv5z starts at around $699.99 ($599.99 with $100 instant rebate), and our configuration has a few upgrades that brought the final price to $849.99 at the time of this writing. Needless to say, this is a fabulous price point for back-to-school shoppers.

Build and Design

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The dv5z has a new and improved design, replacing the long-lasting and much-loved dv6000 series chassis design. The display cover has the durable plastic Imprint finish, which holds up quite well to minor abrasion without scratching. The body of the notebook is smooth with rounded edges, making it extremely comfortable in your hand while carrying it around. The screen also sports a latchless design, making it easy to open the notebook with one hand. Although the lid lacks any latch to keep it held shut, the hinges feel fairly strong, keeping the lid secure. Pressing firmly onto the back of the screen cover will produce some ripples on the screen ... but you must apply significant pressure to cause this.

The plastic chassis is quite rigid and suffers from no flex or creaks even when twisted between my hands. Although I don't recommend tossing your notebook down a staircase, the dv5z should survive years of daily travel in a backpack or the occasional drop off a desk.

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Our dv5z features the "Mesh" Imprint Finish which looks the name implies: a fine gray mesh pattern over a black surface. The Imprint Finish on the dv5z is much more subtle than the previous designs we've seen on HP notebooks. I suspect most average consumers will find the mesh pattern more acceptable in workplace environments than the older generation patterns. While the dv5z still looks like an attractive consumer notebook, the Imprint Finish isn't quite as "splashy" or "busy" as it used to be.

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The bottom of the dv5z is quite simple with some nice heat vents located in strategic positions to help keep the laptop cool. The access panels on the bottom of the notebook make it easy to upgrade RAM, replace the hard disk drive, or replace the motherboard battery if needed. This arrangement makes it simple for the novice user to make upgrades, but more serious users will have to remove the entire base of the chassis in order to access the rest of the motherboard.

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Screen

The 15.4-inchdiagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050) is quite simply one of the best 15-inch screens I've seen on any notebook. Detail is amazing, colors are rich with deep contrast, backlighting is even across the entire surface, and viewing angles are good. There is some color inversion when you view the screen from below ... but how often do you tilt your screen back and view it that way?

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Input and Output Ports

The dv5z has an impressive number of ports with some nice additions you won't find on most consumer notebooks. Here's a run down of the ports:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 eSATA port/USB port
• ExpressCard/54 slot
• HDMI 1.3 connector
• 5-in-1 multi-card reader
• Microphone in, two headphone/audio out ports
• 1 Expansion Port 3 Docking Station Connector
• 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
• 1 VGA out
• Kensington lock slot

While three USB ports might not sound like enough for a 15-inch notebook, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, this budget notebook comes with an eSATA/USB port which allows you to connect either a USB device or an eSATA device. Although USB is still a great connection method for accessories USB cannot provide fast data transfer rates for huge amounts of data. We need a faster way to transfer files as more and more consumers start storing their family videos, digital photos, and personal media collections on 2TB and larger external hard drives. This is where eSATA comes in. Without getting too technical, an eSATA port can transfer data to and from an eSATA-equipped external storage drive six times faster than USB.

The second important feature to consider on the dv5z is that HP still includes a dedicated docking station connector on their laptops for those of us who use our laptops as desktop replacements. This is far more important than most people realize. Most other notebook manufacturers have removed dedicated docking ports and now only offer USB docking stations. USB is great for connecting one or two devices at the same time, but if you are trying to transfer data, video, audio, and perhaps even your Ethernet connection over a single USB port you will suffer a major reduction in speed. The dedicated Expansion Port 3 on the dv5z can handle all of your docking station needs all at the same time with virtually no reduced performance.

HP deserves serious praise for adding the eSATA port and keeping the dedicated docking port when most of the competition doesn't offer these features on consumer notebooks.

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While we're on the subject of ports, it's worth mentioning that the HDMI port also supports audio as well as video via a standard HDMI cable. Many laptops with HDMI ports only support video, but the dv5z supports both video and audio. To test this I connected the dv5z to my 1080p HDTV. As soon as I connected the HDMI cable the computer recognized the connection and asked if I wanted to extend my desktop or duplicate my desktop (I chose duplicate) and then I inserted a DVD into the notebook's drive.

The dv5z upscaled the DVD movie to a full 1080p resolution and upscaled the movie to 1680 x 1050 resolution for the built-in display. The video playback was flawless with no skipped frames and the audio synched perfectly with the action on the screen (or screens). This is quite impressive and is something you just don't expect to see on a budget notebook.

Performance and Benchmarks

HP offers the new Pavilion dv5z with a range of AMD processors, including the older generation 1.9GHz Athlon X2 QL-60 dual-core processor. However, the big news this year is the availability of AMD's new "Puma" platform with improved processors and graphics. The newAMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 2.1GHz dual-core processor is an obvious evolution of AMD processor technology, but the real news is the integrated graphics.

It isn't very often that we get excited about an integrated graphics processor (IGP). Every IGP on the market is painfully inferior to a dedicated graphics card and every IGP on the market struggles to handle high definition video and 3D video games. Not so with the ATI Radeon HD 3200. For the first time ever consumers have a low-cost IGP that offers flawless 1080p video playback and can even play many 3D video games at reasonable frame rates!

Let's take a look at a few basic benchmarks so you can get an idea of how the dv5z stacks up.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, this processor benchmark program is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, it measures the amount of time to run a set amount of calculations.

wPrime comparison results (lower scores means better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz)	39.745s
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	43.569s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
HP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	40.759s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240s
Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	42.385s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
Alienware M5750 (Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz)	38.327s
HP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	38.720s

You can see from the results in WPrime the new Turion X2 Ultra processor from AMD's new "Puma" platform provides a respectable amount of raw processing power but isn't significantly faster than the previous generation processors when it comes to basic calculations.

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	3,994 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	4,149 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

The PCMark05 score suggests the dv5z provides solid overall performance.

3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	1,599 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	545 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv6500z (2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60, NVIDIA 8400m GS)	1,551 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	504 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	4,332 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	2,905 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

All of the 3DMark06 scores for all of the systems listed above were run at 1280 x 768 resolution. Bottom line: AMD is speaking truthfully when they claim that the new ATI Radeon HD 3200 IGP provides roughly three times the performance of the Intel X3100 IGP and rivals the performance of low-cost dedicated graphics cards.

Just for laughs, we also ran the 3DMark06 benchmark at the full screen resolution on our dv5z (1680 x 1050) and the system returned a score of 1,131 3DMarks. Even when running a higher resolution display the integrated graphics on the dv5z provides more than double the performance of Intel's current integrated graphics!

In short, AMD and ATI just murdered the low-end dedicated graphics card market. There's absolutely no reason to buy a laptop with a low-end dedicated graphics card like the NVIDIA 8400m GS because the new ATI integrated graphics solution performs just as well (if not better) at a fraction of the cost.

For those of you who might be interested in the older 3DMark05 graphics benchmark, I've included those numbers below (all tested at 1024 x 768 resolution):

3DMark05 comparison results (higher scores are better):

Notebook	3DMark05 Results
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	2,969 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	3,116 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52, ATI x1270)	871 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

As if this weren't enough to get you excited about the new ATI graphics, AMD has also been promoting the new Hybrid Crossfire capabilities. In short, Hybrid Crossfire allows you to combine the performance of an integrated graphics processor with a dedicated graphics card (such as the ATI Raedon HD 3450) in order to provide improved graphics performance. Basically, the integrated graphics and dedicated graphics work together to produce a better visual experience. It's unclear whether the HP Pavilion dv5z with the dedicated ATI Radeon HD 3450 option will make use of Hybrid Crossfire, but it's an innovative idea.

HDTune storage drive performance results:

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Keyboard, Touchpad and Media Controls

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The keyboard on the Pavilion dv5z has zero flex and excellent key travel with quiet presses. I can't say with absolute certainty, but I suspect the keyboard is the same part used on the dv6700t (or at least the dv6780se we previously reviewed).

The keys have a durable coating which makes the keyboard look and feel better when typing. The slight glossy texture of the keys won't develop the typical "shine" that begins to show up on keys after extended use.

The dv5z also features attractive touch-sensitive media buttons that seemingly vanish behind the "liquid metal" surface when the computer is turned off, but light up when the notebook is turned on.

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The palm rest area features the same "Mesh" Imprint Finish used on the lid. The touchpad is nice and large and features a durable and responsive surface that is also covered in the HP Imprint Finish. The marked vertical scroll section is likewise accurate and responsive. The touchpad buttons have deep feedback and produce quiet, cushioned clicks.

One of the nice features found on HP touchpads is the touchpad on/off button. If you press the small button above the touchpad you can disable it ... perfect for people using an external mouse. Although the touchpad is quite nice I would have liked to see the same style of touchpad that HP started using on the tx1000z, tx2000z, tx2500z and HDX notebooks ... perhaps on next year's notebooks?

The reason I mention the touchpads on the other HP notebooks is because I have mixed opinions about the glossy touchpad on the dv5z. The touchpad surface feels nice and smooth, but if you have even slightly moist fingertips your finger with stick to the touchpad and you won't be able to drag the cursor in smooth, straight movements. As long as you have extremely dry skin (or use an external mouse) this won't be a problem.

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Another added bonus is the inclusion of a media remote. This little remote tucks away in the ExpressCard slot and is great for moving through slide presentations or for controlling the notebook when it's connected to your HDTV.

Speakers

The speaker quality was "above average" for a notebook without a built-in subwoofer. The speakers for the dv5z are located at the top of the keyboard area beneath the media buttons.

There's not much to write home about the Altec Lansing speakers. They get loud enough with minimal distortion and the sound isn't as "tinny" as is the case with nearly all laptop speakers. However, the speakers don't produce the kind of output that "fills a room" the way you might want if you're listening to your music collection on the built-in speakers. On the brighter side, both audio out ports delivered crystal clear audio to my earphones during the test period.

Heat and Noise

The Pavilion dv5z does a reasonable job keeping heat under control. The system fan and heatsinks in the notebook do a great job managing heat when the system is under load ... as we discovered when we ran multiple benchmarks back to back. Below are images with temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit:

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Noise was likewise a non-issue with the fan on the dv5z. The fan moved a significant amount of hot air but the noise was reasonably quieter than what we hear on most budget notebooks. When the fan is on low it is perfectly silent. When the fan is on high (such as when the system is stressed while playing 3D video games) you can hear it running in a quiet room but it's still not as loud as many budget notebooks we've reviewed. Of course, the manufacturer of the cooling fan in your notebook might be different and the dv5z will produce more heat if you configure it with a dedicated graphics card, so your mileage (or decibels) may vary.

Battery Life

We knew it was too much to expect a budget notebook to be perfect, but we were a little disappointed by the battery life from the dv5z. The 6-cell 47WHr Li-Ion battery provides sub-par battery life for the dv5z. With Vista's power management running in "balanced" mode, screen brightness set to 50 percent and wireless on, the 6-cell battery delivered 2 hours and 22 minutes of battery life. By comparison, most budget notebooks can deliver more than two and a half hours of battery life on "high performance" mode with the screen set to maximum brightness.

There is also an available high-capacity 6-cell Li-Ion battery for those users needing extended battery life. It's odd that there is no 9-cell or 12-cell battery option at the time of this writing, but that may change in the future.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in our First Look, there are a lot of reasons to be excited about this notebook. First, we're just glad to see HP release a new notebook chassis design since they were using the same old dv6000 series design for several years. More importantly, we're in complete awe over the performance of the integrated graphics on this machine.

Sure, you can get better gaming performance if you spend more money for a notebook with a good dedicated graphics card, but you would have to purchase a mid-range or high performance dedicated card to surpass the performance of the integrated graphics in the dv5z. For the first time consumers shopping for a budget notebook don't have to sacrifice performance in order to have a low-cost laptop.

In the end, the HP Pavilion dv5z left me more than a little frustrated. The simple reality is that this budget notebook packs the best integrated graphics solution we've ever seen inside its sleek chassis. However, battery life was far too limiting. In fact, this notebook would have received an Editor's Choice Award if it could have managed at least 3 hours of battery life ... but 2 hours and 22 minutes is just unacceptable.

Also, it's hard to understand why HP doesn't allow consumer to purchase this notebook with a Blu-ray drive unless the system is configured with a dedicated graphics card. The new ATI Radeon HD 3200 IGP is perfectly capable of running a Blu-ray drive, so it makes no sense for HP to require consumers to purchase a dedicated graphics card.

If you can live with the poor battery life and lack of Firewire it's hard not to recommend this notebook to anyone and everyone needing a laptop for less than $900.

Pros:

• Amazing integrated graphics performance!
• Great design and build quality
• Amazing integrated graphics performance!
• Fabulous screen
• Amazing integrated graphics performance!
• Great keyboard and media buttons
• Amazing integrated graphics performance!
• Includes HDMI and eSATA ports
• Did I mention the AMAZING integrated graphics performance?

Cons:

• Poor battery life
• No Firewire port
• No built-in TV tuner option at time of this writing
• No Blu-ray option with integrated graphics even though the HD 3200 IGP can handle it
• Touchpad surface is either great or "sticky" depending on how dry your fingers are

 

Thanks for this interesting review.

I'm not surprised about the battery run time. It has the graphics performance of a low end dedicated GPU and that must mean more transistors and more power leakage.

However, in my experience there's a lot of budget 15.4" notebooks which would struggle to get to 2 hours 22 minutes on battery. You might also find that quarter brightness would be usable on that display and give another 15 minutes of battery time.

John

 

Holy crap audio through HDMI! Hopefully more dedicated graphics options follow this same pattern. That is one thing that has really confused me with many HDMI equipped notebooks.

 

EXACTLY. When I connected the dv5z to my HDTV I fully expected the audio to continue to come out of the built-in speakers on the laptop. Much to my surprise the audio started coming out of the surround sound speakers in my home theater room.

It was like listening to angles sing "Alleluia" ... only it was the audio for the "Firefly" TV series on DVD.

I'm really, REALLY impressed to see such great video and audio over HDMI ... on a BUDGET notebook with integrated graphics.

 

Is it possible to run some game benchmarks? Maybe Comparing to the desktop version?

Otherwise, Nice Review.

Oh, about the the batterylife: apperantly, it's supposed to draw less power than previous generation IGP's. So this might be HP going the same way Asus has and become lazy in their ACPI/BIOS coding.

 

What's that chip in the picture of the opened-up bottom of the notebook? Is that the CPU? Did they finally make it easy to upgrade CPUs? Or is that the northbridge? I'm going to guess that it's the NB since it doesn't appear to be socketed, perhaps with a nearby slot for a dedicated GPU upgrade card? The service manual isn't posted yet.

 

Well, the only game I have handy at the moment is Star Wars: KOTOR. I'm installing that now and I'll have some benchmarks for you shortly.

As for the battery life and the lazy ACPI/BIOS from HP ... I suspect you may be right. That's why I didn't directly blame AMD/ATI for the poor battery life in the review. Based on the technical white papers for the new Puma platform and ATI Radeon HD 3200 IGP, it doesn't make much sense that the laptop should be getting less than 3 hours of battery life ... unless HP's power management is to blame.

Still, since we don't have any other Puma-based systems in the office right now except those from HP, I can't assign blame for the battery life on either HP or AMD at this point. All I can say is the battery life wasn't as good as we expected.

 

That looks small enough to possibly be a southbridge or something. No heatsink and no real cooling around there might be pushing it for the NB.

 

Southbridge. Here's a close-up view:

 

The review was a good read. Its very informative and written well, Jerry.

This looks like a fantastic little budget notebook. And it has a bunch of features, and HDMI with audio. Its good to see that HP are including audio with their HDMI ports. Now, everyone else should do the same.

 

Hi all,

Thanks for the review! I am pretty interested in the dv5z. I have to say that my primary concern about it is the 3450 graphics card. I second the call for some benchmarks.

Mount and Blade, Counter-Strike Source... How would these types of games play on the 3450?

Also, how does the Hybrid Crossfire play into things. At "Legit Reviews" ( http://www.legitreviews.com/article/612/1/), they say if you "enable hybrid crossfire you get a 60% increase in 3dmark06. Any thoughts on this?

 

Great review! I honestly think it's not even worth getting the 3450 for an extra $100 unless you also want the blu-ray drive.

 

aww I like how it is even clearly labeled

 

Some quick Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game benchmarks:

Settings: 1024 x768 resolution, shadows on, grass on, high texture quality, no anti-aliasing, anisotrpy off, frame buffer effects on.

High FPS: 68 FPS
Average FPS: 55FPS
Low FPS: 39FPS

In short, KOTOR was a VERY playable game on this machine ... better than it was back when I was playing KOTOR when it first came out on a desktop with a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, 128MB dedicated graphics card.

 

Want to hop on Steam and install Portal or HL2

 

LOL.. it murdered the low department of the dedicated gpu. I would too say that it murdered the integrated gpu from intel and set an even high bar for them.. Good job AMD .. Intel IGP sux!..

 

Wait a minute... I thought the whole point of HDMI is that it produces video/audi all in one port unlike the DVI? Are you saying some notebooks with HDMI don't give out audio?? Please clarify. Thanks.

 

Correct, many HDMI outputs found on notebooks (and desktops) only pass video and not audio. Not exactly sure the reasoning behind it though.

 

Hey, when do you think we will see Monitors for computers with HDMI hook up or do they already exist? I have not checked lately.

Also, when do you think we will see Nvidia and ATI video cards for desktops and the like with HDMI ports instead of DVI ports?? completely do away with DVI...

 

Quite a few monitors do have HDMI, but they tend to be higher end models. Most have both a VGA and DVI. HDMI is not really all that much better than DVI, with the only big advantage being audio and video in one cable.

 

Well the one thing that I really like about HDMI aside from audio and video in one port is the fact that it is so much smaller of a port than the huge size of DVI, but I don't how much that matters to others.

 

not bad... but I think I would prefer better cpu performance, so will wait for intel option...

 

Half-Life 2:

Settings:1280x800, detail settings maxed, Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering off.

Average FPS: 46FPS during gameplay, spiking into the 60+ FPS range and dropping into the 28FPS range at times during play. Still EXTREMELY playable ... and remarkably similar to the performance of the NVIDIA Geforce 8400M GS card as seen in this review:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4223

 

So it's along the lines it's suppose to be. Sweet. AMD just made it hard to recomend any dedicated card weaker than 8600/9500/HD2600/HD3650.

 

I guess it depends on the specific processor you're talking about. The Turion X2 Ultra processor in this review unit produced a wPrime score of 39.745s.

An Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 came in slower at 43.569s and the cheap Core 2 Duo T5250 comes in at a horrible 58.233s.

Sure, this AMD processor isn't the fastest on the market, but it's being sold somewhere in between the price of a T5250 and a T7250.

In other words, you get more bang for your buck.

 

Ok this is making my decision hard...

I'm deciding between the dv5t and dv5z. For the dv5z, I would likely get the upgraded 3450 so i can do crossfire with the 3200. For the dv5t, I'm thinking that the 9600m GT upgrade will be too expensive for me, so I would have to settle for the 9200M GS. Which do I go for then? The dv5z with weaker CPU/battery life but probably better GPU performance in the 3450 crossfired, or the dv5t with better CPU/battery life but weaker GPU performance in the 9200M GS. Also I'm curious as to the actual difference in performance between the 3450 crossfired and the 9200M GS?

Then again this will all be moot if I can afford the 9600M GT... any ideas on pricing? Looking to keep it under or very near $1000 CDN so I'm thinking I can't quite fit a 9600M GT into that budget

 

I think he ment he would like to wait for a T9300, T9500 or even the new montevina ones when the come out soon.
Those processors probably blow AMD out of the water, I would imagine.

 

I'm still not sure on real world performance of the turion vs the T7250. wPrime Benifits from memory performance. So HT>FSB when it comes to wPrime. 2 C2D with the same clock frequency, but one has a higher FSB gets better times in wPrime.

Real world performance has shown that C2D are quite a bit faster than turions clock for clock (check pulps review where the 1.5GHz C2D matches the 1.9 GHz turion or anandtechs where the 2GHz C2D slaughters the 2.3GHz turion). This was the old ones though. HT3.0 SHOULD have eradicated some of that difference, though not enough to match a C2D clock for clock.

 

The only reason I would choose integrated graphics over dedicated is battery life so there's no point to the HD 3200 for me.

 

batteries suck man. I can't wait till that new supposed technology comes out. Then we will never every complain about notebook battery life, never worry about getting more powerful video cards, and processors. the new technology developed by standford university uses silicon rods instead of graphite and supposed one may get a 48 hr battery notebook. Now that's kick ass. I just don't know when the hell this will ever come out or if it will.

 

The batttery life sucks to hear.. if this is normal for Pumas then i guess I'll be getting a montevina anyways, I was really considering a puma for the cost effectiveness if I could get a hybrid SLI notebook

 

What's the watt hour rating on the battery?

 

Just in time to compete with the Dell Studio.
Nice review.

 

By the looks of it, the extended battery options will yet again come in the form of batteries, which bulge out on the bottom, which in turn I find to be a rather impractical solution.

 

yeah I personally always hated the batteries bulging underneath like that, makes it looks so ugly. But they have no choice because of the design of the hinging with the chassis and lid.

 

I'm impressed by the performance of HD3250. I wonder if CrossFire is possible by upgrading the graphic option to HD3450.
Thank you for the nice review.

 

You mentioned the lack of a Firewire port. I can see where it's supposed to be (left side in front of the USB port), but they just used a cheap plastic plug in its place. Ditto to the RJ-11 jack on the right side.

Still, it's a pretty nice notebook overall, and while I like the design, it's just a bit too 'flashy' for my tastes. Too bad the touchpad is still glossy though; I couldn't stand the touchpads on the previous Pavilions and Presarios!

 

Nice review Jerry.

I want to buy notebook for GF & this will be a great choice for her

 

Yes, the Intel versions of the HP notebooks (in this case, the dv5t) includes both a Firewire port and an optional built-in TV tuner (the small circular plug on the right side of the notebook between the USB and the "non" RJ-11 jack.

I really don't know why HP isn't offering Firewire and the built-in TV tuner on the dv5z (at least at the time of this writing).

 

Wait until Larrabee.

That said, this was impressive from an IGP.

 

donno... I think Dell Studio looks blah... and if I had to pick between two I would go with HP

 

Wow.... I guess AMD/ATI are back in the game... especially for the next gen of notebooks.

IGP FTW. LOL.

 

And now for the biggest problem with soldering on a dedicated graphics card to serve as an IGP: you're left with a 2:22 battery life. Thats worse than even my MSI GX600, which has the T7300/8600M GT combo. More than twice the GPU power, a bit more CPU power, and better battery life. Wow. So again, its a case of price saving AMD. That can only work for so long......

Kudos to them for offering such a powerful graphics card in the budget market though, it will pay off handsomely if it works.

 

Thanks for this great review, just got the conformation for my stock config dv5z @ $635.99 after taxes with free shipping. Looking forward to some Counter Strike Source on my lappy finally, after using a Compaq v5000 sempy 3300+ with radeon xpress 200m crap for 2 years. Could bearly run it all low 640x480 ~30fps

but with the hd3200 i might even be able to throw on cod4 @ med-low settings! thanks AMD/ATI!!! haha

 

One quick question, is the ram DDR2 800 or 667? because i read somewhere that "puma" can run 800...Thanks!

 

The RAM in our review unit is 667, but you are correct that the Puma platform should technically be able to make use of 800MHz DIMMs.

 

So the shared memory Radeon HD 3200 in your review unit is being hobbled by DDR2 667 RAM? Wow, wonder what it can do with the good stuff?

 

Excellent review, Jerry, this is definitely one of the stand-out notebooks I have seen thus far this year. I'd actually consider buying it. This notebook seems to have everything I'd go for - great screen, great input devices, relatively light weight (compared to my notebook, at least), and 2+ hours battery. Everything else is a bonus, like the ATI video card.

 

I'd go for the dv5z if you are looking for 3D performance at a great price. The HD 3450 isn't week nor strong, but it is certainly stronger than the 9300M, and will come at a lower price than the 9600M-GT for sure.

CPU power isn't much of a problem these days - you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between a Turion X2 and a Core 2 Duo in most everyday apps, and even some more demanding ones. AMD processors are not as fast as Intels, but they are more than capable of getting the job done without slowdowns.

I have an old Pentium M 1.86GHz processor in my laptop, and a 3.6GHz overclocked Core 2 Quad Q6600 in my desktop. Most of the time I don't notice a difference, unless I do something that requires a lot of power like zipping up lots of files.

 

that stinks, i might have to sell the stock 2x1gb that my dv5z comes with when i get it, and go for 2x2GB ddr800 from newegg