HP Pavilion dv5z Review

I'd go dv5t with Montevina and the 9600GT, if you have the money. Roughly the same battery life, if not better, and significantly more power. If not, the dv5z configured like the review unit for right around $900 is a very solid choice as well.

I'm actually considering a dv5t with the 9600GT as well. Seems like an excellent all around notebook.

 

Hmm...the review unit(pre-production sample perhaps) might have shipped with DDR2 667 memory but the production models should come standard with DDR2 800 SODIMM's. Just take a look at the HP parts site, the replacement dv5z modules are all listed as DDR2 800. Plus, my tx2500 based on the Puma platform shipped with DDR2 800 memory.

 

Chaz doubles post

On the side note, well, the battery life won't be too bad if it comes with a 9 cell or 12 cell. 6 cell generally doesn't give much battery life anyway.

 

Well, shucks. Battery life really makes or breaks sometimes...

 

What is your Windows Experience Index score?

 

HP has a optional 3.25 hour battery for $29. Seems like a good upgrade.
What battery do most entry level laptops come with?

 

that would be cool i guess...have you ran any games on your tx2500? wish i had monies to shell out for the higher end ultra turions like yours, but i'm a po0r koledge stoodent

 

The 2 hour 22 minute battery life is a little dissapointing. It doesn't make a lot of sense as a matter of fact. I used to have an Acer Extensa 5420 (Turion X2 TL-60 CPU and 2400XT GPU if I remember correctly) and its battery lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes with an average 6-cell. A bad design on HP's front I assume?

 

I would like to see if the 'better' screen or something else is taxing the battery. dv5z does come with a 1280x800 screen so it should not be hard to find out.

 

hey i got a question,

I was reading the articles on the Puma platform and the dv5z series laptops, one point mentioned was the crossfire and the two variations with it.

I had a query that, does laptop come with one or both of the variation installed when we choose the dedicated graphics? I mean when we go to customize on the hp website, and choose the dedicated graphics, is the HD3200 still there?

thanks
MadEng

 

Does anyone have benchmarks for the 3450 WITH the IGP? I would like to see how that compare to a more powerful graphics card. Also, what is the dv5t with the 9600gt. Is it just a new laptop comming out? I searched and it was just previews of it. Thanks

 

Thanks for a great review (and a great website). Finally something is happening in the 14-15 inch laptop series where it does not have to be Nvidia high power consumption graphics cards that are used.
I have a question though, you write that the fan i very quiet, so noise is not a problem. But how about the fan movements, does it run all the time, even in idle mode, some of the time in idle mode or not at all in idle mode?? I have returned several laptops because the fan ran CONSTANTLY, and it drove me nuts! even if it was quiet, when in a quiet room it is still annoying, and when it runs in idle all the time, then you don't have to stress the computer much before it goes to second step fan speed, and then it becomes audible.
Therefore the fan issues are VERY interesting to me!

 

The fan runs at the lowest possible setting all the time and speeds up or slows down "as needed." That said, I have VERY sensitive hearing and when the fan is on the lowest setting I have to put my ear close to the notebook to hear it even in a perfectly quiet room.

The other thing to keep in mind is that most notebooks have a fan control that is adjustable in the BIOS. In the case of the dv5z, you press F10 to get into the BIOS during startup and then go to the "System Configuration" tab. Under System Configuration there is and option for "Fan Always On" which is usually set to "Enabled" by default on HP notebooks. Switch this setting to "Disabled" and your fan will only turn on when the internal components reach dangerous temps.

DISCLAIMER: Doing this makes your notebook quieter, but it raises the average temperature of your notebook and internal components ... which may lead to long term problems if you tend to stress your notebook all the time by constantly playing 3D video games or encoding HD video. Change the fan setting at your own peril.

You have to choose whether you want a quieter notebook or a cooler notebook.

The other thing to keep in mind is that if the fan only runs when it's "needed" then when it does run it runs at the highest (loudest) setting. So by switching the "Fan Always On" setting to "Disabled" you go from a notebook with a quiet fan that always runs and "sometimes" gets loud ... to a notebook that is perfectly quiet when the system is idle or barely working but then the fan gets very loud when the system is slightly stressed.

 

That's the six million dollar question. AMD/ATI have heavily publicized the features of hybrid crossfire, but it's up to the notebook manufacturers to choose which hardware they put in their notebooks. It might be that HP is only offering integrated HD 3200 and and dedicated HD 3450.

We won't know for sure until we get our hands on a system with the HD 3450 card inside.

 

That stated, i don't see the picture how come they could say that they really improved the chassis structure so it could be effective in heat ventilation then to come up with temps which were sLIGhtly hotter than the previous pavilions. niways great review.

 

These are external temperature readings. When most notebook makers talk about improving chassis designs to improve thermals/ventilation they are talking about making the internal components cooler by pushing more heat outside the notebook ... which makes the external temperature readings hotter.

It's a trade off. Unless you want to make a VERY expensive notebook chassis you have to make a choice:

1) Make the external temperatures cool by keeping the heat inside and cooking the components.

2) Make the internal temperatures cool but making the outside of the notebook hotter (and less comfortable to use as a "laptop").


Oh, and to answer a pervious poster's question about the WEI scores:

Processor: 4.8
Memory: 5.9
Graphics: 4.1
Gaming Graphics: 3.8
Primary Hard Disk: 5.3

Overall: 3.8 (based on the lowest score)

I usually don't mention the WEI score in my reviews because it doesn't "really" tell you anything about the performance of the computer in question ... beyond a weird score with a maximum of 5.9 in each category.

The reality is that most consumers can't tell the difference between a system with a WEI score of 3.5 and a system with a score of 5.3 in terms of real-word performance ... unless they're playing graphically intense video games.

 

Thank you very much for your reply. The reason I am so concerned is that I had a 2699 special edition HP a couple of months ago, where the fan was always on, and after a couple of days or a week, the fan sometimes started moving to step 2 when only writing in word, or browsing with IE. That notebook came with the Nvidia 8400, and when I checked temps, this was clearly the hottest component and the obvious reason. Therefore I am looking more towards IGP's, as I only play games such as Football manager and Civilization, so graphic card should not be that important.

How are the temps of the HD3200 compared to the Nvidia cards? Will I even get an advantage by buying a computer with the HD3200? or should I maybe go for an Intel sollution?

 

Funny you should mention that ... NVIDIA just issued a big press release about how the RAM in many of their dedicated graphics cards for notebooks is defective and failing due to high temperature issues.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4483

The issue you had might have been NVIDIA related and not related to the fan in your notebook.

Again, I didn't have any heat/fan noise issues with the dv5z we had for review. I think the HD 3200 configuration we have is a great laptop for most consumers ... if you don't need Firewire and don't need 5+ hours of battery life.

 

Yeah! got lucky with the $500 off coupon, so I could max out on the specs. Not a bad deal for a tablet pc given that I only paid $918 for it. In any case, I don't really play any games these days. but if you want me to run a specific demo/benchmark, let me know.

 

Another question jerry, how much bloatware did your review sample come with?

 

Surprisingly, not very much. The only really "horrible" bloatware was Norton, which was easily removed (although you have to sit through the lengthy Norton uninstall process).

HP has some proprietary applications that can either be considered helpful or bloatware, and those are easily removed if you don't want them. However, the HP stuff didn't devour system resources the way that Norton does.

 

Nice, coming from a Compaq V5000, I found most HP stuff to be annoying over helpful, but Norton will go first thing. Thanks!

No its ok, was just hoping/praying, that i might be able to squeak in Call of Duty 4, at low settings. Have you tested 3dmark03 by any chance?

 

hmmm... just wondering about hybrid crossfire...

 

I am very much annoyed that I cannot get the recover windows install DVD!!

I don't want any stupid partition taking up space that I will never use!!!

Give me the damn DVD and leave me alone!!

 

My system scored 3386 for 3DMark03 and 1516 for 3DMark06 not too bad for an IGP.

 

Did I mention the AMAZING integrated graphics performance?

LOL.

 

3386 for 03 doesnt sounds right....are you sure that wasnt your 05 score, because this dv5z review says it gets a ~3000 in 05
"HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200) 2,969 3DMarks"

shouldnt the 03 score be more in the 5000+ range?? maybe i am mistaken....

 

Does AMD manufacture northbridge chips without the HD3200 IGP? Because i thought the Turion Ultra processors are only compatible with the Puma chipsets...

 

Pretty sure its 3Dmark03. See attachment, re-ran the benchmark and got similar results.

The GPU is optional. Puma platform only consists of the cpu and the chipset(M780G).

 

lol that 3dmark03 score was done with 4xaa enabled. That is why it was so low.

 

how much more does the "High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery" weigh than the standard? ($29 for one hour more of battery life i guess.)

i set this one up at my store, did it feel heavier than the dv6000 series models? i found it to be, although they say it's 5.8lbs. idk, the dv6000's were locked up when this idea popped into my head.

 

Jerry, is there an option in the BIOS to enable/disable onboard graphics? MightyJD recently got a dv5z equipped with the Radeon HD3450, and he claims he was unsucessful in doing anything to enable Hybrid Crossfire because the BIOS had very limited options ( can only change boot sequence).

Can you verify if the BIOS is as crappy as MightyJD claims? Perhaps we could find a way to help him enable the Hybrid Crossfire that should be entitled to him (or at least most of us wish for Hybrid Crossfire).

 

i noticed they added a "high capacity" li ion battery that is rated for 3+ hrs. good?

is the 1680 screen that much better than the 1280?

what's brightview infinity?

 

Can one request the install DVD or not when purchasing the unit??

 

I would say yes for the most part. Hell you can get more in the screen as far as realestate, but some may complain about legability, I think is is great.

I wish they even had a wuxga screen which is 1920 x 1200, but that is just me of course.

1280 is good but just too low for a 15.4 inch in my humble opinion of course.

it all really depends what your are doing, one is not better than the other.

also for the high capacity, definitely go with it if you can spend the extra cash.

if you watch movies and or put spreedsheets side by side then it's great but if you want big size then 1280 will be fine.

 

thats what i wanted to ask too lolz

 

Indeed, the BIOS on most HP machines is very limited (probably because HP was dealing with a fair number of customer problems that occurred when people messed with the BIOS). You can't do much with the HP BIOS.

As for Hybrid Crossfire, it's a technology that is "available" from AMD/ATI ... but it's up to the laptop manufacturer to implement it or not. HP has no official mention of Hybrid Crossfire in their technical materials so it's completely possible that HP decided not to use Hybrid Crossfire technology for combining IGP and dedicated card power. That's unfortunate.

 

No it wasnt. no idea why its showing up as enabled but 3DM03 doesnt seem to work nicely with x64, it crashed several times before I turned off Aero completely to run.

 

well i guess having a 3300 in 03 a 2900 in 05 and a 1500 in 06, is way better than my previous compaq v5000 with radeon xpress 200m, it got ~1000 in 03, 400 in 05 and i never ran 06 on it, since 05 killed it enough
any chance you could run 3dmark01 to complete the suite? haha thanks!

 

9008 for 3dm01se.

 

Could you, Jerry, still give it a try, test dv5z running in the "performance" mode and see how long can the battery last then? 140 minutes is really awkward. I'm really thinking that there's something wrong with the battery profiles rather than with the lappy.
Also thanks, miner, for the 3dm01 score. HD3200 is just a little below my old G4Ti, so it's should be more than enough powerful for my needs. I can't wait for an 6535/6735 review! Does anyone at NBR know when there could be an review of these?

 

Default Re: HP Pavilion dv5z Review
Jerry, is there an option in the BIOS to enable/disable onboard graphics? MightyJD recently got a dv5z equipped with the Radeon HD3450, and he claims he was unsucessful in doing anything to enable Hybrid Crossfire because the BIOS had very limited options ( can only change boot sequence).

Can you verify if the BIOS is as crappy as MightyJD claims? Perhaps we could find a way to help him enable the Hybrid Crossfire that should be entitled to him (or at least most of us wish for Hybrid Crossfire).


I just called an HP rep. and she told me that they do not advertise this "hybrid crossfire" therefore they will not tell you how to do it or support it. She also told me it is built into the motherboard so the technology is there for it but its not something HP is associated with yet. But good news was if you do upgrade to the dedicated graphics, the 3200 still comes with the laptop, it being on the motherboard. ATI's site says the as long as you have the two components (Puma platform with 3200 IGP and the 3450 dedicated) that they should work as the Hybrid technology.

 

You'll probably need proper drivers as well. If HP doesn't officially support it, it'll likely be turned off in the drivers.

 

Do you think the drivers would be available from AMD/ATI ?????

 

No. ATI/AMD doesn't support mobile gpus or chipsets. You need to get hacked drivers.

 

i'm at a best buy store. i've been watching for the DV5 series for some time now. and when i saw we were unloading them off a truck i ran to the back and grabbed one and immediately put it on display!!
the models we have are:
dv5-1002
dv5-1004

i looked at the specs on one real quick, and noticed there was no difference besides one was 64 bit with 4gb of ram, and the other was 32bit and 3gb ram.

my review: i've been debating between the dv5 series, dell xps 1530, and apple's macbook pro. although i'd be purchasing the intel version, i saw that this laptop was very attractive. the no frame idea is very cool and works well with the webcam, making the screen flat. the keys felt and looked good, not too different from the old dv6000's. the media buttons at the top are cool when they disappear. the speakers aren't that bad, but there's no improvements from the older models.

my coworkers knew nothing about this, however i did. one argued that it looked like toshiba's satellite's with the glossy case. another argued it was a apple with the lit up logo. and i think it's a dell since it is lighter (more on that in a second.) however every1 agreed that the e-sata and usb combination was a very very good idea on HP's part.

one last thing: the glossy. the entire case is one big trap for fingerprints. now this idk, is there a way to reduce this with a cover? or over time does the oil from your hand reduce the fingerprints? fingerprints appeared on the outside case, by the keyboard (but not the keys.) by the media buttons, and even the touchpad was a deathtrap for fingerprints. any1 have any ideas?

also, the physical dimensions of it. it didnt feel like the 5.8 lbs they claimed. felt more like the 6.29 lbs of the older models. also these laptops are thicker than the old dv6000 series. our stuff is all locked down, and i didn't think about it until i locked it in that i wanted to see the physical dimensions. so if anyone has noticed that too, it'd be somethan i'm interested in. the only reason i like the dv5's is because they weigh about the same as the dell xps 1530's. so yea, in conclusion.... i have something cool to look at while i'm dealing with boring customers wanting to buy the $400 compaq.

 

Thanks! my old radeon xpress 200m got ~3100 so i cant wait to actually be able to play last and older gen games at med-high settings on my laptop!

oh one more question miner, you are ever so helpful, what was your build time like thru HP? was it close to what they quoted when you ordered it? thanks again, you're a great help!

 

Mine was delayed by a couple of days(est. June 25 actual June 27) due to the rush of the $500 coupon. But generally(if there are no delays) your laptop should arrive on the day it is estimated to ship.

 

Thanks! mine is supposed to ship the 17, so a week from today...cant wait!! I'm going to have to go over to my buddies house who has a 1080p 56" DLP TV and upconvert DVD's thru my lappy

 

Were you able to or could you find out for sure if this laptop is capable of the Hybrid Crossfire? that is if any of your models have the dedicated 3450 in them. THANKS