HP Pavilion dv6-1260se Review

Since I could not find much information on this notebook before I bought it, I thought it would be nice of me to write a review for future potential buyers.

Preface

After one month of shopping around for a new laptop that had decent gaming capabilities but still retained some portability I eventually ordered a Studio 1555 from the Dell Outlet for $844 USD. The notebook had the following specifications,

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4570 512MB GDDR3
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium with SP 1 (64-bit)
• Screen: 15.6 inch High Definition+ (900p) Bright LED Display with TrueLife and Camera
• Memory: 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
• Storage: 320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
• Optical Drive: 8X Slot Load Super Multi (DL DVD+/-R Drive + RAM support)
• Wireless and Communications: Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• Battery: 9 Cell Primary Battery 85WHr Li-Ion
• Dimensions: 14.6" (W) x 10.0" (D) x 1.0" (min H)/1.5" (max H)
• Standard Warranty
• Price as configured: $844.20

Even when I first started using the notebook I noticed that the area around the touchpad and the bottom of the notebook got uncomfortably hot. After two weeks I was tired of burning my fingers and legs so I returned the Studio 1555. I was then without a laptop for about one week as Dell processed my return and refunded my account. During that week I searched again for a new laptop and came across 3 that really caught my eye; a Studio XPS 16 being sold on the NBR forums, the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6969 from Newegg, and, of course, the one I ended up buying the HP dv6-1260se from Amazon. Throughout this review I will be comparing my current HP dv6-1260se heavily to the Studio 1555, which I used for 2 weeks, and the A505, which I played around with for about 6 hours in BB over a one week period. So, without further ado, lets get into the actual review.

Intro

The dv6-1260se, also know as the dv6z Artist Edition 2, is a notebook designed for young artists. It comes preloaded with image, video, and music editing software; which will be explored more later; and is covered with a "Sea and Sky" design submitted by an artist from Okinawa. The design was one of over 20,000 submitted for the contest. Personally, I neither like nor dislike the design as performance is much more important to me than looks and the dv6-1260se delivers great performance for the price. My configuration, as follows, cost $756 USD on Amazon.com including mail in rebate and overnight Saturday shipping.

• Processor: AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-85 (2.3GHz, 2MB cahe)
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB GDDR3
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium with SP 1 (64-bit)
• Screen: 15.6" Diagonal High-Definition HP LED BrightView Display with Webcam and integrated microphone
• Memory: 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
• Storage: 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
• Optical Drive: LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Wireless and Communications: Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
• Battery: 12-Cell, , 95-Wh Lithium-Ion battery
• Dimensions: 14.9" (L) x 10.15" (D) x 1.33" (min H)/1.61"
• Standard Warranty
• Price as configured: $749.99 after mail-in rebate

Build and Design

The first thing that jumps out at you about the notebook is the design. The lid is colorful and bright and even the palmrest have designs on them. Once you stop staring at the design, either in anger or joy, you can actually get the feel of the notebook. While most newer notebooks, especially the Toshiba A505-S6969 and Dell Studio 1555, are following the glossy trend, the dv6-1260se does not. Even in bright daylight, fingerprints do not show on the lid or the palmrest but do show on the touchpad and around the volume and WLAN controls. At first I thought that I would not like the design but after looking at it closely I find it kind of attractive and I feel it gives the notebook something extra.

The build quality of this notebook is top-notch. The hinges are very sturdy and hold the laptop shut even when held upside-down. There is almost no flex throughout the entire notebook, including zero keyboard flex. The only area that exhibits some flexing is the area believe the optical drive, a common problem in most notebooks. Compared to the Studio 1555, the dv6-1260se is much more sturdy.

The bottom of the notebook has many vents that allow for air flow and the main fan vent is on the back left, as in most notebooks. The RAM, WLAN card, and hard drive are all easily accessed with the removal of a few screws.

Display

After coming from the Dell Studio 1555 with a 1600x900 display I thought I might be disappointed with the 1366x768 display but after a day I hardly even noticed a difference. Would I like to have a high screen resolution? Definitely. But the display on the dv6-1260se is fine for normal things. Photo editing can be rather challenging, though.

I have noticed a difference in brightness from the Studio 1555, but only at the lower brightness levels. From 50% onward, there is no noticeable difference for my eyes. The dv6-1260se offers decent viewing angles. I was able to watch a movie in a well lit room from a few feet back at about a 45 degree angle from the notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad

I have to say that the keyboard is one of my favorite things about this laptop. The keys are very responsive, and as already stated, there is no flex. After two weeks of using my previous Studio 1555, I still could not get used to the keyboard but on the dv6-1260se I was fine after half an hour. The number pad is also a nice feature, I usually use the arrow keys on it because the normal arrow keys are slightly undersized.

The touchpad, on the other hand, is one of the things I like the least about the laptop. It works fine, it is responsive and the feel of it is very nice after a little use but the thing is a fingerprint magnet and that is annoying to me. The buttons are of good quality, as well. I also like the little button right above the touchpad allowing one to disable it and use an external mouse, which is what I am usually doing.

Ports and Features

The dv6-1260se has a very good selection of ports, more than most people will ever need. On the right hand side sit the power jack, security lock slot, spaces for the TV tuner and moden, 2 USB ports, and the optical drive. The front of the notebook contains a microphone jack and 2 headphone jacks. The left side contains the most with the VGA port, docking station connector, Ethernet, HDMI, eSATA/USB combo port, USB port, FireWire, ExpressCard, and media card reader.

The webcam is of good quality, at least as good as the one on the Dell Studio 1555. One thing that I find very cool but that I haven't found much practical use for is the media remote that comes with the notebook. It has decent range (up to 10 feet) but doesn't work if blocked.

Installed software

At first glance it seems that the dv6-1260se has more bloatware than the average notebook but after sorting through the list of pre-installed programs I realized that most of them were useful and I only ended up uninstalling a couple of trial offers (Norton and Office) and a couple of programs. The most useful software for me so far have been the Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and the Stardock theme utility. Stardock has tons of cool desktop themes and if you cannot find something you like then you are far too hard to please. Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 is a very good image editing program that allows you to do a lot of things. The notebook also has many more pre-installed programs like Microsoft Works, Corel VideoStudio12, Lightscribe Direct Disc Labeling, MAGIX Music Maker among others.

Performance

I have no run any synthetic benchmarks, which usually are not to kind to AMD processors, but just by using the laptop I have gotten a good feel of the speed of the processor. I would say that the AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM ZM-85 is not as good as the Intel P8600 on the Studio 1555 but it is not worse when doing normal tasks like web-browsing and typing documents.

Finally got a chance to run some games the past week and all of them ran beautifully. The games I played were Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4, Left 4 Dead, and some older games like KOTOR 1 and 2. The newer games all ran smoothly at high settings with no AA on, I haven't tried with AA because I usually don't notice much of a difference. All of my older games ran at max settings and the highest resolution.

I ran 3DMark06 a few times. At stock clocks (550/667), I average around ~5900 but OC'd I can push it up to 7000 without any difference in heat.

The hard drive seems to be faster than the one that came with the Studio 1555. There is a noticeable difference in start-up time and when opening a saved document or starting a program.

If anyone wants me to run any specific tests, just ask.

Speakers

The performance of the Altec Lansing branded speakers is well above average with strong highs and midrange with adequate bass. Peak volume levels are very good and capable of filling a small room with sound. Still, headphones or external stereo speakers are ideal for audiophiles. The speakers are mounted above the keyboard and direct sound up and toward the user for a great listening experience.

Taken word-for-word from the NBR review of the Pavilion dv6z, which has the same speakers. Review can be found here

Battery

One of the main reasons I went with the dv6-1260se is because it came with a 12-cell battery and I have not been disappointed. When doing normal things, web-browsing multiple tabs with Word open, the screen at 60% brightness, and the power plan set to "HP Recommended" I get on average of 4 hours of battery life. With the screen set to 25% and the power plan on "Power Saver", I can squeeze out just about 5 hours. With wifi off, the screen at 25%, and on "Power Saver, I get just over 5.5 hours . In "High Performance" mode and 100% brightness the 12-cell battery gets around 2.25 to 2.5 hours. I think that 12-cell battery is worth the extra weight and the fact that it sticks out of the bottom.

Heat and Noise

Compared to my previous Studio 1555 with a supposedly cooler Intel P series processor and a weaker GPU, the dv6-1260se does a great job of staying cool. When measuring the heat of the components with HWMonitor I found that the idle temperatures of the processor are anywhere between 40-45 but they do go up to around 85-88 under load. GPU-Z actually gives me about the same idle temperatures for the 4650, ranging from 40-46, but it can jump up to the high 70's under load. Still, with this much power packed into a 15.6'' notebook I am surprised at how cool it stayed. Indeed, even when I stressed the notebook while on my lap in a relatively hot room, the only area that felt uncomfortable hot was the back left exhaust. When the notebook is on a desk, with the battery propping it up, I had no problem with heat.

Undervolting Results - Room temperature for the tests was around 23C All tests done on "HP Recommend" Profile, except when running Orthos which is on "High Performance" profile

Stock Voltages
Orthos Stress Test (both cores locked at 2.3GHz)
w/o cooler: 93C
w/ cooler: 84C

Cores locked at 1150MHz
w/o cooler: 61C
w/ cooler: 57C

Cores locked at 575MHz
w/o cooler: 53C
w/ cooler: 49C

Normal Use
w/o cooler: 60C
w/ cooler: 56C

P-State 0: 1.0500, P-State 1: .8625, P-State 2: .7500
Orthos Stress Test (both cores locked at 2.3GHz)
w/o cooler: 78C
w/ cooler: 74C

Cores locked at 1150MHz
w/o cooler: 55C
w/ cooler: 51C

Cores locked at 575MHz
w/o cooler: 48C
w/ cooler: 46C

Normal Use
w/o cooler: 54C
w/ cooler: Max 49C

Noise, on the other hand, was not so impressive. When on battery power with the notebook on your lap, you can hear the fans spinning in a quiet room. It is a very low, rumbling sound but it is still noticeable. When on a desk or on AC power, however, I noticed very little noise.

Conclusion

The strengths of the dv6-1260se far outweigh the weaknesses. If you are looking for a budget, multimedia notebook with gaming capabilities and you either like or can get over the over-the-top design, then it is great notebook.

Pros:
-Excellent price
-Above average build quality
-Selection of ports
-Media editing software for free
-Good performance
-Keyboard
-Battery life for a laptop with this type of power

Cons:
-Touchpad is a fingerprint magnet
-Low screen resolution may turn some people off
-Kind of loud

by Zach Harvey, 9-7-2009; edited on October 30th, 2009

 

Good review!

Mine is the DV6-1264CA and has pretty much the same features except:

Mine has the ZM-82 (2.2GHz)
16Inch 720P screen
6 Cell battery
It was $999.99 Canadian dollar, no mail-in rebate (got it when it first came out) at the local Future shop (Best Buy equivalent).
To put the price in perspective, I could have got a P8400/Intel 4500m combo for $300 more than what I've paid.

I'm happy with it, and I don't mind the "sea and sky", I picked it for the price/performance ratio and the HD4650 1GDDR3 GFX card.

 

Nice Review abaddon

 

Great review thanks for putting that up.

Have you attached an external monitor to it yet?

 

Here I connected mine to my 40" BRAVIA LCD (720P) via HDMI, worked right away (same resolution as the laptop's screen 1366 X 768), the sound was perfect too, all that using a cheap $10 HDMI cable. As my TV is connected to my stereo system, you get an instant media center right there.
The little remote (located in the expansion card port), although funny looking and cheap, work fine to control dvd playback.

 

Cool thanks. What are the windows experience index scores on this puppy?

 

WEI scores aren't worth a damn. You could fake them if you wanted to...

 

As uN1Qu3 said, they aren't really a good indication of how good a computer is but I got,

Processor: 5.0
Memory (RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming Graphics: 5.6
Primary Hard Disk: 5.6

right out of the box without any tweaking.

 

Very keen on this HP laptop however over here in the UK we seem to have the Turion X2 RM-75 2.2GHz processor in it rather than the AMD Turion X2 ZM-85 2.4GHz in yours.
Am I likely to notice any difference? Is the Turion Ultra X2 prcoessor better in terms of heat or battery life?

Aside from that the spec is identical.

 

My Zm-82 scores the same vista perf.
I don't know much about the difference between X@ RM-75 (2.2ghz) and Turion Ultra Zm-82 (2.2ghz).

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Turion-X2-Ultra-Notebook-Processor.10129.0.html

The Ultra has more cache and might be better in some cases, although the benchmarks put them both in the same ballpark.

You 'd have to find out which one runs cooler. (Ultra has 3 power planes, dunno if RM-75 has 2 or 3 power planes...)

Apparently the ZM series is more power efficient than RM, but they both havethe 35Watts TDP spec.

 

UPS just delivered mine this morning. Haven't opened or played with it yet. Quick question though: was there a spot to get an extended warranty? Also, do we get a free W7 upgrade with this puppy?

 

I'm pretty sure you can buy extended warranties through HP. I do know that we get the Windows 7 upgrade as I order mine Sunday.

 

This sounds like a great laptop. Been wanting to buy it for a few weeks now. Just wondering if anyone could post pictures of it showing the battery? I keep hearing that it is bigger than normal. I know that means better battery life, but also a difference in the look of it. That seems to be my only concern. I can't find any pictures online.

P.S. Heads up if your in school. Type in "education" in the search box of HP's website to save up to 10%. I'm able to save 8% off my order.

 

Yeah, but even with the HP student discount, ordering it from Amazon is still ~$160 cheaper (after tax from HP and the rebate that only works for Amazon).

Here some pics with the 12-cell. Sorry about the quality but my digital camera sucks...

 

Hi! Great review!
I want to buy one of these computers. So far, there isn't another one on the market with such good specs and such a friendly price.

To all who are thinking of buying this computer, the HP rebate only goes to Oct 11th if I'm not mistaken!

I have a few questions though.
One of the major things that's keeping me from buying this computer is HP Customer Service and reliability from their hardware.

I've read horror stories concerning HP Customer Service and unreliable hardware.
So far on Amazon's reviews of this product, no horror story. But it appears it is the only listing like this.


How would you rate its customer service or its computer reliability? If of course, you did need to use them.

Thanks for such a great review and I'm looking forward to buying this computer!

 

I have only had the computer for a short time but, like I said it my review, it seems very well put together. I have had no problems so far with the hardware, well other than one I caused while updating the video card driver but that wasn't HPs fault A couple of days ago, after reading that the AMD Turion X2 Ultra processors are made to operate at temperatures up to 100C I decided to stress the processor for a ridiculous amount of time, more than it would ever actually be stressed consecutively for 99% of people, 5 hours running a 2.3GHz. The processor got up to 96C after about an hour and then leveled out, hovering between 90-95. I had no problems during the test and have had no problems since.

 

Nice review! +rep

I just bought the laptop today. Haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet though and probably won't have time till the weekend. 96c processor though? That's kinda high... undervolting should help with the temperatures hopefully.

Can't wait to try it out. Just a question though, can you change vista to the regular theme instead of the "Artistic theme"?

 

Yes you can....too easy.
In the "windows appearance" section of the control panel.
Mine peaked to 92Degrees celsius once, but leveled to 86 degrees celsius while playing COD5 multiplayer for 3maps straight (more or less 60 minutes)on a 20 slots server that was full, having XFIRE turned on to show FPS (60 FPS average in this game at med-high settings) and also using GSC voice chat. Of course, it's with a ZM-82 CPU here...dunno if the ZM-85 with the really slight 100mhz faster clock makes a noticeable difference, I doubt it.
It's the worst-case scenario, but for me, gaming with my buddies is important when I 'm away from home. So a good laptop cooler is a must. I'm using the Targus one (useless POS).
Look up in the notebook cooler review on this forum to find a decent cooler.

Thing is, it was a great multiplayer experience for a laptop in that price range.
Of course, when gaming on a small 1366 X 768 screen like this, I kinda miss my desktop's 22", but hey! Again, it's a laptop

 

Normally, on the "Balanced" profile while playing a game for an hour or so, it will only go up to around 85C. The computer itself doesn't even feel hot except by the back left exhaust. Besides, like I said, these processors are safe up to 100C.

EDIT: I actually couldn't change the theme through the "Windows Appearance" section. I had to go the the "My Colors" program in the "Stardock" folder to do it.

 

Prices went up!
100 bucks overnight!

 

Ah man that sucks. Still, $840 with free shipping is a good deal.

 

Been playing some farcry2 for the last hour and my cpu stayed at about 90c.
HWmonitor doesn't show my gpu temps. Can someone recommended me a good gpu monitor for ati cards? (oh, and can some one tell me a good way to see the fps in games?)

only other complaint is that the left shift key is way to small. I always press "\" instead of it but I guess I'll get used to it.

 

To see FPS use Fraps.

 

For FPS,
I use XFIRE's in-game FPS & clock feature.
If you don't know, XFIRE is an in-game chat ,friends locator, takes in0game screenshots and all. I love the in-game "show clock".

For temperature, try :

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1379/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.3.4.html

For gaming, I use a cooling pad, and HP recommended power profile.
It drops my 3dmarks06 from 5900 to 5300, but it runs a little cooler.

 

For anyone that owns this laptop and feels like they need a cooler, I would recommend the Enermax Aeolus CP001. It is only $5 on Amazon, after MIR found here and it drops my temps by 11-13C under heavy load. Since I got the Aeolus for so cheap, I also bought the Cooler Master Notepal infinite for a comparison. It also does a decent job, keeping max temps down 7-9C, and it actually fits into by laptop bag. So I use the Aeolus at home and the Notepal while on the move

 

Can't help but wonder if a processor change to an Intel "P" series processor wouldn't do you guys a big temperature fix.
My mobo is a Quanta 3628 board,whats on these 1260's anyone know?

I'm coming up from the other way with DV6 1150ei with P7450 but with Radeon 7530 GPU...i'm waiting on mobo to change that to a Radeon 4650.
I don't recall seing my CPU temp above 80

EDIT: OK stupid idea - see in the manual its a AMD Chipset & all the heat sink part no's etc are all differant also so that would mean to change would be Mobo + Processor + Fan/heatsink = new laptop price

 

I'd much rather have an intel processor. About 10 minutes into Crysis on med-high i hit 99c on my first core and 100c on my second.

On hp recommended it got to 94c but i lagged alot.
I might have to pick up a cooler.
Besides undervolting and a cooler what else can i do to lower temps?
(should i prop up the back of the notebook or something?)

 

Loaded Crysis & 10min in using SIW... MAX = core0@71 and core1@74
Windows Performance settings on High...game settings on as high as i can get them with it to still run ok

 

bit later 75 & 77

 

Good solid review. Bumping so others can take advantage of this solid computer.

 

I would strongly suggest undervolting this laptop using this guide because it has yielded fantastic results for me. I set the voltage for P-State 0 to 1.0750, P-State 1 to .9000, and P-state 2 to .7750 and I have noticed a huge drop in temperatures. When gaming I get a max of 79C now and it won't go higher than 55C under normal use even in a very hot and humid room. The program is very easy to use and the guide gives great directions with lots of pictures.

EDIT: I decided to go even lower with the voltages. Right now P-State 0 is at 1.0500, P-State 1 is at .8875, and P-State 3 is at .7625. After a restart, I am now getting around 35C while idling and it does not go over 49C while web browsing. While gaming it no longer goes any higher than 76C

 

Thank you SO much.
rmclock wasn't working for me and I'll try this program right now.
If it works you're a life saver.

Just tried overclocking the gpu to 680/800. 3dmark06 score went from 5897 to 6668 and the gpu temp didn't even increase. Does anyone know if these scores are good for this laptop?

Edit: Whenever i use it my clock speed is set at 550mhz even when my cpu was maxed out it wouldn't clock up. =/

 

Abaddon, When u lowered voltages to 1.500 in p-state 0 ,how was it when playing games, was the system stable?!!!.
also what power plan did u use?
Thanks for sharing info.

 

I just bought the HP Pavilion dv6-1240ep, and it's exactly the same as this, minus the Audio programs and the 12-cell battery (mine is 6-cell).

Great laptop by the way And great review!

 

I ran Orthos for an hour with no problem and then played Mass Effect for 45 minutes with no problem. I was using "Max Performance".

To cloud, those are very good 3D mark06 scores. What program are you using to overclock it?

EDIT: More testing results,

Stock Voltages
Orthos Stress Test (both cores locked at 2.3GHz) 2 hours
w/o cooler: Max 96C
w/ cooler: 85C

Cores locked at 1150MHz through K10stat for 3 hours, web browsing, typing a document
w/o cooler: Max 61C
w/ cooler: Max 57C

Cores locked at 575MHz through K10stat for 3 hours, web browsing, typing a document
w/o cooler: Max 53C
w/ cooler: Max 49C

Normal Use (Cores fluctuate between settings based on processor load)
w/o cooler: Max 60C
w/ cooler: Max 56C

P-State 0: 1.0500, P-State 1: .8875, P-State 2: .7625
Orthos Stress Test (both cores locked at 2.3GHz) 3 hours
w/o cooler: Max 80C
w/ cooler: 78C

Cores locked at 1150MHz through K10stat for 3 hours, web browsing, typing a document
w/o cooler: Max 53C
w/ cooler: 50C

Cores locked at 575MHz through K10stat for 3 hours, web browsing, typing a document
w/o cooler: Max 48C
w/ cooler: Max 46C, Min 36C

Normal Use (Cores fluctuate between settings based on processor load)
w/o cooler: Max 51C
w/ cooler: Max 49C

 

To abaddon:
Thanks. I'm using TechPowerUp GPUtool to overclock it.

And can you tell me exactly what you did to undervolt the cpu's with k10stat, if you don't mind? Because my cpu stays underclocked at 550mhz or 1.1ghz even at 100% cpu load.
Thanks =X

 

Ok, I'm getting around 73º with the PC using only Opera, MSN, Windows Live Mail, and around 80º decompressing some stuff.

In gaming it goes to...88º-92º.

I don't know if these are bad temperatures lol, but would like it to run a bit cooler.

What are the downsides of undervolting? Because it has to have a downside lol, maybe in performance?

 

To lock the processors at 2.3GHz just go the "P-State" tab of K10stat and click on the boxes next to "P-State 0" that say 2300. But Orthos should automatically lock them into 2.3GHz when you run the stress test, unless you have the "Max Processor State" in Vista set to less than 100%, which it sometimes is.

And there are no downsides to undervolting, Chackan.

 

Undervolting has NO downsides. As long as you test for stability (i find IntelBurnTest to be the best tool for this, even for AMD processors, standard stress test is enough), there will be no problems.

When the CPUs come out of the factory they can't test every single one, so they pick one from the lot, test its minimum operating voltage, and set the whole lot to a bit above that, so that all processors operate properly in their stock configuration. Sometimes you have a chip that can operate with a much lower voltage level than the CPU that was picked for testing, so it allows you to undervolt, and gain lower temperatures and better battery life.

 

Ok, now another question lol

How do I re-install the sound indicator that appears on the screen when I scroll the sound...thing?

It just stopped appearing :|

Edit: Nevermind, just got it working lol

About the undervolting, I had some problems (using the same voltage abaddon used), and it gave lot's of BSOD for about...15/20m, then i was finally able to go back to windows, and change the voltage to the default values.

Now i'm honestly too scared to try it again xD

 

The BSOD happens some time in unvervolting. Just try a little higher of a voltage next time.

 

That's because you haven't stress tested for stability. Get IntelBurnTest and run the Standard test after every voltage drop.

 

Thank you so much. Clicking the boxes fixed it.

cpu maxes at 82 while running orthos now.

 

How the heck did you get to those values lol

If I get any lower than the values showed on the guide, I get a BSOD instantly!

Edit: Ok, P0 is stable at 1.0625, P1 at 0.9000 and P2 at 0.7750.

Doubt I can get it lower than this.

Edit 2: Ok, only stable values I could get: P0 at 1.0750, P1 at 0.9000 and P2 at 0.7750.

 

I guess I just got a well-built processor or something.

But when I set the GPU to 680/800 today, it was unstable and crashed while running 3DMark06. Gonna try 600/750 nest.

 

Amazon has it being "Item under review". Something is up concerning the specs or features promised and the ones delivered.

 

Not sure how it will work with the AMD but out of all the differant programs i've played with so far & not knowing fa about undervolting CPUgenie seems to do the business quite nicely...has a "Run Voltage optimiser wizard" feature which for me pulled all my voltages under 1.0.
I lifted them all up one and so far seems to be running ok and no BSOD's testing with Orthos.
Was a new version 1.3 released 3 sept.
http://www.clockmod.com/

 

Great Review!

I bought a similar version of this laptop in Canada - dv6-1264ca with a 6-cell battery and a ZM-82 instead of ZM-85. LOVE THE LAPTOP!

Anyways, my question is, where can I find the drivers for it? I have Vista Ultimate 64 Bit, and i want to install it instead of HP's bloated Home Premium. When i went to HP's drivers & support page both for dv6-1260 and dv6-1264, the only drivers available are Video Card, and Sound, no Network/Cardreader/WebCam, etc drivers... Everything else are the HP's assistants, etc.

Edit: I figured it out, the drivers are in C:/SwSetup folder.

Anyways, regarding the undervolting, I successfully undervolted my Zm-82 to 1v at the P0 state. Significant temperature drop. Probably about 10 degrees when playing a game, and around 13-ish when idle.

 

just bought it last month. did awesome job for me especially in gaming. good review too

 

Hi, did you still have your one of this laptop for sale (to abaddon) If so, could you messae me at [email protected]
thanks!

-Apollo