HP TX2530/40: ZM-80 or ZM-82?

Hello, I've been reading a lot about the HP TX25xx series tablets and decided to buy myself one. I don't want the new TX2 because of the N-trig compatibility issues and general problems some users have written about.

I have the opportunity to purchase either the TX2530 or the TX2540. The '30 uses a ZM-80 processor @ 2.0 GHz and the '40 a ZM-82 @ 2.1GHz. Both have the same price. Having heard of the heat issues with this laptop I'm willing to go with the tx2530, since ZM-80 is rated at 32W and the ZM-82/84 at 35W. Can you please share some information regarding the heat output of tx2530 (if you happen to have one) or do you think the performance will suffer if I take the lower clocked one? Judging by the fact that most TX owners underclock their processors just to cope with the heat problems I would say not... but I still await your opinions
Also - is the fan really that noisy? Can it be changed with another one?

Thanks!

 

Honestly, there wont be much in terms of performance differentiating between the two. The TDP is not too different either. I believe the max VID on the ZM-80 is 1.075 while on the ZM-82 and above processors its 1.1V. So that probably explains the need for the extra 3W TDP rating over the ZM-80. I would say take your pick between the two, you are not going to loose or gain much with either of the two cpu's.

As far as the fan noise is concerned it depends on the usage. With the tablet connected to a power source, the fan does cycle between low and medium speeds often especially if you are using the system not just keeping it idle and at maximum speed its quite noisy. However on battery it usually stays on low and its not too noisy, you can hear the fan but it stays pretty cool most of the time.

 

Thanks for the reply!

So you're basically saying that the 32W tablet will heat up pretty much like the 35W one no matter what? Absolutely no offense, but I'd still like to hear some replies from people who own this model, if they ran in the same problems with it. Also, can the keyboard or fan/heatsink assembly be replaced (are there any better ones)? Those two are the main things people are complaining about. It won't matter in the end, but it would be nice to know if they are.

Thanks again for the reply!
-c

 

No offense taken but the difference isnt huge. If it was 35W vs 45W then that makes a big difference but between 32W and 35W if anything it will be just a few degrees at most. In any case here's list of all the temperatures seen by various people with pretty much all of the cpu's sold with the tx2500 series...
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=19081

As far as replacing the fan heatsink, there arent any aftermarket ones available and unless you can custom make one we are stuck with what HP ships with the tablet. The same goes for the keyboard. Unfortunately this is the case with almost all notebooks.

 

BTW, ZM-80 is 2.1 Ghz with TDP of 32W, while ZM-82 is 2.2 ghz and has TDP of 35W

http://www.amd.com/it-it/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_12651_15667^15674,00.html

As miner said, there are no noticeable differences.

 

I have a TX2500Z with ZM-80(2.1ghz @ 32TDW)*. I have it undervolted (not underclocked) and it runs significantly cooler than when I first bought it. Been lovin' this little unit since. Use it everyday. I bought this configuration knowing that AMD's processors run hot. So every degree off the top mattered. Not that there's a huge diff between the 32w and 35w. The 35w will simply heat up quicker. You won't get a drastic performance difference, by choosing the ZM-82 over the ZM-80. The Turion Ultra CPU's are weakish to begin with and don't really increase performance as you climb up the mhz ladder like you would see with Intel's CPUs.

Anyway, at tablet review website that miner linked to, you can find the thread about undervolting. It's fairly easy to do thanks to some dedicated folk.

*ZM-82 = 2.2ghz @ 35 TDW

Here's a good write up comparing a TZ2500 with an RM-70 v ZM-86: pay particular attention to system overall scores in PCmark05 and 3Dmark06: http://mycapsules.com/th/review/hp-tx2500z/2

 

Thanks for all the links, they're new to me. One last question though: what happened with the firewire interface? I was reading a page yesterday from hp.com which listed all configurations for the tx25xx series (now it's gone and I can't find it even in my history... do you happen to have the link to that?) and it clearly stated something along the lines of 'video recording via firewire'.

 

There's no firewire port on the TX2500. HP must have bungled the info.