*HP dm3 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

You do know that the 4330 has switchable graphics, right?

 

if you just want portability go with the intel version for speed/battery life if you can spare the extra 100 then.

 

NOPE!
didn't get that memo!

 

Hey, for those who haven't bought their DM3's yet (and don't want to wait until Black Friday/Cyber Monday), there's a code: NBSW451897, that allows you to take off $200 if you configure the computer to $1299+. The $200 off is stackable with the instant $150 off or whatever the current deal is.

And no, I didn't buy mine yet, I'm waiting for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

 

Sorry for not going in depth, i pretty much tried out every game for like 5 minutes, didn't have time to try all settings on everything.

I have the su7300 , g105m and 3gb of memory.

Played fallout 3, native res got average of 40-50fps on low settings, on medium settings i get around 30-36 sometimes dipping into high 20's. This is all while outside also.

Battlefield 2142 medium everything, was getting 40+fps 1024x768

Prototype - medium 1280x768 - got around 15fps, low 800x600 get 17-20fps, game is pretty well playable still though.

Crysis demo - low settings native res - was getting like 28-31 fps average, few spots where lighting slowed down but ran good.

F.E.A.R demo - high settings (couple things turned down) got around 25-30fps

Call of Duty 4 demo - medium settings, native res - 20-30fps

Team fortress 2 - high settings native res - runs fine 40+ fps when not in action, but when in a big battle goes around 20. Its the same pretty much on any settings also.

Counterstrike source - high settings native res - didn't really drop below 30fps

3dmark 06 - 2805 marks

and as i already reviewed- quake 4 high settings runs perfect 40fps+, and batman arkham asylum low settings runs perfect around 30fps

 

Anybody have word on the battery life of the SU7300 with the G105 yet while websurfing on medium brightness?

 

For an AMD comparison on the DM3-1030US from Office Depot

L335/HD3200/4MB/320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive/ a/g/n wireless / Blue Tooth

Processor: 4.2
Memory (RAM): 5.8
Graphics: 3.5
Gaming graphics: 4.9
Primary Hard Disk: 5.8

From the reviews there is a lot of buzz that this HDD is not the most reliable thing. If it holds up, this thing is a bargain at $499. But, yours is obviously quicker

 

For comparison, the above-spec'd machine got these scores for WEI:

Processor: 4.2
Memory (RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 4.4
Gaming graphics: 5.9
Primary Hard Disk: 5.6

These scores are not from a clean install. The extra 1GB RAM I have explains the Memory; dunno about the rest.

 

It's not while playing games - if anything it is much more noticeable against a white background - like the background of a My Documents window. I'll have to stop by a local Best Buy/Costco/OD/etc to see if their display shows the same thing - maybe I just have a bum screen.

 

I just ordered the AMD DM3 from Office Depot last night. Does anyone have any idea how long it takes to get the Bing Cashback email? Thanks

Teddy

 

Anyone have battery life results for the SP9300/G105M?

 

Multitasking seems great. I've noticed no difference in speed yet from my old dv2500t w/ [email protected]. I'm gonna play around with it more today in class, but I'll make sure to get back to you with a bit more info.

 

Just to update, I got about 5 hours web surfing. Was also able to get some gaming in, played Team Fortress 2 and was very smooth at native res. What program do you guys use to get the fps.

I'll be going on a trip next week, hopefully i can watch Dark Knight on the flight. Anyone have any experience trying to watch a movie on battery.

Also, the bottom of the laptop is actually made of magnesium and not plastic as was reported on some reviews. The only part that was plastic was the battery cover. Not that it really matters in the end, but it impresses me even more. Loving this laptop more and more the more i use it.

Highly Recommend it.

 

I finally got my SP9300 + G105, 4G DDR3, 500G 5700rpm, N+Bluetooth + External DVD rom.

Overall I am very impressive with this new laptop. The machine is solid and very responsive. I don't feel anything bad about the touchpad like some of you have been mentioned......it acts pretty much the way as my old HP dv2000....may be I have just used to it.

The machine only got a little bit warm, just a little bit, after buring recovery discs and browsing for ~5 hours.

The fan is quite...and you can actually switch off "fan always on" in the BIOS.

So far the only cons is the tiny gaps (less than 0.5mm) at the periemters of the chrome ring and the lid....I just think HP could do a better job.

I had bad luck trying to partition the hard drive. After partition my hard drive into 60G + 410G, I ran the sytem recovery disc, however, the recovery program recognized the bigger partition as C: and installed Windows 7 in the partition that I intended to use as D:!

Does anyone has a better idea how to partition and install the window+drivers+software correctly?

 

Do you have any battery life estimates for the SP9300/G105?

I'm ready to pull the trigger, but would feel more comfortable knowing what the battery life is like with this combo.

 

If we can get some more temperature and battery readings from the SP9300/105m and SU7300/4500MHD... it would be really really great!

 

Any opinions on how the DM3 will match up against the Asus UL30VT?

 

Hey Pro, I went to OD last night to look a the DM3, looks very nice , the whole machine feels warm but not overly so. OD was too noisy last night so I couldn't really get to see the noise. How's your fan noise level in a quiet environment>

 

There's a fan?

Really, it is that quiet. I did not know it was there until I had been installing downloads of open office and finding all my favorite 64 bit tools and it finally came on. Even at full speed I had to hold near my ear to hear it.

It is the most quiet computer I've ever used. But then... I'm a pilot who plays guitar in a band. My hearing isn't all that great.

 

For anyone who is interested in battery life, cleaning off the "extras" that HP includes may provide better battery life.

From the factory my DM3 had 74 running processes.

After cleaning some of the unnecessary services/programs up, I now have 54 running processes. This is *with* keeping some drivers and utilities running for hardware.

 

25 to 50% more performance in gaming for 50% to 100% more money. If not gaming, it is a wash, IMHO.

Surprised no one is writing about over clocking the AMD platform yet.

 

I have the dm3z with AMD L625, 3200 graphics & 3GB RAM.
My WEI scores are similar to others posted with exception of Graphics which is 3.3. (Gaming graphics = 4.7).
Anyone got any ideas on why this is so low?
I updated lated ATU Catalyst stuff for Win 7 64 bit and war running on mains power).

 

So it seems that the AMD processor might handle TF2 better than the Intel. Considering this and the fact that my cashback was canceled, I'm definitely going to return my dm3t and get a dm3z.

To see the framerates in TF2, I entered net_graph 3 in the console. If you could do that the next time you play it would be very helpful. You could also use fraps.

 

In regards to my SU7300/4500MHD w/ 4GB DDR3 DM3T:

As a response to your earlier question, and a follow up to my previous response, I've taken a screenshot of the task manager with a battery analysis program running to give a bit of an example of how the battery life and performance will be.

As you can see in the screenshot, I have many applications running, and in WMP, I am playing music (mp3). Also, the brightness is at 50%.

Take the information as you want, but I am satisfied.

 

Thanks for the report! Would you mind Playing Call of Duty 4 or any of those games actually for 30-35 minutes and see how much battery life you have left?

 

Hey I was wondering if there was a post for 3dmark 06 on the SP9300/G 105M.

Also curious if ppl think the 7200 rpm hard drives are worth it. I have heard from some user reviews that they make the laptop a reasonable amount hotter.

 

Well I have a 500GB 7200rpm, and have looked at the numbers on HWMonitor, and I don't think it's that much hotter. But then again, I'm not constantly accessing info on the HD, which could contribute to that.

 

The HP stuff is just awful.

I have a copy of Win7 RC1, but its only 32bit. If I had the 64bit beta & a key. I would just format and install a fresh copy of Win7.

I'm actually kinda pissed this computer came with Win7. If it would have came with Vista. I could order the free upgrade disc, install Win7 upgrade and tell it to format the drive first = a fresh copy of Win7.

Why did HP put all this trash bloatware on their systems??

 

I might just buy this $99 OEM Win7 Home 64bit disc from Microcenter.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0318879

They have the Pro version for $139. Whats better about the Pro. From what I read the only additional thing worth the money to a regular user like myself is the remote desktop connection software.. which I havent used in years (aka Win2000)

 

This ought to help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions

See if anything you need is on Professional, and if not, go with Home Premium.

 

Thanks Retro..

You know what.. I only have 3 gigs of ram in my DM3, with no plans for more. Im just going to format and do a clean install of Win7 32bit RC1. It doesnt expire until July 2010. By that time I will have decided which 64bit copy I actually want to purchase.

Plus Im not sure all of the programs I currently use are 64bit compatible. I know my Office 2003 CD isnt. And I dont believe Mozilla Firefox is.

 

Buy the pro. It might not matter on this laptop but soon you'll have desktops with over 16 gigs of ram and that is a limitation they put on home premium.

So if you want to use that copy of windows in the future you might limit your system . Right now your kinda limited on desktops to 4 gig dimms giving you 4x4 = 16. But 6 gig dimms are coming out soon so you can easily get 6x4 bringing you to 24gigs

 

I really highly doubt in the near future anyone will be needing 16 gigs of ram. but its always good to future proof i suppose, by the time we use 24gigs of ram (i think you would be dumb to think we will be needing anything close to that in the next few years) we will be on another operating system though imo. in any case it would cost a fortune.

I had 1gb of ram on my gaming system like 4 years ago, now i'm at 3gb but there is a difference from tripling from 1 to 3, going from 6 to 18.


If your a student though you can get an upgrade copy for 25 dollars, and even if your not i'm sure you can use someone who is, and then even if your not you can probly tell them you are and they wont ask questions XD

 

I think your missing the point. The great thing about ram is how fast it is. Lots of people miss-understood vista. Vista got it right. Vista tried to figure out the programs oyu used the most and kept them in ram. With 16 gigs or 24 gigs of ram you can keep alot more in ram that way.

Also as ram becomes avalible and cheap programs will start ot use it.


Personaly I'd love to have a 12 core cpu (we will ahve them by 2011) with 32 gigs of ram and 4 512 meg ssd drives in a raid 0 config. That speed will be really nice.

Also remember the ram we are using today is mostly on 55nm or 45nm . 32nm ram will start shipping allowing them to double the ram on each dimm without increasing costs greatly to them. So we can really even see 8 gig dimms come out at reasonable prices.

One of the biggest problems has allways been getting data to your cpu , not your cpu processing it. Hardrives transfer at 20mb/s to 100mb/s a second ssd's at 100 to 200mb/s . Ram will do it in the GB/s range but even now we still aren't over the 20GB/s range for dual channel. But the problem is how little there is and how long it takes to refresh it from the hardrive. The more ram you have the better off you are.

 

If I buy the either version.. can I install it on more than 1 computer?? Activate both, and use both at the same time?

 

It would be illegal...... take from whta what you will

 

I'm looking at cases , whats everyone using ?

I was thinking a zeroshock 3 but the dm3z is 12.83"(L)x 9.06"(W)
Seems like the options for this case are 12.4x9.3 or 13.3x10.6

http://shinza.com/zeroshock-laptop-notebook-sleeve-case/

which do u guys think i should go with?

 

Hello, I am sorry I dont belong in this area ^^

But I just created this thread to keep track of all of you HP users/owners on the experiences you have had with HP so far.

Feel free to post and PM me if you want me to add something.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5480884#post5480884

I have created this thread as a support for those who got disappointed by HP and are looking for another solution.

EDIT: It is a poll now.

 

Hey Pro, thanks for the reply, one last question, do you have any MKV files like movies and such that you might be able to run it on your office depot DM3? I'm a movie buff and just want to see your DM3 has enough power to run it. I have lots of high def MKV movies....

I tried to do it at bestbuy but they had some restriction put on it.....and lots of member here have different specs so kinda hard to get a uniform answer , only you have the one with spec I'm eyeballing...

 

Did anyone buy the external bluray player can kick out some movies to the screen/Giant screen TV?

 

Hey guys.. can we get some temperature readings? Thanks!

 

update on games

bioshock ran medium settings got 30fps

left 4 dead - could run on high settings but got a little sluggish in big battles but ran around 30fps mostly

left 4 dead 2 demo- ran medium settings perfect, ran i think even better than the original

and for the above posted, a few pages back someone already did

 

Ok so here is my question. I am getting this laptop knowing it isnt a gaming machine, and I will mostly be using it for its portability. But I would really enjoy being able to play L4D2 and TF2 when i randomly visit pals.

That being said I am flipfloping between the amd with dedicated graphics or the intel (SP9300) that is faster but maybe not quite as good a graphics card.

To me it seems the CPUs are the bottle neck so I would be better off getting the faster of the two, but i fully admit i might be wrong about that.

 

that was my thought so i went with the intel build, ive yet to see much on the results of the amd build though i'm doing my best to post mine.

Could anyone get like a 3dmark 06 result up with the 4330 to compare to mine?

 

i have 1080p rips from bluray (didn't change bitrate ) it works fine for me.

 

whats your score ? I'm downloading now so when its done i will test it for you

 

i got 2805 marks, just downloaded the free version and hit go didn't change any settings. thanks for testing mate

in 3dmark 03 i got 8132 marks

 

2356 but i had changed things in the ati control panel like 16x anistropic filtering. Set everything to default. And running it again , going to see what happens on second run. I can already see performance increases of a few fps on this new run


Also just a heads up , it doesn't see that its a 4330 on the website. So who knows whats going on.

I'd be interested in seeing what u get on vantage

oh also I got 3 gigs of ram not 4. Though I doubt that affects the benchmark as in 2006 3 gigs would have been the average.

Re ran and got 2655
sm2.0 972
sm 3.0 1130
cpu 1130
downloading vantage now , but gotta run out for an hour or so

 

I'm downloading vantage now, will run soon

 

my dm3t fit in the zeroshock iii perfectly

http://cgi.ebay.com/ZEROSHOCK-III-1...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56369c990d