*HP dv5z (1XXX series) Owners Lounge* **PUMA Goodness**

OK well since I have been scoping out these boards for the last few weeks it appears like I am going to be the first owner on this board with a dv5z. So I thought it would be appropriate for me to start the "official lounge" thread.

Many people have questions about the "Hybird Crossfire" and possibly other features. Don't forget how this baby performs. I will be able to answer them all with certainty soon!

I should be receiving my dv5z in the next few days. I will post unboxing pictures along with later a full review including benchmarks we all love.

Feel free to ask questions and suggest benchmarks that you would like to see.
Thanks!!!
Jeff

Benchmarks:
3d Mark 05: 3260
CPU Score: 8533

 

My Order from HP

Hello Jeff,

Thank you for placing your order with the HP Home & Home Office Store.

Your customized HP Pavilion dv5z Entertainment Notebook is estimated to be built by July 11, 2008. The delivery date is determined by the shipping method you chose during checkout.

Your customized PC includes:

- HP Pavilion dv5z Entertainment Notebook
- Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
- AMD Turion(TM) X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-82 (2.2GHz)
- 15.4" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Infinity Display (1680 x 1050)
- FREE Upgrade to 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 1GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)!!
- 256MB ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3450 Graphics
- HP Imprint Finish (Mesh) + Microphone + Webcam + Fingerprint Reader for HP BrightView Infinity
- Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth
- No High speed 56K modem port
- 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP Color Matching Keyboard
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Price: $1178.99


Shipped 7-7-08
From Shanghai China

 

Thank you; I had a 90 minute waste of time with a TS who didnt [Please watch the language on the forums! - NBR Mods] he was talking about, and as such, i am impatiently waiting for this review, especially of the new hybrid crossfire.

 

Well, I just ordered mine with student discounts . It all added up to $782 with:

X2-Ultra ZM-80
3gb RAM
ATI HD 3450
160gb HDD
Standard finish

Is there any definite answer to the crossfire hybrid question yet?

 

Not that I have heard yet!

 

How did you get the student discount. I'm looking to get a dv5 as well.
Looks likes you got a pretty good deal. Enjoy.

 

http://gem.compaq.com/gemstore/home.asp?oi=E9CED

 

Just search for student discounts on the hp website. Also, the dv5z gets a lot of free upgrades and free shipping right now, so check it out

 

Thanks for the tip on student rates, the price tag just went down about $250!!

 

ETA on my dv5z is 7-10-08.

I am counting down the minutes!

 

Yeah! A lot of people here are looking forward to finding out the performance of the 3450 and if hybrid crossfire is available on the Dv5z.

 

I'm not sure how many of you are thinking to put Windows XP on the machine or not, but it's worth noting that CrossFireX (linking the discrete video with the IGP) will not work on windows XP. From AMD's website:

"ATI Hybrid CrossFireX™ technology is supported only with the Windows Vista® operating system and is not available with Microsoft Windows® XP operating system."

Hope I didn't burst any bubbles!

 

Subscribing here to check back on the Hybrid Crossfire performance later on.

It might not work with the HP drivers out of the box, so give Omega or other sets a shot. If it works, this could become a student's budget-gaming laptop of choice!

 

Stay tuned tonight!!!! I should have my dv5z in my hands when I get off work. I have to go to FedEx after 6PM to pick it up. Hopefully all goes well!!!

 

You dint take the day off to welcome the new laptop and get us the pics and reviews ASAP????

 

You know I should have but as a small business owner I don't have that luxury!

 

OK... Well I finally received this beautiful machine!

First of all, the system comes loaded with all kinds of crap. So I am in the process of creating my restore discs and doing a clean install of Vista.

At first glance it appears that this machine DOES NOT do hybrid crossfire. Under the device manager, it only shows one display device. The HD3450.

Of course I will provide pictures and benchmarks later tonight. I want to do my testing on a nice clean install!

 

Hey man,

Good luck! I'm anxious to hear about that crossfire!

 

I purchased my dv5z a few days ago, and is scheduled to be shipped on the 16th, i hope that it does support crossfire, i'll be kinda dissapointed if it doesnt, but im excited for the laptop either way

 

well on the bios you could try to enable integrated gfx first, then I think you can enable it on the ati catalyst control center for hybrid crossfire



If it is boot up with the HD3450 first then I think the integrated gfx won't get turned on

And drivers 8.3 and up support hybrid crossfire

 

How are CPU temps? HWMonitor should read it.

 

does this mean that the HP bios does not enable the hybrid crossfire? (is there such a limiting factor such as this?)

 

Well it's not looking good!

The HP BIOS has almost zero settings. Boot order is about it!

I also updated to Catalyst 8.6 and still no reference to crossfire, and only one device shown in the device manager window.

What if hp did not use the 780G chipset for the dedicated graphics option? Does anyone know how I can check to see what chipset this thing is running???

 

Maybe you should open the laptop to check it?

 

Lavalys Everest reported the AMD RS780M chipset on the d5-1002us model I tested today. Download the trial and report back.

g/l

 

No that's not it. I just used cpu-z and it confirmed that I have the 780G chipset.

Maybe HP Disabled this feature? But why? Heat?

 

Download GPU-Z... that will tell you if crossfire is disabled. It says disabled on my tx2500 tablet....

 

Could be for power optimization or other considerations. I dunno...

 

CPU-Z's Mainboard tab should tell you the chipset.

The ATI Catalyst Control Center Information Center | Graphics Hardware screen might list both GPUs?

Edit: nevermind, get GPU-Z like pardes3 said.

 

could be caz they want to allow this option only in the 17 inch version

 

how is the rest of the laptop?

 

Like I said earlier, use GPU-Z not CPU-Z to check crossfire status

 

Well the GPU-Z does say Crossfire disabled (unsure on Vista64)

I set the power settings to high performance. Still a no-go!

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

I like it a lot. I did not get a chance to do a clean install, I left my vista discs at work. So I will do this tomorrow and give you some really benchmarks tomorrow.

Ciao~

 

Can you imagine the sweetness if you are able to enable cross fire?

 

Is there anything in the Catalyst Control Panel that allows it to be enabled?

Have you checked for any hidden devices in the Device Manager that might be disabled?

 

Catalyst 8.3 seems to enable hybrid crossfire

EDIT: Try these drivers?

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---ATI-Catalyst-Windows-Vista_c31.html

 

If you don't order the laptop with the HD3450 video card, are you able to upgrade to it later?

 

I noticed in your BIOS pic that it has a disabled SurroundView option. I was looking online at some desktop ASUS motherboards and someone said enable that SurroundView option to get the Hybrid CrossfireX to work.

I hope you can find a way to enable it (...maybe it is slated for a future BIOS update).

But if it can't be enabled, I'm half tempted to return the laptop I ordered because that was the primary draw for me to this machine.

I may just have to wait until later...

 

Alright i just put in my order for this machine, everything pretty much stock: QL-60, 2gigs, 160gig HD, HD3200 but i got the WSXGA+ screen which im pretty stoked about and the high capacity 6cell battery. This should be one bad machine for $655.75! I cant wait to get it, build date July 18th.

 

are you sure the bios does not let you change any options? I'm pretty sure the bios allows you to configure many other things such as system time, boot sequence, and the enabling and disabling of onboard systems.

Hopefully if you can turn on the onboard graphics card (because the chipset is M780G), then Catalyst Control Center will give you the option to enable the crossfire.

 

That BIOS shot you saw was not from the dv5z. My system does not have those options.


I will try the 8.3 drivers and see if I can find any other hidden devices. Maybe the clean install will help too... I am running the Vista installer as I type!

 

Man there is not much in there.... I will take a picture of the BIOS screen later today. I think HP has disabled crossfire and hidden any BIOS settings that could be used to turn it on.

 

okay I found out some more information....

The ATi Catalyst drivers install but they do not detect any VGA device!!!
I cannot even enable my dedicated card with the drivers. It appears that HP has a lock on the drivers as well. I am going to have to dig in my swsetup folder for these. I think I am going to give the Omega drivers a try first.

 

No Omega drivers for Vista x64

 

Just throwing this out there, why would a laptop have crossfire enabled when it doesn't need it? hint hint (try playing a graphically intense game).

 

That's probably because ATI's standard drivers do not work with laptops right out of the bag. You can only use the HP ones, Omega (or something along the same lines), or you can modify the inf and re-enable it to "see" your video adapter.

I would suggest using the ATI Mobility Modder, but I'm unsure about 64-bit support...
Visit this link for more info: Driver Heaven mobility modder discussion

 

Added some benchmarks in my original post.

 

Does anyone have any idea about this?

 

Who ever here has the dv5z with the ati 3450. I just got off the phone with an hp case manager and he told me that all the new laptops have upgradeable graphics cards and he told me it was right on the bottom of the laptop under one of the covers. If you could verify this that would be great because i plan to buy a cheap back to school model and put the 3450 in later or maybe an 8600m gt if its upgradeable.