My Dv3t and I - Review and Optimization!!!

First off lets start out with the computer that I bought. I had 3 specific laptops that I was looking at buying: HP Dv3t, Sony Viao SR, and the Dell XPS 1340. I ended up choosing the HP over the other two for several reasons. My priorities were, upgraded battery, bluray, P series processor, and nothing larger than 13.3inches. The dell has no bluray (I want the bluray for my HDTV use, not laptop use) so it really came down to the Sony and the HP.

HP Dv3t Pros:
Price
Bluray
9 cell battery ($30)

HP Dv3 Cons:
Video card

Sony Viao SR Pros:
Bluray

Sony Viao SR Cons:
Price
No larger battery

Dell XPS 1340 Pros:
DDR3
9 cell battery ($180)

Dell XPS1340 Cons:
Price

My system:
Moonlight White
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
512MB NVIDIA GeForce G 105M
13.3" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
Webcam
Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
HP Color Matching Keyboard
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


First Impression:
After receiving my first ever HP laptop, I was certainly surprised and the level of bloatware that came included. The laptop itself is very small, very clean and very lightweight. The Dv3t also has a 16:9 ratio screen despite what their website says. This is good for me, the screen is more horizontal which also allows for the computer to be a bit smaller.

Battery
This is one of my favorite features of the laptop. The upgraded 9 cell battery sets the laptop up about an inch or so in the rear. This puts the computer at a perfect typing angle, actually keeps the laptop cooler (yes you'll see how much cooler), and provides amazing battery life. While I have not found a good chunk of my day to sit and watch my laptop idle with no wireless and no screen brightness to get its maximum life, I have used the laptop many times with regular usage. I can get, I would estimate, about 5 solid hours out of this laptop on battery without having to crank every setting down.

Performance
The ability for this laptop to open programs, run multiple programs, and do all of the above without any hesitation is amazing. I seem to not be able to overload the system, with tons of windows or videos running at the same time. It is extremely responsive.

Gaming
Although this is something that I do not particularly do, at least not anymore otherwise I would have chosen the XPS, I was very impressed that I could max out every setting on Counter Strike Source and have the smoothest experience I have ever had playing the game. Based on actual game play that I have done on this laptop I am overly surprised. However, my 3DMark scores would say otherwise

Optimization
Time for me to have a little fun with the laptop. Before I touched any settings I wanted to get a basic idea of where my laptop was performing so I checked the temps of the laptop on load and checked my 3DMark06 scores.

Temp under load - 69C/156F
3DMark06 - 2255

The next step was to remove as much junk of the computer that I did not need. I also spent some time with CPUGenie undervolting my processor as well as updating my drivers.

I was able to undervolt my P8700 2.53mhz processor from 1.137v down to 1.000v.

 

Thanks!! A very nice little owner review overall. Attention to details such as temps, undervolting, and 3D Marks are noteworthy. However I must wonder, where is your conclusion? What do you perceive as its strengths and weaknesses and why? Would you, or would you not, recommend this model to users?

Grade for the effort ….. “B+”.

 

Hey man i have the same laptop as you! excellent choice i must say.
i agree with you 100 percent on the 9 cell battery and processor performance. i have tried just opening a bunch of programs too! haha just to see if it could handle it and it does so amazingly. I never thought i would get this much performance out of such a small laptop! love it. The only thing i dont like so much is the performance from 6 cell, for being a 13 i would have expected an EASY 4 hours. On power saver mode i can barely get 3 1/2. but i am sure that it is due to the processor being on of the better ones.

So why did you go with white? I think white is cool but wasn't sure if i could give up the back lit keyboard.

good luck with your laptop brother