New HP DV3Z at Costco!

Was at Costco today and in a hurry but I did notice a DV3Z 13.3" AMD brand new model for 999. I tried googling for it but couldn't find the actual specs, anyone else seen it yet?

 

Found more info:
DV3-1073CL

13.3" LED backlight screen
4gb
Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
320gb disc 5400rpm
5-1 card reader
ATI hd3200 graphics
N wireless
AMD Turion X@ Ultra ZM-82 (??? HP doesn't show this as an option)
slot loading DVD supermulti DL

999 not bad.

 

Staples Canada has one on their web-site now, but with 250GB HDD, for 999.96 Canadian Dollars.

The only thing worrying me is the AMD CPU which may not be comparable to my T8300.

 

I'd pass on it with the AMD. I saw a DV4 in Bestbuy with the Turion that was just idling, and it was extremely hot. Seeing that the DV3 is even smaller, unless it has MUCH better cooling, it would probably run hot too.

 

My dv4z doesn't run hot. I've found that much of the time "hot" means the lower left corner where the HD is, not the CPU.

Or the fan intake on the bottom of the notebook was being blocked.

 

http://livehotdeals.com/HP-Pavilion-dv3z-series_4090
coupon code listed on link above.
HP Pavilion dv3z Series 13.3" Laptop: AMD Dual Core 2.0GHz, 2GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium for $769.99

 

Here are the detailed specs - does it have a backlit keyboard?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...51&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3866461

 

I looked and looked for those specs last night, thank you!

no bluetooth and no backlit keyboad according to costco sales.

 

picked on up on Saturday. Overall first impressions, very nice.

Some thoughts:

AMD turion x2 ultra zm82

On the initial rundown of the battery after a full charge (high perf), time to shutoff was 2h10m. I suspect it will get a bit better after the battery is conditioned, but on high perf with full screen brightness, wireless on and active web surfing I don't think that's too bad. I have yet to try on balanced or power saver.

slot load dvd writer is nice, but rather loud. Makes the keyboard area vibrate when at high speed.

screen is an AUO, no dead pixels, LED backlight, very bright sitting next to a dv4 w/ ccfl at full bright. Viewing angle up and down is rather narrow, as is side-to-side. From what I've seen that's about normal for a lot of the screens. Screen does not fold flat, looks to stop at about 45degrees.

heat - the palmrest(s) doesn't seem to get overly warm (100<), nor does the keyboard. This being on high perf, I would expect the other two modes to be even better.

noise - it isn't the quietest I've ever heard, the fan pretty much runs all the time no matter what mode it is in. It's not an objectionable noise, but on high perf especially when the battery is charging it is a little louder than I'd honestly like. Lots of hot air coming out the right side towards the back corner.

Speakers are 'ok' , they play decently loud, but of course bass is non-existent. There is a bit of a buzz on certain tones with the volume at 75% or so, seems to be on the left side speaker.

It can be picked up with one hand and the only part that feels rather weak is the flexyness (!!) of the screen since it is LED. 1200x800

I'm more pleased with it than the dv4-1147 overall, but I'll have it a bit more before I can decide.

software is the normal run, MS office, NIS 2009 , 60 day trial, muvee, power2go, just an average amount of bloatware on the Windows vista 64bit install.

I'll add some pictures later tonight in case anyone is interested.

 

I'll be getting a DV3Z today. I'll write back my first impressions. I saw it in the store and have to say the size and screen were great!

 

I'm going to be returning the DV3Z. Downsides include:

- CPU runs hot
- fan always on
- considerably slower encoding than my m1330
- shrunken keys on top row (function keys, home, end, page up/down, etc.)

I hope they come out with a DV3T in the near future....

 

dv3t = dv3510nr from best buy -- too bad the cpu runs hot on the amd

 

the dv3t is the equivalent of the dv510nr? When will HP show the dv3t in their site?

 

Mystery,

can you define hot on the cpu? Was it making the exterior hot too?

And what specs does your M1330 have since its one of the more high performance 13"ers.

My T400 also has shrunken keys, not really bad to me.

Thanks

 

everyone, it is a dv3z. not a dv3t.

I have bought one online. If anyone can post a video or some pics of it that would be great. I haven't found any reviews of it yet.

Mystery,

what does "hot" mean?

 

Idle temps according to HWMonitor was anywhere from high 40's to 50's.

Running ORTHOS for 4 minutes resulted in a temperature in the 90's!

Even at idle, the fan was noisily running.

With my T8300, I idle at 36C, and it gets no higher than 72 under ORTHOS.

Although the exterior of the case didn't feel noticeably hot, I was afraid of the longevity of the components inside.

I also found it annoyingly unresponsive and slow.

 

The T8300 being 2.4 Ghz and it overclocks a single core higher when under load, would certainly do encoding faster than the 2.2 Ghz ZM-82. That is until those programs are written to better utilze full speed RAM, which should be the next era now that Intel makes cpus with integrated memory controller like AMD.

I wonder if the temp readings are accurate or any hardware or software issues. Anyone else that still has the laptop try any different methods?

In task manager are there other things using cpu? bloatware? try disabling vista stuff like Aero or going to classic and disabling transition and smoothing edges crap?

Does it say what the RAM type and timings are?

 

Mystery905...you mentioned that the system seemed unresponsive and slow...what CPU did you have? Was it the ZM-82 from Costco? I was considering the ZM-84 (2.3GHz) and getting the system directly from HP. Also, I noticed on that HP now offers the 80GB SSD as an option for the DV3Z. With the current $500 off coupon...the SSD become a fairly attractive option. ($480 upgrade)

Would having an SSD installed draw less power (and as a result, produce less heat) from the AMD processor?

Have any other thoughts or good cookie recipes? Thanks...Bill

 

getting a SSD wont lower cpu temps noticeably.

I doubt the temp readings in that software are accurate. Id have to open it up and put a thermocouple on it and test that temp, or see the reason for the high temp, maybe it wasnt installed correctly, or they used a thermal pad instead of thermal grease to the heatsink. Or what in the design causes it.

The unresponsiveness is typical of a stock AMD system with a poor touchpad driver and some other moronic HP thing. Fresh Windows installs usually make a big difference and disabling unimportant features like viewing contents while dragging, smoothed edges, Aero stuff in Vista, etc... makes it like a different machine.

 

Yeah, I would like more details on the overheating issue, I have already purchased a dv3z from the hp website with a RM-72. Also, has anyone found some official reviews of the dv3z?

 

TommyB0y...hey, thanks for the reply. Regarding an unresponsive system...I know my way around computers, but would prefer something that would run a little more smoothly without my having to re-install the OS, hunt down drivers and the like. Something I can pull out of the box, say "Ooh...shiny!" and start doing my thing.

Would you suggest staying away from this system? (Whether the slowdowns are a result of CPU or HP bloatware or buggy drivers or whatever...)

Thanks for the advice. Best...Bill

 

Every laptop has issues, I can't say whether or not to get this one because I dont have it and not any official reviews of it.

Although, I have read many reviews of AMD laptops that say they are speedy and handle anything they throw at it, and then the other spectrum of it sucks and its so slow. Well on this forum, its generally the latter and they wont put up with it and just return the stuff without trying much. Then they get an Intel system and it works good, but they still spend a month on the forum figuring out how to fix its qwerks.

My T400 works fine out of the box, but I had to get rid of some stupid apps, the headphones dont usually work right, and the speakers generally stink. But I dont care, and dont complain because I dont use that stuff and I ignore it.

Clean installs arent always necessary, just a little windows tweaking and unistalling all the extra junk, and having a PC/registry cleaner. sometimes I just clean the registry myself (can be dangerous), deleting stuff in the startup RUN folder and any stuff I uninstalled but there are still remanants.

I have a 2.0 Ghz AMD desktop that runs as speedy as all heck and its 7 years old, much faster than my friends that built or bought Intel systems at the same time and have upgraded since. I also built a new low power AMD 2.5Ghz system for my family and it was every bit as fast and faster than my T400 at divx file encoding. The Athlon X2 and HD3200 with DDR2-800 RAM that I used in that desktop has less capability than these latest mobile Turion ultra cpus. So I have never had an issue.

 

Good advice about the systems. There will always be a nicer, faster, glossier, cheaper, better working and lighter computer than the one you just purchased!

I think I'm still going to wait for the DV2. I'm looking for something a little more powerful than today's netbooks...need to do some basic Adobe CS3 and Office work and the wife still kicks my butt at Bejeweled...<grrr!>...but still light enough to throw in the bag for any work trips or just down to the coffee shop.

Thanks one last time! Bill

 

FYI - Fry's has the dv3z on sale for $799 after mail-in rebate:
LINK

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64bit with Service Pack 1
Processor AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra RM-72 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
Processor Speed 2.10 GHz
Processor Cache 1 MB L2 Cache
Bus Speed Up to 4000 MT/s system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 watt
Memory 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) Max Supported = 8192MB

Accessible Memory Slots 2
Video Graphics ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics
Hard Drive 320GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
Finish and Features HP Intersect Imprint finish, HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone and integrated Fingerprint Reader
Multimedia Drive LightScribe SuperMulti DVD +/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display 13.3" Diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800) Display
Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Option Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN
Digital Media 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Fax/Modem High speed 56k modem
Audio SRS Premium Sound
Keyboard 101-key compatible & 1 Quick Launch Button
Pointing Device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots 1 ExpressCard/34 Slot
External Notebook Ports
3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 3rd port shared with eSATA
1 Headphone out
1 microphone-in
HDMI
1 VGA (15-pin)
eSATA + USB 2.0
1 RJ-11 (modem)
1 RJ -45 (LAN)
1 Consumer IR (Remote Receiver)

 

So how would this compare with the dv3510nr ($999) at BB? It has the P7350 (2.0Ghz) processor and has NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS graphics versus ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 graphics (64MB DDR2 SidePort memory) for the Costco one. Aside from that, everything else seems very similar.