FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2007
- Messages
- 23,306 (3.77/day)
- Location
- London,UK
System Name | Codename: Icarus Mk.VI |
---|---|
Processor | Intel 8600k@Stock -- pending tuning |
Motherboard | Asus ROG Strixx Z370-F |
Cooling | CPU: BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 {1xCorsair ML120 Pro|5xML140 Pro} |
Memory | 32GB XPG Gammix D10 {2x16GB} |
Video Card(s) | ASUS Dual Radeon™ RX 6700 XT OC Edition |
Storage | Samsung 970 Evo 512GB SSD (Boot)|WD SN770 (Gaming)|2x 3TB Toshiba DT01ACA300|2x 2TB Crucial BX500 |
Display(s) | LG GP850-B |
Case | Corsair 760T (White) |
Audio Device(s) | Yamaha RX-V573|Speakers: JBL Control One|Auna 300-CN|Wharfedale Diamond SW150 |
Power Supply | Corsair AX760 |
Mouse | Logitech G900 |
Keyboard | Duckyshine Dead LED(s) III |
Software | Windows 10 Pro |
Benchmark Scores | (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ |
Hi folks.
Not many of you will know that I bought myself a new 'laptop' yesterday.
I use the term 'laptop' very loosely as this laptop is only 11.6" and weighs in at about 1.6Kg which is roughly around the same weight as most netbooks give or take a few 100g's.
Since the 3200SA and my old laptop were so similar in spec, i decided to do a mini review.
So this is a 'old vs new' style review and also a small showcase of what AMD's E-350 APU is capable of compared to older tech...
On with the review!
Lets have a look at the outside of the DM1:
Notice the nice little paterns on the top of lid, adds a nice touch to something that would otherwise be very bland.
The bottom of the laptop is a very matt black affair with the HP logo and other warranty/copyright info at the bottom
Unfortunately the lid and the bottom of the laptop loves finger prints, Its a total finger print magnet! I spent about 10mins buffing the top of the lip with a soft cloth and brasso gadget care before i took pictures
Anyway, Moving on wards!
Here we have the cardreader, headphones port, 2 USB 2.0's and a good old VGA to hook it up to any old monitors that might be available.
On the other side we have a Kensington lock thing - which i have absent mindedly cut out of the picture when i took it, the vent, 2 lights for power on and HDD activity, HDMI and one more USB port
so you can hook this little baby upto a HDtv and watch all your porn in super high quality!
The speakers are made by Altec Lansing. Now i have been testing these speakers by listening to music ranging from Trance/House/Techno and other genres like metal and light/heavy/alternative rock.
I then followed it up by watching some Band Of Brothers, the Normandy Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan and the whole of The Expendables. followed by some random anime episodes in 1080p
and i have to say, even though these speakers are better then the average netbooks and laptops. these speakers are nothing to shout home about. they are far from being 'tinny' but they lack bass and mids. but they do have a little more 'body' to the sound and the dolby 3d surround effects that emulate surround sound make the overall movie watching experience pretty pleasant. more then adequate for a long flight or train ride.
The DM1 uses a 'chiclet' style of keyboard which most manufacturers have adopted from Apple. There are some users that loathe this style of keyboard then there are those that love it. I however havent used it enough to comment, but i quite like the solid clicky feedback when the keys are pressed.
The mouse pad also supports Multi-Gesturing, but since i have never owned an iphone. i found this feature and the the pad itself somewhat rather confusing at first but im sure i will get used to it in time.
------------------------------------------------------
The Specs:
HP DM1-3200SA:
AMD Athlon II Dual-Core E-350 1.6 GHz
AMD HD6310 GPU
8GB Geil DDR3 1333Mhz 2x4 (Stock is only 3Gb)
320GB WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM
11.6" @ 1366x768
1.6Kg
6-cell 10.8v 55w Lithium-ion battery*
(*battery life is quoted to be around 9.3-9.5hrs by HP but most reviews of DM1's state that it only reached around 6-7hrs on a full charge. and this has been the average up time between charges even with some of the older models.)
BenQ S73g* (*rawr imma dinosaur!)
Intel Core Duo T2300 1.66Ghz
ATi X1600MR
2Gb 2x1 Corsair Value DDR2 667Mhz
250Gb WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM
14.1" @ 1280x800 WXVGA
2.3Kg
Battery???? (no idea)
----------------------------------------------------------
The Laptops|Screens:
Both laptops have their brightness turned right up. Notice how much more brighter and vibrant the DM1 is compared to my S73g?
Watching videos on the DM1 was a real pleasure indeed. If only the sound had a little more punch it would have been a real bread winner.
the HD6310GPU runs 1080p effortlessly. where as my dinosaur struggles to run it as AMD have long since dropped support for the X1600MR and there are no divers available for W7 and i am forced to use Mobility Modder to get drivers working. Unfortunately the problem with this is MM is bugged and it takes away hardware acceleration for videos so no DXVA - All hardware decoding/acceleration is handed off to the CPU which struggles with 1080p.
------------------------------------------
Benchmarks:
We can see here that the HD6310 likes to game a little bit more then the outdated X1600MR
Back in the day. I used to play games such as CoD1|UO, CoD2, TF2, CS:S, Guildwars & Oblivion at max setting if not on high settings on the X1600MR.
I havent really tested the DM1 out fully yet when it comes to gaming. but it can do killing floor pretty well with high settings. There are videos on youtube where people are playing games like Crisis 1&2 and some L4D. but resolutions and settings have to be turned right down to make games playable.
I have yet to experiment when it comes to gaming on the DM1 as i have owned it less then 24hrs. But i didnt get this laptop to treat it as a gaming machine. I will eventually try out more and more games and see how it runs.
PCMark:
I was going to install PCmark7 but decided it was too cruel to run it on something from the dark ages and ran with 05 instead.
The E-350 will never be as Uber as the old T2300, but that being said...the T2300 cant do 7-8hrs hours of websurfin on 1 charge.
-----------
Conclusion:
I was looking for something to replace the 2.3kg's of tankshell stopping laptop that was breaking my back during my regular commutes through london. 2.3Kg might not be super heavy, but coupled with other items like the charger and a few other bits a bobs in the backpack. this 2.3kg quickly becomes dead weight.
I wasnt looking for a powerhouse of a machine, which my S73g certainly was back in 05 (it was top of the range back in hong kong when i bought it) and even though i have taken an overall 'downgrade' in system performance. I have to say that it was completely worth it.
I know this review lacks a little stucture, but i was in a hurry to finish it off before dinner.
I will most likely do a few gaming benches later on and update my post. but for the time being. this is how it is.
Not many of you will know that I bought myself a new 'laptop' yesterday.
I use the term 'laptop' very loosely as this laptop is only 11.6" and weighs in at about 1.6Kg which is roughly around the same weight as most netbooks give or take a few 100g's.
Since the 3200SA and my old laptop were so similar in spec, i decided to do a mini review.
So this is a 'old vs new' style review and also a small showcase of what AMD's E-350 APU is capable of compared to older tech...
On with the review!
Lets have a look at the outside of the DM1:
Notice the nice little paterns on the top of lid, adds a nice touch to something that would otherwise be very bland.
The bottom of the laptop is a very matt black affair with the HP logo and other warranty/copyright info at the bottom
Unfortunately the lid and the bottom of the laptop loves finger prints, Its a total finger print magnet! I spent about 10mins buffing the top of the lip with a soft cloth and brasso gadget care before i took pictures
Anyway, Moving on wards!
Here we have the cardreader, headphones port, 2 USB 2.0's and a good old VGA to hook it up to any old monitors that might be available.
On the other side we have a Kensington lock thing - which i have absent mindedly cut out of the picture when i took it, the vent, 2 lights for power on and HDD activity, HDMI and one more USB port
so you can hook this little baby upto a HDtv and watch all your porn in super high quality!
The speakers are made by Altec Lansing. Now i have been testing these speakers by listening to music ranging from Trance/House/Techno and other genres like metal and light/heavy/alternative rock.
I then followed it up by watching some Band Of Brothers, the Normandy Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan and the whole of The Expendables. followed by some random anime episodes in 1080p
and i have to say, even though these speakers are better then the average netbooks and laptops. these speakers are nothing to shout home about. they are far from being 'tinny' but they lack bass and mids. but they do have a little more 'body' to the sound and the dolby 3d surround effects that emulate surround sound make the overall movie watching experience pretty pleasant. more then adequate for a long flight or train ride.
The DM1 uses a 'chiclet' style of keyboard which most manufacturers have adopted from Apple. There are some users that loathe this style of keyboard then there are those that love it. I however havent used it enough to comment, but i quite like the solid clicky feedback when the keys are pressed.
The mouse pad also supports Multi-Gesturing, but since i have never owned an iphone. i found this feature and the the pad itself somewhat rather confusing at first but im sure i will get used to it in time.
------------------------------------------------------
The Specs:
HP DM1-3200SA:
AMD Athlon II Dual-Core E-350 1.6 GHz
AMD HD6310 GPU
8GB Geil DDR3 1333Mhz 2x4 (Stock is only 3Gb)
320GB WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM
11.6" @ 1366x768
1.6Kg
6-cell 10.8v 55w Lithium-ion battery*
(*battery life is quoted to be around 9.3-9.5hrs by HP but most reviews of DM1's state that it only reached around 6-7hrs on a full charge. and this has been the average up time between charges even with some of the older models.)
BenQ S73g* (*rawr imma dinosaur!)
Intel Core Duo T2300 1.66Ghz
ATi X1600MR
2Gb 2x1 Corsair Value DDR2 667Mhz
250Gb WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM
14.1" @ 1280x800 WXVGA
2.3Kg
Battery???? (no idea)
----------------------------------------------------------
The Laptops|Screens:
Both laptops have their brightness turned right up. Notice how much more brighter and vibrant the DM1 is compared to my S73g?
Watching videos on the DM1 was a real pleasure indeed. If only the sound had a little more punch it would have been a real bread winner.
the HD6310GPU runs 1080p effortlessly. where as my dinosaur struggles to run it as AMD have long since dropped support for the X1600MR and there are no divers available for W7 and i am forced to use Mobility Modder to get drivers working. Unfortunately the problem with this is MM is bugged and it takes away hardware acceleration for videos so no DXVA - All hardware decoding/acceleration is handed off to the CPU which struggles with 1080p.
------------------------------------------
Benchmarks:
We can see here that the HD6310 likes to game a little bit more then the outdated X1600MR
Back in the day. I used to play games such as CoD1|UO, CoD2, TF2, CS:S, Guildwars & Oblivion at max setting if not on high settings on the X1600MR.
I havent really tested the DM1 out fully yet when it comes to gaming. but it can do killing floor pretty well with high settings. There are videos on youtube where people are playing games like Crisis 1&2 and some L4D. but resolutions and settings have to be turned right down to make games playable.
I have yet to experiment when it comes to gaming on the DM1 as i have owned it less then 24hrs. But i didnt get this laptop to treat it as a gaming machine. I will eventually try out more and more games and see how it runs.
PCMark:
I was going to install PCmark7 but decided it was too cruel to run it on something from the dark ages and ran with 05 instead.
The E-350 will never be as Uber as the old T2300, but that being said...the T2300 cant do 7-8hrs hours of websurfin on 1 charge.
-----------
Conclusion:
I was looking for something to replace the 2.3kg's of tankshell stopping laptop that was breaking my back during my regular commutes through london. 2.3Kg might not be super heavy, but coupled with other items like the charger and a few other bits a bobs in the backpack. this 2.3kg quickly becomes dead weight.
I wasnt looking for a powerhouse of a machine, which my S73g certainly was back in 05 (it was top of the range back in hong kong when i bought it) and even though i have taken an overall 'downgrade' in system performance. I have to say that it was completely worth it.
I know this review lacks a little stucture, but i was in a hurry to finish it off before dinner.
I will most likely do a few gaming benches later on and update my post. but for the time being. this is how it is.