My new HP DV2 (AMD's Neo CPU)

I just bought a DV2-1044CA from Futureshop today. Wasn't even expecting to buy it however I had been anticipating its release since it was announced in january.

A little history on my netbook expereice. I first started with an MSI wind which I liked alot the big selling point at the time was the 10" screen which wasn't quite "standard" on the netbook scene. While I liked the wind I found the keyboard too small to enable quick typing. I had it long enough That I got used to it however it just wasn't cutting it.

I then moved onto an N10J and threw in a 500GB HDD and it was my main computer for about 2 months until I got a desktop, anyhow I loved it mainly becasue it had a nearly full size keyboard. The addition of the 9300M was great for watching HD videos and some light gaming. As it stands I love this notebook however the geek in me always wants to try new things and I couldn't wait to see the response from AMD's side, and this is where I begin with the DV2.

Since I didn't have any experience with benchmarks i'll just start off with what I was expecting with this notebook. With an Athlon Neo and dedicated Radeon 3410 Graphics I was thinking it should have a little more juice compared to the N10J, + the addition of a larger screen would be nice. My intended use for this notebook is to be used away from home as a semi desktop replacement as i'm gone for work most of the time. Hopefully the machine can "replace" my N10J (I"m a die-hard Asus guy)

As i mentioned first off the model is the DV2-1044CA, which must be a canadian only model as I can't find that specific configuration on HP's website for drivers (more on that later).

The configuration is as Follows:

AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 1.6GHZ 512KB Cache
250GB 5400RPM WD Scorpio Blue
1X4096MB Samsung PC2-6400 DDR2
Lilghtscribe Super Multi 8X DVD-RW With Dual Layer Support
Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) With SP1
HP Media Smart
HP Webcam
12.1" 1200x800 HP Brightview LCD (Glossy) LED backlit
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 512MB DDR2 (Dedicated)
802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless
5 In 1 Digital Media Reader
High capacity 6 Cell Battery

Cost of this model $899 (CAN$)

As you can see, this did not come with the external blu-ray drive although I'm assuming that there is a more expensive model that will include that. It does come with 512MB dedicated VRAM (vs 256 as in the preview model) and it also has a 6 cell battery vs the 4 cell. I was totally amazing that HP included a 4GB memory module especially at this price point, considering how costly 4GB modules are. There is also a 2nd slot for a ram upgrade, I don't have a 2GB module on me but I will be getting one soon to see if it does support more than 4GB (HP states 4GB is the max).

Upon unpacking everything the first thing I noticed is just how this this laptop is. No its not MBA thin but its very thin and the high gloss finish is very nice but as with other notebooks of similar design it is rather prone to finger prints.

I havn't had a ton of time to spend with this notebook but I did run through a few benchmarks I'll post screen shots below but here are the results.

Super PI 1MB = 1:52
3DMark 2001 = 6308
3DMark 2003 = 2876
3DMark 2006 = 1255

I'll tell you right off the bat that these scores are on the low end of what I was expecting, especially when you look at the cpu score in 3DMark 2006 its actually assesed as score lower then an Atom 1.6ghz so I'm not sure the notebook is running at top performance (Vista power saving mode was set to "high performance")

The 3D scores are only synthetic right now and that's all I've had time to test out for now. I tried disabling ATI's powerplay but that actually lowered the scores so that isn't the issue. Once I spend some more time with the machine I'll hopefully iron out whats going on here.

In terms of general usage the Athlon Neo is very responsive and doesn't feel any slower than an Atom based machine, although it doesn't seem noticeably faster either. You'll notice in the CPU-Z screen shot its being detected as an Athlon 4050e similar to the desktop 45W chips (4450e 4850e 5050e)

Heat wise the system stays relatively cool and quiet. The underside even while benchmarking got warm and just warm not hot at all. The palm rests get warm as well but in my opinion not a problem at all.

The keyboard is going to take some getting used to. It's design looks similar to the HP Mini-note ones. I'm just not a fan of completely flat keys with a smooth finish (basically no texture) once again this is only my observation and isn't a deal breaker in my books.

I can't comment on battery life as of yet becasue I've been using the machine plugged in and I"m currently making the recovery disks so I can swap in a different HDD. One thing I"ll say I dislike greatly is how long the making of the recovery disks takes. Its been a LOOONG process almost 3 hours to make 3 recovery DVD's, unnaceptable in my books. The only reason i'm doing this is becasue this model isn't actually listed on HP's website for support. There are many DV2-10XX models however none that match my exact model and I want to make sure I have a way to restore this back to normal if I can't manually download the drivers from HP. With this being a new model that hasn't been fully released I can't fault HP for not having the drivers up yet, I might actually be the only one with a retail DV2

***Update, used the HP online support chat, wonderful system and it turns out I was blind, found all the drivers I needed to do a manual OS installation(They were on the C: drive)

Now for the pics (they didn't turn out all that great sorry)





















Sorry for the poor quality of pics and the crappy screen shots, this was sort of rushed but hopefully now some people can get an idea of what to expect with this notebook, so far I love it

glad you like it, I work part time as an HP rep in different stores. So when I have to train/sell these, I hope they do OK.

I think this is the best "netbook" by far if your looking for something "all in one" When I was going to university my notebook was my only computer at the time, started with a 15" one then moved to a 14" then finally a 12" only problem was back then ok it wasn't that long ago but before the netbook craze it was getting tough to live with the 12" one becasue I couldn't do much gaming if any (gma 950)

The price is a little bit steeper on this one but it is well worth it.

How much is the price of a netbook there? Here in Germany, a netbook costs around 300-450 Eur depending on size and features.

If netbooks only cost $300-$450 (CAN$) there, I must say that for $899, the HP DV2 is really expensive. For ~800Eur, we can get a much better 12" notebook here:
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?f...sc&news_no=668
http://geizhals.at/eu/a381423.html

that bezel around the screen is just horrible,....it looks like wasted space! and the keyboard, I wish they would extend it to the edges like they do with their HP Mini

Then again, I am picky when it comes to laptops. Is this even a netbook? For this price? Have fun with your new toy!

I really just hate how everything is soooo glossy on hp laptops now. The touchpads seem to stick to your hands pretty easy too.

TBH I think its kinda ugly. Needs to at least be wide screen and not glossy with a crappy paint job. Are there any benchmarks comparing that cpu to intel atom?

Originally Posted by SILVR 6

Super PI 1MB = 1:52

Was it stuck in low speed mode, like on battery power when you ran it? The MV-40 is just a low power K8 and should have been finished around 1 minute flat at 1.6GHz. Even an Atom 1.6GHz does SuperPI 1M in 1:48 and Atom is a much weaker processor.

$900 seems a bit too much for me, given that the Macbook (plastic casing) is just $950 for me with student discount, and it seems to over much more over this.

That's a nice looking notebook.

Originally Posted by pxc

Was it stuck in low speed mode, like on battery power when you ran it? The MV-40 is just a low power K8 and should have been finished around 1 minute flat at 1.6GHz. Even an Atom 1.6GHz does SuperPI 1M in 1:48 and Atom is a much weaker processor.

I"m not sure if it was stuck in the low speed, all the above tests were done with the stock OS that came with the system everything felt rather sluggish, I reinstalled vista 64 ultimate and everything is much quicker now.


Heres one thing I noticed while working with undervolting last night. In the stock configuration you'll notice in my CPU Z screen shots that the cpu was being run @ 1v @ 1.6ghz, this was also true @ 800mhz, and there was no change in the voltage.

So I fired up RM clock and found that it specified the VID for this CPU in a range from 0.550v to 1.05V

After messing around using orthos as a stress test, I got the cpu stable @ 800mhz using 0.675 anything lower than that and the laptop would either turn off or reboot.



From my unscientific research, it seems the Neo is the same cpu as the Athlon 2650e which has been showing up in some laptops and oem systems, its just in a different form factor to enable a smaller profile. It also has most likely been binned to run at very low voltages although it isn't setup from the factory to take advantage of that.


Battery Life

2 Hours 5 Minutes under worst case usage (bright screen 1.6ghz hd video ect)

3 Hours 20 Minutes WIth the cpu undervolted and locked at 800mhz, browsing the web, chatting on msn

As for the glossy everything i'm not a huge fan of that but for the price and size this is a pretty good performer.

As for the bezel, I look at the screen not the bezel so it doesn't bother me

It is a widescreen 12" LED display

I just downloaded a different copy of super Pi, the "XS" version, and I got 56 seconds so that seems to be a little bit better.

So I also had some time to play around with the HTPC type capabilities this notebook can offer and i'm very impressed, looks great on a 62" 1080P DCP TV

I have an IMAX film that is in VC.1 Format 1080P, while running the notebook at full speed 1.6ghz cpu usage is 22-44% no dropped frames. Running the notbook at the speed of 800mhz 64-85% usage with no dropped frames.

Playing a 1080P movie encoded in H264 @ 1.6ghz 16-35% no dropped frames same movie played at 800mhz 45-70% no dropped frames.

I also followed the same procedure with the above movies while running on battery power with the CPU locked @ 800mhz, with ATI powerplay enabled and the results were the same, no dropped frames.

Now my results are not very scientific but I think this shows the NEO cpu along with the Radeon 3410 make a rather attractive mobile media platform. To be honest I didn't expect stutter free playback while on battery @ 800mhz but it did just fine. Watching the gpu clocks in everest the gpu is midly overclocked with HD videos that support UVD are played, which is probably why the notebook can play HD vids while running at 800mhz

I was using Media Player Classic Home Cinema Edition

Here's 2 comparison shots with an XPS M1330

Bumping old thread, thanks for all the info SILVR6, it's a nice looking notebook. There's a sale online for one for ~$500, definitely a lot more attractive than the $700 they normally are.

Bump. It's a clearance item on staples for $397Cdn. it's 2GB memory/160GB disk version though.

Originally Posted by alg7_munif

How much is the price of a netbook there? Here in Germany, a netbook costs around 300-450 Eur depending on size and features.

If netbooks only cost $300-$450 (CAN$) there, I must say that for $899, the HP DV2 is really expensive. For ~800Eur, we can get a much better 12" notebook here:
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?f...sc&news_no=668
http://geizhals.at/eu/a381423.html

I have one (1030us) and it is no netbook, in terms of performance.

It can keep up with the m1210 I have in my signuature (my fetish for 12.1" screens led to this...)
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