So as the title says this is a review of Intel’s Santa Rosa platform notebook HP Pavilion dv6548ea. In this review I’ll be specifically looking at its purpose and the intended market segment. The specification are as follows:
Specifications:
Found on the HP site here.
The processor is the fastest available for this model and is sufficient for my needs. It runs my simulation software and other developing IDEs very well. There is nothing new on the processor side except for the increased FSB to 800MHz. The multiplier varies from 6x (minimum when idle) to 10x (maximum under load) while speed stepping is enabled.
It has 2 SO-DIMM slots and comes with 2 X 512MB standard but I upgraded the RAM to 2 X 1GB DDR2-667MHz (PC5300) to better support my simulation software. It supports a maximum of 4GB (2 X 2GB) but obviously that’d require a 64-bit operating system to utilize it. One thing to note is that while Intel’s 965 chipset support DDR2-800MHz modules, there is no official support for the mobile segment of this chipset.
It has an upgraded version of integrated graphics processor (X3100) found in the desktop variant to Intel G965 chipset (X3000). As the integrated graphics suggests, it’s not intended for the gaming segment. So if you are looking for gaming on this notebook I’d suggest go for the upgrade (discrete graphics card). It runs windows vista aero without a problem and also completes all the tests of 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 but obviously with a very poor frame rate. I think that there is a driver issue to which most of the people would agree. According to some websites Intel will be releasing a new driver for its IGP in Q1 2008, which will enable Intel GMA X3100 and the upcoming Intel GMA X3500 to officially support DirectX10, and maybe then it will be able to run a few games at low-resolutions with minimum/medium detail level.
Coming to the storage, this model comes with a 120GB 5400RPM HDD standard. Other options are from 80GB up to 200GB. The HDD size was not a concern for me because 120GB is sufficient for my needs. This model also comes with a LightScribe DVD burner standard. I have yet to test it, as the light scribe media is rare over here.
It has a RealTek Ethernet 10/100 and 56K Fax/Modem card, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a Mini PCI Express slot, SD.MS/Pro.MMC.XD card slot, an expansion port, and a firewire port. It has Intel 3945a/b/g wireless adapter, which is the standard choice, but later it can be upgraded to Intel’s 4965a/g/n adapter.
There are no upgrade options on the LCD side, so there is just the standard 1280×800 resolution widescreen, which comes with the optional webcam and mic as standard in this model. The webcam has a resolution of 640×480 and the image quality is good. It also has the optional fingerprint reader which also comes standard in this model. It is very useful as I use it every time I have to logon to windows or any other website.
Design & Appearance:
The design is pretty neat and sleek. This model comes with the radiance finish, which is basically a design of circles on it. This design is found on the palm rest and on the LCD cover. Nothing really stylish or eye catching but that doesn’t bothers me as I didn’t buy this notebook to compete in a fashion show.
All right time now for the benchmarks. The test setup is as follows:
Processor: Intel T7300 2.0GHz 4MB L2 Cache 800MHz FSB
Chipset: Intel GM965
Memory: 2 X 1GB DDR2-667MHz 5-5-5-15 (Corsair ValueSelect)
Graphics: Intel GMA X3100
Display: 15.4” WXGA (1280×800)
Hard Drive: 120GB 4200 (WesternDigital)
Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW LightScribe
Networking: Intel 3945a/b/g
Audio: Realtek HAD
Battery: 6-Cell 47WHr
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
The notebook came with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, HP QuickPlay, Adobe Reader 8, Roxio, Microsoft Works and a 60-day trial of Norton Internet security.
Futuremark PCMark05:
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=13&XLID=0&UID=9790466
(link currently broken, results below)
PCMark05 Performance Breakdown:
System Test Suite:
HDD – XP Startup = 5.561MB/sec
Physics and 3D = 62 FPS
2D – Transparent Windows = 1706 Windows/sec
3D – Pixel Shader = 22.8 FPS
Web Page Rendering = 1.348 Pages/Sec
File Decryption = 57.009 MB/sec
Graphics Memory – 64 lines = 507.910 FPS
HDD – General Usage = 3.929 MB/Sec
Multithreaded Test 1
Audio Compression = 1932.883 KB/Sec
Video Encoding = 358.146 KB/Sec
Multithreaded Test 2
Text Edit = 114.744 Pages/Sec
Image Decompression = 26.510 MPixels/Sec
Multithreaded Test 3
File Compression = 4.520 MB/Sec
File Encryption = 23.556 MB/Sec
HDD – Virus Scan = 24.054 MB/Sec
Memory Latency – Random 16 MB = 8.573 MAccess/Sec
CPU Test Suite:
File Compression = 9.244 MB/Sec
File Decompression = 137.012 MB/Sec
File Encryption = 56.302 MB/Sec
File Decryption = 56.566 MB/Sec
Image Decompression = 29.413 MPixels/Sec
Audio Compression = 2641.116 KB/Sec
Multithreaded Test 1
File Compression = 8.580 MB/Sec
File Encryption = 51.400 MB/Sec
Multithreaded Test 2
File Decompression = 61.699 MB/Sec
File Decryption = 26.560 MB/Sec
Audio Decompression = 989.414 KB/Sec
Image Decompression = 13.766 MPixels/Sec
Memory Test Suite: Total Score = 4269
Memory Read – 16MB = 4807.356 MB/Sec
Memory Read – 8MB = 5592.717 MB/Sec
Memory Read – 192KB = 13140.891 MB/Sec
Memory Read – 4KB = 30856.025 MB/Sec
Memory Write – 16MB = 3379.127 MB/Sec
Memory Write – 8MB = 3368.538 MB/Sec
Memory Write – 192KB = 12934.480 MB/Sec
Memory Write – 4KB = 30091.412 MB/Sec
Memory Copy – 16MB = 3651.408 MB/Sec
Memory Copy – 8MB = 3783.371 MB/Sec
Memory Copy – 192KB = 12368.266 MB/Sec
Memory Copy – 4KB = 30764.682 MB/Sec
Memory Latency – Random 16MB = 8.797 MAccess/Sec
Memory Latency – Random 8MB = 10.898 MAccess/Sec
Memory Latency – Random 192KB = 140.831 MAccess/Sec
Memory Latency – Random 4KB = 730.276 MAccess/Sec
Graphics Test Suite: Total Score = 1642
2D – Transparent Windows = 2383.125 Windows/Sec
2D – Graphics Memory – 64 Lines = 507.949 FPS
2D – Graphics Memory – 128 Lines = 405.811 FPS
2D – Video Playback = 25.213 FPS
3D – Fill Rate Multi-Texturing = 1138.434 MTexels/Sec
3D – Polygon Throughput Multiple Lights = 3.372 MTriangles/Sec
3D – Pixel Shader = 22.621 FPS
3D – Vertex Shader = 6.447 MVertices/Sec
HDD Test Suite: Total Score = 3578
HDD – XP Startup = 5.814 MB/Sec
HDD – Application Loading = 4.772 MB/Sec
HDD – General Usage = 4.015 MB/Sec
HDD – Virus Scan = 52.951 MB/Sec
HDD – File Write = 40.929 MB/Sec
General Performance – 3D Rendering (Cinebench 9.5)
***************************************************
Tester : CINEBENCH 9.5
Processor : Intel Core2Duo T7300
MHz : 2000
Number of CPUs : 2
Operating System : Windows Vista Home Premium
Graphics Card : X3100
Resolution : 1280×800
Color Depth : 32-bit
****************************************************
Rendering (Single CPU): 222 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 388 CB-CPU
Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.75
Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 268 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 436 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 587 CB-GFX
OpenGL Speedup: 2.19
The next test we ran was SuperPI which, for a laptop, had an excellent time for 1M digits of PI at 25.877s. Below are some screenshots showing several time results.
Laptops are not known for having speedy Hard Drives, however, we HDTach to see how this laptop performs, and, as expected it performs roughly the same as most other laptops do with a 5400RPM drive.
The maximum temperature reached 59C, sometime 60C on core#1 but came back to 59C moments after. The minimum temperature was 58C under load and so the average was 59C. At idle sitting in desktop and doing nothing the idle temperature was 44C ~ 46C.
Battery life is not very impressive, just above 2 hrs is the maximum while under general use i.e. windows media player, web-browsing, downloading etc.
This laptop performs admirably no doubt, and for anyone that is ok with plugging in the A/C adapter most of the time you will be quite happy, however, since it is a laptop, which is meant to be mobile, the 2hr battery life makes this laptop difficult to suggest as a good choice for most people.
