The only devices that matter … Im grateful

Because the nature of the card is so hot due to the weak stock cooling solution, and the hot climate in Malaysia doesn’t help either I decided to crack this thing open. Seriously, I don’t want to FUBAR the card by running it at 100+ degree Celsius during load.

Take a look …

First of all , the default thermal paste isn’t that good and I don’t think the thermal pad(white cloth-like material)  is a good solution at all as they stick dust. Ughhh . So I decided to crack it further and revealed the heatsink and aluminum fins. Do notice that there are some plastic sticker that sticks the plastic case with the shroud, IMO it’s recommended to remove them.

There, the cleaned up version… smooth and shiny.

Further apply better thermal paste (Arctic Cooling MX2) , cleaning off some dust and unwanted  debris.

Installing back to the case ..

The result for the effort

It’s only 75 degree Celcius on load. Same result obtained during a session of playing Prince of Persia. Not entirely groundbreaking, but I’m relieved because it runs off much cooler now and the temperature is perfectly acceptable.

Finally, the process of dismantling the card is a pain in the a$$ because you need to unscrew a total of 12 screws !

Specs

AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70 (2.0 GHz, 1MB KB L2 Cache)

14.1″ TFT WXGA high definition widescreen LCD panel with brightview technology

1GB 667MHz / max to 4GB DDR2 800 Memory (1024 x 1 pcs) + 2GB DDR2 667(Free Upgrade)

ATI Radeon HD 3450 Graphics with 256MB dedicated memory

250GB HDD

DVD +/- RW Double Layer Drive with LightScribe

Bluetooth

802.11b/g

Integrated 10Mbps, 100Mbps

ports include USB 2.0 (3), VGA, HDMI, RJ-11, RJ-45, 1 headphone, 1 microphone jack

Compaq Webcam with integrated microphone

5-in-1 intergrated digital media reader slot

Free Nylon Carrying Case + HP Carry Case(Free)

One year International Limited Warranty (parts/labor/carry-in)

Freedos (126AX with same spec but comes with Vista Home Premium, at higher price)

Pros

Relatively capable processor, able to perform multitasking as good as desktop counterpart. Used under Vista business platform, quite responsive with applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Visual Studio Express /w SQL service.

Gaming wise, it’s hit and miss. Performed very well with older games up until Half Life 2 era. Tested with newer game like NFS:Underground and CoD: Waw, playable, but only around ~20FPS at low-mid setting. 3dMark06 scores will be around 17xx . Playing Warcraft 3 is definitely fine though so ,obviously this will also be a good choice for Dota lover.

Pretty good mobility, weighting around 2.2KG and isn’t thick at all.

Sleek design, glossy lid as seen on lid

All in 1 package HP gave 2GB Free upgrade on RAM which is a good deal

Okay-ish keyboard

Cons

Get hot pretty fast, thanks to the AMD CPU that is not quite as efficient as Core 2 CPU, idling around 50-60 celc

Together with the ATi GPU the laptop suck out juice faster, at the max 2 hours without power supply plugged. (Depends on power saver setting)

No seperate set of function keys

Overall

All in all, great laptop at a very decent price, RM2099 with the goodies. Check out this site HPStore  if you wanted to buy online. Got mine from HP authorized shop opposite of Low YatPlaza. Recommended for users who seek for an all rounder capable laptop that has one of the best price/performance ratio.

New test .