HP DM1z

First off, the yb will only upgrade to 4 gig of ram instead of the 8 gb that the dm1 has. The yb also should have a back lit keyboard option as well as many color options for lids etc.. Other then that, I don't think the sony is any better then the dm1 since the dm1 also has a very good keyboard and build quality. I would doubt the sony's speakers will be as nice.. the dm1 has some very impressive speakers as well as a good led display. If you really want the backlit keyboard and a different color, then you might want to wait another month for the Sony. Expect to pay another 100 dollars for the Sony name and it won't necessary be a better machine at that price. Again, you will be limited to 4 gigs of ram which should be sufficient for most people. I have not heard about how easy it is for user upgrades to HD, Ram. With the Dm1, this is not a problem.

 

Someone can check gaming performance of 3gb vs 4gb vs 8gb?

 

I don't game or do heavy graphics work and have never seen the ram usage go over 1.3 gigs in the task manager. That is with several tabs open in FF, a news reader downloading 8 threats at 7 megabits, and having a optical drive connected and powertogo open, and viewing 1080P flash video. So if you are not going to do any serious graphics work or gaming, then upgrading ram would be a complete waste of money IMO. For multitasking like this, I think the bottleneck will hit the processor first.

 

A-Data RAM usually has good reviews, but I would go with the Kingston since the CAS latency is lower. Also, the Kingston is a couple bucks cheaper on Amazon:

Amazon.com: Kingston ValueRAM 4GB 1066MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 SO-DIMM Notebook Memory (KVR1066D3S7/4G): Electronics

 

Canadian pricing:

HP Pavilion 11.6" Laptop featuring AMD E-Series Dual Core Processor E350 (DM1-3040CA) - Black : 14.1" Laptops & Under - Best Buy Canada

 

Finally got my SDD and a new install of Windows 7 running.

Some notes:

The hard drive cage is very odd as it places the drive at a 20 degree angle (although it appears flat in the case). It looks probable to place bushings on the contacts to dampen the vibration.

The hdd is a Seagate Momentus 7200.4

I decided to place a Vertex2 SSD in the box and it seems faster but WEI and benchmarks don't really place it much faster than the base hdd. Does anyone else with an SSD have similar experiences?

-edit: I think I'm missing the chipset drivers. Anyone know where I can get these from?

Also, what does the "HP 3D Drive Guard" do? I installed it to get rid of the last "unknown device" in device manager (I'm guessing it was the accelerometer).

 

It parks the heads on the HD if it senses a large bump or fall, hopefully prevent damage to the HD.

 

This thing does not disappoint. I like the keyboard and the trackpad. The screen is sharp and the colors are good as well. It also gets bright enough to overpower the reflections in a sunlit room.
Everyday computing-wise, it seems to perform about the same as my C2D M11X did. Except the screen on the DM1 is usable.
The speakers are crazy good and seem to be distortion-free even at max volume.
I played Dead Space this morning on medium settings. I don't know what the FPS were, but I can say it was smooth.
The only quibble I really have is the fan. I seems to get really loud when I'm doing nothing. That been said, this thing doesn't get warm at all. Cool as a cucumber.

 

did anyone try to put a mini-pcie SSD in the free slot? i'm veeeeery interested...
i'm almost certain i'm gonna buy this little critter as soon as it becomes available in my country, but having already seen what an SSD can do (and having already seen how crazy they can be at hp, 290$ for an unknown 128gb ssd??? with that money i could buy a sandforce ssd and another 4gb stick... and still have the hdd they'd give me with the lowest model) the pcie ssd + sata hdd solution would be just perfect if anyone of you who already have it can give it a try and post here the results, i think i won't be the only one appreciating

 

If you download the latest Synaptics drivers, you can use the whole touchpad as a mouse button. Just press the whole thing down, and it will register a click.