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HP’s Pavilion range was never going to offer the same ‘wow factor’ as its premium Envy line and we couldn’t pick out its previous dm4 Pavilion in a line up.

But HP’s new dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition is far from anonymous.

Thanks to the ubiquity of Beats Audio technology, HP has decided to give its non-descript dm4 Pavilion a chassis overhaul and specs update. That upgrade does bump up the price to £849, so it’s not the very best value for money, but the Beats redesign is a success for various reasons.

It looks super-modern without being too cool for school, enjoys a solid feel for a 14-inch multimedia portable and – most importantly – it sounds absolutely fantastic.

Punching above its weight

Despite its slinky dimensions (338 x 225 x 32 mm), the dm4-3000ea is fairly heavy. A weight of 2kg for such a small chassis is surprising, but every component – including the great backlit keyboard – feels robust and well-made (although it’s not the solid mag-alloy chassis that HP puts in its Envy laptops; just serviceable plastic here).

The board marries the same soft red and matte black hues that adorns the case. The Beats logo also sits front and centre, which could annoy, but the font design is so nice it actually really works.

It can be hard to type on dinkier laptops’ keyboards, but the dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition is the exception to the rule . It felt much better than the first dm4 Pavilion board and has isolated chiclet keys with a solid bounce.

HP has also binned the miniature navigation keys, making it fine to use for long periods for multi-tasking and browsing online. Our only bone of contention was the unresponsive touch tech on the trackpad which is still a novelty.

The 14-inch display is powered by 1366 x 768 LED-backlit BrightView screen, which works perfectly well in most brightness conditions. It’s not over-glossy and coped admirably with the darker hues of The Dark Knight. We also had no problems streaming high-definition video content. Clearly, the HP dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition won’t have any problems performing most multimedia tasks.

HP also gets bonus points for adding one of the better in-built webcams available. Thanks to the TrueVision low-light tech, it managed to pick us out accurately enough in murky lighting.

Under the hood

The rest of the specs under the hood are decent enough to make sure HP’s dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition didn’t suffer any staccato playback – even on number crunching apps.

HP has bundled a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5-2450M processor, a 500GB SATA hard drive and 4GB of memory with space for two more sticks if you fancy an upgrade. That should be enough oomph to boot the OS from cold in no time at all… but, irritatingly, HP has added the usual bloatware gubbins to slow everything down. That said, some of the pre-loaded software, like Norton and Windows Office Starter Edition is actually useful.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 174 minutes
Cinebench: 5629
3DMark 2006: 5622

Performance in our lab tests produced steady if unspectacular results, especially when you consider the power available from that Intel Core i5 chip. A score of 5629 in our processor benchmarks means that it’s more than adept at multitasking, but it does seem low when compared with laptops such as the Packard Bell TS11 which achieved better lab tests.

Graphics were equally unspectacular, and we also got a mid-range score of 5622 in our 3D Mark tests. This is enough for light gaming, thanks to 1GB of dedicated graphics on its AMD Radeon HD 7470M GPU. Just don’t expect to get anything out of Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, though.

The 174-minute battery life using Battery Eater Pro’s Readers’ Test was pretty good – especially when you bear in mind that it has a 6-cell battery.

So, the question remains, how do you get enjoy audio fidelity on such a small laptop? The simple answer is to plug in decent headphones and bypass the traditionally tinny laptop speakers.

If you’re not a fan of headphones, a more permanent solution is to upgrade to superior audio components.

While the Beats audio results good, you still can’t been hooking up a decent set of speakers. That said, for audio on the go, the dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition comes highly recommended – and HP even throws in a pair of Dr Dre’s Solo headphones as part of the package.

Overall the HP dm4-3000sa is a capable portable laptop, for those who want style while they’re on the move. Admittedly, it’s not packed with power, and there are lighter machines for the money, but the Beats credentials give it cool credibility that will attract students and younger users.

Anyone who does invest will be rewarded with a solid performer capable of work and play on the move, but those with demanding needs will want to look at portables backed up by a bit more grunt.

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If you’re after a machine to play Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3, look no further. The Asus G74S is a mammoth gaming laptop, which has the power to play all the latest titles, and while you might not get as much for your money when compared with full form desktops, it’s up there with the best.

Buying a gaming laptop offers fantastic pay offs in terms of space and portability. If you don’t have room for a hulking desktop system, or like to have the option of taking your laptop away from your home, the Asus G74S is perfect.

The G74S is a whopping 17.3" and features a full HD screen, which makes games look great. The screen is matte, so no pesky reflections will ruin your experience. While this technology takes the life out of images, the full 1920 x 1080 resolution keeps things looking great, and is just as adept at playing movies too.

Bright and beautiful

The panel is stunningly bright – great for gaming in dark rooms, and it’s also 3D-enabled, using Nvidia’s 3D Vision active-shutter technology. This means the panel has super-swift refresh rates, which makes day-to-day tasks feel snappier too.

It’s one of the slickest integrations of 3D tech we’ve seen, and with the receiver built into the body of the G74S, there was no fuss getting it working. All the content we tried looked fantastic.

To play the latest games you need the latest technology, and a top-of-the-range mobile Intel Core i7 2630QM processor is included here, which aced our lab tests. It’s up there with the biggest and baddest systems, and is the same chip found in the more famous Alienware M18x.

Anyone who makes a large gaming laptop will immediately be compared with the Alienware, but we think that the Asus is more than a match for its extra-terrestrial rival. There’s 8GB of RAM, which is double that found on the stingy M18x.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 86 minutes
Cinebench: 16914
3DMark 2006: 15270

The hard drive is also a whopping 1.5TB (that’s 1500GB) which, in today’s terms, means almost unlimited space. The Alienware M18x ships with just 250GB, which gives you an idea of the great value offered by the G74S over its competitors.

What’s more, there’s also a Blu-ray drive to boot, so you can play the latest movies in high-definition.

At 4.6kg, you can get some idea of the build quality of the Asus G74S. It weighs the same as four Toshiba Ultrabooks, and is as solid as any laptop you’ll find.

Looks are uninspiring, and there’s no keyboard back lighting, or flashy extras, but that’s no great loss. The Asus G74S is a fantastic, power-packed gaming machine, which will also appeal to movie lovers looking for a desktop-replacement system too.

The screen and built-in 3D, as well as the colossal storage, make it good value buy, in spite of the high price.

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The X-Rite Colormunki Display calibrates monitors and projectors, and comes complete with a friendly software package which contains step-by-step guides and video tutorials.

Ambient light is swiftly measured while display flare may also be taken into account, and the process takes under 10 minutes from start to finish.

The results appear accurate, and the various image samples allow quick before and after comparisons post-calibration. It’s not the cheapest or fastest device, but it’s ideal for those new to the process.

The X-Rite Colormunki Display is an inexpensive monitor calibration device, which promises advanced control with ease of use. Capable of profiling wide-gamut displays and even projectors, the package contains a colorimeter complete with a diffuser panel, together with software and a Quick Start Guide.

Following the latter enables even first time users to quickly get to grips with its operation, while the profiling process may be run in either Easy or Advanced modes, depending on the user’s skill level and desired control.

Once the software has been installed, an ambient light reading may be taken and calibration can begin. Everything is explained clearly and diagrams are provided, although video tutorials are also on hand should the user get stuck.

The software takes around two minutes to adjust the display’s luminance using a series of patches, before the remainder are displayed and measured over an additional five minutes. Approximate timings are given throughout the process, and once complete it’s possible to view before and after comparisons using a range of images.

The advanced controls enable you to measure flare from your display and to take this into account, along with white point specification and other options.

Overall, there’s very little not to like: the results appear accurate and no obvious colour biases can be observed, and reminders can be set up should the lighting conditions change or if a large period of time elapses between calibrations.

The only minor niggle is that although it works in much the same way as the i1 Display Pro device, it’s considerably slower (although around £50 cheaper too).

Verdict

Still, for the novice user performing occasional calibrations, it’s pretty much spot on, colour casts will be banished and all your future image adjustments accurate and worth while.

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The Gigabyte Aivia M8600 is a wireless gaming mouse that has the admirable aim to ensure you never run out of power.

Wireless mice are great, because we don’t have to worry about trailing wires across our desks, and they generally give us a lot more freedom. One of their biggest problems, however, is reliance on batteries.

If you’ve got a mouse that uses standard non-rechargeable AA or AAA batteries, this can be an annoying expense, especially if they run out when you don’t have any spares in the house, necessitating a frenzied rush to the shop just to move your cursor. A mouse low on power can also become unresponsive and erratic.

The Gigabyte Aivia M8600 Wireless Macro Gaming Mouse has addressed a number of these battery concerns. For a start, the M8600 doesn’t rely on AA batteries. Instead, it has a Li-ion battery that is charged by placing the mouse on the charging dock, which also doubles as a wireless receiver.

The M8600 can also be plugged directly into a computer for charging (and simultaneous use) via a USB cable. Gigabyte claims you can enjoy 50 hours of continuous use with the M8600′s battery, and it certainly retains its charge for a long time.

Even better, it comes with an extra battery, which you can install when your juice does start to run low. The standalone battery can also be charged in the dock, but not at the same time as the mouse.

It wouldn’t look out of place as part of Batman’s costume, with a matt black finish and rather severe angles.

Luckily it’s a lot more comfortable to hold than we’d imagine, though still far from the most ergonomic mouse we’ve had a chance to test. It has a decent weight and feels well built, with buttons feeling firm and responsive.

The speed of the mouse can be quickly altered by pressing the plus and minus buttons on either side of the scroll wheel. There are three speed settings, represented by LEDs on the mouse, and each level is different enough from the last to make it worth switching for specific tasks or games, although it doesn’t offer a great level of customisation.

Verdict

This mouse is expensive, but it’s well designed and performs brilliantly.

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Overview

This is a bit more within the reach of us mere mortals – a Sandy Bridge E CPU that doesn’t cost the same amount as some full PCs.

Intel, with even less of a fanfare than it made for the muted launch of the Sandy Bridge E platform, has now unleashed the quad-core iteration of its top-end chips, the Intel Core i7 3820, priced at £260 in the UK and $286 in the US.

But, to be honest, we’re not entirely sure why this CPU even exists.

Before this, the cheapest Sandy Bridge E processor was the Intel Core i7 3930K, costing £450-500 in the UK and $650-700 in the US. The crazy expensive £800-900/$1,100-1,200 Intel Core i7 3960X takes its place at the top of the Intel CPU tech tree. Both those CPUs are full-blooded hex-core chips with Hyper-Threading tech enabling twelve threads of processing power.

Except that they’re not really hex-core chips at all. The Intel Core i7 3930K and i7 3960X are actually octo-core server chips with a couple of cores disabled to fit into the desktop segment.

This, coupled with the huge price tag, has been our major bugbear with the latest of Intel’s top-end chips. We now have eight-core CPUs potentially running in our home rigs, but unfortunately we’re not allowed access to the disabled silicon sitting inside our incredibly expensive chips.

A cynic would say Sandy Bridge E represents a great opportunity for Intel to sell broken Xeons to the desktop computing crowd for a tidy profit.

Intel obviously refutes this, making the case that it believes the consumer would rather have higher clockspeeds over those extra cores, and it needed to sacrifice two cores to hit the 3.3GHz speed of the top chip.

Before with the imminent release of its E5 Xeons, Intel has managed to hit 3.1GHz with a Sandy Bridge E-based server chip designed for the LGA 2011 socket.

So what about the Intel Core i7 3820? Is this huge processor the same, is it really carrying around four dead cores in its innards? Little ghoulish really…

Chip architecture

Thankfully, the Intel Core i7 3820 is not just another bust eight-core chip, this time with half its goodness turned off.

The processor is actually a different die entirely, compared with bigger brothers the i7 3930K and i7 3960X. And they most definitely are bigger, by around 1 billion of the wee 32nm transistors.

That gives the Intel Core i7 3820 1.27 billion in its make up. But that means it’s still bigger than the previous generation’s Gulftown hex-core CPUs, the entire Sandy Bridge lineup and even AMD’s chunky quad-module Bulldozer chips.

So the CPU die is rattling around in that massive LGA 2011 package, especially considering it’s over 100mm2 smaller than the die size of the other two Sandy Bridge E processors.

The Intel Core i7 3820′s cache is also inevitably smaller than its Sandy Bridge E compadres, but compared with the Intel Core i7 3930K’s 12MB you’re only losing 2MB of L3 cache.

At 10MB, the Intel Core i7 3820 is a little more cache-heavy than the 8MB-toting Intel Core i7 2600K and Intel Core i7 2700K chips.

There is one other key difference between this straight Core i7 3820 and the X and K suffixed CPUs from Intel, and that’s the unlocked nature of the other chips.

This processor has a partially locked multiplier, which limits it to 43x compared to the 57x multiplier offered by both the other Sandy Bridge E chips and the top-end K-series i7 and i5 CPUs of the plain Sandy Bridge range.

That ought to seriously limit its overclocking potential, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Benchmarks

The Core i7 3820 actually posts some decent scores but it’s the Core i7 2700K that makes the best impression thanks to some stellar comparative benchmarks.

In single-threaded applications the straight Sandy Bridge architecture has the edge in our test, showing why the gaming performance is higher as well.

CPU performance

Video encoding performance

Gaming performance

Performance

The Intel Core i7 3820 actually posts some decent scores in our benchmark tests, but it’s the Intel Core i7 2700K that makes the best impression, thanks to some stellar comparative benchmarks.

In single-threaded applications, the straight Sandy Bridge architecture has the edge in our test, showing why the gaming performance is higher as well.

So the key battle for the Intel Core i7 3820 is the head-to-head with the Core i7 2700K, the top Sandy Bridge CPU. At £260, they’re both priced in the same ballpark (or stadium, if you prefer), and at 3.6GHz vs the 2700K’s 3.5GHz they’re both around the same sort of clockspeed.

Predictably things are pretty close in terms of raw performance. Importantly, though, not identical.

The Intel Core i7 2700K still maintains a lead at stock clocks over the Sandy Bridge E Intel Core i7 3820. In single-threaded performance, the 2700K is actually quicker than even the i7 3830K, although despite having a higher clockspeed, the i7 3820 offers the same figures as the 3830K in single-threaded performance.

Thanks to the extra couple of cores in the mid-range Sandy Bridge E chip, it takes a lead in the multi-threaded Cinebench rendering and X264 encoding tests. The resolutely quad-core Intel Core i7 3820 lags behind the hex-core chip and, interestingly, the lower-clocked Core i7 2700K, though.

The straight Sandy Bridge’s gaming pedigree comes to the fore, though, when we start throwing the World in Conflict and Shogun 2 benchmarks at the different chips.

When the graphics card is taken out of the equation, in the WiC and Shogun 2 CPU DX9 CPU tests, the straight-line performance of the 2700K puts it ahead of both the Sandy Bridge E chips. And that’s even true when we beat the i7 3820 with the overclocking stick, too.

But the overclocking performance of the i7 3820 is quite interesting. Despite being only partially unlocked, meaning you hit the 4.3GHz limit straight away, you can push it further given the right motherboard.

Thanks to the BCLK strap, the Sandy Bridge E chips are able to withstand a good tweaking of the base clock. That’s still limited to being 100MHz, 125MHz, 166MHz and 250MHz, but it does give you some leeway.

With a decent motherboard, you should be able to get up to the same sort of overclocking performance – around 4.7GHz – as the i7 2700K.

That means that the partially locked multiplier really doesn’t impact too much on the overclocking prowess of this new Sandy Bridge E chip.

But the reliance on a decent motherboard is one thing that goes against the i7 3820, especially in a straight fight between it and the 2700K. And that’s all down to platform costs.

Verdict

So the Intel Core i7 3820 performs at around the same sort of levels as the top-end standard Sandy Bridge CPUs.

We have to say, that’s a bit of a disappointment.

This is supposed to be the serious enthusiast processors for Intel’s desktop faithful, but the more mainstream, soon-to-be-replaced Sandy Bridge setup is just as good at the quad-core level.

On core-for-core performance, you’re not getting much extra for your Sandy Bridge E money. Of course there are the extra PCIe lanes, which are useful if you’re rocking more than two graphics cards, and the extra bandwidth offered by the new PCIe 3.0 tech, but the real value of that is still rather ephemeral at best.

There are also the extra two channels of DDR3 memory in the Sandy Bridge E/X79 combo, but again for most of us the benefits of that extra bandwidth is rather difficult to gauge.

In the overclocking stakes, the partially locked multiplier doesn’t do the Intel Core i7 3820 a lot of harm, and you ought to be able to hit the same sort of OC numbers as the 2700K. But not best it.

You need a decent motherboard to facilitate that, and that means spending nigh-on £200 on your board. Combined with the £260-odd you’re paying for the chip, that still makes the Sandy Bridge E platform too expensive compared to the far cheaper base Sandy Bridge.

There will be instances where the Intel Core i7 3820 and X79 combo will be beneficial, for the offline 3D rendering workstation or other serious productivity tasks that don’t necessarily require heavy multi-threading. But that’s a niche of an already minuscule niche.

There’s only one PCIe 3.0 graphics card out at the moment and the benefits that interface alone gives you are limited. And the extra memory bandwidth is only useful for a tiny minority of the world’s populace.

The fast majority of us, and all PC gamers, can already get enough all-round performance out of a standard Sandy Bridge setup.

The quad-core Intel Core i7 2700K or 2600K are still the CPUs we’d recommend.

We had hoped for a more impressive, compelling outing for the quad-core version of Sandy Bridge E. Sadly Intel already has the best-performing quad-core chip on the market, and as a whole platform the i7 2700K and Z68 chipset look like quite the bargain.

The low price of the Intel Core i7 3820 is pleasing, though, and does mean that if you want to build the basis for an excellent workstation you can pick up a decently-priced CPU now and then splash the serious cash on a hex-core CPU if you can afford, or need, the extra cores at a later date.

The socket will continue with 22nm Ivy Bridge E chips towards the end of the year, so there is at least some onward progression for the X79 chipset. Even if Ivy Bridge on the Z77 platform will put the boot into the i7 3820 in a couple of months time.

We liked

The fact that Intel has put the chip out for the same price as the top-end Sandy Bridge i7 2700K is impressive, and thoroughly welcome.

We’re also pleased that the BCLK strap shenanigans help to render the partially locked multiplier a non-issue for the majority of overclockers.

We disliked

Sadly there’s no real compelling reason to choose this CPU over the existing Sandy Bridge setups. We had hoped for at least a little bit of a performance lead for the extra cash you’d have to stump up for this platform as a whole, but sadly for the Intel Core i7 3820, the i7 2700K has it licked in most benchmarks.

Final verdict

It’s a decent chip, offering the extra bandwidth of the Sandy Bridge E platform for straight Sandy Bridge prices. But the vast majority of us don’t need that bandwidth.

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