# HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Benchmarks] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m]



## bhvm (Sep 16, 2014)

*HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m]*

*HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Benchmarks] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m]*

This Ganesh Festival, I was looking forward to a new Cheap laptop as I gave away my existing laptop (Acer 5560 AMD A6-3400M llano) to my sister. I was longing for a Full fledged AMD kaveri with dual graphics setup , however AMD is getting a bit long in the tooth due to repeated delays. Anyways the new tech comes late in India compared to the west. Understanding that I wont get AMD kaveri for atleast 6 months or more, I pounced upon a cheap little stop-gap laptop that gets the work done.
*
HP G002AX / G009AX are same but 009AX misses out the Windows 8.1.*

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*
Design and Looks-*
HP is making some of the worst designs  I've ever seen recently and this laptop is no exception.

>The power and HDD LEDs are off to side rather than upfront. 

>There is no Basic LED indicator for Num Lock!!

>NO VGA PORT! This is unacceptable 
After saving a few bucks on laptop I have to spend Rs.1100 on Adapters and cables. (HDMI converter)

>Whole laptop is made like single piece and Upgrading the HDD , RAM or even CMOS battery needs one to Rip out the Keyboard, Back cover, Top cover, then Motherboard and what not!!  Yuk!

>Gloss Gloss Gloss! As if  HP found a cheap stash of Gloss paint and they were simply spraying it everywhere they can. Gloss around the Touch pad means Fingerprints and Scratches galore!

>Only one Combo Headphone/Mic port. So those using old fashioned headsets will need to buy new ones.

Really HP?Why did you do this?

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Now for some good things,
Laptop is slimmer than you'd expect. The Sparkling Black finish looks good (when its clean), Somewhat like a Granite top. 
The Caps lock key has a small indicator built onto the key itself. My Samsung and Acer both missed these. There is a WIFI LED built onto the key as well. There is again a Yellow LED for Mute. A small LED near charging port is also present (yellow when charging, White when charged). Oh how I love these tiny lights!

There are a row of function keys with the Fn key combo and also include Media player controls and volume. These keys work directly without pressing FN by default. There is a Card reader upfront.
The touchpad is extra large and supports gestures which actually work.

*Display-*
Oh How bored I am with these 1336x768 screens! Even my Rs.16k  cellphone now has FULL HD display with IPS quality. The Display is glossy and generic quality.
However keeping in Mind the low price and Low end graphics chips, Half  HD display should be OK OK. There’s a 720p webcam (with indicator LED) and Mic above the display for those Skype calls.

*Performance-*
Performance is Snappy and boot-up is fast. Running multiple applications alongside poses no problems at all. I am running a dual screen configuration and I can surf and play on both screens no problem.

The RAM is only 3GB in reality which maybe limiting in the future. Worst part its, RAM is non-Upgradeable so you're stuck  for a lifetime. There is only one RAM slot. However the GPU 8570M has its dedicated 2GB RAM so its atleast not eating away the Main RAM. However the Inbuilt Radeon R5 seems to be eating about 1GB of main ram. AMD is known to Heavily prefer Graphic rather than x86 performance, This psychology is shown in 3GB main RAM, 3GB Graphics RAM!!

The AMD A8 6410 Beema CPU performs closely to the A10 7300 ULV Which is a kaveri 19W part. Cheers! Compare here-
AMD A-Series A8-6410 Notebook Processor - NotebookCheck.net Tech
*www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Kaveri-A10-7300-Notebook-Processor.117333.0.html

Comparision with an intel i5 15w part yields strange results-
*www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-Notebook-Processor.93563.0.html

The Intel i5 is better in Geekbench and Cienebench. However intel badly looses on all 3d mark scores (like 4~5 times poor) And about 10 times poor in X264 marks.

The AMD Beema A8 6410 also manages to beat an Intel i5 35W CPU is most benchmarks-
*www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-2415M-Notebook-Processor.49627.0.html

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*Gaming-*
The ATI 8570M is a well known Mid-range performer. It plays older games at full quality and new games at medium or High. The 8570m is based on modern 28nm GCN architecture just like R7 series.

The GPU comes with it own 2GB DDR3 memory clocked at 900Mhz and core clocked at 644Mhz (wrongy mentioned as 850MHZ GPU/1000Mhz MEM on internet) It comes with 256 Shaders (wrongly said 384 shaders on net) As the AMD shader cores are weaker than Nvidia, I would call them more like 90~120 Nvidia shaders. That Puts the performance more in Range of  GT630( Desktop) or even 9800M GT (laptop)
In modern terms, the GPU is equal to R7 M260- (laptop DDR3 model)
*www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2293&gid2=1495&compare=radeon-r7-m260-vs-radeon-hd-8570m

*www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9800M-GT.9906.0.html

Most of the Modern games can be enjoyed at highest settings on 720p resolution-
Crysis 2
COD 4, COD MW2, COD MW3, COD black ops
Split second
battlefield bad company 2
Battlefield 3
Left 4 dead 1 & 2
Sniper ghost warrior
NEED for speed (All series)


Still decent for the Price and power consumption. One Strange thing, The inbuilt R5 GPU is also about 80% as good as dedicated 8570m (See Aquamark3 for detailed observation). This can be a good or bad thing depending on the way you look at it.

Unfortunately, the GPU cannot enable Dual graphics with the Stock BEEMA R5 128 Shaders as the GPU is a few generations older. Had the HP put in a compatible R5 Model, we could benefit increased framerate. That's like HP has a Old stock of outdated GPUs and they just want to get rid of them. But I'm not cringing due to low prices.


*i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/bhvm/HP%20AMD%20A8%20Laptop/aquamark_2014_09_15_16_20_37_152.jpg

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*Accessories-*
There are no accessories supplied. Not even a Driver CD. Everything needs to be downloaded (over 1.5 GB) from the HP website (3G rates have just increased) and even then there can be issues. I remember when buying a new  laptop 5 years ago means a box or two, full of accessories and over a dozen CDs! Look how the companies are cutting corners. A CD costs what today? 10 rupees?

*Ports & Ergonomics-*
The laptop comes with the usual bandwagon of HDMI,  and USB ports. There are No E-Sata or Express card slots. NO VGA PORT. There are only 3 usb ports out of which only ONE has USB 3.0 Speeds. I would have expected all ports to be 3.0 Speeds for such a large notebook. The USB 3.0 Copy speeds are 65~70 MB/s

For the good things, We have full size keypad with numeric inputs (these are the norm anyways), But arrow keys are too small. 

Speakers actually had me stunned. These are among the best speakers in laptop. Total Thumbs up!

*HEAT-*
Thanks to the Low power 15W AMD BEEMA CPU, During surfing, the laptop stays cool at about 31~45.C. However gaming is totally another story. 
After half Hour of COD MW3, I saw temperatures of 76.C on Pirifom Speccy. There is a single fan at the bottom for cooling. I will Strictly suggest going for a Laptop Stand (with fans) when gaming.

*Battery-*
The laptop comes with only 4 cell battery which is a tad small for large laptop. Usual 6 cell would have done better. However due to low Consumption AMD BEEMA 15w CPU, it still gets about 3 hours. Another cost cutting by HP. One great thing is AMD power play, that allows you to set your CPU max speed anywhere from 1 Ghz to 2 Ghz on battery mode. It really works and saves battery.

However gaming is only 1 Hr on Battery.

*Software-*
I simply hate Windows 8. Its a disaster. This time Microsoft screwed even more than they did with Vista. Thankfully with some Free tools I am able to attain start menu and classic shell. I may try to get back to windows 7, however the internet is full of driver complaints and various horrors. I think Microsoft paid HP to NOT support windows 7 at all.

Windows 8 misses on the beautiful glass AERO effects that vista introduced. So I will say that windows 8 looks more like “classic mode, No transparency” theme of windows 7. Also windows 8 has done away with neat desktop gadgets. I will have to bring them back somehow. Doing all of this (Transparency,Gadgets, Classic shell) needs third party apps that sap performance



HP comes with its own share of Bloatware and trial ware. I will suggest un-installing these and creating a System Image (Clone) for safeguard of basic windows OS.

Unwillingly, I would STRONGLY suggest you get G002AX with ready windows as Installing your own OS is a horror story with poor driver support and other issues. Price difference is minor.

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*Benchmarks-*

Aquamark 3-
nvidia 7600go , Intel C2D @ 2Ghz 4GB DDR2 (dual channel) laptop- (on power)
gfx 4275
cpu 4891
tot 29749 fps 29.75

HP AMD A8 6410 @ 2Ghz , AMD 8570M (This machine on Power)
GFX 6153
CPU 8430
tot. 45084 fps 45.08

HP AMD A8 6410 @ 2Ghz , AMD R5 Onboard (Forced Power saving Graphics, On Power)
gpx 5538
CPU 7988
tot.41123 fps 41.12

HP AMD A8 6410 @ 1 Ghz , AMD R5 Onboard (This machine on Battery)
GFX 3507
CPU 4282
Tot 24886, Fps 24.89

_________________________________________
Everest ultimate v5 benchmark -
nvidia 7600go , Intel C2D @ 2Ghz, 4GB DDR2 (dual channel) laptop-

mem read-  4073mbs 
mem write 3034
latency- 99.2nz 

CPU queen 6471
CPU aes 5876
fpu julia- 1355
fpu mandel 634
fpu sinjulia 751

HP AMD A8 6410, AMD 8570M (This machine On power)
mem read- 6606
mem write-3960
latency- 114.5ns 

CPU queen- 9045
aes- 149609 ??
fpu Julia- 1194
fpu mandel 7636 ??
fpu sinjulia 1847



UT 2003 Default benchmark (This machine on power)
Flyby-180 FPS, Botmatch 63 Fps

Aida64 benchmarks- (AMD A8 on power)-

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*Overclocking-*
I tried various OC apps like K10Stat, Brazos tweaker, MSI afterburner, Saphire TriXX , AMD overdrive etc. Unfortunately, None of the Apps could recognize either CPU or GPU properly on this machine. Heck! only Piriform speccy was able to get correct specs and temperature readings. Not even GPU-z works. Overclocking is Impossible on this machine.


*Price- Brought for mere 31k during Ganesh festive offer. Windows included.
*

*Verdict*- Great AMD A8 hardware that is marred by Stupid HP designs and puzzling windows 8! If you are looking for the cheapest AMD laptop that can do daily job and game a little, this is Okay.

*The Specs-*
OVERVIEW
Brand	HP 
Type	Notebook 
Series	G Series 
Utility	Gaming 
Color	Sparkling Black 
Model Number	15-g002ax (G8D84PA) 

PROCESSOR
Processor Name	AMD APU A8 
Variant	6410 
Processor Brand	AMD 
Clock Speed	2 GHz with Turbo Boost Upto 2.4 GHz 
Cache	2 MB 

MEMORY
Memory Slots	1 (Unused Slot - 0) 
RAM	4 GB DDR3 

STORAGE
Hard Disk Capacity	1 TB 
RPM	5400 
Hardware Interface	SATA 

OPTICAL DISK DRIVE
Read/Write Speed	8x 
Optical Drive	SuperMulti DVD Drive with Dual Layer Support 

PLATFORM
Operating System	Windows 8.1 
Architecture	64 bit 

DISPLAY
Screen Size	15.6 inch 
Resolution	1366 x 768 Pixels 
Screen Type	HD BrightView LED Backlit Wide Screen Display 

GRAPHICS
Dedicated Graphics Memory Type	DDR3 
Dedicated Graphics Memory Capacity	2 GB 
Graphic Processor	AMD Radeon HD 8570M 

KEYBOARD/INPUT
Integrated Camera	HP TrueVision HD Webcam - 1280 x 720 by 24 frames 
Pointer Device	Touchpad with Windows 8 Multi-touch Gesture Support 
Keyboard	Full-size Textured Island Style Keyboard with Numeric Keypad 

AUDIO
Internal Mic	Single Digital Microphone 
Speakers	Dual Speakers 
Sound Effect	HD Audio 

COMMUNICATION
Ethernet	Integrated 10/100 BaseT 
Wireless LAN	Integrated 802.11b/g/n 
Bluetooth	v4.0 

POWER & BATTERY
Power Supply	65 W AC Adapter 
Standard Battery	4 cell 

PORTS/SLOTS
USB Port/S	2 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 
RJ45 LAN	Yes 
HDMI Port	Yes, v1.4 HDMI Port with HDCP Support 
NO VGA PORT.
Multi Card Slot	3-in-1 Card Reader 
Other Ports	1 x Headphone Out / Microphone-in Combo Jack 

SECURITY
Lock Port	Kensington Lock Slot 

Size & Weight
Weight	2.23 kg 
Dimension(W*D*H)	377.952 x 259.08 x 25.4 mm 
Color	Sparkling Black 

WARRANTY DETAILS
Warranty Period	1 Year HP India Onsite Warranty

*Links-*
Snapdeal,
*www.snapdeal.com/product/hp-15g002ax-notebook-apu-quad/1710445692#ReviewHeader

Acer 5560-
*www.digit.in/forum/reviews/179356-...ming-amd-apu-a6-amd-6520g-4gb-ddr3-500gb.html

samsung review-
*www.digit.in/forum/reviews/178709-...vision-e1-1-4ghz-amd-7310-2gb-ddr3-500gb.html

***LONG TERM UPDATE***

I am pleased to present a long term update about the machine. This has been my primary machine till date and has been chock full of Apps, Data and Games. Infact, Only 40 GB is free out of 1TB.
There are no complaints regarding this machine and has never failed or Hung. Battery life still holds up at 4~5 hours. Most of the new games are working very well. There is no heating or any other problem.

***WINDOWS 7 INSTALL***
I could not stand the Stupid windows 8.1 So I ended up gathering the guts, Transferred 860GB+ Data to external, and BOOM! Formatted the machine!
The HDD was formatted as GPT so I had to format the whole disc Including recovery partition, System partition and Data areas. However Windows 7 install was smooth (40 Mins).

The Windows already installed Drivers for-
AUDIO
Wired LAN
Chipset
Kayboard and Touchpad

You can easily Download and Install drivers for-
AMD Graphics (Also installs USB 3.0 and card reader Driver automatically)
The Windows Aero and Brightness controlls start working after AMD graphics driver only.
For the webcam you need YOUCAM app installed.

Problem driver-
I had to spend 4~5 hours researching about the WIFI driver. All the Drivers on HP site and also the ones on laptop are Win 8.1.
I found this kind site which has Atheros WIFI driver-
*driverzone.com/{5dac04e7-b0c9-4c8c-a002-b214ab627c7a}?id=5160656

Make sure your device ID is-
PCI\ven_168C&DEV_0036 SUBSYS 217F103C&REV

And There you have it, Stunning windows 7 on this stunning laptop! All functions working just like win 8 , but just faster and better!


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## bhvm (Sep 21, 2014)

Few updates I've noticed-

Power consumption-
Idling. Brightness medium- 4W only!!
Web surfing on WIFI - 5w
Web surfing with backgroud tasks- 7.8w

Idling on High performance preset- 10.8w
Gaming on Onboard GPU (High performance) 15.8w
Gaming in dGPU (High performance) 25w !


Heating-
Gaming on Onboard GPU (High performance) max 62.C
Gaming in dGPU (High performance) upto 84.C (with cooling stand)


I've noticed that adding even a very large fan does not help bring down temperatures. HP has poor thermal design and it shows here.


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## Vyom (Sep 22, 2014)

That is some in depth review that you have written there. Kudos. And thanks for sharing.


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## bhvm (Sep 24, 2014)

Today I had a nice long session playing COD 5 WAW on battery. I am blown away at the Tiny Onboard APU. A Comfortable 30FPS on Onboard R5 6410 Graphics, 4x AA, 16x AF, 720p
The GPU 1 and Mem 1 (8570M dGPU) is totally turned off

Amazing performance with just 128 Shaders.

*i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/bhvm/HP%20AMD%20A8%20Laptop/CoDWaW_2014_09_24_13_57_40_489.jpg

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## srkmish (Sep 24, 2014)

Really great review. This seems like a capable gaming laptop. 

But as you mentioned if the thermal dissipation is not good, wont it cause problems eventually?


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## Vyom (Sep 24, 2014)

APU's are very powerful graphics capability. I was blown away too when I use to play good amount of racing games on a Combo Mobo (Gigabyte E350N) which costed just 4k ! It had a AMD Radeon HD 6310 as integrated graphics and games like Trackmania and NFS Undercover runs smooth!

APU's are awesome for people who are on a budget and still want a good gaming experience.


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## bhvm (Sep 25, 2014)

srkmish said:


> Really great review. This seems like a capable gaming laptop.
> 
> But as you mentioned if the thermal dissipation is not good, wont it cause problems eventually?



1)HP has a bad track record for Cooling. I opened up quite a few HP laptops and I know what their design is...
There is a single heatpipe that goes like 
GPU>CPU>Some chipset> single copper heatsink> Fan

Not only this is inadequate but single pipe means ONE overheating component can also overheat other chips on the Pipe. Same thing seems to be happening over here.

2)I have a 7 year old Hp DV9 laptop at my office doing file serving all day. it ildes at about 66.C and Games near 91.C (on Nvidia 7600GO). Horrible temps but rock solild, Doing whole day that way. Intels are tough nuts for temps. Only time will tell about AMD though.

Problem is even the largest Notebook fan (Zebronics 1000NC) does not bring temps down.

3) You can alleviate the temps by forcing games on  Onboard BEEMA R5 Graphics. Its pretty good on its own and temps stay around 72.C.



Vyom said:


> APU's are very powerful graphics capability. I was blown away too when I use to play good amount of racing games on a Combo Mobo (Gigabyte E350N) which costed just 4k ! It had a AMD Radeon HD 6310 as integrated graphics and games like Trackmania and NFS Undercover runs smooth!
> 
> APU's are awesome for people who are on a budget and still want a good gaming experience.


Here you go-
AnandTech Portal | The Brazos Review: AMD's E-350 Supplants ION for mini-ITX

I remember what you're talking about. The GPU is same as in my Samsung E1 with AMD 7310 (laptop models are 7310, desktop 6310 perhaps). They have just 80 shaders which is puny by today standards. But I clearly remember how even 32 and 64 shaders where total drool just 3~4 years ago (with the launch of Nvidia 9600GT at 8k).

*www.digit.in/forum/reviews/178709-...vision-e1-1-4ghz-amd-7310-2gb-ddr3-500gb.html

I still don't understand why people recommend i3 and i5 for gaming.


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## Vyom (Sep 25, 2014)

bhvm said:


> I still don't understand why people recommend i3 and i5 for gaming.



Probably because people who are "not" on budget can pair it with an intense Graphic card. I myself bought Core i5 4570 since I will buy a graphic card later when I intend to do hardcore gaming.
But probably an A10 would have served my purpose too regarding gaming.


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## srkmish (Sep 25, 2014)

bhvm said:


> 3) You can alleviate the temps by forcing games on  Onboard BEEMA R5 Graphics. Its pretty good on its own and temps stay around 72.C.



But what is the point of purchasing a laptop with graphics card if one does not get to use the same due to fear of frying


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## bhvm (Sep 26, 2014)

srkmish said:


> But what is the point of purchasing a laptop with graphics card if one does not get to use the same due to fear of frying



Hmm... valid point. These days im gaming mostly on Onboard only. Its just that Crysis 2 and 3 needs discrete one for smooth playback.

The laptop has only one air intake vent about the center. I have pasted a 40mm High speed fan on it, powered by external 12v transformer. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## srkmish (Sep 27, 2014)

[MENTION=89823]bhvm[/MENTION] : Can you shed your thoughts on the below laptop. Apparently it has the NVIDIA GeForce 840M 2 GB Card which can play Many games of 2013/2014  fluently in WXGA resolution (as per notebook check). Im very tempted to buy one as it is only 36.5k on amazon.

Buy Lenovo Z50-70 59420313 15.6-inch Laptop (Silver) with Laptop Bag Online at Low Prices in India - Amazon.in

1.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor
4GB DDR3 RAM
1TB Hard drive
2GB Nvidia N15S GT DDR3 = NVIDIA GeForce 840M

As per notebook check,

According to our benchmarks, the GeForce 840M is about 30 percent faster than the old GT 740M and just slightly behind a GeForce GT 750M (DDR3 version). Many games of 2013/2014 can be played fluently in WXGA resolution (1366 x 768) and medium or high detail settings. However, very demanding games such as Crysis 3 or Battlefield 4 will require lower resolutions and/or details.


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## bhvm (Sep 29, 2014)

srkmish said:


> [MENTION=89823]bhvm[/MENTION] : Can you shed your thoughts on the below laptop. Apparently it has the NVIDIA GeForce 840M 2 GB Card which can play Many games of 2013/2014  fluently in WXGA resolution (as per notebook check). Im very tempted to buy one as it is only 36.5k on amazon.
> 
> Buy Lenovo Z50-70 59420313 15.6-inch Laptop (Silver) with Laptop Bag Online at Low Prices in India - Amazon.in
> 
> ...



Sure,
The GT 840M with its 384 shaders clocker over a ghz sure seem promising. You should be able to play all the latest games at highest settings on 720p. Do try to add in another 4gig stick and you have a very nice Budget gaming beast.


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## bhvm (Oct 7, 2014)

I tried the all new AMD gesture control (50MB download)
It works like a charm for flipping photos. The Mouse mode though is very finkcy. It does not "catch' up my hand when it should. Sometimes I have to hover my hand for a few sec before the software Thinks I want a mouse mode. Very funny .
Some more refinements and this could be a hit.


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## ankitj1611 (Oct 9, 2014)

Hello bhvm

I have one special request if you can fulfill.Can you please post the hdd temperature using crystal disk info or any another after continous gameplay of 1 hour or more?

I have hp 2010ax i want to compare my temp

Thanks


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## bhvm (Nov 1, 2014)

ok I'll report back after a gaming session. it's not much. usually hovers around 40.


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## bhvm (Nov 2, 2014)

well here are your temps- 
idle 32.
regular work, file copy- 37.c
gaming 2 hours- 39.c


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## bhvm (Nov 17, 2014)

I have transferred this lappy to my primary use.
I am using HDMi to VGA converter for the dual display which works flawlessly, But other one I had did not. The Display blanked out randomly and failed to detect sometimes.
The one that is working has a Sligltly lesser Image quality and the image looks 'Soft"

So beware if you people can think a simple converter can address the lack of VGA.
Otherwise the performance is great and maching is snappy. I am currently playing cysis2 and works like a charm. heat is not that much with cooling pad.
Windows 8 hogs up too much space (40GB OS, 20GB reovery) due to high amount of data my free space is only 7GB out of 1 TB.


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## Chaitanya (Nov 17, 2014)

*Re: HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m*

Nice, in depth review.
Seems like HP doesn't want another company to have this budget gaming bracket, first G6-2005AX now this...


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## Chaitanya (Nov 17, 2014)

*Re: HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m*

BTW have you tried out any Linux distro ?

My laptop(2005AX) is PITA when it comes to Linux


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## bhvm (Nov 28, 2014)

Forget Linux, HP does not support even WINDOWS 7 as well.
Windows 8 is really lame and hate it more than anything.


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## RON28 (Nov 28, 2014)

nice review, keep it up


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## ico (Dec 11, 2014)

*Re: HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m*



Chaitanya said:


> BTW have you tried out any Linux distro ?
> 
> My laptop(2005AX) is PITA when it comes to Linux


Shouldn't be anymore. Ubuntu 14.04 and later would work flawless as open source drivers have power management with AMD GPUs now.


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## bhvm (Mar 14, 2015)

**LONG TERM UPDATE**

I am pleased to present a long term update about the machine. This has been my primary machine till date and has been chock full of Apps, Data and Games. Infact, Only 40 GB is free out of 1TB.
There are no complaints regarding this machine and has never failed or Hung. Battery life still holds up at 4~5 hours. Most of the new games are working very well. There is no heating or any other problem.

**WINDOWS 7 INSTALL**
I could not stand the Stupid windows 8.1 So I ended up gathering the guts, Transferred 860GB+ Data to external, and BOOM! Formatted the machine!
The HDD was formatted as GPT so I had to format the whole disc Including recovery partition, System partition and Data areas. However Windows 7 install was smooth (40 Mins).

The Windows already installed Drivers for-
AUDIO
Wired LAN
Chipset
Kayboard and Touchpad

You can easily Download and Install drivers for-
AMD Graphics (Also installs USB 3.0 and card reader Driver automatically)
The Windows Aero and Brightness controlls start working after AMD graphics driver only.
For the webcam you need YOUCAM app installed.

Problem driver-
I had to spend 4~5 hours researching about the WIFI driver. All the Drivers on HP site and also the ones on laptop are Win 8.1.
I found this kind site which has Atheros WIFI driver-
Wireless LAN_Atheros_10.0.0.55_W7x64_A.zip | DriverZone

Make sure your device ID is-
PCI\ven_168C&DEV_0036 SUBSYS 217F103C&REV

And There you have it, Stunning windows 7 on this stunning laptop! All functions working just like win 8 , but just faster and better!


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## $hadow (Mar 15, 2015)

your laptop hold up pretty well after all this time.


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## bhvm (Mar 16, 2015)

$hadow said:


> your laptop hold up pretty well after all this time.



Thats nothing new bro.
I have 8 year old laptops doing duty on my office. When my machine gets too old for its job, I always re-pourpose it for a lighter load and it runs along happily.

At office I have an old single core laptop with centrino CPU, 1 GB DDR1 Ram, 80GB HDD and so on. Runs accounts very well.


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## $hadow (Mar 17, 2015)

bhvm said:


> Thats nothing new bro.
> I have 8 year old laptops doing duty on my office. When my machine gets too old for its job, I always re-pourpose it for a lighter load and it runs along happily.
> 
> At office I have an old single core laptop with centrino CPU, 1 GB DDR1 Ram, 80GB HDD and so on. Runs accounts very well.



Yeah for day to day activities even a properly kept hardware will suffice.


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## bhvm (Mar 7, 2016)

**LONG TERM UPDATE**

The laptop has been removed from Primary Duty.
All Systems are holding up well other than the cooling. The laptop is 100% on a cooling stand (140mm Fans) Yet here is the problem>

Gaming on Onboard R5 Radeon GPU is about 15 Mins. Machine Restarts at 75.C
Gaming on Dedicated 8570m is about 40 Mins. Machine Restarts at 84.C

The CPU and GPU Temps (They are about the same) are touching Quite High.
But they were so since day 1. I am wondering why the Machine has begun Restarting when gaming now. There are NO hardware or software changes as such.
Perhaps the Indian summers are not helping (Ambient 29.C)

Any Ideas folks?


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## bhvm (Mar 10, 2016)

Spent a good afternoon tweaking, OCing and Benching the laptop. Cooling fans were NOT used. Machine was stable.
If A picture is worth 1000 Words, this one is worth a Million.

Very useful data for people with A8 6410 or 8570m or even similar Graphics.


P.s- Why is DIGIT forums reverting to Flipkart time and being!? This is annoying beyond means!


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## bhvm (Mar 28, 2016)

The Lack of replies is not very encouraging, however I will still update if someone is reading.

The Onboard R5 Graphics is deemed faulty. The Machine Restarts in 15~20 Mins regardless of- Temps, Battery, Fans, Cooling , Game, Drivers or ANYTHING. It appears some Firmware or Hardware Bug in R5 Graphics. That's a sad thing as it was a strong GPU yet kept cool when gaming. 

I have now set the AMD Power play to compulsorily use the dGPU, No questions asked. 

Now, Other Most Important thing i've done is OC'd the dGPU 8570m to 722/1000 Mhz compared to 650/900mhz stock.
And UNDERCLOCKED the A8 CPU to 1.8 Ghz max from stock 2.0~2.4 ghz. This was done by setting "Maximum Processor state to 85%". What it apparently does it Turn off Turbo and skip the topmost 1 or 2 CPU multipliers, Making max speeds 1.6~1.8 Ghz.

Here comes the good part, Performance in Gaming is Similar or even Improved due to 8570m OC, But most importantly, System temps went down by a large Margin.
The Laptop that used to restart at 75~80.c can now game at 61~66.c ALL DAY. The Laptop is now being used in LAN gaming and is ROCK STABLE as ever.

I can conclude that laptop temps are largely dependent on CPU turbo, but game Performance is all dependent on GPU clocks. The Way I have set things now is a properly Win-Win Combo.


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## ankitj1611 (Mar 28, 2016)

I have a HP Pavilion G6 2010ax...I play games by settings power settings of games to Highest performance.

How can i  compulsorily use the dGPU?Same setting which i have mentioned or any other?
My CPU is A8 4500m and its 1.9-2.8Ghz but i havent seen it going above 2.31Ghz in any game


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## adityagupta (Mar 28, 2016)

*Re: HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m*

Amazing review.
But all u get from a hp laptop with amd gpu is a fried motherboard.
It won't last long.


Edit: oops that's a wayyy old review


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## bhvm (Mar 29, 2016)

*Re: HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m*



ankitj1611 said:


> I have a HP Pavilion G6 2010ax...I play games by settings power settings of games to Highest performance.
> 
> How can i  compulsorily use the dGPU?Same setting which i have mentioned or any other?
> My CPU is A8 4500m and its 1.9-2.8Ghz but i havent seen it going above 2.31Ghz in any game



Right Click on desktop- AMD Catalyst Control center> ATI Power play > Maximize performance.
You should also click battery option>More power Options>Additional Plans>High Performance.

The CPU will not touch Full speed unless its very cool and There is no Graphics load. Because GPU & CPU usually share same Heatsink/fan in Laptops.
The battery life will be reduced though.


adityagupta said:


> Amazing review.
> But all u get from a hp laptop with amd gpu is a fried motherboard.
> It won't last long.
> 
> ...



Its not just a review. Its more like ownership thread. A long term one.

We just had many people LAN party playing Serious sam 2. Massive fun.
One of the machines was an old AMD x2 3600+ Running onboard Geforce 6100 MCP (2 shaders). Now how cool is that!.
Other was my Acer 5560 (You can find review on this forums)


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## ankitj1611 (Mar 29, 2016)

*Re: HP G002AX / G009AX Laptop [Honest review, Bench, Gaming] [AMD Beema A8 6140, 4GB, 1TB, 2GB 8570m*



adityagupta said:


> Amazing review.
> *But all u get from a hp laptop with amd gpu is a fried motherboard.
> It won't last long.*




is it true?please dont scare me.i dont want to loose my laptop :drool_NF:


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## bhvm (Apr 19, 2016)

updated the bios to f35 from f12. no change at all. onboard r5 is still faulty and works Max 5 mins. no changes to report


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## kokroo (Aug 30, 2016)

bhvm said:


> The Lack of replies is not very encouraging, however I will still update if someone is reading.
> 
> The Onboard R5 Graphics is deemed faulty. The Machine Restarts in 15~20 Mins regardless of- Temps, Battery, Fans, Cooling , Game, Drivers or ANYTHING. It appears some Firmware or Hardware Bug in R5 Graphics. That's a sad thing as it was a strong GPU yet kept cool when gaming.
> 
> ...



Can you tell me how you overclocked the GPU? I haven't found any software yet which was able to overclock it on g009ax laptop. Thanks!


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## bhvm (Aug 31, 2016)

I've used MSI afterburner V4.


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## anirbandd (Aug 31, 2016)

<Rant>

I like single ownership threads like these, where the owner extract every last bit of juice out the hardware for gaming at a mere 25-30fps. Reminds me of myself when I had 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD and an Intel P4 with HT. 
Nowadays everywhere I see, I see people buying new hardware just for staying ahead of the FPS race. that too because the peak FPS dropped from 60 to 50-55 in newer games. 

</Rant>


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## Vyom (Aug 31, 2016)

^^ You are not alone. I extracted juice out of my P4 machine for 7 years, before I decided to dump the core in the bed of molten lava.
And I think my new PC with HD 4600 graphics suffice for me to play Rocket League at 40 fps... without needing a gfx. 


..


I do am planning to buy a dGPU tho. >_>


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## bhvm (Sep 1, 2016)

Vyom said:


> ^^ You are not alone. I extracted juice out of my P4 machine for 7 years, before I decided to dump the core in the bed of molten lava.
> And I think my new PC with HD 4600 graphics suffice for me to play Rocket League at 40 fps... without needing a gfx.
> 
> 
> ...





anirbandd said:


> <Rant>
> 
> I like single ownership threads like these, where the owner extract every last bit of juice out the hardware for gaming at a mere 25-30fps. Reminds me of myself when I had 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD and an Intel P4 with HT.
> Nowadays everywhere I see, I see people buying new hardware just for staying ahead of the FPS race. that too because the peak FPS dropped from 60 to 50-55 in newer games.
> ...



Thanks for the word fellas.

<Rant>
I really miss the golden age of computing (around 90s), Where Overclocking was limited to Pure Geeks. It was physically involving. You had to swap out a few resistances (VR zone /Guru 3D guides?) or mess with jumpers. Then you'd flash the Firmware/ BIOS of a higher end card to make everything work well (Nibitor/ NVflash?). Who can forget the joys for Turning a Plane jane Nvidia 6800 AGP into 6800GT or 6800 Ultra by unlocking extra pipelines/Vertex shaders?

OC is not the same today, Where anyone can OC by setting a few ticks in Software/Driver. Without understanding the true purpose of how a machine works.

</Rant>

I used AMD X2 3800 manchester for good 7 years before the CPU & Board kicked the bucket. The graphics card was 9800GT. Its kid brother, AMD X2 3600+ is still working now- TODAY. I've shifted it to Data entry duty on my office. I am still using the same 80GB Seagate HDD.

These old workhorses Had the quality & reliability which is unheard of today.


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## anirbandd (Sep 1, 2016)

bhvm said:


> Thanks for the word fellas.
> 
> <Rant>
> I really miss the golden age of computing (around 90s), Where Overclocking was limited to Pure Geeks. It was physically involving. You had to swap out a few resistances (VR zone /Guru 3D guides?) or mess with jumpers. Then you'd flash the Firmware/ BIOS of a higher end card to make everything work well (Nibitor/ NVflash?). Who can forget the joys for Turning a Plane jane Nvidia 6800 AGP into 6800GT or 6800 Ultra by unlocking extra pipelines/Vertex shaders?
> ...



well said and truthfully so.


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## kokroo (Sep 3, 2016)

bhvm said:


> Thanks for the word fellas.
> 
> <Rant>
> I really miss the golden age of computing (around 90s), Where Overclocking was limited to Pure Geeks. It was physically involving. You had to swap out a few resistances (VR zone /Guru 3D guides?) or mess with jumpers. Then you'd flash the Firmware/ BIOS of a higher end card to make everything work well (Nibitor/ NVflash?). Who can forget the joys for Turning a Plane jane Nvidia 6800 AGP into 6800GT or 6800 Ultra by unlocking extra pipelines/Vertex shaders?
> ...



Even I have an IBM laptop from 2003 which works flawlessly till now. Today's hardware quality has dropped too much. It doesn't last long because it's not designed to last long.


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## bhvm (Sep 6, 2016)

kokroo said:


> Even I have an IBM laptop from 2003 which works flawlessly till now. Today's hardware quality has dropped too much. It doesn't last long because it's not designed to last long.



You mean this one?
I used it for tally.


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## bhvm (Oct 4, 2017)

So it has been a long time I have updated anything. Here are some long term updates.

1. Brought an HDD caddy. This is my 2nd caddy with the span of 1 year. Earlier caddy was also from storite, brought for Rs 750. Current one is same model now costs 600.
For the Initial impression, The quality has definitely come down. Everything feels light and plasticy. Insertion was'nt smooth but I finally got it in. Thankfully, the performance and reliablity are'nt affected.

There is a Bicolor LED that shows Green for power and Red for useage. My Earlier LED was Blue/Red.

I was able to setup a Windows Dynamic disk raid 0 using Inbuilt 1TB hdd and Caddy HDD. Both the HDDs are Toshiba MQB series. The read speed for normal drive is 80~96 MB/s whereas for the Raid partition its in the range of 192~208 MB/S. Truly double, Truly impressive scores. And they Coincide with the RAID scores I have from my earlier Laptop Caddy (P028TX) config.

2.  Updated HP bios from F35 to F46. No change Noted.

3. Updated AMD drivers with Crimson 17.2 from the earlier 16.9 version. I had high hopes with this upgrade but other than slightly newer user interface, I do not see anything different.

The onboard R5 Graphics is still faulty and laptop Hangs/Restarts after 15~20 mins of Gaming.
Dedicated 8570m Is Chugging along happily overclocked to 722 Core/ 1Ghz Ram. I could not gain any OC headroom with new driver. Performance is the same.

5. I have set max CPU freq to 1.6 Ghz these days which means I have game with Overclocked GPU and better performance just at 64.C.
If I let CPU climb up to 1.8 Ghz, the temps shoot to 72.C and when full 2 Ghz/ Turbo is enabled the laptop touches a blistering 84.C. its still stable though. But I can game at 1.6 Ghz with the very same FPS so why worry?


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## bhvm (Jul 7, 2018)

3 Years Update-

1. updated bios to F48. Nothing noticed. 

2. Went back to Very old 16.1 AMD drivers. In the latest versions, I wasnt able to access the Catalyst control panel (Throws Unspecified error). It seems 16.1 is about the last version that works well with this laptop. AMD crimson CCC now works again. No difference in performance.

3. GPU is happily overclocked to 722 Core, 1 GHZ mem from stock 650MHZ core, 900 MHZ MEM. No problems noticed.

4. Laptop has been moved to Secondary state. My primary laptop is HP p028TX with Nvidia 830m as reviewed here-
[Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beats]

5. Using the HDD Caddy and dropped one of my older 500 GB HDDs in. Setup Software RAID 0 for a total of 1TB RAID array. Its quite reliable and works as intended. Setup is working since last year no issues.

6. Battery backups seems to be about 1 to 1.5 Hour only These days. Ran HP support assistant along with HP battery check. The battery is healthy but has lost some performance.

7. The laptop was restarting every 10~15 mins. Issue was solved by restoring system image to older date and going back to older drivers  as mentioned above.

8. Stopped bothering with Onboard R5 graphics. Power & Performance is not much different with 8570M but runs quite stably. Completed entire run of Painkiller Redemption on OC'd 8570m with no issues no overheating.


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## bhvm (Oct 6, 2020)

An updated setup Tour in Video format has been Made here. The Videos are in Hindi and English


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