8460w, 8560w, 8760w now available

Judge for yourself: Cost Central / Erie Computer Company - costcentral.com - Reviews, Ratings and Prices at ResellerRatings

As far as the screen goes, look at the extended specs on their site and you will see that it is Dreamcolor. Given that it is a preconfigured model, you should get a Dreamcolor screen no matter where you order an XU086UT.

 

I'm a first year college student at a University here in the USA and I've really been looking forward to getting a 8560w ever since I heard about them.. They're powerful, have a good battery life, and are beautifully crafted. Perfect for what I need/want. However, the more I hear about people having problems I'm no so sure I want to throw $1,899 on a laptop that's going to cause me hell.. I'll be using this mostly for large document editing in Photoshop CS5 and HD video editing in Sony Vegas... I'll also want to play games fairly often.

What I'm looking for:
-15" laptop with numeric keypad
-Sandy bridge processor (or something comparable)
-Enough graphics memory to play Black Ops at 70+ fps
-Battery life 4hrs+
-display port or hdmi output

The dreamcolor is awesome but I figure I can just hook my laptop up to a nice IPS monitor if I really need to sit down and do alot of detail-specific editing. I'd rather spend the cash on an accidental-protection warranty.

So my questions are:
-If I buy from CostCentral is there an accidental warranty that I can get? Or something similar? I don't care for on-site coverage, I just want to know I'm covered.

-I've always enjoyed using HP but I suppose I'm open to other options.. what are similar laptops that would fit my needs?

-Do these massive discounts through HP's 'Account Managers' only work on customized models?

I've been skimming this site for weeks and have just now signed up.. Please help me via email or PM or just reply to this thread.. I'll be checking it daily! Thanks in advance!!

 

Dell Precision M4600 matches and exceeds the 8560w in many ways such as having Optimus (switchable graphics on their nVidia cards), miniPCIe SSD option, and weight. There is also the Lenovo W520 (though it doesn't have a numeric pad, an IPS panel, or AMD GPU option). I've made a comparison chart here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/582633-m4600-vs-w520-vs-8560w.html

And yes, HP only discounts the custom models (which are heavily overpriced).

 

Nice chart. Although the switchable graphics would be convenient I won't count that as a deal breaker since I can just invest in a second battery.. and honestly the difference between 5 and 8 pounds is very minimal to me, I don't think weight will be an issue.

However, I would really like a SSD.. if not now then probably in the future.
So I have two more questions on top of my others:

-Can the graphics cards be switched in the Elitebook 8560w? The bottom comes off for easy access but the graphics card may still be tough to switch out.. I'm considering the $1,549 model more seriously but there's only 1gb of video memory.

-I can make a SSD my main hard drive by simply removing my optical drive and replacing it with a SSD, then changing the BIOS settings.. correct?

Thanks again!!

 

I was at the PSG Energizer here in Hamburg today. The HP PSG Product Managers DACH showed the new laptops, desktops and workstations, in addition to a lot of competitor models.
We could take a look at the following notebook models (can´t remember all, we had like around 30 models there and only about an hour time):

630: very cheap. Very very cheap. And actually not too bad for the price. Although not my cup of tea.
2560p
6360b: color is greatlooking
6460b: color is greatlooking, might be a good model for me at home 
5330m: very good looking! And quite a buy, even with the 128GB SSD still affordable
8460p: is already available in Germany, one of the topsellers according to the product manager
8560p: until yesterday my favourite, was going to order one for myself next week… until I saw the 8560w. Another minus: RJ45 on the right side (my 8530p had it on the left side).
8560w: wow. Great design. Dark look, orange pointer, a bit on the weighty side. All the ports that I want. And SATA III for inside, eSATA is only SATA II. THIS one is mine 
8760w: wow. But who´s going to carry THAT one around?

No 8440w in Germany, don´t know about rest of Europe.

All new Dockingstations – don´t like that, makes my new laptop 170 Euro more expensive.
Dropped HDMI in favourite of Displayport – need a converter to watch movies on my HDMI flatscreen.

But wow, it´s going to be a 8560w for me.

Going to wait for the new extremememory XLR8 Express SSD with 240GB and a SF2200 chipset next week and then I´ll “finally” have a new working horse.

 

What type of applications are you using that requires more GPU memory? Most software and games are limited by the bus width and memory type rather than the amount of memory. And yes, you can replace the ODD with a SSD in a caddy (or if you look at the Dell/Lenovo, you can add a SSD via miniPCIe).

 

I'll be doing ALOT of 1080p video editing to make music videos and presentations, along with alot of intensive photoshop work (1gig+ file sizes).. I'll also be gaming on it daily and would prefer to play on the highest settings possible..

I know I'm requesting alot of help, but I have one more question.
What SSD would you recommend? I don't need 128gb, 64gb would be fine for a boot drive.. but depending on the prices I may go for the larger one.

 

Too bad XU086UT isn't a [2]720QM...
It's getting harder and harder to wait, even though I still don't absolutely need anything new.

 

I know, right! That is my one major gripe with it. But it's not worth spending about $600 more (after tax, shipping, and CA recycle fees) for that one upgrade going CTO instead. If it was $150 more I'd go for it. I'd rather just wait and get a 2720 or 2820 cheap in 8-10 months and upgrade it myself, then go CTO at those prices.

 

I also wish the 8760w offered the 120Hz display and 3D emitter from the Envy 17. How cool would it be to be able to do CAD (and games, of course) in stereoscopic 3D, directly on the notebook? They already have the FirePro / Quadro cards that have true support for a "stereo sync" connector.

 

The 8560W is Top on my list despite the weight, as it has so many advantages over the 8560p:
Backlightkeyboard, three button mouse; cool optics; IPS panel, strong Battery (80 Wh) which does not exceed the body; vent to the left (not the right).

BUT.....
My personal issue is power consumption... I'm afraid of the AMD or Nvidia taking so much more power than the HD3000 which should be okay for me in any situation as I don't want to run games on it.

1. Question: IS THERE NO CHANCE to enable the integrated HD3000, even if I take that AMD card out of the unit???
I want low power consumption and low fan noise whenever I'm in a quite environment.

2. Question: Which grafik consumes LESS power when internet surfing, AMD oder Nvidia?

3. Question: Can anybody check if the Optimus hardware is built in the 8560w, even if it might not be enabled yet. And what's the point for hp not to have the possibility to switch grafiks for lower power consumption??? That just sounds total stupid to me.


Thanks,
Tom

 

... and does the Dreamcolor Display consum significant more power than the normal FHD panel? Does anybody know in Watt the difference?

 

1. There probably is no chance to enable the IGP in the 8560w period...as I said before, there is no optimus on these notebooks (or on any Dells with Quadro and IPS as I just found out...)

2. Nvidia consumes less power when surfing but AMD/ATI consumes less power on load while delivering equal if not better performance.

3.Dreamcolor does consume a bit more power than the regular FHD panel, enough to make it require a 200W adapter rather than the standard 150W...

4. If you're that concerned about battery life...get a W520, it has Optimus and the best of the TN screens...

 

Thanks!
I probably surf like 90% of the time... so Nivida then...

Regarding dream color, if you need a 200W adapter I assume we are not talking about something like a difference of 10W right.

And I still want a 8560w with integrated grafik ;-))))

Tom

 

I regret to inform you that when people buy workstation laptops, they usually buy them for power under the hood, not battery life...and the CAD and photo editing and video editing applications (and games and videos) workstation users run would choke on an integrated graphics card...even though the bugs with Optimus have mostly been worked out, you really want to rethink your needs if you are more concerned about battery life...(the 8460w might be a better choice given your interest in the 8460p, but I don't think it's available in Europe...)

 

I really, really, hate to burst the bubble of a fellow enthusiast who is "smitten" by a new model that seems to have everything, and then some, but after many experiences with new HP Elitebook models - and the 8560w is a "ground-up" re-design - is that they are full of bugs, both hardware, software and drivers that don't get worked out for 3-6 months after the initial release of the new model. So, if you are brave and patient and can't resist the "gotta have it - NOW" feeling that I so well understand, by all means take the plunge. But if you really don't have the patience and time to deal with the real possibility of multiple returns, repairs and replacements, I urge you to give serious thought to waiting at least 3 months until forums like this have enough real experiences reported and you can make the purchase with confidence. I think Lenovo and Apple are the only manufacturers that don't tend to release models without thorough testing and reasonable assurance that they will perform reliably from day 1. HP and Dell are notoriously bad in these respects and caution is appropriately offered to anyone looking to purchase version 1.0 of their new models.

Still and all, my heart is with you and your enthusiasm. The 8560w looks like a honey of a computer. It's on my shopping list for around Christmastime

 

I´m pretty relaxed at this, lovelaptops.
If it doesn´t work - return to our distributor, get either another replacement model - or I´ll use my 8530p

we are a system integrator... we tend to have the one or other laptop lying around, so I´m not really concerned about this...
Ain´t the first Elitebook, that we have in our company or have sold, either...

Appreciate your thoughts, though.

 

Ordered a CTO 8460w on 5/23 (i was the OP in this thread). Just got a shipping notification (6/11).

 

8460w received! Unfortunately in it's box sitting on my desk in the main office and i'm on a business trip till Saturday

 

pshifrin, that may be worse than those of us waiting for our to even ship! I say cut the trip short.

 

1/3. Integrated graphics does not work since it's not wired up for use. You need to keep the discrete GPU installed. The problem with the IPS panel is that it's 10-bit, while the integrated GPU only supports up to 8-bit (most TN panels are 6-bit). It's not HP or Dell's fault, it's simply a choice that Intel made to reduce cost, that is now affecting these models. HP has simply chosen to not install Optimus since it is less hassle to them.

4. Dell has Optimus for its non-IPS panel too, though Lenovo tends to have better power management ATM.

 

How is the screen brightness on the 8760W WUXGA (non dream color)?

I have an 8730W now and its quite dim/washed out compared to the older NW9440 display. I am wondering how the new display looks compared to the 8730W (previous series)

 

Surely someone can answer this quickly? I'd hate to buy a machine and be dissapointed