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    8730w vs 8540w

    Discussion in 'HP Business Class Notebooks' started by paulrigs, Jan 9, 2011.

  1. paulrigs

    paulrigs Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've seen an Elitebook 8730w with the following specs:

    Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, 4GBDDR2, 800 MHz Upgradeable to 8 GB, 320GB SATA (7200 rpm), Blue-ray Disc DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL, 17.0" WUXGA DreamColor Wide Viewing Angle (1920 x 1200 resolution), 2 MP Webcam with Business Card Reader Software, NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M with 1 GB of video memory.

    It's a refurb and comes in at a price a couple of hundred pounds less than a new 8540w with HD+ 1600 x 900 screen and i5 540m cpu. I would probably run XP Pro initially with a view to upgrading to Win 7 64bit and an SSD soon.

    I am sorely tempted as it seems a great chance to get the "famous" dream color screen at an excellent price but I have a couple of questions for the HP experts out there...

    How sensible a purchase would this be given that Sandy bridge is imminent?
    How much extra performance would I get from a new system given that the T9600 is almost 2 generations old now and it's got DDR2 RAM?
    Is that screen really as fantastic as people say?
    The 17" is bigger than I was planning to get from a portability point of view but the thought of getting 1920 x 1200 resolution and a full size keyboard and a number pad is hard to resist, given the price.

    Any thoughts?
     
    paulrigs, Jan 9, 2011
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  2. Judicator

    Judicator Judged and found wanting.

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    Note that this Dreamcolor screen is not the IPS panel in the 8540w or the 8740w. This is an older 8-bit TN panel that's the same as the ones in the Dell M6500 and M17x, as well as the Lenovo W701. As for how much extra performance you'd get, it really depends on your usage and what you're comparing it to. If you're comparing it to Sandy Bridge, and you will be utilizing CPU-heavy programs, then it's going to fall behind by a fair bit. If you're comparing to Clarksfield/Arrandale, then the difference isn't quite as marked (although still possibly substantial, if you go quad-core and do things like video-encoding). The DDR2 RAM won't appreciably affect things.
     
    Judicator, Jan 9, 2011
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  3. paulrigs

    paulrigs Notebook Enthusiast

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    I would never have known that - thanks!
    Reviews I've read still rate the screen as being very good... but not quite the bargain I had thought.
     
    paulrigs, Jan 9, 2011
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  4. Judicator

    Judicator Judged and found wanting.

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    Oh, certainly. It's still the top end of TN screens, although I've heard that some individual panels have problems with uneven backlighting. That's on a case by case basis, however.
     
    Judicator, Jan 10, 2011
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