8730w with Dreamcolor owner considering a new machine

I hope I'm posting in the right forum, if not let me know...

So after suffering a significant loss of brightness with my 8730w, the cause of which is still unknown (I've purchased a video card and an ambient light sensor and hope it wont be the screen or worse, the motherboard - see the thread here), while waiting for the parts to arrive and getting ready for a major overhaul, I've been looking for a replacement and a backup that I could easily swap my hard drive in (or at least easily install my software on), with a matching (or matchable) screen and have settled down to one of two choices: either get another 8730w or an 8740w (both with Dreamcolor). Of course this means used, as WUXGA screens unfortunately aren't made anymore.

So I've been looking on eBay and the prices are quite steep, especially considering we're talking machines with 3 or 4 year's use, and considering my experience with the reliability of these machines (dismal when compared to my 7 year old consumer grade Toshiba that I used daily for 6 years) so I need some advice from the Dreamcolor aficionados here as to whether you consider paying $600 for a three year old 8730w with Dreamcolor screen in "A" condition reasonable, or whether it's worth paying over $2000 for an 8740w with a Dreamcolor 2 screen (used!).

Considering I paid mine $1100 with only 6 months of use and extra battery including shipping and that it was covered for another 2.5 years of on-site warranty (which I had to use twice), I find those prices very steep.

Since I trust you people much more than folks on eBay, most of which can't even answer the simple question "does this laptop have the DreamColor screen" (and couldn't care less), if any of you have such a machine for sale I'd love to hear about you. Time is of the essence as I need this machine delivered by the 21st, because I'll be gone for several months after that and can't imagine having to get a brand new machine with completely different specs and OS that I will have to struggle with to get all my custom software up and running on, considering all the other stuff that will be on my mind.

Processor speed, hard drive size and memory amount is secondary in my search as the Dreamcolor screen is the priority.

So my question is: of those of you who have had the 8730w with Dreamcolor screen, what have you moved on to, is the Dreamcolor 2 on the 8740w such a big upgrade that it is worth the super high premium for it?

For those of you who have moved on to newer machines with vertically challenged (1080p) screens of the post 8740w era, how have you been able to cope? A big part of my work is to write reports and, back in the late 90's, I was already working at 2048x1536 with Office 97, which allowed me to move every toolbar on the side so as to be able to see and work on a full page... You can clearly see how switching to 1200 vertical pixels has been a pain to say the least...

However, although having a significantly lower vertical resolution from my older setup, the screen being so bright, I had an advantage for my presentations and was at least able to do some some of the paperwork, mostly the form stuff, right on the worksite. So having to suffer yet another significant reduction in vertical resolution is something I am just not willing to consider. And we haven't even started to talk about the dreadful new operating systems and so-called 'improved' versions of Office :shudder:

So if you have an 8730w with Dreamcolor for sale, or an 8740w with Dreamcolor2, or if you have any comments on the newer machines, I am starving for your input, what's your opinion on these machines, what are you using now, what do you use them with, how are you coping with reduced vertical pixels... I'd love to hear about your opinions!

 

A quick update that may be of interest to those considering an update to their 8730w, after my last few weeks looking at alternatives:

I spent some time yesterday at the mall looking at new computers and I must say I was impressed by the quality of the keyboards, touchpads and, yes, that of the screens as well. If it weren't for the 16:9 format and vertically reduced pixels, and the fact I would still have to find a way to run XP on it for my old custom software, I would have probably gotten a machine from that generation. The variety was amazing, and the prices were amazing as well: although there were no computers on sale that week (sales are usually on before school starts), most prices for 17 inch laptops was around $600-$700. And before someone says business class machines are way better than consumer grade machines, let me say this: hogwash. I have had consumer machines more reliable than the 8730w!

Most of these machines had really, really nice backlit keyboards without light spill and touchpads way better than what I've seen using and accustomed to. Finally, mannufacturers recognize that touchpads wear and small size are a serious issue! So, a BIG plus there.

Screens were all nice or very nice. I was surprised at the brightness! Definitely good, if not excellent, gives the Dreamcolor some serious competition. Of course, I cannot speak for color fidelity, but I can now understand why I've seen a sudden increase in 8730w offerings in the local ads!

The main problem, in my view, is the 16:9 screen format. GREAT for media, no doubt about it: pictures look significantly larger that on my 16:10 and brightness is comparable to the Dreamcolor's. But for text... Who wants to be reduced to 1080 vertical pixels when working on documents? Am I the only one who thinks this way? It sure seems to be so, but I can definitely see why most people would not even think twice about it: media does look really good on these seemingly much larger screens, and a pleasant keyboard and touchpad interface probably makes a really big impression.

Which brings me to my interest, finding another 8730w: Surprisingly, I've seen several for sale in the past few days, when I saw none for quite a while. One of them has a DC screen, but asking price is in the range of a NEW 17" laptop (!), the other ones have asking prices around half that (with regular screen). In both cases I have the impression the sellers are motivated.

The seller with the DC has listed a lot of apps I couldn't care less about and is trying to convince buyers it would be a great gamer's machine (we all now about that hogwash). The other had no idea what the DC panel was about and had seemingly no time to check it out, but his price was more reasonable.

Considering everything I saw and the fact I do have an 8740w now, I don't think I'd pay more than $400 for an 8740w with DC screen, unless it also had a high end processor and large hard drive (although I understand that I can purchase a fairly sized hard drive for about $100 or less). Considering what other 8730ws sell for online, the other machine is probably not worth more than $250.

So what do you guys think? For those prices I'd have a good machine to transition to while I work on the 8740w...

 

Don't think you can find a 8740w with dc for less than a grand or 2 to be honest, unless you come upon some kind of liquidator, but then they don't even know if it is dc and probably won't list it as one.

I always thought the 8730w dc is a tn and much inferior to the 8740w?

 

Indeed, the DC1, being a previous generation and TN is most likely an inferior screen. I can say that the red tinge in the lower left corner is not there on this screen and backlight color is quite even (although still not perfect to my eyes - it's a curse). For the rest I can't say, since the problem I have with my 8730w is precisely the screen dimness (I still haven't been able to resolve this issue - Have tried replacing the ambient light sensor, no change; have ordered a video card and a power input board and we'll see from there. The last part I am willing to swap is the DC panel. If I need to go further, it will end up a parts machine).

In any case, I did find an 8740w with DC2, quad core processor and quadro 5000M, 8MB or RAM and 500GB HD for 500UK pounds. Of course, importing it cost me an extra 38%, which brought my final cost to $1150, but hey! What are you going to do if you need something that rare and specific? It has little wear, the touchpad is in great condition and so are the buttons, and the keyboard has only the slightest amount of gloss on the most used keys. Nothing like what's on mine ;-). It also has the illuminated keyboard, which is a big plus to me

Anyway, I am still looking for another 8730w, as I need a bridge machine to keep working efficiently while get the 8740w setup the way I really want (It's going to run XP, but my real goal is to find a way to run the Windows 98SE UI on it).

That being said, would YOU pay $600 for a core 2 duo 2.8GHz 8730w with DC1, quadro FX 3700M, 150GB hard drive and 8MB RAM?

 

So I've had the 8740w for a few weeks now and have had very little time to work on it, as this is my busiest season of the year, but here's some news some of you may find encouraging...

If, like me, you depend on custom software that cannot run on a post XP OS (Windows 7 being even more troublesome than Vista in many respects), although HP disallows it for licensing reasons (they are not even allowed to sell you an XP license anymore), I can now confirm the 8740w runs happily (and much better I might add) under Windows XP Pro SP3 32 bit, with all hardware activated(*see note). So if like me you were having trouble with some apps under Vista like I had and required running some in a virtual machine (with reduced functionality), your troubles may well be over simply running XP on this machine

Although I already own several XP Pro licenses, I can confirm that the performance under the hacked Micro XP SP3 v 1.11b has been nothing short of stellar, as this version includes proper SATA hard disk drivers, something that was lacking in OEM version of the OS. All my apps now work with full functionality and the speed is phenomenal. I just added the HP drivers downloaded from the 8730w download page and voilà... The only thing that remains to be done at this point is for me to figure out how to patch this XP with Windows Server 2003 components to make it fully >4GB RAM aware.

So there you have it. The 8740w is the last of its kind with an RGB LED that is also 1920x1200 that will run your old, pre-decadence programs. No need to accept Redmond Social Engineering and Brainwashing

* As noted, this is a work in progress. So far, I haven't been able to get the HP 3D Driveguard software to work, but everything points out to a software issue, not an OS one, as HP 3D Driveguard is supposed to work under XP. Another quibble I have is that under the HP Mobile Display Assistant version that is compatible with this screen, there is now no way to directly adjust individual RGB LED Chromaticity. The DC2 panel has excessive red LED backlight intensity, no matter what white balance is selected. If anyone knows how to fix that without resorting to inferior LUT filtering (aka using Powerstrip or Nvidia control panel), I'd appreciate a tip ;-)

 

8740w is an awesome machine. I had to sell mine about 3 years ago but still have very good memories of it. Wanted to buy a used one recently but then realized that the technological gap is too big for me to back.

 

Could you please elaborate regarding the 'technological gap'? My problem with the newer machines is very clear and simple: aggravating operating systems that cannot run the software you want and impose their ways of doing things upon users and vertically challenged screens that are physiological and ergonomic nightmares.

Is there anything better in terms of screen quality, size and resolution that can run 16 bit programs out there?

As for myself, if I could get a 21 inch laptop in 4:3 format with 2560x1600 resolution available, I would be much happier. As I already carry more than 50 pounds of stuff for my work, including two laptops and their power bricks, a 15 pound laptop to replace the two I am carrying now would not be a problem at all for me.

Thanks as always for your input, Aikimox. It's pretty much thanks to your vanguard posts here on notebookreview.com that I got into these laptops

 

Just wanted to add that I understand your feeling... I've been recently tempted getting an old 2004 vintage Thinkpad on kijiji, had a QXGA screen...

 

How good is dreamcolor?