*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

First, thank you all for your enormously helpful inputs. Just for reference, keep in mind that I set out to buy the best reasonably thin/light notebook I could find for around $1.200. Had to have a great, HD+ or FHD screen, had to weigh less than 5.5 lbs, had to have discrete graphics, but not killer; more for HD video than for gaming. So you can see, perhaps, why the Envy was so attractive, at $944 "sticker" price, and why the 8540w just doesn't fit the bill, good a machine as it may be, better than the Envy for many purposes.

What's driving me crazy is:

1. So many negative posts about the Envy 14 (I have a refurb I have to fish/cut bait on in 7 days that I find superb - and I'm really picky. It ups my "break even" cost to around $1,300 because I have to buy a warranty, but I don't know what I would buy for near money that would be better for me.

2. So many negative posts about the 8540w, especially the DC2, which I thought was so desirable it would make it a cinch to flip the the 8540w for enough to buy a good substitute. HP's product quality is a known problem, but in my experience, they have always made good on their products, and offered big "we're sorry" discounts along the way. So what's everyone's verdict on the 8540w/DC2?

3. Wildly inefficient, buyers' market for the 8540w - in very round numbers, these list for around $3,000, are purchased with good discounts from HP for over $2,000 (my config) yet they sell in the secondary market, brand new in sealed boxes, for $900-$1,800. I've never seen such nosedives in price for a current, allegedly highly regarded model. It's also not clear that people pay up for "upgrades" like the DC2 in the secondary market.

So, between what I've written above, and commented below, any clarifications, summary comments, referrals, (or offers ) would be appreciated.

I misquoted the price in that line. I meant that I wanted to CLEAR $600, not sell it for $600. Selling price would be about $1,600; from advice here and elsewhere, the starting price would be $2,000. My breakeven is now over $1,300 all-in, because I had to find an Envy 14 refurb and buy a warranty (still can unwind that for 7 more days). I could get less than the $1,600 and still do ok, but I was hoping to get peoples' ideas of what I could expect to sell it for, given how much prices and configs vary on the secondary market. The line: "I put the chances of getting $1,200 or less on this machine at about 1%" was on the order of what I was hoping to hear as a "floor" on the value. Problem is, these things sell at the most widely varied prices I have ever seen, and always way, way below street price for an unopened box. I'm used to buying/selling computers that are hotly desired with reasonably uniform selling prices for new items in unopened boxes, not more than 25% under street price, and that would translate to $1,800 for my 8540w, not $900-1,200 some have said.

In fairness, it was my typo (see above) that misled. I meant $600 profit, or $1,500 sales price.

The refund for the Envy is about $1150, but my other option would be to wait out delivery of the part and keep my new Envy w/Radiance. Thing is, the computer I bought is worth $500 more than I paid due to: 1)one-time/last-time $500 of on Envy 14 w/Radiance, 2) No more of these being made for retail (and it was a very, very hot computer. So, I still have the possibility of getting that $1,500 computer, the Envy, but I'm starting to lose faith in HP, lol, so taking the 8540w, giving someone a good deal, and pocketing the money to buy a SB machine for $1,500 sounds pretty good too. If I keep the refurb I bought, the breaeven point becmes more like $1,300 because I would need to buy a warranty with it.

I really appreciate you feedback, lewdvig, but it makes me a little crazz! First you say I should get double what I pad for the Envy, or about $1,900, then you report you just got one new in an unsealed box for $900, and with a better gpu than mine (has the equiv of a GT 335). Did you get some amazing deal of the dear, or is that what they're selling for? I'd call my config mid/hihg because it has a dual core Core i7, 8GB RAM (HP charges $300 for this, but street price is $75!), the DC2 ($425 upgrade from HP - a piece of junk according to those on this thread! - and a few extras thrown in. Other than for those who valued the DC2, who would pay more than $1,000 for this, based on eBay comps and prices reported here?

Can anyone explain to me why the pricing of these things seems so whacked? If it is a desirable machine, why is it selling for 65% off list price and 45% off dealer price, new in a sealed box?

As for the Envy 14, I have a refurb now I need to decide on by mid next week. I really love it. It is a scratch/dent from HP and I can't find a scratch, it is tight as a drum, screamin fast, has a stompin 256GB SSD and I'm not having any driver problems or other problems. The apparent build quality is excellent ("apparent," as to what I can see, inside and out) and I find its keyboard and screen to be the best I've found on any laptop short of the MBP 15, which costs more than double - and I hate OSX, Apple, Inc So, maybe it's luck of the draw, but I'm finding it hard not to like it, The 8540w, while it is of stronger construction and has some extra features, is 2 lbs heavier with the power supply, get's about 1/3 the battery life and all I read is horror stories about it, especially the DC2, it's greatest claim to fame.

Again, thanks so much for your time and thought. Usually I make these decisions on my own in a snap, move on to help others with their's. Maybe I need to, as the man suggested (though not necessarily for his reasons), forget about an Envy, take and sell the 8540w for as much as I can and re-approach the market in a post-SB state of play. Advice welcomed!

 

Knight, you have an even more tricked out version of the 8740w than I have of the 8540w.Your sig: HP 8740w | i7-740qm | nVIDIA FX5000M | 17" WUXGA Dr ea m Co lo r | 8GB (2D) | W7P64

Did you buy it direct from HP or from a reseller? Care to provide ballpark price - list, HP street price, your cost/where you bought it? I know it's not apples-to-apples, but it's probably more comparable to mine that the ones without the DC2. Thanks. Trying to graph the market and need a few more data points, if you don't mind disclosing. Thanks.

 

I know if you went all out with 32 GB of RAM, i7-940XM, 5000M, 256 SSD, DC2. It will cost you $16k!

 

Lol! So, how about I sell it for $2,000 and all someone needs to do is get the 24GB RAM, FX5000M and new mobo w/i7-940XM cpu. Should be able to get all of those for $12k or less, right?

 

Well, my deal is a very special and still on-going case. My laptop is a pre-config that sells for $4,900 through HP, and no discounts are typically given on single orders of pre-configs. I didn't pay that amount b/c this was a replacement laptop (actually a second replacement). Basically I have been "lucky" enough to experience every major flaw on the 8740w platform in addition to one not-so-common flaw...so I've been upgraded from my original purchase in two steps (I paid a hair less than $2k for my 720qm/M7820/4GB/250HDD/WUXGA(notDC)/BacklitKB configuration.

I know you're kidding, but the FX5000M is only on the 8740w.

More importantly I want to point out something about the DC screen. You see lots of posts here about it b/c it is billed as a professional-grade color accurate screen. The people with DC problems mostly are being very picky. I think they are justified in doing so given the price, but people who simply want the best looking screen on the market and don't care too much about subtle color issues will be way less picky. My job does not depend on color accuracy, so I'm only to bother with a panel replacement if there is an obvious flaw no one could miss.

Also, I'm pretty sure lewdvig did not get a DC screen. Additionally, the ATI GPU is actually cheaper than the nVIDIA despite their gaming performance.

Finally, I see now that your margin for profit is not quite as large as I thought. I still think you would do well to take the deal though. Where are you getting the street sales numbers of $1,200-$1,800 for your configuration? I'm doubting those numbers include Dreamcolor, there is a non-DC FullHD panel for the 8540w. I'm thinking those lower prices cannot possibly have a DC panel.

 

Again, thanks for all the insights. You are giving me a vantage point I simply did not have in this market niche - and I thought I was the expert on all things Notebook! As for where I got the estimates I through out, they were definitely sales of non-DC2 units, mostly recent eBay sales, all with lower specs except that some have quad core cpus, but lower specs in other areas. I kinda had to throw out those numbers to this community as "trial balloons" to elicit the kind of response you have given. (Though I'm sure you would have given a more precise estimate had I not misquoted my cost basis as $600, duh!) Also, I'm a finance guy, and I tend to estimate "worst case scenario," though by that I mean, low end of probable. Now that I'm convinced this is a good deal and I should take it, I'm just trying to get a bead on how much to take and consider it a good sale price.

Could I trouble you, then, to give me your best shot at a ball park price to accept for my config? (i7-620, 8GB, 500GB, nVidia 880 (btw, HP site shows the ATI 5800 as a $125 upgrade from the base nVidia 880, not that I get a choice), DC2, 2 8-cell batteries: one long life, one regular ($150 upgrade)

PM me if you - anyone - want to refer a buyer - I'll gladly compensate that!

Thanks again for all your support.

Jeff

 

My 8540w is radically different than yours. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of variations. In my case, $900 represented a $300-400 saving. I am quite happy with the deal I got. There are lots of surplus sellers on eBay - ordered too many, got some free with servers and network gear, etc.

If yours is worth $3000 new I have a hard time believing that you would not fetch $1800. Faced with the same choice I would use the 8540w for a few weeks and see if it is worth keeping.

I only get 3.5 hours of battery from my Envy and it has 0% battery wear. The touch pad is terrible, the case picks up marks very quickly (and I baby my gear). The stamped metal is very soft compared to forged and CNCed alum on the MBP - the back of the Envy`s LCD screen feels like cardboard. I get very poor wifi signal reception throughout my house. Flash videos give me blue screens.

The screen is lovely, the size is nice and the keyboard is very good.

 

Also keep in mind that the most vocal critics are people who paid a premium to get a high quality product. Their expectations are perfectly valid when paying $3000 for something.

I paid much less and that is reflected in my expectations.

My Envy was $1160 so I am now getting a better laptop (much better specs and more durable) for less.

 

I agree with him. I am happier with my Elitebook for what it has over my Envy 15 (which was only $100 less than the price I got my Elitebook for). I expected a lot from the E15 but I was hugely disappointed. In contrast, I got a lot from the Elitebook at a good price.

 

A couple of notes - I think we're past the point where the DC2 is so new, which is why you don't see many "wow" posts, and I think even though people have some issues, I think they're trying to stick with the display instead of calling it quits and going to the Non-DC2 screen, which people do agree is still spectacular. So, the verdict must be positive. HP has shown they address the issues, so the quality is eventually there.

 

As Knight427 indicated, the ATI is actually $115 less than the 880M, $400 less than the 1800M per the custom config page.

My $0.02, if it helps - Anyone can get the 24% HP CTO discount, which would take your $3,000 setup (accurate - I keyed in your specs on the CTO page) down to about $2,250. Take a little off of that to give an incentive for people to purchase from you instead of directly from HP, and your number of $1,900-$2,000 would be a decent deal - especially if the purchaser lives in a Sales-tax-bearing state. The purchaser would be getting the full warranty benefits too.

Cheers.

 

Hello guys,

I like to update the BIOS of my 8540w from original version to newest version F.0E but it's not working.

I "double-click the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions." like it says on HP website, my computer restarts automatically. However when I check the BIOS version it's still F.0A.

Is there maybe a write protection in BIOS to disable or any other ideas whats's going wrong here.

 

First, sorry for the delayed response. I have a congenital spine abnormality and it has not like the cold damp weather we've been having. That said, rather than respond to you each individually, since your responses converge on the same assessments and advice, I will say one large: THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your help and candid advice. I had some misleading information initially and, frankly, was setting out some worse case scenarios and wanted to see if the "cognoscenti" on this thread would agree or disagree as to what this machine is worth on the secondary market, sealed in a box. Sounds like a little south of $2k should do it, and that'll be fine with me.

As for using it myself for a while, I have no doubt it is a fine machine and I would like it - maybe adore the DC2 - but I use an HP DV8, quad core, for a DTR and for my relative untaxing needs, it is great and, in particular, the 18.4" display on it is class-leading - not as bright as the Radiance or DC2, but contrast ratio, color gamut and all other performance measures are right up there with the best around. What I need now is a fairly light but hi spec - with display being a major thing for me - computer, and though I happen to disagree with some of the Envy-bashers (the 14, though not perfect, is worlds apart from the 15; they fixed 90% of the problems the 15 had, heat being the main one. It is way less powerful for gaming, using a down-clocked ATI 5650, but I am not a gamer. That said, though I did find a good specimen of a refurb Envy 14 with a 256GB SSD for $1,000, I decided to bag it and take my chances with either the new breed of SB machines (the early comparisons I have seen just blow away the Core i 1st gen, and get way better battery life to boot.) Either that or look for even cheaper closeouts on 1st gen models once the SBs are in full circulation. The purpose of this Envy 14 changed several times since I originally just grabbed it quickly when I saw the Radiance screen was back, and for $500 off, but it is now an everyday/travel/back up when one of 5 in my family are on the blink. Back to the SB's, since my need for a gpu is primarily for HD video, it seems the SB on board gpu will be fine for me - 3dMark 06 scores of around 4500. Also, the quad core SB gpu in two tests I have read got 5:46 hrs on a balanced battery rundown test, so I may not have to whimp out with dual core just to conserve batt life - though imagine what endurance the dual cores will have.

So the refurb Envy goes back, but rather than crack the seal on the 8540w, I will try to find it a nice home and take my $1,800 or so and apply it to a purchase in the next few months.

Can't thank you all enough for your really helpful advice. BTW, after canvassing quite a few and confirming I was wrong - the ATI 5800 is a downgrade from the nvidia 880 and, with pros and cons (ATI better for gaming, nvidia better for CAD) , I decided to get the ATI - the one and only alteration the (formerly well meaning but clueless, now clueless and not at all interested in customer satisfaction) CM did allow (because it is "ATI" and the Envy had an ATI gpu - no concept of how either compare!) Most of you said if it were for you, you would go with the ATI. I am convinced that YOU, on this thread, represent my target market. Pros and cons to both, but enthusiasts unconditionally prefer the ATI.

Thanks again for all your help. I may someday regret not having this wonderful DC2 screen, but with my recent dealing with HP, despite the fact that this is not only a case manager, but from an oddball case management dept, not the kinds that are just the gatekeepers in the tech support organizations, lead me to be very wary of getting myself into a defective one and having to fight the kind of battles LagginTimes is dealing with.

Two things to tell you in response to your awesome help:

1) if you can refer me a buyer, I will pay a generous "commission." Pm me for details.

2) if a good friend or relative is your referral, I will sell it for somewhat less than top dollar if you waive your commission, or we can come up with a compromise win-win-win. What goes around really does come around Peace

J

 

Hi there,

I am owner of a 8540w with i7 620m from november 2010, and I bought it whitout Windows installed.

I then installed Windows 7 64bits, and managed to have HP Quickweb working by installing a lot of things from the HP website like drivers etc. Quickweb lets me fast browse the web whitout having to boot up to the full Windows OS as you guys probably know...

This is cool but if I am right I know there is the possibility to have ALSO QuickLook installed. If I am right, QuickLook lets use Outlook at least in the same way.. Im not sure if you can browse the web and use other sotwares like Skype or msn etc. as it seems to me this is more one of the non-pro laptops line like the HP Envy laptops feature....

As you see I am a bit lost about that.
- Is it possible to install HP QuickLook on the Elitebooks ? I think I saw some webpages mentionning this (maybe not on the 8540w specifically though..)

- Is also QuickLook indeed the fast boot OS we can see on the HP Envy line?? It seems it has skype, browser etc in it..

Thanks a lot for your insights.

 

Just wonder if you guys think the card M5800 is enough to handle CAD/ 3DMax... pretty much the architecture software? Thanks.

 

yea no problems at all, just watch your polygon counts in max, and learn to use layers in large files, as it'll speed up your viewport work!

 

Is it true that the 8540w has an MXM gpu board and that you can change/upgrade it? Are there many choices available?

 

I believe 8540w and the 8740w uses MXM 3.0b. The choices are limited by the BIOS though, unless someone wants to start modding.

 

Morning (or afternoon or evening wherever you are) folks,

recently, my 8540w (i7-820Q, 16GB, ATI) has been experiencing very long startup times. Specifically, after starting up and logging into the machine, the system "looks" as if it's sitting there waiting for me to hit <Enter> on the login screen. After a minute or two it goes to the "welcome" screen, and then it goes back to the "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" screen, and then after another minute or two it goes to the desktop. It's very odd.

I had thought that this might be related to the "black screen" issue I read on an earlier page, but I'm not so sure. I'm in the process of searching around for other occurances of this (basically googling my you-know-what off), but I wanted to see if anyone else on the board has experienced this issue.

Current BIOS is 68CVD ver. F.0E. Check disk shows all is functioning well.

Any help'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! - M

 

Is there a way to find out what choices are available with the stock mobo? Anything interesting, or is, say the ATI Firepro 5800 probably the best one to use?

 

Well, after fooling w/the MSCONFIG settings I was able to find the culprit. Turns out that the HP ProtectTools Security Manager was the item holding up me from logging in. When I'd log in with Safe Mode, the service would pop up a message stating that it couldn't get to the biometric stuff, which was odd considering I was typing in my password. So, I uninstalled it, and so far so good.

Anyone else have issues w/the HP ProtectTools Security Manager?

Thanks! - M

 

I've also noticed over the last week or so that my 8540w has been taking a very long time to boot up. Wondering if it has to do with the interaction of HP Protect Security Manager and the installation of WIN7 SP1, which I updated around the same time. Did you update to SP1 and, if so, see any correlation in timing for getting the longer boot times.

 

Nope, no SP1 yet here, but that's next on my list. This has been going on for a couple weeks and today is when it was pretty much unusable. I think I got lucky in that I was able to find just one service and uninstall it. I don't use the fingerprint scanner as it is, so no loss for me.

 

Hi lovelaptops, i am interested in your 8540w with DC screen. Would you be willing to post it to UK though and how mcuh is it?
Regards

 

Well, sort of. When I first got the laptop, it was extremely sluggish. There were over 90 processes running on this fresh laptop. I knocked off most of the HP-related software, as they would have huge lags when messages would pop-up, I'd want the menus, etc. I did leave the biometric portion active, but I understand that Windows might still be able to support it, so I may uninstall HP Protecttools and try it out some day when I have time.

So, HP software was a big cause of the sluggishness, but not to the extents you were noticing. Also, it sounds like your situation got progressively worse?? I wonder if there was a conflict with some new software / windows update that was recently installed.

 

FWIW, I have a 2740p and while I did disable some of the modules of Protectools, I do use its fingerprint reader and left some stuff on that screwed up logons when I disabled it. Anyway, this machine is a speed demon (i5-520, 8GB, Intel 160 GB SSD) so, unless the SSD makes all bloatware irrelevant by ripping through it, I'd say Protecttools is not likely your main culprit here. Can't say about interactions w/SP1, as I haven't installed that, though I had the impression if you installed all the updates you have the equivalent of sp1 already running - incorrect?

 

Hi Hachi. Asking $2,000 (based on heavy consultations with people on this forum) and I would be glad to ship it to UK, though I would appreciate it if you would designate the shipper and means and we coordinate on cost and time so there are no unpleasant surprises.

Also, I do not have it yet. It should be here in a week or less, but since I did not get to place the order, I also don't have an order number to track it with. I'll keep you posted as I get updates. We should probably continue the conversation via PM.

Thanks for your interest.

 

I posted a while back regarding the sluggishness introduced by the ProtectTools app but haven't figured out a solution yet. It indeed seems to be a problem regarding this application. I for one clocked in a 15 second delay in startup after installing ProtectTools. These 15 seconds seem to be constant at each startup. I really love using the fingerprint reader and this delay is a bit of an annoyance. My 8540p takes about 50 seconds to boot up and about 35-40 seconds without ProtectTools.
I have an i5 560m, 4gb ram and a 500gb wd scorpio black. Win 7 has had a reinstall about 1 month ago and I have the os partition defragmented once a week. The defrag seems to speed things up a bit. Also noticed a longer startup after installing SP1 but that got fixed after defrag.

 

HP Protect tools made my HP 6930p extremely sluggish, took upwards of 2-3 minutes to boot up. As soon as I did a clean install, it was under 1 minute.
Now with the 8540w, first thing I did was upgrade the hard drive and do a clean install. As convenient HP Protect tools was... the sluggishness is unbearable.

 

--- wrong forum, sorry

 

Can now confirm that the long journey from the Windows start-up screen to the actual Windows login icon is caused by the HP Security Manager Tools. As is usual for me on Monday, I ran the HP Softpaq Download Manager to check for any new updates. Today's new update is for Security Manager, and figuring this may help our problem, I clicked on the automatic install. A Reboot was required. The bad news. Security Manager was now gone from my machine. The GOOD news, however, was that my machine now booted all the way to the Windows login icon in seconds (couldn't believe it was so fast.) That the icon did not have the fingerprint stamp on it was also my first indication that Security Manager did not load.

Rather then doing a system restore, I just ran the Softpaq updater again, and this time it told me that I did not have the Security Manager. I hit install once again. Now the good news is that Security Tools are back. Bad news, of course, is the long journey to the Windows login icon is also back.

Quid pro quo. I guess it's "pick your poison" until HP gets the startup intergration optimized.

 

I'm confused. I know we're talking different machines with different configs, but if you look at the 2740p in my sig, and I tell you it has most of the ProtectTools suite running (only because I wanted the fp reader, and found it didn't work without the PT suite installed), and, with an Intel G2 160GB SSD, it gets from the Win startup screen (the "flags, right?) to the Windows account log in screen in 25-40 seconds, depending on whether it had updates to finish installing.

Now, I have heard of people claiming a total boot up time, I guess they mean from turning on the power switch to Starting Windows to the logon screen, of 15 seconds, so we're only talking 10 seconds difference (assuming: a) they are quoting from cold boot to logon and, b) they are telling the truth! It's kind of like gas mileage - not only may yours vary, but your friend's may not be as good as he reports it to be. But, assuming these figures are reasonably accurate, my 25 seconds vs. others' 15 seconds represents a 40% change - my time, with ProtecTools engaged, is 40% longer, even though the speediness of the SSD makes the 40% meaningless because it's only 10 seconds.

Are you as confused as I am?? So, here are my tentative conclusions:

1) ProtectTools does increase boot time, but I question whether it alone could cause a computer's boot time to increase by a matter of minutes.

2) SSDs are so fast that, like fast cpus and lots of cheap RAM, they eliminate the need to go to great lengths to do clean installs and eliminate virtually any program that could possibly add to boot time. If best to worst involves going from 15 seconds to 25 seconds (and my Intel G2 is less than half as fast as the fastest SSDs made today), and you boot your computer, what, 1-4 times a day, depending on how much new stuff you are installing (confession: I often go several days without rebooting ), then we're talking between 0 and 40 seconds per day - make it 80 on the days you are installing/uninstalling a great deal of new programs or updates - it gets to be a rather wasteful use of time to go through msconfig with a fine tooth comb and remove everything you can possibly do without at start up to get back a minute or less per day!

Yeah, as a hobbyist it is very satisfying to be clever and do things that significantly improve performance of your rig. But snappy new technology is fast eliminating the need to fine tune a computer. The upside: look at all the time you have to do things you really enjoy because you don't have to spend it hunting for gremlins that are slowing you down!

 

Not confused at all. Our machines are our tools. So while a few seconds or minutes of waiting here or there may not be relatively important, a developing CHANGE in behavior of our tools may very well be. Worst case, could be the beginning signs of a major flaw. Or it could just be an annoyance. But to preclude the former, taking notice is warranted; and you may just find out why you have to live with the latter.

I will sometimes boot up my machine and it will stay on all day. OK, the long boot to sign-in is no big deal. But it is primarily a battery driven mobile tool. My more likely use is to be up for 20 minutes, down an hour or two, up for a while somewhere else, down, up, down, etc. I've been remiss in not getting a second battery yet, so I usually turn the machine off rather then sleep to maximize battery life (and hibernate has its own drawbacks). Waiting 2 to 3 minutes for it to just get to sign-in in this case can be very annoying, since that long a wait was not the case only a short time ago. Apparently others above are experiencing the same increasing lag.

As I stated previouly, Security Tools, which I like, does appear to be the culprit. Why the updater erased the program (and confirmed on the second scan that it did so) instead of just applying the update, I do not know. But without the tools loading, the machine was in the 30-35 second range. Once corrected with Security Tools loading again, it was back to 2 to 3 minutes. That's clear enough to me, and an annoyance. But only if it doesn't keep getting longer and longer. Then taking notice is, once again, warranted.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on the upcoming 8560w? Any news or rumors on what the options will be?

 

It is supposedly black, but will otherwise be identical to the 8560p in looks. It will offer FX1000M and FX2000M from nVIDIA, I have not heard anything about a FirePro card, but hopefully it will have that option as well. It should continue offering Dreamcolor. No word on Extreme CPUs, but otherwise you can expect all other i7 and several i5 processor options.

 

I was hoping for something like the FX4000M or the FX3000M, but I guess that the FX2000M will do. Someone in the Lenovo forum was saying that the 128 bit bus and DDR3 will both be bottlenecks for the cards (FX2000M and FX1000M).

 

FX4000M and FX3000M are 17" class cards. I've seen 17" class gaming cards offered from Clevo resellers on 15" laptops before, but I haven't seen 17" professional GPUs offered on 15" workstations before (though I'm relatively new to workstations).

 

Would the cpu be the source of the bus size limitation and the memory speed, or would it be the Mobo mfr? I'm thinking it's the cpu chipset that governs and it makes you wonder why Intel would leave us with 2009 memory speeds and bus bandwidth? Bottleneck the gpu technology to give themselves a few more years to play more catch-up? Why indeed are we not seeing accommodation of faster memory from the last 2 generations of cpus? I'm not usually a conspiratorial thinker; this is fun.

 

nah knight, the 3000M/4000M have a 15" variant from what i saw at the expo. some of the new MBP's have the 4000M coming on a 15" system, though it is cut down a bit however.

I'm not sure if it'll be offering the new 3000M, but it could easily go into a decent 15" form factor, the 4000M before being changed, however, cannot.

 

might have seen the question however I haven't yet seen any answers...
is the only difference between 230W and 90W "basic" docking stations the power adapter?

I'm speaking about VB041ET and VB043AA ...

There's no huge price difference, and my configuration (640M/nVidia 880) should work with 90w dock as well...

however just being curious for a practical reason: for the dock I may use the old 120W brick - and with the 90w dock I'd get a small "on the go" charger instead of a huge 230w brick

anyone?

 

Wait... Macbook Pros with Quadros??? PERISH THE THOUGHT!

 

Having a devil of a time w/the search feature here...I could've sworn that I saw a post referring to a DVD drive enclosure to use the DVD drive connected to the eSATA port. Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations? I've been flying w/o mine as I installed an SSD in there. Thanks! - M

 

Just an update to those who have been having the increasing log-in times. The problem is reversing itself for me. And I've made no changes to the machine. As a reminder, the problem was that it took over 2 minutes for the machine to go from pushing the on button to displaying the Windows log-in icons with HP Protect Tools (PT) enabled. With PT disabled, it took only 35 seconds total (33 seconds to the Windows Professional 64 screen and 2 seconds to the icons). I decided to time the first boot each day since then. First day it decreased to a total of 2 minutes (33 seconds plus 87 seconds), second day 1:45 (34 seconds plus 71 seconds), and today 1:22 (33 seconds plus 49 seconds). The opposite of what was happening prior, but I don't know why (certainly not complaining though). Anyone else see this change?

 

Hello
i bought 8540w with i5 560 and fx880
i think the fan is to noisy, its not on 100% but its loud
cpu iddle temp is 45 C but when I move mouse the temp jump up tu the 55C
and under the load is temp 75-79 C

the gpu is 50C in the iddle
fan speed is 2500rpm
what can be the problem? or is these temps normal?
thanks

 

While I don't have a dual core or nVidia card, I can at least give you some numbers for comparison. My machine has the 840QM and ATI 5800M and while currently consuming 34 total watts (web and some other minimal services), the CPU is running 39-44C and GPU 42C. The fan is currently quiet, as is usual except for viewing long FLASH files, or under heavy stress.

Now since your dual core machine is running hotter, the first thing you want to check is your power settings (Control Panel - Power Options). You could be on "High Performance". If so, try one of the lower energy settings. Report back and maybe someone with similar specs on their machine may be able to give you some comparisons.

 

Hi, silly question, but what software do you use to get all that info?

Thanks.

 

HW Monitor can be found here: CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Energy consumption comes from HP's own app found on the machine.

 

HWiNFO32 can also work as a sensor temperature detector. In fact, 8740w's work better with HWiNFO32 than HWMonitor.

 

Agreed, as well as the fact that it is a much more comprehensive package of utilities, and polls the sensors more often than HWMonitor. What HWMonitor may have in its favor for a beginner is its smaller screen footprint, making the window easier to view when testing the effect of multiple apps running simultaneously.

I use both, not simultaneouly of course, depending on need. But based on your statement that the 8740w works better with HWiNFO32, I decided to try both at the same time on my 8540w, which I'm on now. I'll try it on my 8740w latter. Hopefully running two apps that poll the same sensors at the same time do not skew any results.

And those results are:

GPU: in non-stress situation, equal results were displayed by both apps, though HWMonitor did show an anomalous spike. Ramping up the stress, both apps tracked each other within 1C, with approximately the same reaction time.

CPU: in non-stress situation, HWiNFO32 polled about 10x more often then HWMonitor, which itself reported a single # within the higher bounds reported by HWiNFO3, e.g. HWiNFO32: 38C-43C vs. HWMonitor: 42C. Ramping up the stress, HWMonitor also ramped up its polling speed, staying within 1C-2C of HWiNFO32.

So they both work, depending on your need for LITE or full blown package; which is why I keep both on all my machines.

 

Well the thing with the 8740w is that HWMonitor fails to properly detect the sensors correctly. So we have to use HWiNFO32 as an alternative.