*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*

I saw no thread was created for that lappy and there's a few having it including me, so there you go

 

I noticed some but not unbearable high-pitched noise coming from the CPU when on battery... I'v read DV5 was having the same problem and to solve this was to use RMClock with the HLT Command while idle...

Is it only HP or many manufacturers are getting these probs because the CPU enters into SLFM state?

 

Can some one post a good review with pictures please...?

 

Here's some photos,

Overall:
http://i35.tinypic.com/xeexpd.jpg

French-Canadian Keyboard:
http://i33.tinypic.com/2viplra.jpg

Front side:
http://i34.tinypic.com/qzno74.jpg

Left side with AC plug:
http://i35.tinypic.com/2ngv80h.jpg

Right side:
http://i33.tinypic.com/20igcpi.jpg

Temperature and teh name
http://i37.tinypic.com/3466o7a.jpg

Front side 2:
http://i36.tinypic.com/rtlt6u.jpg

LCD weird thing:
http://i38.tinypic.com/21485tg.jpg

Under with secondary battery:
http://i36.tinypic.com/2efs3gi.jpg

Under without secondary battery:
http://i35.tinypic.com/2r70z6e.jpg

 

I have a 8730w with a P8600 CPU, and haven't noticed any whine.

One odd noise I did take issue with was an annoying hard drive "clicking" sound -- this turned out to be the HD being overly aggressive with its power management (the sound was from the heads being parked/unparked to save power), and I was able to "fix" this problem by using hdparm to disable this "feature".

 

I've installed Windows XP and it is performing more than Vista!

With the default resolution and settings on Assassin's Creed (1680x1050), it was slower on Vista. Like 5 or 10 fps less.

I guess I'll stick on Windows XP because of its gaming performance .

 

what GPU do you have?

 

Quadro FX2700M 512MB (KS070UT#ABC model)

 

how much do you get in 3dmark?

 

~7300 3dmark06 (1280x1024)

(Model: KS070UT)
P8600 (Core2Duo @ 2.4GHz)
Quadro FX2700M (512MB)
2GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM (1 DIMM)
Windows Vista Business (32-bit)

 

I got 7286 3dmark06 points with the basic version

 

Nice pictures. Thanks!

P.S. By the way, does anyone here have the Dream Color Display? How does it/would it compare to the standard display?

 

On the left, DreamColor Display,
On the right, normal one



More informations:

http://www.slashgear.com/hp-8730w-8530w-8530p-mobile-workstations-with-dreamcolor-option-1113691/

 

The highest score I got was 7538 3DMark06 on Vista 32-bit.

 

*points yigy's T9400*

I think there's the difference.. the L2 cache is higher (3mb vs 6mb) and the clock (130mhz higher xD)

 

Have you tested out the battery life yet? How is the heat and noise?

I'm trying to compare this notebook with the W700 as I consider my next laptop purchase. It is nearly impossible to find a review on this laptop.

 

The battery goes up to 4 hours while surfing with wifi and lowest brightness.

The laptop is very quiet and cool (30-35c). You can feel warm on the keyboard and below the notebook when playing games. (45-50c)

While gaming (at 42-44 Celsius),You notice the fan turning more a bit if the speakers are mute or there's no noise around.
In fact, I only heard 2 states, while idle, it turns very quiet, while gaming, it starts to turn more but remains that speed.

Comparing 8730w and LG R700 (Friend),
I can hear the LG R700 blowing air like a crazy at 15 feets away (When my friend play Combat Arms)
Sometimes, I have problems hearing my 8730w's fan. I have to put my ear near the fan before noticing that it is my friend's laptop. Heh XD


Right now, while working in Visual Studio, the temp of the CPU is 31 celsius...

On my Nc8430, it was 48 celsius idle!! 75C while gaming!!
I never saw a W700 but it was not in my budget (over 3000$ CDN)

I bought 8730w (KS070UT#ABC) for 2179$ CDN plus taxes (around 2440$ CDN)

 

this notebook, how much is the Dreamcolor upgrade? If its less then $300 its worth it. Also i have one more question will the Dreamcolor display have any effect on the GPU? the reason i am asking this is because thats one seriously gorgeous and bright screen so wouldnt that effect the GPU's power?

 

Only about $400 extra.

 

3DMark06 test. Stock HP Drivers. I think I can go up further if I use better Drivers.

Config:
T9600 2,8GHZ
4GB DDR2 800Mhz
FX2700M
320GB Hitchi 7K320

 

It's 400 and if it's worth it or not it actually depends on what you are doing. For me it would be.
The brightness of the screen has no effect on GPU.

Dragos

 

Does anibody know if you can buy the upgrade bay(to replace the DVD-rom with a second HDD to do Raid 0) without the 250GB Hdd. There is only one option listed on HP site and that is an upgrade bay that includes a 250GB 5400rpm HDD.
UpgradeBay

 

Hi there everyone,

I'm thinking of picking up one of these laptops. They look very good from what I can see..

Just one question. I'm thinking of going with a dual core 2.8gig cpu.
Will I be able to upgrade to a quad core at a later date do you think? If so does anyone know what speed those will be going up to?

Regards,
Simon

 

The service manual is here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...=101&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3784202#2

You'll find all the components with the Part number. You can change the processor but the Quad and Extreme versions need a different heat sink which you'll need to order (see the docs at the provided link). This might be expensive.

Dragos

 

Is it worth going with the extreme version? That's a dual core yes? 3.0gGhz?

Would it be easier then to move over to a quad later on?
I'm hoping that higher speed quads will come to the market in time, and then be able to replace with say a 3.4Ghz Quad at a later date.

Si

 

Here's some temps from CPUID Hardware Monitor !

 

Do you guys have any other benchmarks like wPrime or Vantage? I'm putting together a spreadsheet that compares benchmarks, battery life, and heat between the W700, 8730w, and as a low cost alternative the Sager 5793. I've only found one review of this machine out there so far. There are a lot more reviews of the W700. It looks like W700 is getting, according to review sites, around 10,000+ on 3DMark06 for a configuration like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8 GHz) 6 MB L2
Nvidia QuadroFX 3700M
4 GB DDR2-1066

That is according to hothardware.com and laptopmag.com

Thanks for any info, and help on making a decision (which I have to do pretty soon if I want the 8730w)

P.S. If I go with the HP it would probably be a setup simliar to andrei's:
Core Duo T9600 2.8GHZ
4GB DDR2 800Mhz
FX2700M

 

Hi everyone,
I'm interested in comparison of 8710w and 8730w screens. I know that screens of 8710w are usually manufactured by LG, Samsung and AUO. Who has hp 8730w with WSXGA+ screens (1680x1050), please report your screen specifications from Everest (manufacturer, monitor ID, model e.t.c).

 

8730w
1680x1050

Monitor ID:
LPL4101

Manufacturer:
LP171WE3-TLA5

 

What is the battery life of this notebook in performance mode? Balanced-mode? Thanks.

 

I'm seeing roughly 3 hrs w/ configuration KS070UT. This is with the screen at about 50% brightness, surfing the web & playing World of Goo. Vista 32-bit.

 

My 8730w with DreamColor finally arrived. Didn't have time yet for photos and tests, quite busy installing stuff on it.
For those interested, this is the info reported by HP's Performance Tuning framework about the display:


Dragos

 

Dragos, I'm very interested in your opinion on the DreamColor display.
Any input would be really appreciated.

 

The DreamColor is an interesting topic. This is my first laptop so I don't have long-time experience with other laptops. I have used them, MacBookPros and PCs, but not long term.

So my main reference for comparison is my desktop display, which is an EIZO ColorEdge CE240W. At the time of it's purchase, almost 2 years ago, it was quite a high end professional display which cost around 1500 EUR. It's a display that I like a lot, has very good color reproduction and the results of calibration with the iOne Display calibrator are excellent and consistent.
On one hand it might be considered unfair to compare a laptop display with such a high-end desktop screen, on the other hand, HP sells this under the same DreamColor brand as their high-end desktop offering, which is even better than the ColorEdgeCE240W. So...

So, the DreamColor is the best laptop screen I saw until now.
It also has long way to go until it can truly compete with a high-end desktop display.

The display is bright and very saturated. Actually, too bright and too saturated for useful color-correction work in its default state. Great range, but you need a good control panel to adjust all that range.

The main problem I found it's not the display itself but the *pure crap* utility that HP delivers (the HP Mobile Display Assistant). It's made by Portrait Displays and looks a lot like their DisplayTune app (see a demo), but a "lite" version lacking lots of controls.
It lets you select 3 display profiles (Native/Full, sRGB, Adobe RGB) and 3 White points (5000K, 6500K, 9300K). It also let's you set a custom white point in x,y coordinates.
No color controls (R,G,B), not even basic brightness and contrast, no gamma etc. You are left to use the controls on the nVidia control panel instead of having them in the control panel which drives the panel itself.

Also, the "signal path" is not documented so I don't know which applies first (is the Color Assistant on top of the nvidia controls or not) and so I don't exactly understand the required workflow for correctly calibrating the display.
Nevertheless after some trial and errors I managed to get it to a good state, using the iOne Display calibrator.

I'm sure the results could be much better if HP would deliver a competent control panel (which is totally deserved by the excellent display) and some good documentation for a product which they say is targeted at DCC professionals. OK, then document it so we know how to actually make good use of it.

I was thinking a lot about posting pictures or not, as I feel the ones I took don't really reproduce anything close to what was actually happening in the real world. In the end I'll post them but don't take them as a reproduction, just as a suggestion.
It's the same image displayed on the DreamColor and on the EIZO CE240W which is connected to the laptop via the Advanced Docking Station. One photo was made in the dark, others in light with different white points set for the digital camera which took the pictures.
What is seen in the photos is not correct, the desktop display actually looks correct and the DreamColor is slightly too saturated.



As a conclusion, I *do* like the display. A lot. But it can be much better, without much effort.

Dragos

 

Is the screen glossy or matte?
Regards,
Simon

 

Dragos, thats really helpful! Thank you.

Did you take the pictures before or after calibration?
I assume with proper calibration, the display is good enough for the occasional photography work? I'm thinking about buying it for work flow on the filed and while traveling.

Also, how is the viewing angles? especially vertically? could you please post some pictures at vertical and horizontal angles?

Thanks again

 

It's matte.

The photos were done after the calibration.
It's definitely a good display for photo field work.
I will try to make some more pictures of the screen soon.

Dragos

 

Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear it's a matte screen also.
I'm trying to work out if I want to pick up this one or the dell 6500m. I've been reading about the Dell and it seems to have all kind of problems. Mostly driver issues by the sounds of it.

How are you finding the Hp? Any issues so far? There's very little info on the Hp so any advice would be most welcomed.

Regards,
Simon

 

I like it so far. I do have one major issue, and that is the fact that after 2 days of usage the hard disk tells me that the SMART test fails and failure is imminent. It seems I drew the bad one when it comes to the HDD. I talked to my reseller, I suppose there won't be any problems replacing it. I actually don't have a problem with HP for that as HDD failures do happen (I mean I don't think of it as a failure of the computer itself) and it's good that it happened now and not after 2 months for example. Still, after waiting for 1 month and half for the machine, I would have spared the nuisance
Otherwise, the build quality is good and the machine is working very good so far. The keyboard is excellent and the touchpad and touchstick buttons work very well.
There area few manufacturing details which I don't like, but not major. The area around the DVD drive could have been finished better and the plastic strip above the keyboard (the one holding the volume sliders and other buttons) has a vertical crack (this is the one "defect" I found on my unit).
Even with this "imminent failure" hanging above my head, I'm using it all day long and nothing happened yet (tomorrow I will get another hard drive which I ordered anyway, as I plan to either use an external box or replace the DVD unit with a HDD and move the DVD in the Advanced Docking station bay).
I'm satisfied with the performance, both of the processor and of the graphic card (I have the Quadro 2700, not the 3700).
The system moves very well with OpenGL apps like Houdini and AfterEffects with 2 displays (the built in and the external 24") and it's generally very stable. Btw, it has 4GB and I run Vista 64 on it. I do plan to upgrade to 8GB sometime in the future. I also plan to install a Linux distro, either SUSE (which is said to be certified for it) or Ubuntu (which I currently use on my desktop for 3D and compositing work).
The viewport performance for those OpenGL apps is clearly superior to my desktop workstation's GeForce 8800GTS. This is intended only for work so I haven't loaded any games on it, neither gaming benchmarks.
I haven't tested battery life yet as most of the time I used it docked.

Dragos

 

Great to hear!
I'm also going to be using it for 3D animation (Maya / Xsi). Sounds like a good machine for this type of work.

Just a few more questions if you can spare some time..

1. Does it have onboard RAID? You can take out the DVD drive and add a second disk but will it RAID 0 these do you know?

2. Is the Memory DDR3?

3. Have you used the webcam? If so what's the quality like?

4. The USB slots seem to be quite near the front of the laptop. Do these get in the way at all? Just thinking having a dongle, etc, hanging out at this point might get in the way of a mouse, etc? Or is it not a problem?

Regards,
Simon

 

If the Dream Color display is "too saturated" then wouldn't the standard display be perfectly fine? I can't justify spending $400 more for a display that's not really worth it. It would be interesting if someone could compare the standard display to the Dream Color display to see whether or not there is much of a difference.

 

1. Yes, you can put the drives in RAID.
2. No, DDR2.
3. Not used it yet (and chances of using it are quite weak).
4. I only use it with the touchpad and touchstick, as I like the fact that I don't have to take my hands off the keyboard. Will also use a Wacom with it, but no mouse in sight. But I might suspect that if you have an external drive to your right, connected to the eSATA port, it might get in the way.
For me, the ergonomics are good, and at the desktop I use the USB and other ports on the dock.

The display is too saturated and too bright in its initial state, which is something I found true of any LCD display I used so far. However, as I said, I do think the display quality is very good. Also, the display is 8-bit (instead of 6) which offers greater range.
I haven't seen the "normal" display version of the 8730w so I can't compare, but I'm pretty happy with this one and I don't regret spending the 400USD for the display. "Pretty happy" doesn't mean I don't see the places where things can be improved, but in my (limited) experience with notebooks I haven't seen a screen this good. This was confirmed by various friends (most of them MacBookPro owners) who all remarked the quality of the display.

Dragos

 

So DDR2 memory? Can you upgrade this to DDR3? Or doesn't the motherboard support it? Seems weird why they would only go with DDR2?

How much faster is DDR3? Does it make any difference really or not?

Regards,
Simon

 

Since there seems to be a dearth of expert reviews for the 8730w, here is in depth comparison between the Dell M6400 & the 8730w. Dell does smidgen better due to the ram upgrades, but HP won out on the ergonomics.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/17/51TC-mobile-workstations_1.html

 

In case anyone is interested, here is a review and comparison of the HP Elitebook 8730w and the Lenovo W700:

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/notebook-shootout-w700-vs-8730w-20081118/

Enjoy!

 

So to go back to this but does DDR2 vs DDR3 make any difference?
I've noticed the Dell M6400 uses DDR3. Is this much faster?

Regards,
Simon

 

Hello from Athens , I have just ordered my 8730w . Unfortunately i could not get the extreme processor or the quad core because the prices are too high but i was told that i can upgrade later with no problem with the warranty .
Now to my beast :

T9600
DISPLAY : 1920 x 1200 Dreamcolor
GPU : FX 3700m 1 GB
RAM : 4 GB DDR 2
320 gb , 7200 rpm
Vista Business 32 bit with Business 64 media and Xp 64 media
centrino vpro label
intel 5300
Bluetooth
dvd -rw
8 cell Battery
Web cam
Fingerprint
4 years on site warranty ( NBD )
Second Battery : Hp ultracapacity battery 12 cell
De luxe Backpack
Second power supply 180w ( because i will upgrade to quad in future )
Price : 2800 euro . It is over 3000 $.
I dont know if it is high or not but i could not resist to the Dreamcolor monitor and to the graphic card FX 3700 .
I know that the Processor is not a big deal over the lower ones and that the extreme and the quad is the best thing to go but the price was to high .
I will upgrade next year when i can get a quad core in a reasonable price .
I have to wait for about 3 weeks to get my beauty because HP here in Greece has to much orders for the Dreamcolor .
I need your opinions about the expensive purchase .
Best regards and happy christmas to all .
Chris

I wanted the beast with 64bit OS but it was not possible because there was no preconfigured one here in Greece .So i have to upgrade alone having the media from HP .

 

Geia sou Chris,

Congratulations on your elitebook.
I have the 8530w and I am very satisfied.

I hope it won't be too long before they deliver it.

Seasons Greetings!
Kala Xristougenna!

 

Thank you asusnote for your Greek wishes . I cant wait . 3 weeks are too much . So i will consolidate with this forum .
Chris

 

Hi fritz,

Please see my other thread about you trying to upgrade to a quad core later..
You should re-check with your reseller as there are 2 different motherboards listed in the Hp service docs. One for dual cores, and one for quads.
I've also just read in these forums that someone tried upgrading from a dualcore to a quad and it didn't work. He rang HP and was told he'd have to upgrade the motherboard also- very costly.

Regards,
Simon