HP Compaq 8710w Impressions

I've had an HP Compaq 8710w for about a month and a half now. I bought one of the preconfigured models (RM301UT#ABA). It has Windows XP and the WSXGA+ anti-glare LCD monitor.

I bought it as an engineering workstation and so far, I have to say I'm quite pleased! Everything work's as expected and I'm quite happy with the screen. My biggest dilemma was with what resolution screen to get. I opted for the slightly coarser resolution because I was concerned that the native font size would be too small for me to look at for long periods of time (text based programming languages). I was unable to find and evaluate a WUXGA screen, so I still do not know whether or not that would have worked for me.

I've viewed quite a few photos, and have run a few games (Great Planes RealFight R/C Airplane simulator and Diablo II) and they are all perfectly acceptable to me - though this is a minor use for me. I like the anti-glare screen - is was at the top of my list.

Sound quality from the speakers isn't great, but from a good pair of headphones it's pretty amazing!

I wish it has a PCI Express slot - as it happens I'm designing a board with a PCIe Cable interface and it might have been possible to get an adapter for debug and test. I didn't want a fingerprint reader, but it's fairly handy. None of the card Reader slots works with my cards! I also wish it had a 160GB drive - I guess you can't have everything!

All-in-all. I'm quit satisfied. I spent about a month doing research - I'd still choose this laptop.

Thanks again for all the previous input,

Kevin

 

Did you look at the docking station options to see if they have one with the expansion card you want?

 

Hi,

Hp advance docking station comes with express card slot.. (I purchased this) (the bigger size ver i think)... you may check hp website.. to confirm.