*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

ICH8M (Santa Rosa's Crestline chipset) and up (such as Montevina's ICH9M Cantiga chipset) are 8GB max addressable.

Just requires 64bit OS to make any use of it.

They all said 4GB max because that was the max RAM size sold for a long time. Currently an 8gb kit of DDR2 PC2 5300 200 pin 667mhz sodimm will cost around $800 - $1k. But by the end of the year, early next, that price will come down considerably. Perhaps to around $250 - $350 per kit.

 

Ok, but compare the price drop of their other end-of-life Pavillion models since both inception (summer '07) and refresh (Dec/jan '07/'08), and you won't see such a drastic drop such as the HDX's ~50% price drop since inception. Base price of the HDX since inception (June'07) went from $2999 to $1599. That's a ~45% drop. Red flag.

Consider that when the ydesigned it, they also built into it their profit margin. What margin do you think is left?

Kinda, sorta like when they told you to look out for a blu-ray writer within a week or two some 3 or 4 months ago.

Anyway, next batch of $400-$500 off coupons probably won't come around until September or near the end of the year.

Keep an eye on these websites to know when:

http://hpwebsavings.com/
http://www.hpbestbuys.com/?sid=g_457496191_hp+pavilion+notebook+laptop

Best time to use them is pretty much on the day they come out. They're usually stackable. Meaning can be used on top of any HP instant savings. A few days later, sometimes they're no longer stackable. Or worse, they get used up.

 

Thanks for all the info 2.0

I didn't know the coupons could've been stacked on top of instant savings in the beginning... were you able to do that? I couldn't by the time I purchased -- entering the $500 coupon removed the $200 instant savings. Would've been nice to get $700 total discount.

Actually I would've loved to be able to use wwoods' 25% (stackable) coupon. True, a $500 coupon off $1399 represents almost a 36% discount. But when your HDX is let's say $3000, the $500 coupon amounts to less than a 17% discount. A 25% coupon would amount to $750 in that case (plus the $200 instant savings). Oh well...

 

Yep, mine were stackable but it was for $450 off. I used the $500 for the TX2500.

 

That's a bummer. So the product key from the factory preinstalled Vista x64 OEM cannot be re-used on a new installation of Vista x86 OEM on the same computer. I was tempted to call Microsoft to request this...

It's true that given the limitations of Windows GUI scaling, some of my family members prefer a moderate resolution for a given screen size. It makes text easier to read without having to blow up the Windows dpi and font sizes to a ridiculous amount (which would visually break many apps and negate much of the benefits of the higher resolution in the first place). Given that the HDX has a 20" display, perhaps I should've configured mine with the cheaper 1680x1050 screen instead of 1920x1200, and save some money to boot...

On the other hand, people say laptop screens are supposed to have a higher resolution than desktop monitors (for a given screen size) because we tend to work with laptops at a closer range. Then again, the HDX is probably going to be used more like a desktop much of the time... But still, having a WUXGA resolution capable of displaying true 1080p (for Blu-ray movies or whatnot) sounds good. Realistically though, I think it's hard to discern any difference in quality playing Blu-ray movies on a 1680x1050 vs 1920x1200 screen. Argh, I feel like I'm talking in circles

Heh I've had this compulsion with UPSes for a long time (usually cheaper consumer-grade though, as opposed to online UPSes with true sine wave output). I've got at least sixteen 1500VA AVR UPS units around the house, for different rooms, the computers, electronic equipment, etc. I would've installed a Trace (now Xantrex) whole-house backup power system (inverter/charger with battery bank and optional generator) years ago if I'd had the budget...

That makes sense, but we're not looking to put it in the kitchen. It would just be used as a standard home computer, except without all the messy wires and separate accessories (webcam, speakers, etc). It's funny actually, they've told me that they like a display as big physically as the one I use which is 24". The original HP TouchSmart IQ770's screen was deemed too small at only 19"... You know what would be awesome -- an all-in-one like the iMac but which has a 26" - 28" WUXGA (1920x1200) screen! With the bigger dot pitch compared to a 24" WUXGA screen, my family members might be able to run Windows without having to up the DPI scaling to 120+.

Heck an all-in-one with a 30" or larger WQXGA (2560x1600) screen would be even better, if it's at all in the realm of affordability

 

I have the HDX 9200 with the Toshiba HD DVD. Anyone know how to make this region free?

 

AFAIK, there are no hacks to do this yet.

 

Try some Region Free software available on the net.

 

What, like Slysoft's AnyDVD HD? Yeah, good idea. Forgot about that one.

But AFAIK, it only removes the region code limitation for Blu-ray and not HD DVD.

 

I am not sure if he asks about HD-Discs. But RegioFree usually works with DVD's.

 

True. For DVDs, no probs using either software package.

 

HDX arrived. Up and running. One word: Gorgeous.

 

how does the 8800 that the HDX come with compare to a 8800M GTX?

 

According to benchmarks, somewhat slower. But not by all that much.

 

well i have the laptop in my sig right now but funny thing is i got it on this past thursday, and then this past saturday the graphics card was determined to be defected after spending an hour on the phone with a technician and opening up the laptop myself, which i never have done so was quite frustrating. so now im leaning towards the hdx, i figure it will play TF2, source, WoW, and someone posted that they played AoC quite well. also the big screen will be nice for video editing. and when i put together quite some nice upgrades-4gb ram, 2.5 processor, 8800 graphics, and a few more. it came to around 2500. plus the 500 coupon=2000. thats very nice. compared to a 4300 AW which broke 2 days later.

 

Well so far so good. I've been busy uninstalling the bloatware and installing drivers for peripherals, but I plan on putting on so games later. Maybe some benchmarks first.

The screen is unbelievably beautiful. Can never go back to a 15" screen again. No dead pixels. No light bleeds. Viewing angles similiar to my Sony TV. The sound with the subwoofer is awesome. Best I've heard on a notebook.

As to the games you listed, this thing will certainly play them. Crysis would be a challengne at native resolution I suppose. Will try it on med settings and see what happens.

The configuration you listed is what I have. Can't go wrong with the $500 off coupon considering how much this thing used to cost just 3 months ago.

 

sweet. how was shipping, get to you in the estimate they give you or faster? also could you post all your specs please.

edit:also i been reading about the santa rosa? i think it is. does that come with the hdx's if i order one say in the next few days, or is it not out?

 

HDX is Santa Rosa (Centrino Pro). The next platform is Montevina (Centrino 2) due to be released by Intel in July. No word on a new version of the HDX though.

Specs:

Vista 64
1680 x 1050
8800M GTS 512MB
320GB 7200 rpm drives (160x2)
4 GB Ram
Wifi ABGN
Lightscribe DVD.

Ordered on the 11th. Received today. Shipped on the 18th. Was supposed to be shipped on the 20th. So 2 days early. Takes 4 days to reach you from date of ship. Comes in really nice packaging too.

 

ah nice. so if no word on a new hdx, i will probly just order the one they have now. alienware is getting returned.

 

just called them to return, they want me to pay the restocking fee($$$600). for a damn laptop that doesnt work after 2 days of using it.this is bs.

 

Yeah I was waiting for a new HDX, but at these prices there's no real incentive to wait. They may have a better GPU in the new one if there is to be a new one. But an 8800M GTS is high enough on the list to keep me satisfied for some time to come.

It's really an incredible machine. Have to say that it's the best notebook I've seen or owned.

You won't be disappointed.

 

So I am a noob to the forum and to notebooks. I've been building gaming desktops for a while, but recently sold my SLI desktop, and now I'm going to buy a buddy's HDX9010nr! Very Excited! (First gaming notebook i've owned!)

I'm not concerned with the drive, as I have no use for HD or BD yet. And when the time comes that I'll actually NEED BluRay, hopefully drives will be cheap enough, or I'll be buying a new notebook. I've been searching all over the internet for an answer to my question. I figured this would be the place to find an answer. I apologize if this has already been answered, but I searched through the first 30 pages of posts and decided to risk a re-post

I heard that there are two separate motherboards being used with the HDX. One for ATI graphics, and one for both. That being said, no one can tell me which mobo the 9010nr has. I would really like to be able to upgrade to the 8800GTS since I'm a gamer. If the 9010's mobo only supports ATI cards, would I still be able to upgrade to a newer ATI card? Is the HDX9010 PCIE2.0?

I am also wondering if anyone else with a 9010nr, or similar can tell me how well it plays games. (by the way, It's only the 1680x1050 model.) I love crysis, but I'm not gonna push my luck I would be curious how well games such as oblivion, HL2, FC2, bioshock and assassin's creed run. I know that the 8800 gets much higher benchmarks than the 2600, but can the 2600 still hold it's own with current games?

I'd really like to pop in an 8800GTS. And a T9300.
If the board that's in the 9010 isn't compatible withe nvidia cards...I know I can order both motherboards from HPs part center. And all HDX's are the same size physically, but is everything inside the same? cooling, placement, etc. I'm wondering If i'd be able to swap out the mobo with the better one.

Although, if i'm going to be upgrading the mobo, I'd also be doing the GPU, CPU and RAM. I might as well buy a new one (I wouldn't need to upgrade this stuff right away if the T7500 and HD2600 can hold their own for at least a little while)

Edit: Even tried calling HP. Since i don't have the HDX yet, i can't provide P/N or S/N numbers, which HP apparently needs before they give out part info. Uh...damn HP.

 

I am looking for mine to arrive after tomorrow. Will let you guys know, how it is.

 

Problems with the Recovery manager on new HDX.

1. F11 on bootup (recovery manager) doesn't work, just sits there blank screen for 20 secs then reboots.

2. Try to make recovery DVD's using HP utiltily in windows- Burns the first DVD then says failed when it tries to verify, tried it with 3 brand new blank DVD's. Upon checking the DVD it appears files have been burnt ok but the recovery manager refuses to continue.

3. Decide to try and take a ghost image of C: Bootup with bootcd (Utlimate Boot CD) but cannot see the HD at all. Does the HDX use some kind of weird HD format or controller that a normal bootdisk cannot recognise?

HP really annoys me that they don't provide recovery CD's and a proper Vista DVD. What it saves them 50cents in a DVD/CD media? What if I want to reinstall Vista cleanly? I can't- no DVD. What if I need to repair Vista, can't no DVD. I paid for a Vista license as part of the price- give me the damned DVD with it!

 

Service manual with all part numbers and disassembly is here: (It's a PDF) ...

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01279508.pdf


From here you can determine if the mobo is compatible with the 8800GTS MXM board. I hope you're getting your friend's HDX for cheap if you plan to do all these upgrades. These parts are pretty expensive.

As for the Radeon 2600XT, it's about 50% the graphics power of the 8800M GTS. Firgure than it's around the same processing power of the 8600M GT overclocked.

 

What kind of DVD media did you use? Best is DVD+R for these sorts of things. And what brand?

 

Thanks for the manual 2.0! I already had DLed one, and it didn't say which models are which part-numbers...But I went on HP.com, and searched for the 9010nr and all part numbers, which gave me the exact mobo part number. According to what I thought, the motherboard in the 9010nr is the same part number as the "ATI Only" board. Yet, when I typed in 9010nr and listed all part numbers, it only lists the nvidia graphics card and not the ati. So, does that mean that I'm able to throw in an 8800? Or does that mean that HP had their head up their A$$ again, and just put nvidia part numbers on all the HDXs and took away the ATI replacement. I find it weird that the 9010nr, comes with an ATI card, but it only lists the replacement numbers for the Nvidia. (Man, I hope this board's compatible with the 8800.) I'm going to continue my search to make 100% sure it will work, but any help is appreciated.

And yeah, i'm getting a pretty good deal. Lets just say, that If buy this HDX off my friend, and go through HP to buy 4gbs of RAM, new mobo, 8800, and a BD drive, I'd still be under the retail price of customizing a new one. Not having to replace the mobo, and buying the RAM off newegg makes this a great deal for me. The biggest thing is being able to swap graphics cards with the current mobo.

Edit:Sweet! It's confirmed! I can replace my ATI card with the Nvidia! And if not, I can demand HP give me a newer model with one, because they said the nvidia part would work in my model number 8800GTS, a T9300, some extra RAM and I'll be "Playing the way it's meant to be played!"
(I've always been a big ATI fan, but for gaming how can you deny the 8800GTS?)

 

Sony DVD+R

Like I said though the weird thing is when I check the DVD it appears to be burnt ok, there is nearly 4GB of data written to it.

 

Does the recovery manager allow you to create an image that you, yourself can burn to disc? I never actually used the recovery manager [someone else created the recovery discs for me ], but you might be able to burn the image with another application, preferably one in which you can slow down the burn speed and verify.

 

@2.0 -- i have some questions. my HDX came with 2 HDD and one HDD was partitioned to 140G and 10G with the 10G partition containing the HP recovery disk/files of about 8GB. recently, when the HP software did a health check, it said that i do not have any recovery disks. so i proceeded to create the recovery disks and ended up with 2DVDs of recovery disk.

my questions are:

1. how come the HP health check did not detect my 10G recovery files on the partitioned HDD?

2. do i still need the 10G of recovery disk files on my HDD now that i have 2DVDs of recovery disk created and the HP health check software has not been bugging me anymore about creating a recovery disk?

3. are the contents of the recovery files on the 10G HDD different from that of the 2DVDs?

thanks

 

Unfortunately not, no option to create an image.

 

Maarten ,
maakt je power supply , bij hoog stroom verbruik, ook een vreemd knetterend geluid?
Grtz, Bartje

 

1. That partition is for restoring from F11 @ boot.

2. Technically no but you should keep it as a redundancy and because it will restore faster than a DVD would.


3. I'm guessing that they are the same as it would stand to reason that they would be. Can't see into them deep enough to be sure.

 

Oh. I suggest trying to find either 4x or 8x rated DVD media, preferably Verbatim-branded or made by Taiyo Yuden. If none is available, Verbatim 16x media might work a bit better. Sony media seems hard to write at a slim drive's maximum speed, and I don't think the HP Recovery Disc Creator allows you to manually slow the write speed down.

[If in the U.S. with a Best Buy nearby, you might be able to get Verbatim 8x media in the form of its Digital Movie or VideoGard discs. You may also get media made by Taiyo Yuden in the form of Panasonic 8x DVD-R made in Japan, but it may be near the standalone home entertainment DVD recorders instead of the computer blank media. Then there's always the Internet. ]

 

Just out of curiousity...this GSkill ram is the only 4gb kit I found with heatspreaders, i think it's a great idea! Considering the HDX is one of the biggest laptops out there, i'd assume i wouldn't have any trouble with them. Any thoughts?
Here's the product link on newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231165

Anyone have any experience with GSkill RAM in an HDX?

 

Might not fit because the cards in the HDX overlap one another. The heat spreader might be too thick. Besides, the HDX runs cool.

I have Samsung Ram in there. Crucial or Kingston Ram would do the trick and I think they have free shipping going on. So It'll come out to the same price as Newegg, give or take.

 

thanks for the advise 2.0

i guess it is better to retain the recovery HDD

 

Well, guys...Not happy. Got my machine this morning...opened (was very excited) and a RED stuck pixel appeared right in the middle of the screen... Totlly disappointed. Sent it back.

 

Grrr....so I got an email back from HP support...they're saying I can't put an nvidia card in the 9010nr. So i sent a reply asking if his information is true, then how come the HP parts center shows the nvidia card as the only replacement graphics card when typing in the hdx9010nr? I'm gonna be bummed, I had the feeling the 9010nr would have the ATI only board. The 9010 was one of the first HDXs. (Judging from model number and specs) This is really screwing with me, everyday I find more information that leads me to believe one thing or another. Having an HP tech tell you it's ATI only is probably pretty accurate. If that's true, hopefully I might be able to drop in a 3870 or 4870 hehe-_-

 

That's good to hear. My order was supposed to be built/shipped on Jun 27th, but was actually shipped on the 24th, 3 days early. FedEx estimates arrival on 27th (ie. 3 days shipping).

 

Man. So sorry about that. Will you be getting another one? Call up HP and see what they can do about giving you use of the coupon code you used.

 

Yes, I talked to them, but they said I can't replace this for another one without add payment as the coupon code I've used is a ONE TIME code only. So, I agreed to wait for another discount time.

 

just got my HDX, I'm officialy an HDX owner!!!! anything i should do/update/check before I start installing stuff on it? Btw if I wanted to replace the 2.5Ghz for a 2.8Ghz x9000 extreme later on, all I need to do is swap the proccessor and nothing else right? I don't need a new heatsink or anything like that right?
the specs are below:

 

I just replaced my T7300 with a X9000. It took me 4 hours to replace it. You dont need anything but the processor.

The computer runs much cooler now. Before it was degrees 41c at idle and now 29c.

 

Hi All,
I recently bought my HDX at an HP clearance auction here in Australia (some warehouse guy spilt beer on the box! ). Very happy with it and all good. However I am about to run some heavy graphics applications such as Adobe After Effects. I am about to increase the RAM from 3gb to 4 gb.

Can anyone suggest some easy upgrades I can make in terms of processors or graphic boards etc. I am completely dumb as far as all this goes so please keep it simple.

My system as follows;

Intel Core 2 Duo T7800 (2.6GHz)
3GB RAM, 500GB HDD
20.1 WSXGA+ display
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Integrated LAN, WLAN, TV tuner, audio, webcam