*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

FYI, for those looking to upgrade their Dragons with bigger and faster hard drives, I was doing some price comparison and found that RIGHT NOW, CompUSA.com or TigerDirect.com (same company, now), have the highly reviewed Seagate 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA notebook drive for an unbelievable $89.99 plus $6.99 shipping! NO REBATES and NO TAX to most states! Order multiples and shipping stays at $6.99. Use Fatwallet(3%) or Live.com cashback (5%) to save even more.

Sorry if this looks like an ad, but I think this is a really good deal and a really good reason to upgrade your drives!

Tomshardware.com rated this drive #1 in a recent 7200RPM notebook drive test.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=4167702&sku=TMD-320AS&srkey=ST9320421AS

 

Good lookin' out. Man! This drive has about 45% more throughput than the 160 Gb 7200 RPMs Fujitsu drives I'm using.

Ordered 2.

Thanks again. (+rep on the way.)

 

2.0

How would throughput affect overall performance and gaming compared to the 2 x 160 GB 7200 RPM that I have?

 

Awesome man! Bought one and thanks for sharing.

Rep for ya!

 

No problem! What pisses me off is, I just bought within the last 30 days a Hitachi 320GB/7.2K drive from OWC with a rebate, which at the time, dropped the price to a (then) really good $139 (now, a really bad price!).

Seems the prices of these 320GB/7.2K drives has really dropped in the past 30 days. Even Newegg lists the seagate for $109 (but no stock).

 

Some of the user reviews on the site report some early failures.

 

All and HDD does is read and write data.

So figure...
Faster boot times.
Faster program loads.
Faster game and game level load times, but no effect on game play or frame rates - that's the GPU's department.
Somewhat faster INTERNET speeds and page render.

And when writing to the HDD, faster write times.

So the system will seem snappier all around. It's actually a better upgrade than a CPU upgrade considering the price/performance. Moving to the X9000 won't yield more than avg 9-10% gain from a T9300. Even less from a 2.6ghz.
But worthwhile third party up from a 2.1Ghz.

 

Which site? Newegg, for example, lists only one failure out of 13 reviews. That doesn't seem problematic...

 

I don't think there's a harddrive in existence that didn't have a few early failures let alone computers. But the good news is that Seagate has a great warranty. 5 years.

I don't think I kept a Harddrive that long.

 

Possible that you could sell the Hitachi on Ebay... not that I need to tell you.

Think I might sell my Fujitsus. Or keep one for XP.

 

On the Tiger site itself, under reviews.

The Greek Messenger

 

I bought one from tiger on Thursday. I could not believe the price either. I was going to get one from New Egg but they can't keep them in stock. The down side with tiger is sales tax as well as shipping. But it was still $5 cheaper than New Egg.

Mine will arrive Wednesday. I have already created a total system image with Vista Ultimate. I will be using this as my primary. The 5400RPM 320GB will become my secondary.

Here's to faster load time!!

 

I must be blind. Where? I didn't see any reviews. In fact all it says is add a review. Reviews have stars in that box and review text under details. If you used the link that Lancorp gave, there are no stars.

 

No downside for me! Tigerdirect.com has no sales tax to California, and only $6.99 shipping (TOTAL, and I bought 4 of them), which makes shipping about $1.75 per drive. With the live.com cashback of $4.50 per drive, my "out-the-door" cost per drive is $87.24 each. Newegg charges me tax, so we're talking about $30 more, per drive, at Newegg.

Woohoo!

 

Folks who are upgrading the hard drive, what are you doing with your old one? Since the family's Sony PS3 is 80GB, maybe I can use my 200GB drive from my laptop to replace the PS3, if I decide to upgrade. What's the best method to transfer files/operating system from old drive to new drive? I'd configured my system with HP drives 2x200@7200 when I bought the system, so I might wait until a 400 or 500GB @7200 comes out to do the upgrade. I still have about 89GB free in my C: drive and 180GB in my D: drive. I also have a portable USB hard drive in addition to the Dock drive. I'm thinking of getting a HP Blackbird 002 to store most of my stuff and keep minmum stuff in the HDX for on-the-go. Anyone owns a Blackbird? I would like to know your personal experience.

 

Regarding the Seagate Momentus 7200 320GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB I can't find the reviews that I saw. Possibly I confused it with a desktop version.

 

I've had my HDX for a few months and it's great. However, I lost my adapter that goes from the HDX to a coaxial cable for cable T.V. Radioshack didn't have this adapter, where do you think I could find a replacement for this adapter? I don't see anywhere online to buy it, and I'm not sure HP will be of any help either.

 

You can definitely get it from HP, just look up the part number in the manual.

 

Okie guys, I have couple question about Upgrading HDX. This is 9108TX model with T7800 and ATI 2600. Am i able to replace it with X9000 ( or atleast X7900 or T9500 ) and get the new Nvidia 8800M ? Also we both using WSXGA screen, is there any different between WSXGA with WUXGA if we playing games ?

 

I had it , two on my HDX ST9320421AS 320GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB from zipzoomfly but now out of stock. They're good & fast.

 

For anyone considering buying HDX, Newegg now shows they're expecting more in stock on 11.04.08.

Considering its discontinued status...anyone have any ideas how they are accomplishing this feat? They wouldnt be planning a bait/switch with a batch of HDX18's, would they?

Thinking of getting the old lady one, if it's the real deal. Sick of the envy this thing has caused!

 

Someone was mentioning how they will be sent their HDX 20 inch from HP when they bought it before it became discontinued in the first week of Oct..? Maybe these companies did the same thing and thus are able to restock one last time? I hope this means we all get once last shot to get a brand new WUXGA in a last wave of them?

 

That would be nice, dominick7...though I wouldnt get my hopes up. newegg never carried the wuxga model, as far as I know. And I would imagine they'd list it as a new model number with the correct specs if this was to be the case, as well as a new price.

Furthermore, I'd think Hp would keep stock of the higher res screens over the lower ones, for warranty/ahd policies. They can legally upgrade from the wsxga+ to the better res screen to satisfy a warranty claim, not the other way around...

But thats just my best guess. kind of my personal policy: always prepare for/expect the worse, then I'm either right or pleasantly surprised. Go ahead and hope for the best. I'd be tickled...then I could restore this one, package it back up, she'd never know!

 

Wow, they sold out in 2 days again.

Nah, no bait and switch. This will be the last batch from HP. HP had contracted with retailers to ship 9494NR's back in July. CTO's get priority over retail deliveries due to higher margins for them.

If Newegg gets anymore after that, it'll be because they bought dead stock 9494NR's from another retailer. But that's unlikely.

 

Absolutely right. No chance at all of that happening since the retail contract is for the 9494NR and 9010TX only.

It's actually the other way around. HP sold significantly more WSXGA+ worldwide than WUXGA. The WUXGA is a completely custom monitor that the fabs aren't producing anymore. It would therefore cost HP a lot more to stock those and upgrade customers with it for a warranty claim than just replacing what they had. Whereas if HP ran out of stock of the WSXGA+, they could potentially use the desktop 20" fab and just have it modified for dual lamp since the resolution would be the same. So they'd be more inclined to simply replace the WSXGA+ since there are far more customers with them.

HP actually ran out of stock of the WSXGA+ for a spell a few weeks ago and were substituting WUXGA's on orders for the WSXGA+.

Good policy. Subscribe to it myself.

 

Look back in this thread. You'll find lots of detailed discussion about both questions.

 

You can replace the CPU with any Penryn/Merom that runs @ 800MHZ FSB.

The list includes:


X9000 2.8-GHz, 6-MB L2
X7900 2.8-GHz, 4-MB L2 (Merom)
X7800 2.6-GHz, 4-MB L2 (Merom)
T9500 2.6-GHz, 6-MB L2
T9300 2.5-GHz, 6-MB L2
T8300 2.4-GHz, 3-MB L2
T8100 2.1-GHz, 3-MB L2

Just note, none of the X-series can be overclocked in the HDX.

As for the GPU, probably not. 91xx most likely have motherboard number 448145-001 as those are 2nd run, pre-January '08 production. In order to swap to Nvidia, you need motherboard part number 464591-001. HP doesn't seem to be selling those in their parts store.

As for gaming, two equally equipt HDX's, the one with WSXGA+ would be better as you'd get more frame rates at native resolution. And games always look best @ native resolution on LCD monitors. In some games and games to come, it'll make the difference between playable and unplayable and certain graphic levels @ native resolution. What's more, as you drop resolution to play the game because you cna get better frame rates, the closer you are to native resolution, the better it will look. Say, if you can only get playable frame rates (>+ 30 FPS avg) @ 1440 x 900, it'll look better on a WSXGA+ than WUXGA since you're not scaling as far down.

 

While I was talking about retailers I was actually thinking more of powersellers/resellers like on Ebay or what not in regards to the WUXGA. I was imagining some of these guys doing bulk orders for them and having them be told the same thing some in here who are still waiting for the HDX they ordered when they became discontinued..to wait till Oct 3rd or something.

 

Possible, but not likely. There are no authorized resellers on ebay. Not likely someone's going to do a bulk order on spec like that. They would have needed to use the 30% off coupon to make it worthwhile and you can only use one per order. Doubtful there were many wise enough to do multiple orders of the HDX using the coupon in hopes of selling them on spec. People who bought them at this late stage, bought because they wanted it.

Best hope is someone who bought it, didn't open it, and doesn't want it for whatever reasons. I say that because I don't think you'd want one used. You'd really be trying your luck. Don't get me wrong, it's a robust computer. But you never know what they may have done with it or problem they may have had with it that motivated them to sell it. eBay's still the wild west of retailing.

 

Are you saying that if I got a 2.5 or 2.6GHZ processor I could overclock it to 3GHZ possibly then?

 

My hopes are that someone this week puts their unopened HDX with top specs on sale at Ebay.. but we'll see how that pans out. Used scares me but I may be forced to get one. I guess worse comes to worse if its still within the 1 year warranty I can get it repaired at HP or what not..

 

2.0's explanation was probably not quite clear. ONLY "X" processors are overclockable, at all. That is why they have the "X" designation. "T" and "P" CPU's are not overclockable.

2.0 was stating that even an "X" CPU in a HDX is not overclockable, because the BIOS does not support it.

 

Hmmm...For those of you that bought off newegg:
When you received your HDX, were you able to tell off the shipping boxes that they arrived in, if they were sent to newegg directly from HP, or from some other source? I mean, did you notice any labels or stickers stating they were sent to newegg NOT from HP?

 

It's beginning to seem like the HDX is a rare collectible.
At the very least everyone seems to want one.

 

Yep, thanks bro.

 

My Newegg order came via "New Age Electronics"

 

Oh yeah, those guys. Retail supply chain pros.

HP --> New Age Electronics ---> retailers (Best Buy, Newegg, Amazon, circuit city, Frys, etc.)

 

You'll find lots of friends here, I think we all use that ther wireless internet doohicky.

 

Ordered one today to replace the primary drive, will leave the secondary at 120GB 5400rpm. Don't really use it since all my backups are on a NAS drive.

My question is whats the best way to transfer the system over to the new drive? I was considering using Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore utility that came with VISTA Ultimate.

 

I had a nice surprise today. My Seagate HDD arrived. I installed it with no issues. Used Vista Ultimate to do a complete restore with no issue. I notice an increase in load times in my games and boot up. Very nice. I had the 9494nr so I just had one 320 5400 Toshiba. I am using that as my second drive now.

 

anyone know if the canadian bestbuy will ship to the US? seems they are in stock.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodd...d=0926INGFS10108503&catid=26975&test_cookie=1

 

Unfortunately, they won't.

 

Just another note. My HDD Windows experience score went from 5.5 to 5.9.

 

Not to start this debate again, but I notice there's a new audio update available through windows update; Dated Sep 26/08. Anyone install this one?

 

How do you add a second 320gb harddrive to an HP HDX9494 notebook?Is it fairly easy.Also is it eay to replace the cpu in the notebook thanks.

 

Adding a hard drive is easy, you just need to get a caddy off ebay and any sata 2.5" drive.

But, changing the cpu requires complete disassembling of the entire unit, because the cpu is located on the bottom of the board. I would only suggest it if you feel your tech skills are pretty high.

 

Jiminey Crickets that sucks..but I guess its ok as its a beast in itself anyway. Anyone see any 500GB Hard Drives the same quality as the Seagate ones that were listed? A full terrabyte at 7200 I think would be fantabulous.

Oh I have another quesheeon.. If I pay for the upgrade from Vista Home to Ultimate 64 bit within the unit itself, will it be identical to how it would come via factory configurations or will I be in the same position as anyone doing a clean install having to find drivers and all? In that case would it just be better to buy Ultimate 64 and have to do a clean install? I actually like some of the software it comes with..the movie/video software allows for several free movies you can download from what I can remember.

I was thinking I could do a 3 boot option ...Vista Ultimate, XP Pro and I'm figuring I'm going to have to also buy a copy of Leopard and maybe use the EFIX USB Dongle to get OS X on there but I'm not sure the best way to do that. I hear it works perfectly that way but don't know if you can set it up as a third option you can choose when restarting. I was going to do the OSx86 but I hear its not that stable.

 

My WEI is 5.3 with 2x2GB Kingston HyperX (CL4 4-4-12)

 

Nice bump up from 5.1 stock (CL5-5-5-15).

Anyone interested, here's the page on Kingston's website for HyperX 4Gb kit.

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...o.asp?ktcpartno=KHX5300S2LLK2/4G&promo=hx2shp

EDIT:

Newegg has a 4GB kit for $69 + 6.99 shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104033

Can't find any technical reviews to see what sort of real world performance increases it'll yield though. Might be a placebo affect (WEI score can be placebo as it's not always a good guide). Last time I checked, dropping 1 CAS didn't yield more than a 0-2% boost.

Here's an example of dropping 1 CAS @ same frequency:

http://hardware.gamershell.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2616

Also, see this excellent thread about memory:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=281940

All food for thought so one can make an informed buying decision.

 

You gots to have the biggest, baddest, tricked-outest, full of minerals system, isn't that right then?

What are you doing that you need all those OS's? What about Linux? You have to go quad boot to be top shelf. Haven't tried Ubuntu on the HDX so couldn't advise as to its compatibility.

Also, how do you plan to fill up 1TB and what is more, how do you plan on backing that up? Always have to have a backup plan.

Anyway, if you get Vista Ultimate, it should be the HP customized version. But there's no way to know to be absolutely sure since you're not buying this option from HP. Best bet is to ask the vendor you're interested in buying from.

As for free downloadable movies with Ultimate... where did you get that info from?