*HP HDX18 Owners Lounge*

I got my HDX18t this week with 4gb of DDR3 and the 1Gb Nvidia card from Costco. After reading through this thread, it appears to be the consensus that the options that I've chosen give no noticeable performance increase over DDR2 and the 512Kb Nvidia card. Most of what I've read seems to reference gaming in this regard. I'm not a gamer, but what about running Photoshop and video applications? Is the larger Nvidia card of no real advantage with these apps either? I'm thinking of returning mine and getting the lower cost options.

 

I'm sure there will be someone who points out that 1GB of video RAM is better and, yes, there's no denying that more is better. If you're asking, however, if it's worth the money, I think we've all pretty much agreed that unless you need to be on the bleeding edge and get that extra 5-10% performance gain, there's not much benefit to going with the 1GB video card and DDR3 compared to the price.

I'd order another one and return it within the 30 day period as long as your credit card can handle the double charge until you get the first one refunded.

 

I noticed on the HP site that the 8GB option is only for DDR3. Is that the case in general. If you eventually want 8GB for the HDX18, do I need to get the DDR3 version? I am not gamer either, but I do want to go to 8GB at some point.

 

I know of no reason you can't upgrade to 8GB of DDR2. That's what I plan on doing when I find a deal on 2x4GB sticks.

 

I just got my HDX18 yesterday. Which wasn't bad since I went with standard shipping and it only shipped this past Monday. From what I've seen from other post on this thread I'm pretty lucky in that respect. Good thing too, I was about to go crazy just waiting that long. This is the most awesome PC period that I have ever owned.

blewis, yes you can upgrade the DDR2 memory to 8GB. That is what I intend to do also. I'm really a little surprised that HP didn't offer that as an option, but DDR2 RAM is cheap enough that I guess it doesn't matter that much.

 

Upgrading to the Q9100 should be no problem at all.

Back to the QX9300. I looked up the motherboard for the Dell M4400 which can use the core 2 duo's, the quads including the QX9300 and it lists only one motherboard.

HP motherboard Part#'s are final assembly numbers. The motherboard itself for the QX9300 may be identical to the
other motherboard the only difference being the height for the supports for the heatsink. I've been to the Intel site trying to find the difference in height between the processors but have only been able to find the height of the QX9300.



I suspect the height of those 4 heatsink supports circled in red are the only differences in the motherboards. I'll be doing some more investigating into this when I have the free time.

 

According to HP's website, the 512kb Nvidia card only works with DDR2. Is this true? From what I've been reading here, my impression was that the card works with DDR3 as well.

 

As stated here before DDR2 = 200 pins and DDR3 = 204 pins.

 

did yours come with any of the defects that we've been hearing about?
i'm nervous about getting one after reading all this stuff, so it'd be nice to hear a story about the hdx 18t with a happy ending

 

(heavy sigh) Yes, thank you for pointing out that it's been stated here before. So sorry to annoy you.

I am quite aware that DDR2 and DDR3 have different pins and different boards and also that it's not really possible (or very difficult and expensive) to upgrade this notebook from DDR2 to DDR3 later on. Regarding my question, from the extensive reading that I've done in this thread, it sounds like the Nvidia 512kb card will work with DDR3 system RAM. I would like to verify if this is correct or not because I would like to get DDR3 RAM and the 512kb Nvidia card. From what I've read here, both Nvidia cards, 512 and 1gb, use DDR2.

If I'm wrong, please forgive me. I have read a lot of this thread, but I'm not as technically savvy as others, and I wanted to get verification.

 

Pipper,

Unfortunately, the 1Gb NVidia cards whether in the previous HDX18T-1100 CTO with the 1GB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT or the current HDX18T-1200 CTO with the 1GB Nvidia Geforce 130M both require DDR3 RAMM. You cannot order the 512 card with DDR3 RAM. The 1GB card is the only way to get DDR3 RAM.

 

Both the 512mb and 1gb gpu use their own DDR2 graphics memory. The graphics memory and System memory are two different things. Both gpu are built on the motherboard. The motherboard that the 512mb gpu is built into only supports DDR2 System memory. The motherboard the 1gb gpu is built into only supports DDR3 System memory. The only way to get the DDR3 System memory is to order with the 1gb gpu. Hope this helps.

 

Hey edreamerz, how are you liking the Windows 7 on your HDX?

 

I like it OK. Not too different from Vista but I am trying to get used to the new interface. There are still some bugs but of course it is still in Beta.

 

Thanks so much, CNCCO and Edreamerz, that's just what I needed to know!

 

I've had my hp hdx 18 for a week now. 4 gigs/q9100/500gb
I'm unreasonably impressed....

currently running vista ultimate and it's really quite nice at this speed.

Of course 8 gigs of ddr2, the 1 gig video card, a 256 gig ssd and a 7200 spin drive would have been nice.

Has anyone confirmed whether the qx9300 will run on this motherboard as of yet?

Do you run your SSD as the boot drive or the data drive?

 

QX9300 has been available on the HDX18 since the beginning. I believe it's still a very expensive option. (not to mention, it's in mine now!).

SSD is preferred to be the boot drive.

 

thanks, i see qx9300 going for ~500 on fleabay.
8 gigs of 800 ddr2 is a pretty cheap upgrade. 220 ish.
What's a good size for the ssd boot drive?

 

... and another question if I pick up the XB4 docking station will I be able to run 3 monitors? 1 from the docking station and 2 from the laptop?

I'm currently running 2-22" monitoris directly off the laptop and I would really love to add a third.

 

It should be mentioned that some of those Quads on eBay are test chips. Read back some pages and you'll see what I mean.

As far as the best SSD size, IMO, what you can afford. Although I don't see anything wrong w/ starting w/ a 160 gig or so until the prices come down. At least that's what I would do.

 

Thank you! Hmm I can't seem to find any info on it:/ I'd like to buy one for my HDX Dragon 20 inch. Know where I could get it and the SW Folder or at least the drivers/firmware from/for the HDX18t?

EDIT: Is it this one? http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/gbw-t10n.jhtml

Listed as GBW-T10N..?

 

You're wondering where you can buy that blue-ray?

This should answer your questions.

http://www.hdx18.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/-1/threadid/56/scope/posts/threadpage/2/Default.aspx

Click on the LG links.

 

My fingerprint reader quit working today after 3 days of use. I've tried reinstalling the drivers from HP's website, but still no luck. I have no idea why it stopped. I get the message, "reader not detected".

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

The one listed is GBW-T10N but people say their Device Manager shows it as being GBW-B10N.. It also doesn't seem to have any firmware info either. Any ideas?

 

The cheapo QX9300's on ebay that come from China, etc., are "ES" chips, known as engineering samples. They are CPU's that are basically "beta" versions. Usually, they work fine, and like you see, they are cheaper, but they are NOT the exact same as a released OEM or retail QX9300.

As far as SSD's, I know a thing or two. If you're going to put in a large data drive, say 500GB,, then you don't need a huge boot drive. One of the fastest and most liked drives right now (subject to change tomorrow!), is the OCZ Vertex series. Killer fast, but a bit pricey. The 60GB is affordable and is plenty of room for your boot drive and major apps. Everything else (including minor apps or seldom used stuff) can go on the 500GB drive. If you need bigger, the G.SKILL TITAN 128GB is a fine drive for the price. Intel drives are also highly rated, but very expensive. I'm very happy with both my TITAN and VERTEX drives.

 

thanks for all the effort you're putting into this investigation, badwolf

so... i checked fedex tracking yesterday and at first it said its in memphis but i refreshed the page and -then- it said "at dest sort facility, Philadelphia, PA". and checking NOW it says "at local fedex facility, Philadelphia, PA"! thats way sooner than april 10th for sure.... but this doesn't mean itll sit there till friday does it?? i mean... since its here won't they deliver it tomorrow?

that was my first question... second question... (well, lancorp answered the SSD one ) but im also looking for the seagate momentus 7200rpm/ 500gb drive... everywhere i go seems to be sold out or 'waiting till next week'... any idea where they may have them in stock (or maybe even another 7200rpm 500gb option?)

 

I'm not sure if someone answered this one yet but I had a similar issue so....
You likely have vista home premium 64 SERVICE PACK 1 installed. This means you need to install Vista Ultimate WITH SERVICE PACK 1 or it won't work.

I tried to figure out how to remove ths SP1 package on the hdx 18 but had no luck so I downloaded Vista Ultimate w/ SP 1 and all was good on the upgrade.

 

Well, I can't tell you for sure if it is or is not. I just know my drive is B10N, and that one says T10N. It may have to do with the drive lid though. Since on mine its that chrome color to match the laptop, and the one you showed there is black. But I can't say for sure if thats the only difference.

 

I have the same issue periodically. All I do is reboot the notebook and usually the problem is corrected.

 

I have an HDX18t. Using my own hard drive with a clean install of Ultimate x64 Vista. Treble/Bass controls do not interface with Windows and I've seen on a demo model what it's supposed to do (bring up OSD with values in Windows showing what setting it's as you slide it). Hp obviously has not put this driver/software up for download on their page using my model number yet. Is there anywhere I can obtain this? There are a few base system devices without drivers while everything BUT that works perfectly and is installed, so I am guessing that is what is not installed. Need help. If this is the wrong place to post this, please say so and I will repost elsewhere.

 

What is the incentive to buy the laptop from Costco? The price looks pretty much the same to me.

 

Hmm.. Ok I found some other places that list the B10N but they don't sell it. Thanks for the info though. Is there any way you could possibly list the drivers for it from the SW folder? HP techs of course have almost no info on it..whatsoever..

 

Kingston Technology ValueRAM
8GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL6 SODIMM KIT2
I see these for $384.51.

Is there any reason to by the higher end ram for the laptop?

 

I don't know if I'm allowed to post this but for anyone interested in DDR2 memory I'm selling some at Ebay right now starting at $199 (or you could do a search for GSkill 4GB laptop memory and they should come up): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=280329612226.

A couple of people from the HDX Dragon forum bought them and one even posted benchmarks who seems as happy as I am with them.. I bought 2x 4GB modules for myself as well and love them. If its against policy let me know and I can delete this, I apologize in advance.

 

Extra year of warranty, 90 day return policy!, I guess

 

Why 667 vs 800 or was there a big price differential at the time

 

The XB4 docking station isn't all that great.

 

HP HDX X18T-1000 CTO Premium Notebook PC:

WARNING: Do not install the HP MediaSmart DVD Software Version 2.1.2328 released 2009-04-03 if you want to be able to play DVDs from Windows Media Center. Installing this version removed the DVD Play option from Windows Media Center forcing the use of the HP SmartMedia DVD option only in Windows Media Center.
This is a problem for me because I prefer the remote control features of Windows Media Center's DVD Player over HP MediaSmart. The previous version of HP MediaSmart is not available anymore on HP's website.
If anyone has a copy of the previous version or knows where to get it, please let me know. I'm going to have to be even more careful about these updates from now on. The only way I know of to get this functionality back is to uninstall the HP MediaSmart DVD software which is not a good idea if you want to be able to play Blu-Ray disks unless you have another application that will play them on your computer.

 

I found the original version of HP MediaSmart DVD in my SWSetup folder. I've been saved from myself.

 

dang. could you just not install hp mediasmart at all? will windows media center play blu-rays without that hp software?

 

Mine has the wrong touchpad, a slight sink in the casing on either side of the touchpad, and the DC plug fits a little loose. I'm going to live with them though as they don't affect performance and you really have to look close to notice these things.

 

I do not have any Blu-Ray disks and have not tried it yet, but it is my understanding that you need HP MediaSmart to play them. (If I am wrong somebody please correct me.) Also, HP MediaSmart has the ability to inhance the image quality of regular DVDs according to what I have read. I have not noticed the difference on my DVDs.
I have just deleted the newest update that I had installed from HPs software and drivers page for my computer (HP HDX X18T-1000 CTO Premium Notebook PC) using Control Panel, Programs and Features. Then reinstalled the original HP MediaSmart DVD from the SWSetup, MSDVD folder. This restored the ability to use either Windows Media Center's "play dvd" option or HP MediaSmart DVD.

 

Guys how do you feel with this notebook?

I really think there is too much useless software in it, and i had to go through a long clean phase, i think i will have to install another OS cause the normal system is full of these i-love-to-slow-your-pc-and-boot-time software...
Is there a way to install just the OS without all the rest of the software?

 

Try PC Decrapifier: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

 

I totally change my mind on this issue. I originally told you I wasn't having this issue. I now notice the slowdown you were speaking about. I don't know what causes this, either. I just disable whenever I reboot, then re-enable when I am back up. I know it's not a permanent fix but it helps.

 

It was originally sold at Newegg for $150 each, then went up to $199 before they sold out and stopped selling them. Now a similar one with similar specs is $220 and more in other places IF you can find them online.

 

I had a similar issue w/ a different computer in the past. I think it was due to having "autorun" enable in Windows.

 

I know that the power cord is meant to be like that. And everybody else is being sent the wrong design (or the HDX16 design) along the touchpad.

 

Does it really take two weeks before it ships out?

Ordered mine on Friday. Total after coupons and cash back came to $1255.55.

 

Rebooting didn't work for me, so I restored the computer to an earlier state and it works fine now. I read somewhere that a Cypress something or other update was causing this problem. I couldn't find this particular update, so I just did the restore.

Thanks!