HP NC8430 review

It's about 1 lb heavier than the NC6400. Since the N6400 is a 14.1 inch notebook, the nc8430 is bigger and therefore heavier.

The official specifications from hp.com have it as follows:

NC6400: starting at 4.6 lbs
NC8430: 5.95 lbs

If I were to hazard a guess - the regular configurations of the NC6400 would be closer to 4.8-4.9 lbs (including battery + optical drive).

 

okay, yeah its hard to tell sometimes from the "official" numbers because theres always a little bit of fudging when it comes to any company giving out the numbers.

 

awww...

my sister just bought me a Z61m instead of the NC8430... same spec'd machines other than their video card... X1400 to the NC's X1600

goodbye HP... hello lenovo

 

I just placed an order for the nc8430 at buy.com for the EY688AA#ABA model. I hope to recieve it before the weekend.

I plan on upgrading to either 1.5Gb or 2Gb RAM, but it uses 533MHz memory from the factory.

Is it worth it to replace all the factory 533MHz memory with 667MHz memory? or just pull one sodimm and replace it with a 1Gb 533MHz to attain 1.5Gb RAM?

Is the speed difference that great that I should scrap the 533 for all new 667 speed at the same time I upgrade? If so , I'll go straight to 2Gb 667MHz RAM (any brand reccomendations?).

Any input appreciated.

 

The speed difference isn't that great going from 533 to 666. However the system does use dual channel RAM, in which case using mismatched sticks will prevent that from operating, which would hurt throughput while adding capacity.

So, if your going to upgrade, you probably would want to switch both sticks. Only get 667 if the price difference is small.

 

Thanks celondil! I forgot about the dual channel RAM! I guess its all or nothing then when going from 1Gb to 2Gb for me.

 

Might want to look up the 533 v. 667 speed tests on notebookreview. In summary, the author found that the performance was the same, and in some test worse (latency).

 

i've heard a complaint about the viewing angles of the wxga version of the nc8430 but since all versions have the wide viewing angle feature (WVA), shouldn't they be identical in this respect?

 

@ above, see last two posts in this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=71234&page=2

I presume that's where you got the complaint from

 

A quick question to my fellow NC8430 owners; how hot does your NC8430 get under full load ?

I was playing Oblivion and mobmeter had my NC8430 at 72 degrees celsius. I wasn't running anything else besides the standard HP bloatware and MSN Messenger.

Is that too hot ? The notebook idles at 50 degrees celsius.

 

It would be a good idea if you can tell as what resolution you ran the game and its configuration.

 

Right, that would be smart.

I just let Oblivion autodetect the settings (it says it's on "high")

Res: 1024 x 768
AA: None
V-Sync: Yes
Screen Effects: HDR
All distant rendering is enabled.

 

I just got mine yesterday and early this morning I completed making the Restore DVDs so I had not a chance to take it out fragging. The one thing I can tell you is that I noticed is the vent underneath it. You might want to consider getting a stand that leaves a lot of circulation down there.

 

A lot of laptops have vents underneath. However, its worth mentioning that the extended battery and/or docking station should prop the back of the system up a bit.

BTW InProgress, if your looking for reproducable results, how about giving the temps right after running through 3dmark or when running 2 instances of prime95? Don't forget the ambient.

 

Another semi-silly question. I've burnt the recovery DVDs and have copied SWSetup to DVD as well.

I can go right ahead and delete SWSetup from my primary partition ? They are just install files for software/bloatware and drivers -right ?

Thanks in advance, just making doubly sure before deleting them.

 

I deleted it.... but I burnt a copy of that directory to DVD first just in case.

 

OK it was a *****, I repeat a *****, to connect to my wifi at home. I eventually opened it up and even then I had problems. I finally got that to work but going to take a break to try to connect to it using encryption. I guess I should have installed the HP Wireless Assistant first and worked from there.

 

I don't think the HP Wireless Ass would have helped. The Wireless button with the blue light turns both Bluetooth and Wireless on/off simultaneously, unless you have previously disabled one or the other or both. It appears to me Wireless Ass just lets you toggle either one via software. I don't use Bluetooth at present, so I disabled it in the BIOS, and removed all the services related to it. Thus, my Blue light button ONLY turns on/off the Wireless. And I jettisoned the Wireless Ass because I found it annoying and useless.

 

should this deter me from buying this machine?

 

It was no problem for me. I simply used windows wireless network connecter, inserted the wep key, and it was done.

 

I suspect I need to upgrade the firmware of my Links WRT53g router but it failed.

When you enter the WEP key, is it the Passphrase, the hexcidecimal number or both?

 

No. This (at least for me) was no harder than any other system on any wifi network.

 

Sorry for giving you doubts because outside of this, I really like this machine. I should have also said that I suspect I did something wrong and most likely I need to update the firmware on my router but that too is giving me problems.

 

I believe it is a hexcidecimal number. The standard comcast internet set up on a Linksys WCG200.

 

OK I have tried enterping the PassPhrase and Hex number and it keeps rejecting it. My Linksys router generates the hex number but is there any sequence of characters in the passpharase that will not work?

 

EUREKA

I had no idea what I did but I took the following action:

Reset the router from the interface and reenter all the info
Started Windows Wireless Service
Deleted the wireless profile and created a new one

It works and I am happy. Again I suspect it was my fault. Thanks for all the help.

 

Nope. That's perfectly fine. When the temperature goes over 85 celcius you should get worried. I've actually run my computer (nw8240, previous generation) at 103 celcius (it had some dust inside ventilation, that's why) and it still worked. Good that it did not get damaged; it's now down to 70s again after the I got the dust off with a vacuum cleaner.

 

I've just ordered my nc8430 (from laptopsdirect.co.uk), and the person I spoke to was able to confirm that it does have an S/PDIF out. (someone asked on the second or third page). I'll report back when it arrives on any heat/noise issues.

 

When I plug the AC power cord into my nc8430 notebook, the Safely Remove Hardware icon appears in the SysTray with the message: “Safely remove Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet”.

When I unplug the powercord, I get the message telling me I can now Safely remove the Ethernet device and the icon disappears.

But the Ethernet is built-in.

At no time is there anything plugged into the Ethernet port.

Is anyone else seeing this?

 

That would be a no for me. Does everything work OK? Are you using HP's drivers or did you install from scratch?

 

Uhh, unless I've gone crazy or the UK version is slightly different, this is not the case. There is an S-Video out on the Laptop itself, but the only audio in/out is a mini connector.

See here:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12442_na/12442_na.HTML

 

celondil: I assume you are responding to my Ethernet mystery.

Yes, I did a very clean full re-install from original CD I got from HP. Almost nothing HP is running except the Mobile Data Protection.

I had the same issue with the out-of-box pre-installed setup as well. Everything seems to work, but it seems strange that a built-in device would show up as "removable".

 

Yes, I was responding to that. Maybe I should clarify -- I did see it in the Remove Hardware icon, but no pop-ups occur when plugging/unplugging the AC.

But I actually tried it with an ethernet cable plugged in. Tried again without the ethernet cable and duplicated exactly what your seeing.

I believe what the system is doing is turning off the NIC if you switch to Battery AND there is no ethernet cable plugged in. Interestingly enough, its smart enough to detect when an eth cables is plugged in and powers that device back up.

So, I'd call this a feature, with a minor visual side-effect/bug.

However, there is a driver option about letting the system power down the device to save power. Unchecking it didn't change anything (but maybe a reboot would have been required?). Either way, seems like a good thing to keep around.

 

celondil said:

That's normal. Almost all PC kit with an S/PDIF output has it through a mini jack (as opposed to an RCA socket on Hi-Fi equipment). It's also fairly commmon on laptops to have both digital and anlogue coming from the same mini-jack socket. You select which you want from within the OS.

 

Just a note for folks bargain hunting for the NC8430....

Euclid Computers has it online now for 1,534 (including ship+tax) and ships same day. I had a good experience with them.

http://www.euclidcomputers.com/fram...ckard+EY688AA#ABA+pricegrabber+8/20/2006-0:37

There is also a 20 dollars review bonus for anyone that owns a NC8430, that is located here-

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=19875466

 

That's a good price, I wish I knew about that, I paid $1633 for the same model.

 

Anyone having the 1280*800 version ? I would like to know how is the screen like.

Thanks a lot in advance, that would help a lot in my decision making process

 

Rather than run mine at 1680 x 1050 which strains my eyes, I use 1280 x 800. I like it. I've seen several DVD's on it including some anime. It's not as sharp as the higher resolution but that goes without saying. I usually disable the ambient sensor. I play games in this mode and it works fine.

 

i'd probably do the same thing if i got wsxga+, however as i wouldn't use this resolution, am i better off with wxga?

 

I don't think that option is available with this model. In fact there really isn't any customization - just 4 trim models.

 

in the uk, there are 5 models with a wxga version available

 

I see. Well I think the WSXGA is simply fabulous and recommend it. You may want to see if someone has the nc6000 series as I believe that uses only WXGA . I would also tell you that if you can afford it, get the biggest hard drive possible.

Good Luck

 

hmmm...it seems as if the uk models don't come with the type of warranty that the us models do. Many come with a 1-year-warranty. Anyway, the EY251ET seems like the best bet in the UK.

 

Same here, except I am the token NON gamer. I didn't notice any difference with movies in either resolution.

For Text work which is most of what I do, (I consider reading on the web as text work), the 1280 x 800 works fine. Sometimes I use the 1680 x 1050. With programs like Firefox and Opera, I can zoom-up the text to any size for readability. Firefox doesn't (until version 3 due in 2007) zoom graphics so sometimes graphics get messed up. In those cases, I use Opera which zooms text and graphics, or you can take your chances with IE7.

Also, I have my Display properties/Settings/Advanced/DPI setting at 150%, and I use Large fonts with Windows XP style.

I hope this helps.

 

In Europe, we have a possibility to customize it through "HP TopConfig". It looks the same as customizing the Dell. However, delivery time is 3 weeks with these custom notebooks.

Check it out (in Czech language): http://www.nakup-levneji.cz/konfigurace.aspx?zbozi=77253&zbozivu=0&skup=

Don't you have anything similar in the US?

 

Attached find pictures with viewing angles of the WXGA version.

I ordered also the WXGA version. I tried also the 1680px display and it just seems too much for my eyes.

 

The first photo looks great. I would say that the vertical angle is not so good but this I see on a lot of laptops.

 

I just received the nc8430 and I find it a great laptop for my purposes. The fan noise thus far doesn't seem very loud and I wouldn't have even noticed anything except others have posted concerns about it. So far, no dead pixels. I like the brightness of the display and the speed of the machine. The build is solid in all areas (display, keyboard, hinges etc). The only minor gripe I have is the keys are noisy when typing. So far, otherwise, everything is working as promoted.

My question: I have copied the recovery partition onto two DVDs. I purchased separately a WD 100gb 7200 HD to replace the current 5400 80gb HD in the machine since I need 7200 for what I plan on using the nc8430 (video editing). Has anyone tried to change out their HD and any pointers. Thanks. I hope to change it out in a couple days so your help would be appreciated.

 

I have not done this but use the HP tools to make the Recovery DVD/CD's, swap the drive and then restore the backup image onto the new drive.

 

I removed the 80gb hd a put in a Hitachi 5k160 and it works great!