HP NC8430 review

My order status is now showing the tracking link, so I assume its on the way , The citylink tracking shows delivery date of 11th

 

Sent an E-mail to laptopsdirect this morning, got a reply saying item has been dispatched will be arriving Monday.

Checked my order tracking, it now says "Dispatched" and the invoice in the E-mail says it's the 1.8ghz.

 

Hey guys just ordered a NC8430 with T7200 2.0Ghz Core 2 duo processor for $1850 from a local dealer here in Slovenia, Europe. Seems like a good deal after comparing notebook prices here to those in other EU countries like Germany or even the US. Relatively notebooks here are much more expensive. According to notebook reviews I expect a solid piece of equipment and some fine performance.

 

Lucky for you... here in Hungary I've been vaiting for this laptop for months now, and still waiting. The only available modell is a T2500 with WSXGA+ screen, on hp's site there are 13(!) additional configs, but cannot buy any of them. I hope in 1-2 weeks some of the others will be available (I don't even dream about Core 2 Duos inside), if not I'll have to find an alternative.
The funniest part is that you can buy the "big brother" (NX9420) practically for less money than the NC8430... just 17" is too much

 

Just to bring this thread back after 10-20 pages of laptopsdirect spam (lol )

So my XP Pro academic arrived this morning. I know I'll need to back up swsetup folder for all the drivers before I do a full reinstallation. I'm just wondering about the security suite HP give you - credential manager etc. Looking at HP's site, it insinuates it'll come with your HP and cannot be downloaded. Now I don't see any exe installers anywhere.

Do I need it? I presume I don't and it's just HP looking out for it's customer like Microsoft with windows firewall. Excuse the n00bness if there are installers somewhere, please show me!

 

You'll need Credential Manager to use the Fingerprint scanner.
It's located as 'Software Setup' in your Start\Programs\ or in SWSETUP in your C:\

 

same here, i spent ages thinking about it and decided to buy it because i just couldn't stand making decisions any longer.

one thing though, what dvds do i need to burn the recovery discs? i bought a 16x verbatim 25pk and it says that it can only be used with 16x recorders. i thought that you can lower the speed of recording?

 

16x means upto 16x

I use 16x Sony's and just use 8x to reduce the chance of write errors. It takes 8 minutes for me to burn a full DVD

 

so for example, i can use a 16x disc in a 8x drive? the label is just putting me off a bit and the compatibility guide as well on verbatim website

"This media is compliant with the new standards for 16x DVD+R recording. However, using this media with the lower speed DVD+RW/+R drives that do not support higher speed recording speeds may result in writing errors, failures in retrieval of data, or damage to the data recorded on this media. Older drives might require a firmware upgrade, so please check with your drive manufacturer."

 

You shouldn't really worry about it. The drive in the nc8430 can handle it fine and you're using reputable media so there shouldn't be any problems.

 

yep just checked status today, says payment has been taken and item is in process of being dispatched....YES XD. monday or tuesday id say lads. WHOO HOO.

one issue i have is... i ordered the laptop to my fiances house because it was payed for using her debit card, she has to work on tuesday and wont be in the house until 3, nor will her parents or brother. if the laptop comes and the delievery guy finds there noone in, what will happen? will he ship it back to the uk? or will he leave a note saying we will try tomorrow or you can go to local post office to pick it up?

 

Got mine from ebay yesterday for £750. Not a big save as it is selling for approx £1060 (model with T2500 and WSXGA) but it was in excellent condition, barely used. Picky with memory though. Tried to upgrade memory to 2gb from 1gb. Tried 4 different dimms (same speed and specs, different manufacturers) but system not stable (no problems booting or using applications but as soon as tried to stress the laptop with S&M or super pi got memory error). So BE VERY CAUSIOUS WHEN UPGRADING MEMORY. GET IDENTICAL DIMMS for your piece of mind.

 

The matte screen is gorgeous...nearly as good as the £400 LG I'm looking at here on the desktop. No dead pixels Viewing angles obviously not as good, but more than 1 person could still crowd to watch a DVD

Everything feels very solid. No flex, keyboard is slightly too audible for my liking, but hey, beggars can't be choosers (it is only a soft click tough, quieter than desktop keyboard, so fine). Runs very cool during office use, only lukewarm air is felt from left-side vent

Vantec Lapcool 3 cooling pad is highly recommended (£10). It's only 25db, which is rated as whisper loud, and it's actually louder than the HP during office use. With it plugged in the laptop instantly cooled down and spewed out cool air instead

More impressions later after I go into a full reinstall session

 

I have my laptopsdirect student bundle arriving on Monday. Although Citylink have a habit of not knocking and just putting the missed delivery card through the door.

I'm new to (good) laptops, once it arrives what should I do to get it running at top spec (what needs updating/changing). The last laptop I owned was a P1 Tecra that I used mainly for screenwriting and was so old as to almost be steam powered.

PS.

LFC, where did you get your Vantec Lapcool for a tenner as something like that would be really useful for me?

 

I bought it from http://www.advancetec.co.uk/

It is in Rochdale, so a quick journey for me from Manchester. They seem to charge more on their website than in-store, plus the delivery charge really brings it up!

Go on official Vantec website for more deets

 

Has anyone come across some cheap but protective sleeves for the NC 8430?

 

OK, the cooling pad only cost me £8 I remember, but you get my drift

Good question brain. ATM I've just got a cheap £15 sleeve that I'm using to keep it clean and scratch-free. I'm just putting that inside a normal backpack. I would like a better, thicker sleeve though

 

Just for the record where did you get it from as I'm struggling to find ones in this price range to fit the laptop. I just need something to tide me over so I can use it in my bag before I sort out something more permanent and perhaps a more padded bag to go along with it. I've seen some Sony Vaio ones on Ebay that are quite cheap and should fit and was just thinking about getting one of them for the time being.

Edit: Has anyone tried a Macbook Pro sleeve? There's a huge selection of them available all over with some very nice designs as well and if they'd fit then I'd be set.

 

My Cousin got a neoprene sleeve for "around" a tenner from pcworld (instore not online) for his 17" HP. He claims there are 15.4" versions so this is what i'll probably use (in a backpack) along with a cheap toiletry bag for the power cables.

Edit: I wanted a Crumpler the Gimp sleeve but it doesn't do 15.4", hopefully with the Macbook Pro being 15.4" some more stylish options may come out for us lowly Laptop users.

 

www.argos.co.uk

got decent range of bags, avergae price i think

 

Nobody notices the creaky right hand palm rest?

 

Creaky? tbh I've been treating it like a new born kitten! I play rougher with the puppy!

 

LMAO XD. ur all bastards, i wont get mine until tomorrow because it takes an extra day for northern ireland BUT my baby is in the country now and ill get it first thing tomorrow WHOO. XD

 

Got mine about 15 minutes ago.

It's got a fingerprint scanner and is a very cool looking little thing. Pictures don't really do it justice.

Edit: Now that my laptops here what do I need to do to get it running at top spec. I know you have to update graphics drivers but is there anything else I should do.

 

I just updated using HP's software updater and upped the BIOS, X1600, and Credential Manager. I then went to Windows Update to get some hotfixes.

Honestly, I haven't noticed any tip top speed differences when I did any of that, lol. Except that the machine shuts down a tad quicker.


PS: PUT WEIGHTS ON YOUR LAPTOP AND RUN FOR YOUR SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!!!!!!!!!

Yeah I did, but now it's mysteriously vanished. Must have taken a while to settle in with normal use. The only thing I don't like about the laptop is maybe the fan noise (sometimes) and that I know after 8 or so months I'm gonna have to get a toothpick and scrape the junk off the borders

 

Its good to see you guys are finally getting your nc8430's through.

 

Ya! I noticed that on a NX8420 (similar model as NC8430) HP sells in Asia. On that machine, both palm rests had the creak. It is best detected by very gently pressing the palm rest close to the rim and left of the thumb reader. One other owner of a NC8430 in the US confirmed the same when I pose the question to him on eBay. Similarly constructed NC6400/NC6430 seems free from the creak. I checked a few and none had it.

I was somewhat disappointed with finding the creaky construction as it stands out in such a well thought out notebook. But I like the whole setup so much, I guess I will still go with one and try my luck. Except that now the T7200 Core 2 Duo is out I need to wait a few more week until that is widely available. I would like to hear possible fixes if anybody knows anything. Rock on!

 

don't use the software installer, i learnt that the hard way

 

Got my 1 hour ago finally !! Looks really cool , build quality is really good as well !

 

my status is still payment taken we are in the middle of dispatching your goods, what does that mean? i mean the woman on the phone said i will get it tomorrow between 9am-5pm, when does the status update to dispatched or does it?

 

how many processes do you guys have in the background?

in my haste, i used the software setup, i ended up from 35 processes to 57 (they said it was recommended software )

does anyone know if the hardware enabling drivers are actully necessary?

still very responsive for me though, decided to play about with norton internet security and now its up to 66 processes. so i'm just going to do a restore about a week before uni and just mess about with stuff,

 

Wondering that myself, my order has been saying the same since this morning, but all the items read dispatched instead of pending dispatch.

I don't know whether me being from Northern Ireland means anything.

 

Norton caught some interesting spyware trying to sneak onto my system but overall I decided to remove it as it seemed to me to be very bloated. I am currently experimenting with Comodo and AVG. So far so good. As for the other stuff, I plan to remove some it soon.

 

Stock HP setup; 50 processess using 512mb ram

In the process of reinstalling with XP Pro as I type on the desktop and I only see 21 processes with 200mb ram usage. Feels so good

 

yep fellow northy here too dude, i rang the woman and she said that northern ireland will recieve theirs tomorrow (tuesday) between 9am and 5pm, its something to do with the order reaching a certain distination before 12but last night it didnt so we have to wait until tuesday instead, but as far as i know our babies are in the country XD. GET UP EARLY, DO NOT MISS THE POSTAL VAN. GET UP BEFORE 9 AM JUST TO BE SURE.

 

heres one for you, once out of the box what do you recogment we do, iv never had a laptop before so i dont know if theres anything i should download, all you computer whizz's outthere post a few comments with a guide to if we should do anything...links and watnot, if you can be arsed. it would be greatly appreciated. cheers

 

Is ours coming via normal post then Wiggi, or is there a specialised delivery company involved?

 

i tried to ring them at like 5 mins to 5 but they lines were closed lol BLAST, id say its probably something like parcel force or famac, its ok the woman promised me it would be tuesday or weds at the latest and that theyv been dispatched, she actually told me it will arrive tomorrow deffinately just sometime between 5 and 9, so keep ur eyes peeled dude.

 

don't even touch the 'software setup' in the programs menu (trust me on this if you want a clean machine), instead go to the swsetup folder and only install what you need, if you have any trouble working out which is which, just ask though most of the stuff i have no idea about, and can anyone tell me those 'hardware enabling drivers' in software setup are required?

 

can you write it out in a guide type way? you know...

1.get machine
2.open machine
3.dont break machine XD

but obviously more detailed lol so we can avoid uglyness with our new lappys,.

 

lmao I wish I knew that before double clicking on (almost) everything. I have 68 processes running . Any advice on how to cut that down?

 

lol, my add/remove programs can only see hp this and hp that so i don't have a clue what to remove, i suppose you could disable some processes manually but i intend to do a pc recovery before i go off to uni

 

Or use it, but only select the ones you want. Like Credential Manager and HP QuickLaunch.


As to everyone's question, I have 30 processes running. When I put on all my fav programs (itunes, live messenger, peer guardian, avg, zonealarm, etc etc etc) I have 63 processes running. Which takes up 2/5ths of my 1GB RAM. Still works tip top

 

No it's not a deal breaker but hopefully it goes away.

 

Having a look in my add/remove programs... theres HP notebook accessories product tour lol and HP support numbers LOL. All the rest seem to be important so I'm just gonna leave it.

 

Don't feel bad I did the same thing.......


Most of it i will use at some time so no big deal.

 

don't know the best way but this is how i would do it if i could again

1. take nc8430 out of box
2. get instruction guide and do what it says
- install battery
- plug in ac
- turn it on
- burn recovery discs (2 dvdr or 9cdr)
3. install software - 2 ways to do this
- go to swsetup and install what you need (got to work out what is what though)
- run 'software setup' and only select the stuff you need (dvd software, hp credential manager etc.

4. install antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-everything
5. connect to internet (get xp updates, driver updates etc.)
6. install anything i have left

 

7. Caress gently

 

- burn recovery discs (2 dvdr or 9cdr)

how do i do that? where are the files etc?

3. install software - 2 ways to do this
- go to swsetup and install what you need (got to work out what is what though)

how do i know what is what?

- run 'software setup' and only select the stuff you need (dvd software, hp credential manager etc.

whats the essentials?

 

kates (my fiance) dad has just rang her to tell her that theres aload of computer stuff for her in the post. ...gna go see nooooooow XD brb soon