HP w/ some graphics muscle?

I'm on the hunt for a new laptop and need one with some graphics power, but portability. Application is CAD (openGL) and a flight simulator (DX9) as well as the normal office type applications.

I had settled on a Lenovo T61P, but the company was horrible to deal with (presales, postsales, support, etc), the machine arrived defective and the saga has ended in a dispute. Obviously I have no interest in having anything to do with Lenovo, their poor customer service and low quality machines.

I tried the Sony SZ6 thinking, small, but good punch. Unfortunatly for some reason while the GPU should have been strong enough, the way Sony implemented the VRAM crippled it. Just didn't have the graphics punch I needed. The screen is smaller than I'd have liked, but I think it would have been a livable tradeoff for the small size. The GPU couldn't handle a flight sim game I use and staggered under the load in CAD.

Starting my search all over, leaning towards HP (I like Dell, but they don't put strong GPUs in their lappys.) I like HP's 8510W, but it's not yet configurable (specs show high CPUs, but are not avail.) and when I price out the 8710W similar to what I'd do to the 8510w it's over $3k which IMHO is ridiculous for a machine that's slower than my 2 yr old CAD station and will be obsolete in a year.

I've looked at the 17" models at CompUSA and they are too big for my needs.
I need powerful, but very portable.

So I'm thinking whatever was the predecessor to the 8510W might be something to consider (like the T60p to the T61P relationship.) Unfortunatly I can't quite seem to figure out HP's model number structure (if there is such a thing.)

I'm coming off a Dell 4150 which after 4 years of solid service died a tragic death. The Dell always frustrated me when I tried to do CAD on it. It never had the muscle needed and was always a pain to use. I don't want to make that again.

Suggestions on model numbers with high end graphics chips to look at would be appriciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

With HP P stands for professional and the W model stands for workstation. These have Quadro FX Based cards. I would look at the 8510p with the HD 2600 or the 8710p with a 256MB 8700GT based card. Should O/C very well and give you great performance.

 

Thanks for the response.
I looked at the 8510p, doesn't have the GPU I'm interested in, and it gets silly expensive when I config it to the max. I can only assume the 8510w will be $500 more once they allow it to be configured (based on the difference in base price between the p & w models.)

Also, HP's discount codes don't seem to work on these models so I couldn't bide my time and get one at 20-30% off like I did with the T 61. Maybe I'm not using the codes right or the right codes..?

I don't think I want to spend more than about $2k on new latest greatest.
I'm thinking I can pick up the previous generation (pre santa rosa) under $1.5k on fleabay.

 

If you're doing workstation-type stuff, the 8510w might be better than the 8510p. I think the 8510w uses the Quadro FX 570M, which is based off the GeForce 8600 series card (Not sure if it's GS or GT; I think it's GT). And, I also think you can replace the quadro drivers with GeForce drivers to make the card a true 8600 card.

The predecessor to the 8510w was the HP Compaq nw8440; unfortunately, it is no longer listed on HP's website. I'm typing on one right now, and I absolutely love it. While I can't comment on its CAD abilities (my major doesn't require any CAD tools), it is/was one of the most powerful 15.4" notebooks in its day, and is terrific with most games today. It uses the ATi FireGL V5200 card with 256Mb RAM. It is the workstation version of the ATi Radeon X1600 card.

My PCMark05 score with 1Gb RAM was 4498; 4520 with 2Gb RAM. My 3dMark05 score was 3787 (but it "not obtained with FutreMark Approved drivers"...if that means anything to you). I didn't run 3dMark06, but people with the nc8430 (the non-workstation variant of the nw8440 with an actual X1600 card) got a score of around ~1600.

Hope this helps

 

Don't configure them through HP. I would recomend the base 8510w from newegg for 1849$. Anything above the T7300 is a waste, It comes with a single 2GB stick, you get a 120GB 7200RPM drive, WSXGA+, 8600GT GDDR3 core, DVD+RW 3 years + on site for three. IMO that would be a better deal.

 

Where do you see that the RAM is one stick and the warranty is 3yr onsite?

This shows 1 yr warranty. Typo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147515

 

My unit I bought from newegg came with a single 2GB stick. Also the 1 year on newegg's site is a typo. All W models have 3 years + 3 of onsite.

 

Sweet.
I'm seriously thinking this may be the right answer.
Particularly since I can buy the darn CPU retail for less than HP wants on the ones that allow configuring (8510p, 8710w)

Could you pull the cover and let me know what brand is the RAM is so I could get a match?

 

Mine came with a Samsung PC 5300. Also With intel rolling out there new 45nm chips we will soon see 2.8-3.0GHZ 6meg cache 35 watt part in Q1 08. As soon as I this chip comes, I buying one and selling my 7300.

 

You will like it. Its a great notebook. Screen is fine, nothing spectacular, but good brightness, solid colors, and best of all no bleed

 

That's a good thing to hear about the bleed. The defective T61P I received which Lenovo claimed was within spec had the worst I have ever seen.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10145&d=1188928170

I'd briefly heard about the 45nm stuff. Interesting...is it supposed to be backward compatible?

 

Yes we will get a refresh, but the Quad cores comming in 08 will probally not work knowing Intel as they like to change sockets on us forcing ppl to buy new notebooks

 

Seems it doesn't have the bluetooth. I assume I can buy this part somewhere? Can't be that expensive.

Can anyone point me towards where I can order the bluetooth module?

 

Might have to contact HP Spare parts. Look in the big 8510p/w thread for a service guide as it list part numbers.

 

No express slot? Oh, that's a bummer...

 

You can get it with an HP docking station.

 

The main reason for these is the SSDs and being able to use them as cache and physical disks to save battery life.

 

Guys,

Can graphic card of a laptop ever be upgraded? e.g. : removed and new one added


i have geforce 6100 on my laptop...its not a good gaming card and i have just bought the laptop so i was wondering

 

A new standard is emerging called MXM which might give you the capability of upgrading the GPU just like you would on a workstation. The standard is more geared towoards making the development cycle quicker than make cards interchangeable.

Some dells have been known to have vid card upgrades, though this is more the exception than the rule.


Bottom line. NO, you probably cannot upgrade the card in your laptop.



PS: I ordered the 8510w, hopefully will be here tomorrow.

 

delete
double post

 

The 8510W just arrived. Booting now.

Screen is big and brilliant. No light leakage. Though there is one dead (white) pixel.

I like that they provide the OS reinstall disks. Not like those cheep bastiches at Lenovo who don't provide a $.10 disk with a $2500 machine.


I bought the 200GB Hitachi disk for it and another 2GB of ram. Going to do a little baselining w/ it stock then upgrade.


Nice looking machine