My HP/Compaq NX9420 Review

Here is my HP/Compaq NX9420 Review

Reasons For Buying Laptop
Well i didnt buy this laptop. My College provided this laptop for me to use in my classes.


Specs
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz T7400 4MB L2 Cache
17 Inch WSXGA+ With Brightview. (Samsung)
100GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
1GB DDR Ram AT 667MHz
Nvidia Quadro NVS-510M (Also Nvidia Geforce 7900GTX)
4x USB Ports/S-Video Out/ VGA/IEEE1394 Port
Wifi/Bluetooth
Price $2,199

Build Quality

When i unpacked this notebook from the box it did feel solid in every aspect.I didnt feel any creeks what so ever. LCD Hinges are tight and firm.Styleing is very bussiness like.For the laptops size its quite massive Though Weight is something to consider when traveling. This laptop Weights 7.4lbs with Battery

Performance

This laptop has the Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.16Ghz T7400. It runs through every app i throw at it and doesnt give up. Teamed with the 1GB of memory its smooth sailing. The system boots up in 15 Seconds with everything all loaded up. Overall very good performance

Screen

The Screen on the NX9420 is Bright and Clear with minimal light leakage. This screen displays at 1680x1050 Resoluation. Pictures look fantastic on this laptop. Colors are very vivid and clean. I didnt notice any ghosting The LCD Manfact is made by Samsung. Very Good Screen

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Keyboard has a pointing stick and 3 buttons to control its functions. The Keyboard is very firm with no keyboard flex. Very comfortable to type on for long extended periods of time. This Keyboard also freatures a Number Pad which is very common for HP Laptops. The touchpad is responsive. The Touchpad also freatures a scrolling section which is a favor to me.

Ports and Connections

This laptop freatures 4x USB ports, One Firewire,1 VGA,1 S-Video Output,Ethernet,and Dialup Modem. This laptop features mostly all the connections you need for everyday use.


Video Card Performance.

The Video Card on this laptop is a treat. Its a Nvidia Quadro NVS 510M Also known as the Nvidia Geforce 7900GTX. I played Far Cry at 1680x1050 with settings all on High and AA on. I get a average of 95 FPS to about 130FPS,This GPU is also perfect for 3D Animation and 3D Modeling

Battery Life

Battery Life is the weakest point of this laptop. It only has 45 mins of battery life and It requires a 120watts of power

3D Mark 05 Score

3DMark Score 7469 3DMarks

CPU Score 7782 CPUMarks

Conclusion
This laptop is perfect for someone who sits at their desk and does 3D Animation or wants to do a little bit of gaming.

 

nice wallpaper, i wonder who made it lol *giggles*

 

excellent pics and good review...the only thing I question is the battery life. I get about 2.5-3 hrs on the main battery with wifi connected. If I stream any video it drops to about 2h20m. Was your battery life based on running the game full screen and maxed out?

Also mine came with a 90w power supply. Maybe this is due the the higher performing graphics card in your system? Mine is just the X1600 card...

I had not run across any info on the differences before...thanks have fun with your new toy, er, workstation for all your school work...hehehehe !!

 

His specs sounds like it would be the nw9440 in the US (nVidia Workstation card). His battery life is pretty bad. I can squeeze out close to 4 hours with the ambient light sensor, and around 3 hours full brightness. Maybe 45 minutes is because he has the better card. But I don't think it should be that bad still.

 

Well the battery life may depend on his Power Schemes because that is probably not his max battery life. If it is set to "Always On", for sure it is not going to last as long as the "Max Battery" setting.

 

a covetous machine. But the desktop picture is...a bit girlish I think ;-)

 

I get about 3 hours from my X1600 nx9420, but the Quadro (I didn't know they were available on the nx's) would indeed sap battery life. My XPS M1710 gets notably less autonomy time - but well, you expect this given the power on tap.

It's a lovely machine and one of my favourite 17". Despite being plastic it feels better built and more solid than my Macbook Pro 17" - and doesn't suffer from the problems the Apple does (heat, electrocution, etc ).

I really like the crisp styling, which (no offence) I don't think the photos do justice to. It says 'I'm all business' without veering slightly more towards tacky like the Thinkpads.

Fine choice sir. (Even if it was made by someone else )

 

HP did (and still might) offer a model in the NX9420 system with the NVIDA card. There was only one mdel offered that was last year that I could find when shopping for mine. I almost bought it but for the Bright View.

I am pretty sure while the NVIDA card might be a bit more power hungy (I really do not know), I doubt it would be that much more as it is the normal card in the NW9440 and a 45-min battery life would be sort of unacceptable in today's laptop world. That was why I asked if that was with the game running fully max'd and brightness all the way up.

BTW, I have fiddled with the difference between the "Always On" and "Max Battery" profiles and my results were about 60-80 mins difference. But that was just an informal testing while I was calibrating the batteries. Plus I feel asleep during one of the tests...

 

as a matter a fact i have everything on high settings. This is probally why i get about 45 mins of battery life. However if i switched everything to power saving mode then maybe ill get better life out of it. This laptop is too heavy for me to lug around to college everyday. Its perfect for someone who is in their office and travels only once a week from the office to home. f you added the Targus Laptop bag plus the Ac Adapter its a total of 14lbs. PLus carrying the books. Its just too much. Gamers will love this laptop. Its a good price for a Nvidia Geforce 7900GTX Card or also known as the Quadro series

 

Yeah those extra 2-3 lbs are a real burden...hehehehe...sorry just teasing!! I bet you can carry it fine...

I have this laptop, don't game at all and do not find it difficult to lug around...but it is large for sure!! I am not a tiny guy so maybe I am less worried about the weight as I am the utility. It is just I don't think adding in the weight of the pack/bag is a vaild issue because a bag is the same weight no matter if it has a laptop in it or not. So the weight of the bag/junk is a net zero in terms of comparison.

To me it seems more accurate to discuss that 2-3#'s difference in weight for this latop and a smaller 14"-15" system. That is because either way we all need a bag to tote around all our junk. That weight is pretty much a given and all things being equal it's a constant no matter what system is added to the mix. Face it we need schools to get more books on CD/DVD's instead of printed. Or to at least offer a CD/DVD companion to the book itself. I say thet even though I have never warmed to electronic copies of books...I like paper in my hands.

 

First off, thank you very much for the review.

I think I have fallen head over heels for this baby, on paper that is. I was going to get the Toshiba P100-MA6 from this store: http://www.compusmart.com/Product/Default.aspx?SupplierPartNo=750868 but after reading the put downs i decided to sway my decision and to go with this puppy instead: http://www.compusmart.com/Product/Default.aspx?CatalogID=0&SupplierPartNo=813016&ShowSpecs=True

Basically the unit is identical to yours except for the HD; mine will be a 120GB 5400rpm drive.

Okay before I go ahead and buy this baby, I have been racking my brains on this site trying to get a definative answer to this question (so far this question). Okay, the Toshiba I was going to get was the Nvidia 7600; but this one comes with a Quadro NVS 510M card instead. Now I have come to the following conclusion thus far: The 7600 is a mainstream Graphics Card, whereas the Quadro NVS 510M is a business Graphics Card, however the core of the Quadrio NVS 510 is of the nature of the 7900 (plus some letters here i believe ). Now I also gathered that business graphics cards are geared towards 2D rendering (mainly), whereas mainstream graphics cards are geared towards gaming and overall entertainment.

Now here is my question. Okay the 510 is based on the 7900 core, and is geared towards business uses, but does that mean it cant do a good job at 3d rendering? Would the 7600 trump the 510? Again I have seen the charts here, but I just cant put one and one together really (as they are two different "markets"). I am not really a gamer, but I do enjoy the isolated time of RTCW:ET and I do enjoy playing ROMS and Emulators. I also have my TV shows I like to watch on my laptop. I do plan however on buying WoW at the end of April (when I finish school), so I want to be able to play this game on it.

My previous laptop was a Toshiba Satelite P20 (canada) which was the equivalent to the P25-S5261 in the US. I would assume that this baby should destroy my old one eh?

I hope these sentences make sense, and I thank you guys in advance for the replies

Cheers

 

Awww I'm a sad panda I'm going to the store (most likely) so I want to make sure of this beforehand...please

 

this card will do fine on everything you can possibly do on it. Gaming is one of the biggest things you can get on this laptop since i mostly play everything at high detail. 3D Remdering ive also done on it and it didnt have any problems with that either. It can run all Windows Vista Areo effects with no issues. Its A 256MB Dedicated card. This computer will do fine at everything you can throw at it.

 

How reflective is the Brightview on this? It's tricky to tell because of the camera flash..

 

it isnt reflective in light conditions but if your outside then its quitereflective. The Screen on this laptop is very bright. colors are very vivid. colors just pop out when playing games. like i said gamers will enjoy this laptop. A great bargin for the money. If you have this kinda money then i would highly recommend this laptop to a professional or a hardcore gamer. they will love this laptop for sure. and i can asure that

 

*shakes fist at you* it better be...ooooorrrrrrrrrr elssssseeeeeeeee....somebody's gonna get a hurt real bad lol kidding kidding

Funny again the sales rep said exactly word for word what is basically said on Nvidia's website...that 2D graphing will be awesome, 3D not so much. But of course you said the converse and have pictures to back it up. I'm not that big of a gamer anyways, but it will be nice nonetheless

I ordered my puppy yesterday, should get it either today or tomorrow or worst case scenario Friday (its in their warehouse close to Montreal [Anjou], and I am down for winter break so it all works out) I also ordered another stick of 1GB 667 RAM so that I have 2 gigs installed. when i finally move to Vista I want to make sure I have at least 2 before so (although I could have waited and gotten it cheaper...meh lol). I really wish my app was supported by Vista, but oh well, at least i will have a somewhat free upgrade to Vista Small Business. For some odd reason I am having buyers remorse. I guess it has to do with the fact that I read up on here about things breaking down and such, and well it makes me nervous...but meh I am sure (at least hope so) this will subside once I get this thing know I made a better decision to get this than the Toshiba