Need help choosing between 8510p & 8510w

Hi

As the title suggests, I'm in the process of choosing one of the two laptops. I get them for about the same price, so am really interested in your experiences in a couple of areas.

Noise, is there any difference between the two? Have heard some talk about noise on the 8510p, has this been sorted out on the models shipped today?

The 8510p is shipped with 1680x1050, while the 8510w is shipped with 1900x1200. A little worried about the high resolution on the latter, is it too high for surfing, video gaming and ms office work?

Another thing, which has the better card for gaming? Know the 8510w has a workstation card, is this usable for gaming? I tend to play a little Team Fortress 2, so the card needs to pull it off.

----specs for the 8510p-------

Prosessor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7700, 2400 MHz, 4MB Cache
Chipset: Intel Mobile PM965
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD X2600 med 256MB dedikert minne
Memory: 2GB
Hdd: 160GB SATA, 5400rpm
CD/DVD: DVD+/-RW (Dual Layer)
Network: Integrated Intel Gigabit Network Connection
Wireless: Intel Pro Wireless 4965AGN 802,11 a/b/g/n/, Bluetooth og Infrared
Screen: 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050)
Battery: 8-Cell Lithium Ion

----specs for the 8510w------
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7700, 2400 MHz, 4MB Cache
Chipset: Intel Mobile PM965
Graphic: Nvidia Quadro FX 570M with 256 MB
Memory: 2GB
Hdd: 120GB SATA, 7200rpm
CD/DVD: DVD+/-RW (Dual Layer)
Network: Integrated Intel Gigabit Network Connection
Wireless: Intel Pro Wireless 802,11 a/b/g/ og Bluetooth
Screen: 15.4" WUXGA (1900 x 1200)
Battery: 8-Cell Lithium Ion

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Thinking that neither of these two will dissapoint me, so noise will be a important issue.

 

i´d go for the 8510w.
the quadro fx is in directx a little faster than the hd 2600.
it would be great to get the 8510w with the 1680x1050. the screen is a little better than the wuxga.

 

noted. I'm not able to get the 8510w with 1680x1050 though

schoko: See you got the hp 8510p, are you bothered by the noise generated by the fan?

 

both of these offers are not perfect( at least according to my wishlist).
besides the screen there are some other things to take into account.

one thing is the hdd. the 7200rpm model in the 8510w is noticeably faster than the 160GB 5400rpm model.
another one is the wifi adapter. the 8510p comes with the next-gen A/B/G/ N, while the 8510w does only support the old a/b/g. the wifi adapter you can exchange yourself, so i would not take it into account too much.

of course the screen is the main criteria. i´ve seen both, and i think the wuxga screen of the 8510w is a little darker than the wsxga+ of the 8510p. for me the 1680x1050 is the best size i can find for my needs. i don´t need any higher res. other people will probably tell you they like the wuxga more, but it´s more a personal thing.

besides the screen the graphics card is the other major reason to decide for one or the other. the hd 2600 is a little bit slower than the fx570. though the quadro fx is meant for professional use ( in opengl) it can handle games very well.
on the other hand the hd 2600 ain´t that slow at all. there were some problems with this card in the hp notebooks, but hp seems to have sorted out all the problems.

as i told you before i´d go for the 8510w.

 

thanks for your thoughts, it really helps! one more thing though, could you comment on the noise level?

 

hmm, well the 8510p´s fan is starting to spin quite early, but it will also be slowing down quite fast. if you are doing some really intensive CPU and/or GPU tasks, you will hear the fan all the time. it´s not very loud, but you can hear it.
from what i hear the 8510w is supposed to be a little more silent.
anyway, there is a new bios supposed to be released for the hp 8510 series. it will probably become public next week. and maybe this new bios will address the fan of the 8510 also.

about the noise level of the fan, maybe i am a little too much spoiled by my previous laptop. had a lenovo r60e before and i did not hear a fan at all ( don´t know if it had one, because i´ve never heard it ).

 

Schoko's got it right yeah. 8510w is quieter for the most part, but gets louder under load and the fan stays on longer (faster card, so when it heats up, gets hotter, takes longer to cool down). The 8510p is a little louder during standard usage but cools down faster. From pictures of the internals it appears both models have the same cooling system, but the fan control is designed differently I think.

I'd also say neither option is perfect. I think only Samsung is supplying HP's WUXGA screens now, which all have terrible backlight bleed. My brother has a Samsung WUXGA and it drives him nuts (he's got a T61p w/ the Quadro 570m).

Both GPUs run TF2 pretty much perfectly at max settings max resolution though. I play @ 1680x1050 NP.

It's tough, because I really wouldn't recommend the WUXGA if it's going to be Samsung. But on the other hand the 8510w is all around better aside from that.

 

The screen is really important, so must say the 8510w seems like the preferred model right now