dont have time to wait for 8510p...

would these specs be good for an engineering student or should i look into something else?

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more than enough

 

4GB of RAM? Seems a bit excessive unless you're doing some high-end CAD or graphics work.

I got sick of waiting for the 8510p too...got a MacBook Pro. Nearly identical specs, but thinner and lighter...for about the same money.

 

Not so sure about the price since its not out yet... but back when I was shopping for a laptop last year and compared the nc8430 vs. MBP, the 8430 had it beat price was easily.

About $500 cheaper and got a better warranty and higher res screen. Considering the large price difference betwen the nc8430 today and the nw8440 I'd imagine the 8510 would probably go for about $1600.

Regarding the OP, if your are going to do more cad and rendering work than games then you might want to get a FireGL or Quadro based system. Like a Dell Lattitude D830 or the 8510w. All depends on how you want to balance work vs.play.

Also, if your going to be dealing with large files, I'd either get a good external drive (with a 3.1/2" desktop type drive in it) or at least bump up to a 7200 RPM laptop drive in the notebook-- the I/O on laptop hard drives tend to lag behind good desktop drives a fair bit.

 

hp does not offer 7200rpm harddrives in their home laptops...only business

if i called is there anyway i could get a 7200 rpm harddrive?

 

Well I doubt that they will make an exception for the 7200RPM drive but you might be able to change the drive later or you can always use an external drive.

As for the 4GB of RAM I would suggest getting the 2 or even 1 because you can always open up the laptop and replace the current RAM with your own RAM which will definitely be cheaper. Its like $400 extra to up from 2GB of RAM to 4 and its only like $200 for two 2GB DDR2 RAMs.

 

Yeah I agree with above.. It would be way cheaper to get just 2 GB.. or even just 1 GB if you can get a stick of one.. that way you can just put in a stick of 2 and have 3.. which should be plenty..

But if you really need 4, you should just get 2.. and try to get 1 stick of 2, that would be the cheapest way. Even still, having to buy 2 sticks of 2 GB, is cheaper than letting HP upgrade it for you.. I've seen a bundle of 2x2GB RAM for around $230 or $240.. I bet HP charges 400 (or more) for it.

 

What sucks about most of the HPs always use up both spots of memory on their laptops. So if you chose to get 1GB they will use 2x512mb RAMs.

But yeah I think you should get the 2GB because that is plenty and then if you ever need more you can update to your needs and either get 3GB or 4GB of RAMs.

 

Actually the dv9500t (home version) is offered with a dual 100GB 7200 RPM option and strangely enough the 8710p and 8710w (the business versions) do not. The 8510w does, however offer exclusively 7200 RPM drives.

 

i am going to call tomw o see how good of a deal i can get on the 8510w model that is running for 2799 right now through the academic purchase program

should i buy another 1 gb of ram and have it installed so that i have a total of 3 or just keep the 2gb 1 dimm

if i get this ill be running vista business

 

Steeler:
Depending on the rep you get, they can offer you up to 8% off the price of the unit. However, you cannot custom config them as of current, so you're stuck with what is off the shelf.

Finally, there is a mystery shipping issue that is driving me nuts (I ordered one myself). As of right now, noone has a clue WHEN it will ship. If it gets delayed out past the 15th, I'm canceling mine and ordering an MBP.

-Jeeves

 

Getting 1x1GB and then upgrading to 3GB later is a bad idea. You'd lose dual-channel that way. So if your going to upgrade, expect to replace both sticks. But based on the pricing, if you really want 4 GB, min the memory on the laptop itself and buy memory from NewEgg. It'd still be cheaper that way anyways.

 

@Jeeves

I find that hilarious about that Academic Purchase Program. I have e-mailed them several times asking them if I could get the discount on a Business notebook, and every time they have said, "Sorry, the APP is only for Home orders."

But it's good to know that I may be able to get the discount if I call in.