HP Fansite

HP’s undercover gaming laptop – the Elitebook 8540w

It’s a weekend and I’ve been busy with spring cleaning, vacuuming the place and sorting things out, tossing out unused junk… and I’ve also been eying Assassin’s Creed 2 for PC, which is coming out in March 2010! Alienware (by Dell) recently came out with a very interesting 11 inch ‘gaming’ notebook this CES and I’ve been visiting their site to check out their M11x and M15x notebooks (not that I’m considering either, I’m just curious to learn more about various manufacturer offerings).

Okay, while I was on Alienware’s website looking at their M15x gaming notebook, I couldn’t help but to compare it to the recently launched Elitebook 8540w! No, don’t go “what the…??” just because the Alienware M15x is a dedicated gaming notebook and the Elitebook 8540w is a professional mobile workstation. I kinda figured that the HP Elitebook 8540w, despite being a business notebook and looking nothing like one suited for hardcore gaming, can in fact double as a pretty powerful and potent gaming notebook (and to a certain extent, and can put up a fight against Dell/Alienware’s heavy weight performer. Here’s why…

• The Alienware M15x has various Intel Core i7 Quad and Core i5 Dual core processor options. The Elitebook 8540w does too (except the i7 Extreme option, at the moment).
• The Alienware M15x can be fitted with a full HD 1080p widescreen display. Well, so can the Elitebook 8540w (with points for having a matte display; reviews of the M15x mention it has a glossy one).
• The Alienware M15x has two DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) slots so you can have up to 8 GB of memory… the Elitebook 8540w has a whopping four DDR3 RAM (also 1333 MHz) slots for double the memory: 16 GB max.
• Both notebooks have 7200 RPM hard disks standard (up to 500 GB), and optional solid state drives (up to 256 GB)
• Both notebooks have optical drives with optional Blu-ray. The Elitebook 8540w has an advantage here of being able to swap out the optical drive for a second 500 GB 7200 RPM hard disk.

The Alienware M15x and Elitebook 8540w also have the exact same variety of ports (except USB). The Elitebook 8540w’s five USB ports (three USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0) beats three USB 2.0 ports that the Alienware has. But the Alienware M15x is a better entertainment notebook with two headphone jacks (versus one on the Elitebook).

The Elitebook 8540w comes with an 8-cell battery standard, with the option to add on a secondary 8 or 12 cell battery via the secondary battery connector on the notebook’s underside. On team Alienware, the M15x comes standard with a 6 cell battery, with the option to go for a 9 cell battery option (this battery sits in place of the 6 cell, and is not an add on battery). In theory, if one was to “game on the go”, you could swap batteries on the Elitebook more easily without having to power off/hibernate the notebook at all.

Sure, the advantages that the Alienware M15x has include: better built-in speakers, extremely customizable AlienFX keyboard backlight/overall lighting system, system/cooling designed specifically for gaming, gaming-specific Nvidia GeForce graphics and a striking exterior design that’s bound to intimidate your opponents at a LAN party. I mean, how’s an innocent looking Elitebook gonna have any psychological effect on the other team at a gaming tournament/gathering, at all? Well, you gotta know the Alienware M15x is also 50% heavier, 50% thicker and slightly wider/longer than the Elitebook 8540w as well!

The Alienware M15x’s current graphics card options are: the 512 MB Nvidia GeForce GT240M and 1 GB Nvidia GeForce GTX260M. Granted the Elitebook 8540w is NOT a dedicated gaming notebook and comes with workstation-class graphics, its 1 GB Nvidia Quadro FX880M and 1 GB Nvidia Quadro FX1800M graphics offerings (equivalent to Nvidia’s new GeForce GT330M and GT335M cards, I think) still hold up pretty well… you could still use them for gaming.

There’s also the HP Night Light on the Elitebook 8540w… and while it won’t hold a candle against Alienware’s advanced Alien FX lighting system, at least it still does its job of providing keyboard illumination while you’re gaming or working in the dark!

If the Elitebook was a Wall Street guy in a business suit and tie, the Alienware would probably be Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilder days. As I mentioned, the Alienware M15x and Elitebook 8540w are two completely different animals, that nobody would even think of comparing. Yet somehow, my creative mind has come up with this fairly fair and square comparison of the two. No, I don’t expect gamers to be switching over to CAD workstations used by professionals anytime soon, or vice versa… but today’s comparison does bring up an interesting revelation: the Elitebook 8540w has more ‘gaming genes’ under its hood than one would probably expect. While it wasn’t built from the ground up for gaming, I think the Elitebook 8540w packs quite a punch for a business notebook; enough to allow graphic designers, CAD professionals, students, etc (whatever you plan to use it for) to unwind with a game of Need for Speed Shift or Crysis 2 (almost) maxed out in full HD after a day’s work.

*Note to self: I should really make a video of ‘gaming and gameplay using an Elitebook’, bet that’ll be interesting…

HP launches new Elitebook 8440p, 8440w, 8540p and 8540w business notebooks

HP announced four new high-end business notebooks today. The Elitebook 8440 and 8540, with their respective p-”professional” and w-”workstation” variants, are HP’s latest 14 and 15 inch notebooks respectively. The Elitebook 8440 comes with a 16:9 wide 14 inch matte display that goes up to a spectacular resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels (available as an option on the w- variant), partial-chiclet full-sized keyboard, new Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processor options, two DDR3 RAM slots, single hard disk bay and optical drive bay (optional Blu-ray available). HP Fansite has been trying out the Elitebook 8440w extensively for several weeks now and we have a review online for you to find out more.

The Elitebook 8540, on the other hand, is a 15.6 inch 16:9 widescreen (matte display standard) sporting notebook. Screen resolution options go as high as full HD 1080p (1920 x 1080) for vast on-screen working space. And the notebook has a partial-chiclet full keyboard with a built-in numeric pad on the right side. Like the smaller Elitebook 8440 series, you’ll get to choose from Intel’s latest 2010 Core i5 and Core i7 processors. What makes the Elitebook 8540 different besides its super-sized keyboard are its FOUR (!!!) DDR3 RAM slots so you can boost memory up to 16 GB and it is one of the first few notebooks in the industry to have the latest USB 3.0 ports (Elitebook 8440 apparently has USB 2.0 only).

The p- variants of the two notebooks will have Intel integrated graphics to conserve power while the more powerful w-variants will feature Nvidia workstation class graphics (including the newly announced Nvidia Quadro FX380M and Nvidia Quadro FX780M cards).

Did I mention a solid metal chassis, spill-proof keyboard, HP keyboard Night Light,  3 year warranty,VGA and Display Port out all come standard with HP’s Elitebooks. And the starting prices? Glad you asked… from their mouth-watering specifications, it’s obvious these notebooks are not going cheap but for those who can afford them, you’ll be pleased with both the low-profile business design and sheer performance of the Elitebooks (well, at least the ones with dedicated Nvidia/ATI graphics)

• 14 inch HP Elitebook 8440p starts at $1100
• 14 inch HP Elitebook 8440w starts at $1300
• 15 inch HP Elitebook 8540p starts at $1250
• 15 inch HP Elitebook 8540w starts at $1500

Coming soon: 2010 HP Pavilion dv4, Compaq netbook, new HP Pavilion Elite desktops

News of several upcoming HP computers has just broke out (or should I say, leaked) on the internet, apparently sprouting from online retailer Logic Buy. The folks there appear to be slightly unsure about the products (but they do have pictures), with specifications lists made out of some potentially real facts and some patchwork speculation.

Disclaimer: The source for this news article is not on HP Fansite’s “trusted sources” list, so do take specifications with a pinch of salt! The pictures appear to be real though!

Compaq Mini CQ10: Starting from the least significant of things is the Compaq Mini CQ10 netbook. This Compaq-branded netbook is a mashup of last year’s HP Mini designs (with the ‘old’, non-chiclet keyboard) and the guts of the recently leaked-n-selling HP Mini 210. The Compaq Mini CQ10 will sport a single-core 1.66 GHz, latest Intel Pine Trail N450 processor, GMA 3150 integrated graphics, 10 inch display and 250 GB hard disk, but UNLIKE the Mini 210, it will be limited to 1 GB of RAM, hinting that the Compaq Mini will ship with Windows XP (as opposed to Windows 7 on the Mini 210)

3rd generation HP Pavilion dv4: Unlike what they’ve done with the dm1/dm3 models, HP probably decided they’d save time and costs by re-using the hull of the HP Pavilion dv4. This 3rd generation dv4 sports the same design as its predecessors but with a different color scheme/exterior patterns. The 1st generation dv4 was a mix of silver and black, the 2nd generation dv4 was all-black and now, the dv4 is back… in all brown/gold (see the 1st picture above). Now, the folks out there on the net are only circulating pictures and speculation, but as the HP Fansite, we received exclusive information from a reliable source that HP will be offering the new Mobile Core i3/Core i5 processors with the new dv4. It will also have DDR3 RAM slots, new Nvidia graphics (as opposed to the crappy G105M in the 2nd generation) and optical drive with optional Blu-ray. To put things short, the new dv4 brings small changes: cosmetic, processor/graphics and DDR3 RAM – the rest stays the same.

Four new HP Pavilion Elite desktops: HP has four upcoming Pavilion Elite desktops. The Pavilion Elite 110t and 150t will be sub-$800 models with entertainment and media in mind, while the 170t and 180t models will cost around $1000+ and will offer more powerful Core i5 and Core i7 options, with a host of other step-up… plus the latter model will feature Nvidia GeForce GTX260 graphics

Well, things don’t seem too exciting for the HP’s consumer PC range this spring. Let’s hope for better from their business/enterprise PC side, shall we? =)