HP Elitebook 8740w FINALLY makes its appearance
Don’t say we didn’t tell you something big was coming in mid-end March, because we did! And now it’s here: the HP Elitebook 8740w has just appeared on HP’s USA website – complete with a profile picture, half a dozen pre-built configurations and specifications, including ATI FirePro M7820 professional workstation class graphics appearing in its full glory. You can have one for yourself (the most basic model, of course) for a fairly affordable $1,999, while the almost-fully kitted out Core i7 quad model will cost you $3,899.
We expect prices for certain configurations to be able to hit the $5000 mark and over once more pre-built or configure to order models are released, especially with options for up to Core i7 Extreme (no word yet on whether it’ll be last year’s Intel Core i7 920XM quad core or the forthcoming Core i7 940XM quad core), backlit keyboard, Dream Color 2 and up to 16 GB of DDR3 RAM.
What puzzles me at the moment is why the seemingly high-end ATI FirePro M7820 is available only in the two lower end/cheaper configurations featuring regular Intel Core i5 processors and just 2 GB of RAM… I mean, ATI has always been affordable (versus Nvidia) in most cases, but the huge $1,000 price difference we’re seeing on the pre-built models? That’s just because you’re not getting Core i7 and loads of RAM that the Nvidia Quadro 8740w models have… and that sure makes one wonder WHY?!
And the magical question asked by people who DON’T want/need a 17 inch workstation-class laptop – will HP share some of the Core i7 Extreme and ATI FirePro love with the existing HP Elitebook 8440w and 8540w models? Quite likely.
Okay, I bet most of us are happy that an ATI Mobility Radeon 5000-series based FirePro M5800 is coming to the Elitebook 8540w, an even better FirePro M7820 is on its way to the upcoming Elitebook 8740w and that the Elitebook 8740w jigsaw has been (mostly) pieced together… But are you sitting down?! Rumors of the new DreamColor 2 display (first discovered about a month ago in an Elitebook 8540w service manual and leaked by HP themselves) have recently surfaced. Wow, with so many rumors and things pouring out recently, we can speculate that something must be brewing… HP? ATI?
The DreamColor display by HP, launched in 2008 with DreamWorks (yes, must be the people who made Shrek and Over The Hedge), has been renowned for showing off ‘true colors’ without breaking the bank (much). This latest iteration (DC2) is rumored to have higher native color bit (10 bits versus 8 bits of DreamColor 1), IPS technology (just like the current 24 inch DreamColor monitor) and ‘improved’ backlighting, among other things…and, based on past news, will be making its way into -at least- the 8540w and 8740w.
For those asleep because they thought DreamColor 2 was going to just feature ‘more colors’, wake up! Because rumors seem to be pointing to something more impressive than just an ‘evolution’ of DreamColor 1.
BUSTED! Left 4 Dead works nicely with all settings maxed out on the HP Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation PC. The unit I used for testing had a T9400 2.53 GHz Intel Centrino 2 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 1 GB of graphics (Nvidia Quadro FX3700M), Windows Vista Ultimate and a lovely 17 inch Dream Color display. And the game settings were as follows:
- 1920 x 1200 full HD resolution, played on full screen
- Film grain – Maxed out
- Anti-aliasing – 16X MSAA
- 16X anisotropic filtering
- Vertical sync and multicore rendering OFF
- Shader detail – Very high
- Effect, model/texture and paged pool memory – All high
The game ran smoothly at around 30 to 40 frames per second. In “normal” scenes, things were buttery smooth and in “horde” scenes (Where tons of zombies rush at you), frame rate dropped to 20-24 FPS – depending on your eyes, you may or may not notice it – but the difference wasn’t large and the game was still more than playable (I could smoothly spin round and round while spamming my machine gun without much frame stuttering).
I did notice, however, the graphics card would take a little “breather” now and then – the screen image would freeze for about 2 seconds before going back to normal. On the positive side, it doesn’t happen often; around once or twice per entire campaign (with 5 scenarios).
After 3 hours of non-stop gaming (using a gaming mouse + notebook keyboard), the Elitebook 8730w did feel slightly warm around the palmrest area and upper left side of the keyboard, and very hot at the bottom. Core Temp reports processor temperature hovers around 58 to 64 degrees Celcius when gaming but don’t worry, the magnesium-alloy casing does a good job at keeping the exterior deck comfortable warm (versus blazing hot).
