HP Compaq 8510w Review

For me it's a make-or-break feature, since I use my laptop mainly for software development where you move around on lines all the time using home/end page up/down. But I realize I'm probably a bit extreme.

The biggest problem is that fewer and fewer laptops have these (in the right place), leaving my choices somewhat limited. Now if they would only allow customization of the keyboard layout (between 2 options at least) as well as other components...

 

hravn:
Don't forget that what's right for you doesn't have to be right for others... For example I'm satisfied with this layout as I only need to turn my hand a bit; on nc8430, I had to MOVE my hand quite a much and it took me longer to press those keys...

Customization of a keyboard would mean a need of 2 chassis (at least top covers, but also other components) and that would drive up the price really high.

 

I just happen to own an nw8440 with a WUXGA display, and it happens to be an SEC display. The viewing angles are decent, but Greg is right about the brightness of the display, or lack thereof. I constantly leave mine at or near full brightness. Also, I've noticed several "dirt spots" that appear to be dirt inside the display. Anyone else have this issue?

From what I hear about the keyboard, it sounds disappointing. It was bad enough that they made the layout more "consumerish", but they also seemed to sacrifice the "feel" of the keyboard as well. If it's true that it's only on par with the latitude D820's keyboard, then it's true that HP has eliminated one of their biggest selling points of their business notebooks. Why? Probably to save $$$. Too bad. BTW, I've typed on a D820 keyboard. The nw8440's keyboard blows it away in terms of key action and overall feel. It's too bad that the new 8510w's keyboard is only as good as a D820. Oh well.

 

It would be great if someone is able to put the 8440 and the 8510w side by side and compare both keyboards.

 

nw8440 has the same keyboard as nc8430 so this comparison migh help you.

And I think they used also LTD154EZ0C (Toshiba TFT) in nw8440

 

I'll have to check my classmates' nw8440s to see if they indeed use displays other than SEC/Samsung when I go back to school. I might even conduct a poll/survey at my school to see what displays they all have and I'll post the results here (All the sophomores, including myself, have the exact same notebook as I do).

 

The only screens I ever heard about in the nc8430 were the LPL (LG) screens.

BTW guys, the 8510p is out with the ATI HD 2600 GPU. The models are almost identical, and the price for the 8510p is much better than the 8510w. So if you do not need the workstation card, get the 8510p.

$1500 for a high end 8510p is definitely a good deal, even with the screen and keyboard 'issues.' The 8510p might also use a different screen so I do not know for sure about the viewing angles on that machine.

 

There's QDS and SEC screens too.

 

I agree with chrixx; I have seen QDS a lot (especially for CTO part numbers in Central and Eastern Europe) and I have actually got it twice there.
LPL was in models made in China.
Haven't seen any SEC until now, maybe they were for USA CTO models.

 

Hey Greg, I know the 8510w is basically the 8510p so the reviews should be similar, but are you guys slated to receive the P variant for review sometime? Since my potential T61p ship date would be mid-September, I'm really looking into the 8510p as HP claims they could ship it next week...

My only 'real' concern at this point is the GPU, but I guess we'll see about that eventually.

 

I am very interested by this notebook but I am worried about the temperatures. Because even if it seems to be acceptable according to the review, the predecessors of the 8510w (nw8240, nw8440...) were famous because of their hot temperatures. So have you more informations about the temperatures of this notebook?
thks

 

I'm trying to decide between the 8510w and the 8710w. I was leaning toward the 8510, but the screen brightness issue is of concern.

The reviewer of the 8710w said this about the 8710 display: "I have seen and used a great variety of notebook displays before and the 8710w stands out as one of the absolute best." and "Contrast is excellent and brightness is very high for a matte screen - it is brighter than many WUXGA glossy screens I have used. Text is clean and crisp and the entire screen is evenly lit. The anti-glare surface is ideal for a wider range of lighting scenarios than glossy displays - a glossy display can have glare problems in certain situations."

How is it that the 17" and 15" inch models can be *so* different? Flaw in the review units? Different manufacturers? It sounds like the 8510 is a Samsung screen, anyone know who makes the 8710 screen? Does anyone know how many nits the 8710 is (not in the review)?

Thanks!

 

Different reviewers may also give differing opinions, as screen quality is a very subjective matter.

 

No doubt, very subjective!

But the two reviews were polar opposites, the 8710w was the best they had ever seen and the 8510w was barely acceptable.

Unfortunately these are not models that are on display out in the consumer world, so we have to rely on the reviews.

So, hopefully, we can isolate the differences between screens: manufacturer, nits, contrast.....sounds like the 8510w is Samsung, 200 nits, and I don't know the contrast.

Anyone know about the 8710w?

 

Found some more info:

All of the panels for the 8510w and the 8710w are listed by HP as 200 nits and 300:1 contrast. All of the 8510w panels are anti-glare. But there is an SXGA+ "Brightview" option for one of the 8710w panels. Maybe the 8710w reviewer was looking at the "Brightview" panel?

It's interesting that the brightview option is only available for the SXGA+ (not WUXGA or WXGA+) and I can't find any mention of it on the HP store configurations....

8510w:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12727_na/12727_na.HTML#Technical%20Specifications

8710w:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12731_div/12731_div.PDF

 

Greg, did you notice that the spot right under the touchpad got pretty hot? It seems that the WLAN card is located right under it, so I assume that must be it. I have the intel 4965 abg card, not the draft n one. Do these cards usually get pretty hot?

 

could anyone here who has the 8510w post some photo's of the screen while the computer is working. Preferably pictures of viewing the laptop from the front. What really is holding me back is the quality of the screen. I've seen pictures of the pavilion models and the colors really stand out on the pictures, but in the review of Greg, those colors are washed out...

thx in advance

 

Nice notebook and review.

 

The spot under the touchpad gets warm, but as long as I've had this laptop, I have never really had an issue with heat.

@MackeY: I'll try to get some pictures up tonight.

 

Well, the screen was acceptable...but only at about 60-100% brightness. In all reality, I didn't care for it if it was below 80% but it was doable. Head on colors and all that good stuff were okay, but only 'head-on'.

Screen comments are always different between reviewers. Chaz (the 8710 reviewer) has much better (and somewhat younger) eyes than I do...and he might have had a BrightView screen. But comparing the screen of the 8510w and the nc8430, I'd take the nc8430's screen in a heartbeat.

The 8510p model might (probably does) use a different screen...hopefully the same one the nc8430 does.

Not too sure about this one. You'd probably have to call a HP sales rep to get the true story there. The HP Business Sales guys are actually quite useful people to talk to.

I never really noticed any heat coming from that area, but it is possible that could be a little warm as the card only has passive cooling. Anything without a fan is going to run a few degrees warmer, and the WiFi cards dissipate a watt or two I'd imagine...

See my comment above, but bottom line is that most of the heat is centered around the top-left of the keyboard.

 

You mean near the vent? Well, as of right now, there is more heat towards the center of the keyboard under the touchpad then the vents. But then again, I did just start using it for the day and I have really never paid attention to the heat previously.

 

I have had mine for a week now. The hottest part of the unit is under the touchpad. When on battery its not as hot. Its not really a problem since that is the thinnest part of the notebook, so if its on your lap you dont feel it too much.

 

Okay, I took some pictures because people were requesting additional ones. However, since I never really wrote up my own formal notebook review, I wasn't sure what to take pictures of. So here are 5 semi-random pictures lol

http://personal.stevens.edu/~srodrig1
Warning: NOT dial-up friendly.

I also apologize for the camera quality, but this was the only one available to me at the moment and I don't exactly own a Digital SLR haha. Oh and if you would like to see specific shots, let me know.

One final note: the reason why I took these pictures in a dark room was to exhibit the screen's top brightness, which a user had PM'd me about.

 

Thx for the pictures. It gives us more of an idea of the brightness of the screen. I think it's not so bad. Not great, but doable.

 

Hi guys, I am looking at this notebook (8510w) as my workhorse for CAD modeling, I will be mainly using CATIA V5, a bit of Autocad and possibly run a few simulations on Ansys v11/Ansys WB 11. I think this notebook has plenty of power for what I need - consider I am still using an Asus M6Ne with 1Gb Ram and 7200rpm drive - but I am a bit concerned thath the WUXGA resolution is "too much" for a 15.4" screen, from the pics I have seen the fonts seems really unreadable - now I like my 1280x800 font size but higher res will be excellent for CAD - and I am afraid I will loose my sight when using office or simply surfing and reading, which is a good part of my work as well.

Any advice/impression on the usability of the screen for office work?

 

I'm pretty sure you can get the 8510w with WSXGA+ (1680x1050) if you think WUXGA is too much.

I have an nw8440 (the 8510w's predecessor) with a WUXGA screen. While I can read the text just fine, other people have pointed out that I sit way to close to the screen, which I don't always notice, unfortunately.

EDIT: I know for a fact that the WLAN card is located under the touchpad on the nw8440, which explains why the touchpad gets very warm on that model. Considering how similar the chassis is between the nw8440 and the 8510w, it's more than likely that the WLAN card is underneath the touchpad on the 8510w also.

 

I don't remember the exact layout, but I do believe the WLAN card is under the touchpad on this model too. Sorry I don't know for sure, but I cracked that case open a LONG time ago and we don't have the notebook anymore.

 

Hi all!
That was a very nice review, thanks for that!
After reading it and the pages in this thread I considered to buy the 8510w (instead of the Samsung x65).
One last question - does someone know whether it runs correctly wit Ubuntu 7.10 (and CompizFusion)? Im asking this, because it seems that Ubuntu 7.10 is not runnable on the Samsung x65, so I wanted to ensure that .
Would be great if someone knows or perhaps tests it with the live CD.
Thanks in adittion!

 

Nice Review.

HP mentions that the 8510w is Suse Enterprise 10 certified. Does this mean I could rune Suse Linux on it, and if so where do I acquire the relevant drivers?
I contemplate a Dual Boot Xp Pro - linux system.



As it seems with most of these laptops, XP Pro out-performs Vista. With no otherwise real significant/radical changes between XP pro and Vistam I thought a Dual Boot (Xp pro and Linux) might provide better performance till either Vista's problems are sorted out by release 2 or else the projected next generation OP system be available in 3 years.


The preconfigured 8510w high end model comes with a Blu-Ray drive , whereas the low end model comes with a Lightscribe dvd R/W drive.

THe caveat here however is that although both are backward compatible to reading from CDs/DVDs, the Blu-Ray drive requires special media for writing, whereas the ' lightscribe' can write to regular cd's and dvd's in respective formats, however if the lightscribe disc labeling feature is to be used I gather special media must be acquired.

Both are swoppable in the drive bay, however for other optical media you might be required to purchase an external USB Drive bay.


As per complaints of keyboard change; my solution would be to employ an external USB keyboard and mouse.

AS per display, you'll be viewing from infront of the screen and Greg's front shot seemed decent enough. My suggestion; get the adjustable stand and adjust screen to about eye level.

However, to tackle two problems with one solution, rest it on a platform that ensures that it is at eye level and also gives the vent below greater access for air to flow through readily (reduce overheating/ hot -running tendencies with graphics intensive applications.

 

I got my 8510w yesterday (T7700, nvidia Quadro, 4965AG (not N)) and installed Gentoo linux (64bit) on it. I also installed compiz fusion with xfce4 and it seems to work fine. Two things that I have not yet gotten to work well are the wifi and suspend to ram.

The wifi card works with the latest opensource iwlwifi driver but it's buggy, sometimes quite slow (~200KB/s with ideal signal quality although the speed seems to go up once I open ifstat which monitors the interface, then I get around 1MB/s; anyway the bug seems to already be reported to iwlwifi developers). And also the connection sometimes just drops after heavy usage which can be fixed by turning the wlan0 interface off and on again.

As for suspend to ram, I have not yet tried to debug it but the one time I tried it the suspend process did not finish completely and I'm not sure at what point it stopped exactly as the screen was already black.

I don't know if the user experience is better in Ubuntu or SuSe but there does not seem to be any complete showstoppers with using linux (depending on how much you need suspend to ram which I'm still hoping to be able to get to work).

[edit]
Suspend to RAM worked perfectly once I realized I was erroneously running suspend to disk; it did take a few more seconds to suspend/resume than my old laptop.

Also with the "setkeycodes" command I could map the info/presentation buttons to some unused keycodes and then use xbindkeys to make the buttons run some programs. But the mute/volume buttons do nothing except light up when pushed. The mute button also lights up if the sound is muted from the mixer so it's not completely useless.

 

hey quick question here. these quadro fx 570m cards......they are shader model 4.0 arent they? i ask cos i went to system requirements lab to check requirements and it says that i only have shader model 3.0 why is that. i no that the 8510p is shader model 4.0 cos i owned one and it showed it with the same game.

 

Hi,

I was wondering if someone else who has this laptop is also experiencing much higher temperatures than in the test? My GPU temps are around 55-61 while idle, CPU at 52-58 idle and when gaming GPU comes close to 100, CPU around 90 (celsius).
Which all seems much higher. Also, it's very noisy, the fan is on all the time, and you can hear it quite well even when idle. When full on it's almost like a hair dryer, ridiculous.
Should I take it to service or is this a design thing?

 

Update your BIOS. The latest BIOS should have addressed the fan issue so it doesn't spin at full speed on low temperatures. When the GPU is in full gear, the fans will spin at full speed and it will sound like a vacuum unfortunately. This is by design.

 

Also cleaning out your fan might help.

 

Has anyone stuck a 200GB Hitachi Travelstar 7k200 7200rpm 16MB in to an HP 8510w to replace the standard HDD?

Are there any problems with doing this? do you need to upgrade the BIOS?

thanks

 

can we burn blu ray discs or just watch ?

 

Afaik, the Blue Ray burner allows you to burn as well. However, I'd recommend not getting the BD drive if you intend to do any burning as a full 25GB burning task will take almost 2 hours, as is typical of all current notebook BD drives.

 

Hi!

I have just bought a hp 8510w (T7700, WUXGA screen) and there are some things puzzling me...

I have have somewhat solved the fan issue by putting the laptop in the "Power saving" profile, where the fan gets loud rarely.

But i'm experiencing some other kind of problems... One boot out of 10-15 fails, and the laptop just hangs half-way into booting Vista. All i can do is push the power button for 6 seconds, than it will start ok. I've upgraded to the BIOS to the latest version, but that does not take care of the hanging :-(

Has someone else experienced the failed boot problem with their 8510w?
Is there something to be done?

Thanks!

 

Look at my score with a overclocked 8510w :

 

I've experienced the failed boot a few times, too. No idea what the cause is...

 

Nice score!

 

I have this in my 8510w and don't have any issues. I haven't updated the bios. Note: Your mileage may vary .

 

I bought an HP 8510W mobile workstation and installed Vista and XP Pro. Both have problems with the NVidia quadro FX 570M drivers in lower screen resolutions. The native resolutions is 1920x1200 and it's super sharp but too small to read. Any other resolution is blurry. Anyone see this problem and have solutions?

 

unfortunately what you are describing is normal for any LCD screen; any resolution but the native one will be blurry because the LCD screen has that many pixels and has to "interpolate" any other resolution.
so nothing wrong there with your lappy ;-)

 

Hello,

I hate to wake up what seems like a dead thread, but I have a few questions regarding the HDMI out:

1.) Does the HDMI out work in Windows XP, and if it does, how do you get it to work correctly?

2.) Does sound come out of the HDMI port as well as video, and if it does, how do you get that to function correctly?

Thanks

 

1) HDMI works with any OS these days, all you need is the proper cable and config settings in the Nvidia Control Panel.
2) sound is also ported directly through the same cable.

 

So as long as you have the proper drivers for Windows XP, the functionality that is available for Vista will be the same for XP?

 

that's correct

 

So I was reading through this thread again today and noticed the mentioning of some heat issues and some failed boots. Has anyone found the Penryn processor to fix either or both of these issues? Is overall performance better or worse with these processors (specifically the T8300)?

 

Greg, thanks for digging into the casing quality, I appreciate that; and also the screenshots of the LCD.

It seems that the 15.4" WUXGA is inferior to the 17" WUXGA on their 8710w