HP nc8430 with Core 2 Duo and X1600 Review (pics, specs) Discussion

It's the good answer. Thanks night_2004 and Henchman; I've decided the nc8430 will be my next DAW...

This information is terribly hard to find anywhere else (the chipset is never mentioned in the specs, and I can never find any shops where I can try it out).

Update:
I bought a nc8430 the day after writing the above. HP had a $650 discount on it in february. I've just ordered the 3-in-1 NAS docking station as well with a $250 discount (what lucky timing since both are now back to their regular prices). The nc8430 is all I hoped it would be. It handles NI Guitar rig with 3 ms of latency without problem (I havent tried it on lower settings yet since there is no need), and I havent even done anything to optimize for audio...

 

My new NC8430 came in the mail from Newegg today.

 

Hi,
Need to install Windows 2003 Server R2 in my nx8420.
Can we use the Windows XP driver?
Thanks.

 

heh, i loved this notebook so much, i bought another one....

at MSY they ran a special recently for a T5500, 1 x 1gb, 80gb, XP pro (thank god...) model of the HP NX8420 for $1199AUD...they ran out of stock within the week.

then later they brought out a T5600, 1 x 1gb, 120gb, vista business model for $1399AUD, so i had to snap one of them up too. albeit this time for my grandparents

was tempted to give them my lower-specced model but i had already upgraded to 2gb ram and a 160gb hdd in mine, and i much prefer XP on it, its MUCH snappier than vista business.

as for the processor difference...i couldnt be bothered really...one day i'll upgrade this to a T7x00 series (probably after the warranty is out).

so yeah, id highly recommend this model too

 

I did not know the power down button would drain the capacitors !!

 

I'm a bit proud to say that i finnaly found a way to lower the infernal noise of the NC8430 (Well actually I just found anothers work but hey ).

Previously when using XP i used NHC which took care of the problem, but after switching to Vista (and nearly switcing back to XP because of the noise) NHC didn't work anymore.. So.. i googled alot and found this a guide. (which I cant post the link to here since Im a new user, and hence not allowed to)
but google this:

"dsdt table for nc8430"
and follow the link to "Eddie Tse" (which was #5 i my case)




I basically followed the guide with a few modifications..
1) in step 5 where you download the .NET program to read the value from the registry: The .NET program the author created wont be able to read from the registry unless you change the folder registry folder name from "nc8430" to "8510x". Now you can run the .NET program which should generate a file named 8510x.orig. After you've run the .NET program change the folder name back to "nc8430"
2) just rename the 8510x.orig to nc8430 and follow the steps in the guide using nc8430 as the filename everywhere the guides 8510x
3) when you get to the actual HEX value magic the DSDT file from the nc8430 doesent look the same as the 8510x one (from the guide).
SO.. Instead of looking for this bit:

Name(C357, Package(0x6)
{
0x64,
0x4b,
0x23,
0x1e,
0x14,
0x0
})

which it says in the guide, you'll be looking for this:

Name (C306, Package (0x05)
{
0x64,
0x50,
0x46,
0x37,
0x00
})

(just search ofr "C306" and you should find it...)

The bottom 3 values (0x00,0x37,0x46) are the only ones i changed
The 0x00 specifies the fan seting of 0% (i dont know why since the lappy always seems to have it's fan running )
the value 0x37 refers to the lowest fan speed of 55% (yes 55% !!!)
the next (0x46) referes to the middle fan speed which by default is 70%

now i changed:
0x37 to 0x16 which is 22%
and
0x46 to 0x1e which is 30%

leaving the top to values alone, since i want the laptop to run the fan at maximum levels when the temperatures really goes up, since i dont want to fry my lappy...

now simply follow the rest of the guide, reboot, and enjoy the silence !

ps.. my bios version is the newest F version from HP, which you might want to upgrade to if you havent done allready..