HP EliteBook 8760w: Color, So Dreamy
by Dustin Sklavos on August 25, 2011 2:30 AM ESTConclusion: But You'll Pay for the Privilege
So now that you've seen what a monster the HP EliteBook 8760w is, you get to experience the sad knowledge that you'll probably never afford one like the one we tested unless your job buys it for you. It's an incredibly attractive piece of kit, but $6,500 is a heck of a lot to pay for a notebook. So let's see if we can't break that down somewhat, shall we?
First of all, the major upgrades that bury the needle on the price are the NVIDIA Quadro 5010M, the DreamColor display, and the SSD. The Quadro 5010M costs a punishing $700, while the DreamColor is $650 and the SSD is $500. If you just want a solid workstation notebook, the 8760w preconfigured model at $3,499 seems a heck of a lot more reasonable, giving you a decent workstation GPU and the benefits of the DreamColor display. You sacrifice 8GB of RAM, the i7-2820QM, the SSD, the blu-ray drive, and the Quadro 5010M, but the RAM and SSD at least can be made up for down the road (though it's worth mentioning the upgrade cost on the SSD at least isn't unreasonable). The problem is Dell will sell you a Precision M6600 with roughly the same specs and performance as HP's $3,499 EliteBook 8760w for $2,624, and that's a massive difference. When you look at it that way, the premium on the DreamColor display goes up to nearly a grand.
There's another wrinkle, too. If you're willing to put up with a bit more noise, a lot more weight, and a non-IPS glossy screen, Clevo's X7201 actually supports the Quadro 5010M and some boutique vendors like AVADirect offer it (for an impressive $2,000 upgrade cost). If performance is the only metric you're interested in, the Clevo X7201 is nigh unbeatable, since you can get the Quadro 5010M and an i7-990X hex-core desktop processor.
So why buy the EliteBook 8760w? If build quality and aesthetics aren't a concern for you and you have no need for HP's helpful Performance Advisor software, it's going to come down to exclusives. HP can sell you the DreamColor IPS display and NVIDIA Quadro 5010M with 4GB of GDDR5; the best Dell can match on the screen is a high-quality TN panel (or even a touchscreen if that's what you're into), and they only go up to the Quadro 4000M at present (though we'll almost certainly see 5000M/5010M at some point).
When you're dealing with notebooks that cost as much as cars, it's a little difficult to make recommendations. That's doubly true as you start having to make compromises and trade-offs. What's most important? Battery life? Mobility? GPU performance? CPU performance? Build quality? Display quality? The HP EliteBook 8760w undoubtedly finds a niche here, offering the best mobile workstation GPU performance alongside very fast processors and a fantastic IPS display that the other vendors can't touch. Build quality is also frankly stellar, and it's not too heavy given the high performance components inside.
Oh, you'll pay for the privilege. Then again, if you need a mobile workstation and you happen to use one of those >$20K software packages these are certified to run, what's another six grand?
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gigagiga - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
Just got one for my work with i7-2360QM 2GHz 8GB RAM 64 bit, AMD Firepro M5950 Mobility Pro graphicsIt was a quick order, because I was told it had the specs I needed for engineering software I use that is a CPU hog. But so far, I'm not exactly thrilled with it.
Its definitely better than what I had to work with before, ie it dramatically speeds up processing time on a program that runs wireless network predictions that used to take several hours---this laptop has cut processing time down dramatically.
But out of the box, the touchpad mouse didnt work. No big deal, but really annoying. Had to do a BIOs update, unistalled the driver. Driver actually seemed to make it work worse. On the plus side, I think the fan is relatively quiet. Surprisingly so. Heavy computer, which is to be expected
Color is strange on this laptop. It apparently has HP Dreamcolor, which must mean "bright garish color". The red is almost blinding, and on the program I use most, the green shades blend, whereas on my old HP laptop, no problems. Have tried to figure out how to calibrate color, but it doesnt seem to make much difference. Most trouble Ive had with a computer out of the box since getting one with Vista.
That said, I guess I should have looked more closely and gotten something with more powerful processor? The main program I run still maxes out this CPU for most of the time its running my predictions (which can be hours at a time), and just doesnt give me the lighnting fast processing that I was hoping for.
But I know enough to be dangerous about processors--- maybe its a really good one and this is the best I could expect for under $3K? Any suggestions appreciated.
EdShift - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
If you absolutely must have a portable it's the best available but if not something with dual high-end Xeons is probably going to more likely to provide the grunt you need for high end engineering type apps like FEA software etc. I've moved today from an older generation workstation with dual Xeons (HP XW8400) to one of these laptops and it's definitely faster except on disk I/O performance but I moved because I needed a portable.I've no doubt that the new Workstations I see under the desks of the FEA guys are an order of magnitude faster for these tasks.
Timp74 - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
I bought a 8760w(exact model is ) about 4 months ago. The motherboard failed after 2 days.Was sent for repair but came back with a problem with the fan. Was sent for repair again. Came back unfixed but with a dead pixel. HP sent an engineer to replace the screen. Engineer arrive with a mother board for a completely different laptop. 2nd engineer came and fix the screen. Hurrah!, but still problem with the fan always running. HP took laptop to be 'analysed' 3 weeks ago. Have heard nothing since. Despite asking a few times HP support has been unable to even give a status update. Don't know what's going to happen next but I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS LAPTOP and I THINK HP's 'Total Care' IS A JOKE!! Buy a Dell, Lenovo or Mac instead.
It's frustrating enough that the laptop has problems. That HP seem unable to fix it has left me feeling I've been completely ripped off. Don't expect anything special from HP for buying their top of the line model. Clearly to their support operators it is more important that they tick boxes that try and help the customer.