Advice about a "HP Compaq 8710w Mobile Workstation", or alternatives.

[acrobat]

My mate's dad needs a new laptop and neither of them know anything at all about PC's and aren't too good on the web, so I offered to help (not that I know much about laptops..)

It is a work laptop so gaming isn't a requirement, but the more powerful the thing is, the better. The company he works for is buying it so he has a nice high budget of about £1400 or so, and they can buy it trade from one of their various suppliers. It needs to be good for MS Office, but he does work on large databases and stuff, and he needs to do presentations on to a big HDTV, so it needs to output at some decent resolutions, and it needs to work fast so people aren't staring at a giant egg timer Also, his eye sight isn't the greatest, so having a nice clear screen of a decent size on the laptop itself, would probably be a bonus.

Anyway, I asked someone I know and he said to get a "HP Compaq 8710w". I researched it and it looks really great and as good as anything I would suggest. But at >£1000 I thought I would just check here in case anyone has any advice for us before he goes off and gets a £1400 laptop that he will use every day for the next several years.

Here's a review of the one we were recommended:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3864


Thanks in advance

[staffsMike]

That is a big budget

Are you looking for workstations, or would something smaller be better?

Thing is when you look at these monster 17" laptops they tend to cram 1920 x 1200 in, which is great for desktop space but terrible for reading from without increasing the font size a lot which is an option, a good one in fact in vista but not always ideal.

The review you linked to uses the slightly older generation CPU's, I would try and look for centrino 2 or at least the later santa rosa's like E8400's etc..

Going in the exact opposite direction to the work station you have something like the awesome Vaio Z
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...VGNZ11WN/B.CEK)

It's weak point would be the 5400rpm HDD which is a shame but it has a lovely screen, HDMI out for the HDTV's, massive power in a tiny package

But really I'm sure trying to gauge what sort of size is required.

You could get some crazy performance from one of these
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...N09X5304&s=bsd

[acrobat]

Thanks for the reply, very kind!
It needs to resemble a laptop/notebook, but he is a big strong bloke, so it doesn't matter if it is bulky or slimline really, as long as it can be carried in a carry case with one hand.

As for the resolution, that is exactly my first thought too when I saw the specs. It looks like a nice bonus for displaying on to big screens, but I struggle to view text on a 20" screen at 1680x1050, so I dread to think what that could be like... I wonder if he could maybe just run it at a lower resolution. If not, it could be a big issue.

As for the specs, you are right. That review talks about some older version or something. The exact specs he was looking at was the middle or left one in this link:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...1-3355679.html

As for that Vaio.... wow! That thing is incredible. At first glance it blows the HP away, but the 5200rpm disk is a big shame. I do wonder if that might be offset by the faster processor and stuff though. Hmm.

Glad I asked here now!

edit: The Vaio's screen is even smaller too, so that could be nasty It's performance must be amazing though.

[staffsMike]

Well if the smaller laptop appeals but you want more configuration then I run one of these.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...N09X3306&s=dhs

albeit the original spec with the 2.2 from that HP Its technically my desktop 90% of the time and I love the thing. Can't tell the difference between it and my desktop until gaming is involved. It has the 200GB 7200rpm drive which is super speedy as laptop drives go

Not quite as fancy but still has HDMI out and enough juice to do something useful with it.

[acrobat]

Nice, thanks They have good prices . Some interesting stuff too, like a solid state hard drive!

[Golden Dragoon]

Well if the smaller laptop appeals but you want more configuration then I run one of these.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...N09X3306&s=dhs

albeit the original spec with the 2.2 from that HP Its technically my desktop 90% of the time and I love the thing. Can't tell the difference between it and my desktop until gaming is involved. It has the 200GB 7200rpm drive which is super speedy as laptop drives go

Not quite as fancy but still has HDMI out and enough juice to do something useful with it.

I love the way that when I clicked on the link it was the "Bubblegum Pink" version pre selected lol
Not trying to say you chose that btw, just dell website and opera + system configuration = some funny stuff at sometimes.

[staffsMike]

Lol no I didn't choose it.. but since it's an option ...

I have the black one, picks up finger prints like no ones business, I think i would go for the Midnight Blue now, looks very nice in the flesh.

I'd go dell over HP any day as they have annoyed me too much in the past couple of years. Rubbish warranty work and you have to use it far too much imo.

The Dell Precision series would be a kin to the orginal HP, they also have the very nice looking new lattitudes (and precisions I thinK) with centrino 2 CPU's but seem to lack HDMI or DVI for the most part.