HP Compaq 8710w User Review

[Mats]

eleron911: cleaning the heatsinks, changing thermal paste, and undervolt the CPU in NHC really helps keeping it cooler.
My fan ramped up all the time before I cleaned the heatsinks.

I undervolted the T2300 from 1.2625 V to 1.0 V, which resulted in a 65 W kill-a-watt power draw with GPU at max, Orthos running on one core, and RTHDRIBL on the other and GPU.
I would have done the same with an 8710w.

[chrixx]

I would have done the same with an 8710w.

One thing I did notice is the 8710p/w did run much quieter than previous generation models. It is in fact silent during normal usage, which is why I won't mess with the thermal paste or underclock it yet. The Penryn processors also help bring temperatures down a little.

As for gathering dust, I do have to clean out my fans every 3 months or so as my room gathers quite a bit of dust, being on the top floor with windows constantly open (I can't stand a stuffy room).

[Mats]

It is in fact silent during normal usage, which is why I won't mess with the thermal paste or underclock it yet. The Penryn processors also help bring temperatures down a little.

Agreed, I meant changing the termal paste later on.
The Penryn is a cool running CPU, the dektop counterparts uses much less power than the Conroe, much less than the 65 W TDP. In fact, it's closer to half of it.

You say silent, do you mean that the fan doesn't start at all when doing light work?

[eleron911]

eleron911: cleaning the heatsinks, changing thermal paste, and undervolt the CPU in NHC really helps keeping it cooler.
My fan ramped up all the time before I cleaned the heatsinks.

I undervolted the T2300 from 1.2625 V to 1.0 V, which resulted in a 65 W kill-a-watt power draw with GPU at max, Orthos running on one core, and RTHDRIBL on the other and GPU.
I would have done the same with an 8710w.

Hehe, I know this poem.
I also undervolted , cleaned the inside for dust and all the thing required to keep it cool.
The only real game that pushed it`s limits was NFS Carbon, the fan was spinning like crazy. What bothered me is that HP used a slightly underclocked version of the X1600 .Now it`s cool, you can`t hear the fan pretty much ever,and after 2.5 years of abusive usage the thing still packs 2h of battery on full brightness and RMClock + xp power management, and about 3ish at low brightness.And it costed like 900$ bucks then,probably the best deal I ever made.

I wonder if the 8710w has the same issue of a somewhat crippled GPU, since GPU-Z reported the 3600M as a 8800M GTS?!

[Mats]

What bothered me is that HP used a slightly underclocked version of the X1600

Edit: I realize I don't know the stock speeds.
Mine have three settings (GPU/RAM): 209/135, 390/250, and 425/375. What speed does your have since you say it's underclocked?
I can easily overclock it to 567/471 at least, don't know the upper limit but I think I am close to it.

I wonder if the 8710w has the same issue of a somewhat crippled GPU, since GPU-Z reported the 3600M as a 8800M GTS?!

It is not crippled As far as I know, but the only thing the Nvidia specs tells me is that it have the correct memory bandwidth 51 GB/s so I'm not sure.
I don't know if the 3600M is supposed to have 64 shaders.
After all, it is not a 8800 GTX and nobody said it was. Crixx said:

The Quadro FX 3600M is equivalent to a Geforce 8800 GTS graphics card. The 3DMark06 scores at standard clock rates are consistent with that of a regular 8800GTS card.

The specs, including the frequencies, are identical to a 8800 GTS, so I guess it's only the firmware that is different.

[eleron911]

Edit: I realize I don't know the stock speeds.
Mine have three settings (GPU/RAM): 209/135, 390/250, and 425/375. What speed does your have since you say it's underclocked?
I can easily overclock it to 567/471 at least, don't know the upper limit but I think I am close to it.

I don`t have it on me right now,my gf is using it for some projects but I`ll post the clocks as soon as I get ahold of it.Stock clocks are 470/470 for the regular version, mine are something like 425/370-400~ish.
I haven`t tried OCing it, the laptop ran too hot for my liking anyway.Besides,I couldn`t check the temp on the gpu, AFIK there is no temp sensor for the GPU...

It is not crippled As far as I know, but the only thing the Nvidia specs tells me is that it have the correct memory bandwidth 51 GB/s so I'm not sure.
I don't know if the 3600M is supposed to have 64 shaders.
After all, it is not a 8800 GTX and nobody said it was. Crixx said:

The specs, including the frequencies, are identical to a 8800 GTS, so I guess it's only the firmware that is different.

Everyone assumed it to be 8800M GTX based, but it might indeed be an 8800M GTS. So maybe it`s not the fastest quadro yet...

[Mats]

Besides,I couldn`t check the temp on the gpu, AFIK there is no temp sensor for the GPU...

I have two temps in Speedfan that ramps up quickly when starting RTHDRIBL, but only if the clock speeds are set to max.

Second temp, chip ADM1032, sensor Remote Temp

8:th temp, chip ACPI, sensor Temp3

[eleron911]

Well, either way, the HP 8710w would not dissapoint , I would trust HP`s bussiness class over any other,except maybe Lenovo`s...

[iMojo]

I also thought the FX 3600m was based on the 8800M GTX too. When I checked at notebookcheck.com they said it was based on the GTX. Man I'm so confused now.

[thomask]

great review! i have an 8710w and it's brilliant!

I would like to check what make of screen i have, how do I go about doing that!