HP EliteBook 8440w: On-the-Go Workstation
by Vivek Gowri on August 13, 2010 10:10 PM ESTHP EliteBook 8440w—Application Performance and Futuremark
The 8440w is quick. There is no other way to describe it. The dual-core Core i7-620M is definitely a killer processor for simple processing tasks. While it doesn't have the amount of raw computing power as the quad-core i7 line, the 620M is faster in single and dual-threaded applications, even besting the 920XM in some cases.
Cinebench, Peacekeeper, x264 HD encoding—you name it, computing performance-wise the 8440w is better than just about everything with a dual-core processor, and competitive with the lower-end quads. This is especially true in Peacekeeper and the single-threaded Cinebench, where the i7-620M tops the charts. Like the old Core 2 Duo/Quad argument on the desktop side, it becomes the difference between four cores versus two faster cores. If you're not doing heavily multithreaded work, the dual-core i7 is the better way to go.
Now, Futuremark is a different story—the 8440w has a lower-end Quadro FX 380M that is based on the same core as the G 310M, which is based on the G 210M. As such, the FX 380M ends up somewhere between the two performance-wise. What this means is that the 8440w ends up pretty weak in non-workstation centric video benchmarks. So in both 3DMark and PCMark, the 8440w fares pretty poorly compared to some of the lower priced mainstream and gaming centric notebooks on the market.
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fire400 - Sunday, August 15, 2010 - link
I don't like it though. It doesn't seem to compare to the older HP Compaq generation of notebooks. Business class LCD's should have the best displays of any laptops available, in my opinion. You're already paying a premium, you should get premium quality on one of the most important things you're looking at most of the time... the LCD?saifikhan - Sunday, August 15, 2010 - link
It is sad to see that there is not even one AMD processor based Elitebook.JarredWalton - Sunday, August 15, 2010 - link
Sad maybe, but hardly surprising. EliteBook is a mobile workstation product, and mobile workstations tend to focus more on performance. My testing of an AMD Phenom II P920 shows it to be about on par with an i3-330M in terms of performance in heavily threaded scenarios (i.e. video encoding and 3D rendering), and in less multi-core friendly tests it's not even close (like 50% advantage to the i3-330M). In other words, a 1.6GHz quad-core AMD chip using their latest mobile architecture matches Intel's slowest dual-core + Hyper-Threading mobile part.The fastest AMD mobile quad-core is the X920 BE clocked at 2.3GHz. Going by the same figures I see with the P920, it would probably win some tests against the dual-core i7-620M, but overall it would be at best a wash. And then you can throw in the quad-core Intel chips and it's not even close anymore.
Now, AMD does provide better power figures if you compare their quad-core to Intel's mobile quad-core, but that's hardly the primary consideration in a mobile workstation. In fact, our biggest complaint with the 8440w is precisely that it doesn't offer more power, specifically in the graphics department where the 16 core FX 380M lets it down. There are some interesting AMD-based laptops coming out now, particularly with Nile and Danube platforms, but for mobile workstations the current stuff can't make a good case.
We've got a couple reviews coming soon--yes, I know I've said that before. The P920 Toshiba system review got delayed for two faulty laptops, but it was pre-production hardware. I should have a final production sample next week so I can post the full write-up. The other is perhaps the best AMD-based laptop I've ever used, a Toshiba T235D. Packing a 1.5GHz Turion II K625 and a 61Wh battery, I've actually managed to get into the 6+ battery life range. Performance is respectable as well, and the HD 4200 is still better than any current Intel IGP. It's 13.3" and costs $600, but it's the first AMD "ultraportable" (thin and light) that I can really recommend. It's a viable alternative to the old CULV, and even holds its own against Arrandale ULV.
sapiens74 - Sunday, August 15, 2010 - link
Its sturdy and made for work.Not nearly as quick as my MAC, takes almost 3 times to boot Windows 7 Ultimate, but for a Windows machine it does the job
seanleeforever - Monday, August 16, 2010 - link
so.. your definition of 'quick' is booting OS.you can vastly improve that by using ssd. booting speed has almost nothing to do with CPU/GPU. my T7400 with SSD can boot up windows 7 ult in less than 20 seconds.
jaydee - Monday, August 16, 2010 - link
AT has a CAD junkie on staff?!?! Can we please get a CAD workstation videocard roundup? Pretty please?
jea508 - Monday, August 16, 2010 - link
Anandtech is amazingoshogg - Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - link
I have been using business class notebooks for over 10 years - first 7 years, I was using IBM Thinkpad lines of notebooks and the last 3 "HP Compaq" and EliteBook. Both lines are fairly comparable and each one has its unique advantages over the other. One key disadvantage of HP that I find is lack of bay battery. With IBM thinkpads, the bay battery was a god-send. I could easily go over 5 hours with real heavy workload with 2 batteries. With the 3-year newer technology of HP's business notebooks, 2.5 to 3 hours is a max.I wonder why more business-class notebooks do not come with a bay battery option. I hardly ever need a CD/DVD Rom drive in my work. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times I have used the CD/DVD drive in last 2 years.
Osho
kenyee - Wednesday, August 18, 2010 - link
HP has ridiculous sized ones compared to thinkpads. I also don't think the keyboards are as good as the older T series thinkpads.And I'm looking forward to your Envy 14/15 comparison. This seems like it's a business version of the Envy. Too bad the screen is crap :-P
I just want a relatively light 14-15" laptop I can stick 8GB or more into to run VMs :-P
kfjg - Sunday, August 22, 2010 - link
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