HP EliteBook 8760w: Color, So Dreamy
by Dustin Sklavos on August 25, 2011 2:30 AM ESTApplication and Futuremark Performance
It's important to stress in our Futuremark testing that the HP EliteBook 8760w benefits from a last-generation SSD; it may only be running at SATA 3Gbps, but it's still fast. Jarred wrote a pretty decent breakdown of PCMark and PCMark 7 in particular in his review of the Clevo W150HR and I wholeheartedly agree with his observations and conclusions. As for 3DMark, try to remember that though we tested the 8760w in gaming situations it is fundamentally a workstation and thus not intended for you to pwn n00bs at Call of Duty 185: America Mindlessly Pads Bobby Kotick's Bank Account.
PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7's overall score place the 8760w pretty much exactly where it needs to be, though it's impressive how much it nips the heels of the beefy Clevo X7200 with its hex-core processor and CrossFire graphics solution. Not just that, but it's substantially faster than its predecessor.
When we get into the 3DMarks, we immediately see major benefits from the additional 64 CUDA cores along with the higher clocks on the NVIDIA Quadro 5010M. That said, we can also see where the increased texturing throughput (64 TMUs in the GTX 485M vs. the 48 in the 5010M) and substantially higher clocks of the GTX 485M make it a far more preferable gaming solution. The 5010M is no slouch, but it's more of a workhorse than anything.
While dual-core processors got a healthy bump in performance in the jump to Sandy Bridge, it's the quad-cores that made out like bandits. In processor-intensive tasks the Intel Core i7-2820QM is often nearly twice as fast as the i7-820QM in last generation's 8740w, making the older notebook a very hard sell. Only the hex-core desktop i7-990X in Clevo's beastly X7200 is consistently faster.
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Belard - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Thought Apple sold the most expensive computers? A MacPro 17" notebook WITH 1920x1200, same quad CPU and 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD is $3500. It doesn't have internal Mobile Broadband options (why?)... but looks better and cheaper than HP... with the money saved, spend $1000 for the 27" 2550x1440 monitor.Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Except the MacBook Pro doesn't have Quadro workstation graphics or the high gamut DreamColor monitor. If you have need of those (which is admittedly a large part of what this is for), a Mac isn't going to cut it.jecs - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
I agree in part, Apple doesn't sell the most expensive or cheap computers. And to my understanding and direct experience Apple provides an intermediate professional grade driver support (when the app is available on OSX). Apple wont get you 4X full screen antialiasing but some aliasing however, they don't provide full support or some fancy features as 3D stereo, but absolutely professional work is way better on Apple computers with consumer hardware than in a consumer grade equivalent on a PC. Again, an intermediate and limited solution not an advance one. Lets remember GPU consumer hardware is very similar and even equivalent to pro GPUs. But today not the same.But for this review my conclusion is this $6500 HP with the Dreamcolor and Quadro 5000 is only justifiable for critical content creation. Not even for demanding CAD/CAM visualizations because those fields wont require such color accuracy and could get away with a decent and way cheaper LCD. For industrial design the fast CPU and powerful GPU never is enough. But why the Dreamcolor? if any IPS monitor with way less accuracy will do?
And even for content creation not everybody needs a Dreamcolor as even most experienced users working in content creation does not require or even could distinguish critical color corrections.
As a matter of fact very few professionals need such color accuracy. Only for final color correction on video, video games, animation, or final product visualization as in the car industry, but this could be also be considered video pre or post production.
The Dreamcolor brand from HP was specifically created for Sony Pictures 3D animation (?) in 2008. Correct me if I am wrong.
For final color correction in video post processing using Scratch I can see this machine as a way to present the client the final product, and even for some critical last minute color correction.
Who else, please?
Death666Angel - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Where did you get a 1920x1600 monitor? That's 12:10 / 6:5 ratio, never heard of that. :-)As for the 27" vs. 30" argument, I agree that desktop monitor density has to pick up, because it's really not moving that fast compared to normal desktop computing hardware or mobile display densities. But I do wonder where you get your numbers from comparing 30" to 27" 2560*1xxx. Here in Germany the cheap consumer 30" options (Dell, HP, LG) start at 1050€ and go to 1200€ (Apple Cinema HD is an outrageous 1799,-€), while the 27" models come in at 600€ and go to 700€ (Dell, Fujitsu, Samsung) and there is even a new entry who used to only ship within the UK who sells one 2560x1440 monitor for 500€ and one for 580€, though I don't know if the quality is comparable to the others. :-)
So for you the 30" models are 20% more expensive than the 27" options (1200$ vs 1000$) while for me the 30" monitors are 75% more expensive than the 27" options (1050€ vs 600€). If that is the case, you guys are being ripped off!
DanNeely - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Checking Dell's website the 3011 is $1499, the 2711 is $1099 at list prices. Dells older 30" models were several hundred cheaper and the 3011 goes on sale at 25% off once or twice a year. I'm not aware of the 2711 ever having done the same.I think the only way to get prices that close $1200 vs $1000 are to compare current vs last generation models or sale vs not sale prices.
kallogan - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
I don't see the point in buying a premium priced Core i7-2820QM. The rather cheap core i7 2630QM performs almost as well in most cases.sjprg2 - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
The 8760W circle jerk was ordered directly from HP's SMB order desk. I ran into incomptence, buckpassing, and stonewalling at all levels I was able to contact. I have retained about 25 pages of documentation and emails pertaining to this order. Someday I might be able to reach someone in HP that has the cajones to solve the problem. I sure miss the days when Officers of HP were reachable.dagamer34 - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Why can trackpads be centered?!?!?EdShift - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
This is a great question.I guess the answer lies in the cost associated with having to produce left and right hand models. In the userspace this model targets there is likely to be higher than general population mean left handers given the creative nature of content creation and it's propensity to appeal to more right brain dominant thinkers.
For most laptops though it would probably be a winner to move the trackpad to favour the majority.
Interestingly if you look at the trackpad on 6740 it's central only to the qwerty keyboard and not the number pad. I guess it's to reduce the travel time between keys and trackpad.
Clever ergonomics.
I'm assuming English isn't your first language so if I've misunderstood your point I'm sorry.
sjprg2 - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
This portable workstation is a monster. I looked at Cleveos and decided the companies that supply them were too small and unknown to send them a $6000.00 wire transfer, and that HP would be safer, seeing as how HP also wanted the order prepaid. WRONG! My uses for this is usually in a small motel room at the end of a long day shooting landscapes with a high end DSLR and the raw images are initialy processed into TIFs with DXO and doing any finishing touches with Photoshop CS5.5. Battery life is unimportant in this case. 1 hour would be fine for me. Would I like a bigger screen? YES! but this one is liviable. I'm hoping that Ivy Bridge will be interchangable next year for an upgrade to the Ivy Bridge 2920 equivalente. I have to say I am happy with the unit so far other than the screwup on the SSDs. I only ordered 16 GB of memory as the 32 GB is extremely exorbinant. About the smallest prints I have made are 24X36 with most going to 36X48.