Rolly
Mar 6th, 2009, 02:30 PM
High-end, High Resolution HP "Business" Laptops with Blu-Ray player. From the US ... The seller is in the US but ships to Canada. Refurbished with 1 year Warranties.
HP 8510w -- The first one: 15.4" screen. $849 USD. Around ten for sale. I called and there are 10 left even though the site says 5 at the time of posting.
Store: http://www.amuras.com/prodDetail.asp?PartNumber=J54307
Review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3862
HP 8710w -- The second one: 17" screen. $999 USD. Two left for sale. [EDIT: No Blu-ray on the 17"]
Store: http://www.amuras.com/prodDetail.asp?PartNumber=G67932
Review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3864
Both with 1920 x 1200 resolution. (WUXGA)
I bought the $849 USD machine in February. You'll get an email request to add $49 USD for shipping to Canada. The CAD on my Amex was $1079.60 plus $62.55 = $1142.15 total. (Bought through Google Checkout). The Custom/Tax Fees collected by UPS when it arrived at my front door was $127.50.
So the Grand total, all in, was $849 US => $1269.65 Can.
--------------------
Two glitches:
1. Upon initial booting into Windows XP, the automated installation of HP Specific Software was the last step of the initial setup process. But it would not complete and seemed to hang. Upon forced rebooting (by holding the power button down), the machine advanced to this last step, and this time it completed.
2. The WinDVD 8 software to play a Blu-Ray movie wanted to upgrade its credentials but the process would not work. I appied two patches from the HP website, after which the machine played the movie just fine. I got the patches for the 8510w From Here--See Software Multimedia (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3355681&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3369263&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093). Apply the 8.0.8.321 first, and then apply the 8.0.9.575 A patch.
All in all, everything seems to be working well. I am quite happy with the purchase.
--------------
Both machines comes with one memory stick, 2 GB of RAM. The other slot is empty. Memory is cheap, so you can easily add another 2GB for under $30.
Snap up the 17" one quick if you want it ... It's awesome! The specs are similar to the 15.4' but it has a few bumped-up specs ...
a 160GB 7200 rpm drive [vs 120GB 5400 rpm]
and faster CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 / 2.6 GHz, 6GB L2 cache [vs Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 / 2.5 GHz, 4GB L2 cache]
and better discrete graphics card NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M, 512 MB. [vs NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M TurboCache, 256 MB, support 512 MB].
Still, the 15.4" unit is impressive.
BTW, the specs on the seller's web page wrongly state that 4GB is the maximum--that's the case if you install another 2 GB stick. But I have doubly verified that the machine's maximum RAM is 8GB -- if you installed two 4GB sticks.
Cheers, and good luck!
Roland
HP 8510w -- The first one: 15.4" screen. $849 USD. Around ten for sale. I called and there are 10 left even though the site says 5 at the time of posting.
Store: http://www.amuras.com/prodDetail.asp?PartNumber=J54307
Review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3862
HP 8710w -- The second one: 17" screen. $999 USD. Two left for sale. [EDIT: No Blu-ray on the 17"]
Store: http://www.amuras.com/prodDetail.asp?PartNumber=G67932
Review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3864
Both with 1920 x 1200 resolution. (WUXGA)
I bought the $849 USD machine in February. You'll get an email request to add $49 USD for shipping to Canada. The CAD on my Amex was $1079.60 plus $62.55 = $1142.15 total. (Bought through Google Checkout). The Custom/Tax Fees collected by UPS when it arrived at my front door was $127.50.
So the Grand total, all in, was $849 US => $1269.65 Can.
--------------------
Two glitches:
1. Upon initial booting into Windows XP, the automated installation of HP Specific Software was the last step of the initial setup process. But it would not complete and seemed to hang. Upon forced rebooting (by holding the power button down), the machine advanced to this last step, and this time it completed.
2. The WinDVD 8 software to play a Blu-Ray movie wanted to upgrade its credentials but the process would not work. I appied two patches from the HP website, after which the machine played the movie just fine. I got the patches for the 8510w From Here--See Software Multimedia (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3355681&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3369263&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093). Apply the 8.0.8.321 first, and then apply the 8.0.9.575 A patch.
All in all, everything seems to be working well. I am quite happy with the purchase.
--------------
Both machines comes with one memory stick, 2 GB of RAM. The other slot is empty. Memory is cheap, so you can easily add another 2GB for under $30.
Snap up the 17" one quick if you want it ... It's awesome! The specs are similar to the 15.4' but it has a few bumped-up specs ...
a 160GB 7200 rpm drive [vs 120GB 5400 rpm]
and faster CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 / 2.6 GHz, 6GB L2 cache [vs Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 / 2.5 GHz, 4GB L2 cache]
and better discrete graphics card NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M, 512 MB. [vs NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M TurboCache, 256 MB, support 512 MB].
Still, the 15.4" unit is impressive.
BTW, the specs on the seller's web page wrongly state that 4GB is the maximum--that's the case if you install another 2 GB stick. But I have doubly verified that the machine's maximum RAM is 8GB -- if you installed two 4GB sticks.
Cheers, and good luck!
Roland