What about HP nx9420? - Page 3

Hey 137 I see you gave up with 8204 and went for the 9420.

I didnt even take the chance. Ive just recieved my 9420

Im making the restore discs. Ill put some pics up soon.

Congrats on the computer.
Could you also do a basic benchmarks, to show how fast is this model with the X1600 GPU ? I am still trying to decide wether better GPU is worth extra money.
Thanks

Well - I have just ine comment on 9420 - IT IS FREAKEN FANTASTIC!! Congrats HP, my hat goes down, it really is great computer for a nice price - looks and performs in a very solid way, it is on my table, running benchmarks in many ways it is faster than 8204!!! I mean in games etc. Because it is not full of that ACER s..t software and cameras etc..

This is the one to go guys!! I gotta get replacement on tuesday though, because there is some splotch or something on the glossy surface of the screen, but one can see it only when the screen is off. Anyway they said it would be no problem returning for a brand new unit. Other than that, I have no complaints whatsoever so far.

Will post a review.

hi guys.
I am following this thread since when I sat my eyes on the 9420.
137, congrats on your lappy! I am seriously considering this model for my first notebook.
Do you have any heat issues? Would you able to find out whether the GPU is underclocked or not?

With that 17" PowerBook Pro from apple on the market, now I am kinda reconsidering my choice but hey, it's over $2,700. Also, it looks like it has some issues to be addressed such as heat and whining noise. They also say the X1600 in it is heavily underclocked.

So again, I'm leaning toward 9420.

I cant say a bad word about 9420. I mean there is this little thing on the display, but it is some manufacture problem for 99% only on this piece, so I have replacement promissed, whch I am fine, because it had stuck pixel as well, and so I have another chance to get it completely fine

I am gonna do some testing and see if it is underclocked or not. Well, about the heating issues. I do not really know how HP does that in this case, but hey it does not really matter how long is it running or what apps you are running, the air comming from the vent is still kinda cold!!! This guy has nothing to do with overheating or something like that as far as I coul observe.

Again it is very light, very portable and very good build, you wont be affraid to carry it around. I mean it is not 12"cher but the numloc is neat and there is not aninch of space not used effectievely.

About the screen - the screen is not "ultra high definition whatever..." but it is very nice glossy finish screen that will do its job. There is some minor light leakage from the bottom, but really only if you are too too picky.

It is not any lamp but as for me bright enough, really over the average. I was affraid of the ambient light sensor, but it is working very smoothly and you still can turn it off.

What is amazing on this laptop is the battery life. 3.40hours with no problem if you let the settings the way HP has them for portable situations and it is important to add - they are satisfying for most tasks.

I am coming from TravelMate 8204 WLMi and have no complaints. That one was crap, this is neat IT piece! I mean it has far from feeling flimsy or cheep, it runs VERT QUIETLY, no buzzin, no whining, only sometimes you can hear some squelch coming from the fan, which is well located on the left and back side of the notebook.

I am very positively surprised with the performance!!! Gosh it is 1.83GHz with 1GB 667RAM (+1slot free!!!! ) and it gives the feeling that it is faster and prompter than that lousy 8204, which was 2Gigs CoreDuo and 2GB 667RAM with 512 X1600 HyperMemory. So I have nooo complaints on this side, ran the 3DMark05 with score like 3492, which is not bad.

The BrightView: the black is black, the white shines and there is no extra reflection that could bother me as some people say when complaining about brightview screens.

So if you ask me, I say - go for it!!

It is good to hear that you are so happy with the purchase. I think for the money the HPs are incredible and I played around with DV8000t in Best Buy the other day and was super pleassed with the build quality. I think my money will also go to HP, but I will probably wait until they open the customization section for the nx9420. The rep I spoke to said it should happen "...within a month time".
Thanks for a raving review, you may want to double post it in the Benchmarks/Reviews section for people to see.
Good luck

My only one reason for hesitataion preventing me from buying this HP notebook is the actually the brand name. HP/Compaq. Compaq being a keyword here. Ever since they merged and putting the name 'Compaq' together with 'HP' I really couldn't care less about their computer products. I mean it's scary. I myself and some of the people around me have had such a terrible experiences with Compaq computer it gives me creeps. I also heard of so many horror stories about the how poor the quality was about the old Compaq. It was not just a rumor. It's a fact. I pledged that I would never go near anything that has to do with Compaq. And the brand is not dead yet.
I wonder when they merged if their production lines or quality control practice were shared or something. I know they are all in the China nowadays but the name Compaq still leaves me bad taste.
I know I might get flamed for posting somethign like this but, COME ON people, it says COMPAQ!!!
What do you guys think?

No, actually it is good you are posting stuff like this, why not! I am glad there are several opinions, plus to be quite honest I used to be on the same boat as you. But..then I got to ACER and that was the biggest mistake, coming back to HP/Compaq is like having a ride in a hi luxury mercedes

The fusion of the brands was about money, even though it say Compaq, this one certainly has nothing in common with thos Compaqs I used to hate. They were crap, this is nice and smooth running piece of IT with very nice build!

And, sure, it will be my pleasure to post a review within aweeks time. I am getting the replacement on Tuesday, so I will do some - out of the box thing

Oh and one veeeery good and important link:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,123729,00.asp

cheers

Oh,

just one short addition to what I have written so far (I will post full review next week): the soundcart is: SoundMAX. What do add. Piece of absolutely unusefull crap. I mean, it still does very nice job with most of DVDs, and music playing and stuff, but I was trying to use Microsoft Flight Simulator with the HW acceleration or without - the sound is crackling and breaking. It is due to no hardware buffer of this sound card, also there is noticable humming ans hiss when having the mic in and phines out jacks in. And you cant turn the built in mic off. My was of solution is to stick with Audigy 2ZS PCMCIA from Creative and hook it up to 7.1 speaker system.

otherwise this lappy rocks, trust me guys!

I am thinking of buying a 9420 tomorrow. I will buy the Duo 2.0 one, I will try to send a review as soon as I purchase and test it

You wont regret maan! Cant be more satisfied with mine one! Just thinking of upgrading to 2GB of RAM. Strong, powerful, bussines, gaming video, simply very fine!

hello everyone. i am thinking about getting one of hpnx9420 with centrino duo 1,6, 1gig ram, and 1440*900 screen. what am i concerned of is gaming experience. i play alot so if anyone that actually owns nx9420 can tell me at what settings are games like fear, hl2, doom 3 playable and what is gaming experience when resolution is scaled down to 1024*768 on that nx9420screen. thanks in advance! also what about noise&heat during extensive gameplay?

Hi there!

first of all, I woudl strongly advise to upgrade to higher model. The one you woudl liek to buy is really the lowest and even though the graphics is the same, I am warning you of the SCREEN!!! The screen 1440*990 is matte and has very poor viewing angles.

I would suggest to go for the model with 1.83 T2400 CentrinoDuo with 1680x1050 Bright veiw! I am very happy owner of this laptop and it is doing very great at ful resolution even in games liek FlightSimulator with all the sliders to the right! The screen is nice and can not be compared to the 1440x990 crap. Sorry but if you have just few more money, please do not buy the lowest one. It is fantastic laptop and it desreves to have good screen - which starts at the 1.83 model.

Heat? What heat?? It is late spring here - full load in the middle of the game and tha laptop is cool! One of the most silent laptops I have ever onwned - too!!!!

thanks for the info. i guess i will wait untill i get the extra cash for stronger model.

Make sure you do! It is very great model and the glossy screen with high resoluton really pays off!!! It is worth waiting a bit more. I am extremely picky about notebooks, but this one rocks! I am using it for everything flawlessly!!!

cheers

Here is a quick review of my Nx9420 which I purchased yesterday.

The case
The notebook is solid, the case is feels strong like the ones on IBM thinkpads. My father has an nx6110 with the same case but 9420's case is much more stronger, especially over the screen area.

The screen
The only bothering thing about this noteboo ksi that the screen could be better. Yes it is a business class notebook and it is HP's brightview but there is a decrease in brightness towards the corners when your eyes are staring at the center of the screen. This is not a problem really but it always could have been better to see a Sony Vaio like quality screen. (I am not talking about x-black...) There is a light sensor at the bottom of the screen which adjusts the screen contrast with respect to the light level in your room but I always wanted full contrast which is really not a lot even if it is in full contrast mode so I disabled the light sensor.

The performance
I was using an AMD64 3000+ cpu'd desktop with 1 gigs of ddr400 ram. In comparison to my new nx9420, the desktop is now a tortoise! Core duo 2.0 does an excellent job running in multi tasking. I am using sql server 2005 express, visual studio .net 2005 and developing asp.net applications on the virtual IIS while installing NFS : Most Wanted and there isn't even a slight delay in any of my work. I loved this. The core duo cpu received and 18.2k score from SiSoft sandra.

Game performance
I didn't test the machine with any 3dmark software bcs you can find such resluts in nearly all notebook benchmarking sites. I played World of Warcraft at 1680x1050 resolution in full detail with 1x multisampling and ı got about 40 fps indoors, about 25-30 fps in large outdor areas.

Battery life
With full charge, and moderate usage, it goes about 2.5 hours. Full contrast.

Heat and sound
I know some users of nx8220 models and they were very complaining about the heating especially over the keyboard. I ran the machine for about 8 hours playing games, running multipel apps, burning dvds and the heat on anywhere of the machine never annoyed me. Of course it is again impossible to use this desktop replacement over your laps but this is considered normal for all of todays notebooks. The notebook runs super silent when I am not playing games, there is hardly ever a fan noise and I am much more than pleased with these issues.

The keyboard
With the full numpad and hp's cool quick buttons, the keyboard is flawless. I was using a wireless desktop 2.0 on my desktop machine and I was making lots of spelling mistakes on that keyboard. Now my hands fit on the nx9420's keyboard much better than any keyboard. The keys are soft and smooth and fun to type!

The audio
The speakers are not performing good as Toshiba's bass enhanced audio system but it is enough for daily business and home usage. soundmax audio is not again as good as my old Creative audigy but with a good headphohe, it will fill your needs good enough unless you are not an audiophile.

The weight
With the mouse, charger and some other small accesories my nx9420's bag becomesa about 4.5 kgs. This becomes rather hard to carry around too much but remember it is an 17 incher. There isn't a lighter notebook in the world than 9420. It is really worth the weight to have such a virtual station.

That's all for now, I will post some pics as soon as I get my ass of the chair

Quick question. Is it really 1.3" thick? Some manufacturers list the thinnest part, but then the back is 1.7" thick or some nonsense. *cough* toshiba p105-s921 *cough*

Any chance you could measure for me? If it's really 1.3 at the thickest point that's really awesome.

Yes I've just measured it, it is 1.3" at the thickest point with the screen lid closed.

I am amps? seriously considering either getting the nx9420 or the dv8000t but I am wondering if they carry the same UltraBright screen option with dual lamps? I have bad eyesight so I would like a very bright screen that has the greatest amount of contrast. Can anyone enlighten me on this and thank you.

Gary