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MillimeterTest Drive: HP Compaq 8710p, Part 1
Nov 12, 2007 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
The 8710p offers a lot of screen real estate to get your work done. Shown is Adobe Premiere Pro at 1920x1200.
Click here for a larger image
Using the 8710p
Physically, the notebook itself is 1.3in. high, 15.5in. wide and 10.8in. deep, and it weighs in at about 8lbs. It has a full sized keyboard with separate number pad, although you have to be careful not to trigger the finger-swipe security device located just below the number pad when you rest your palm to use the number pad. You have two integrated mouse options, a touchpad and point stick, although I immediately opted for a real mouse via one of the six USB 2.0 ports.
Low-end input/output is excellent, with an SD/MS/PRO/MMC/XD card reader in the front for your digital photographs as well as a Type I/II PC Card slot. In addition to the six USB 2.0 slots, you get one 4-pin FireWire connector, an HDMI connector, and a VGA port, which is great for connecting to presentation devices, but you’ll need a DV15 to VGA converter to connect to an external flatpanel monitor. Count on using the PC card for an eSATA or FireWire 800 device if you need really fast external hard disk I/O, because the 8710p lacks both. That said, all connectors are conveniently placed, with USB ports on both sides for righty and lefty mouse users, and the headphone jacks on the right side, close to the front, and modem and network connectors on the back right.
In use, the screen first appeared a bit darker than I liked, but I fixed this via the brightness, gamma, and contrast controls in the Nvidia control panel. I also boosted the default DPI setting from 96 to 120, which enabled me to use the full-resolution 1920x1200 screen without squinting. If you like working outside, you’ll love the anti-glare screen, which was readable even in relatively direct sunlight.
Next issue will contain objective performance data. Subjectively, I can say that for most editing, the 8710p proved very responsive—pretty much identical to a desktop unit. The only time I noticed a real difference was when working with a four camera multicamera project in Premiere Pro, where realtime playback dropped to about 2fps to 3fps. Still more than sufficient to accurately make my cuts, but slower than I’m used to on my dual-processor, multi-core desktops.
That’s it for now. Next issue, be prepared for a cornucopia of hard test results, which will reveal not only how the 8710p compares to some high end desktops, but also how efficiently programs such as Premiere Pro, Grass Valley ProCoder, and Sony Vegas actually perform on four- and eight-core systems.
