Test Drive: HP Compaq 8710p, Part 1

My love affair with portable computers began in about 1983, when I taught myself Lotus 1-2-3 on a luggable Compaq, right there on my kitchen table one Friday night (and early Saturday morning). Other milestones include the my first Toshiba clamshell, which I used to demo fax boards on press tours back in the early 1990s, to my Dell Latitude D800, the first notebook powerful enough to replace the desktops I formerly needed to carry to various training workshops.

In truth, however, I still perform virtually all video editing on desktop computers, though I have produced the random podcast or two on notebooks. Certainly, the MacBook Pro I discussed a few issues ago (click here) is more than powerful enough for serious projects. But when HP announced the HP Compaq 8710p notebook with a Core 2 Duo Intel processor, true 1920x1200, screen and a Blu-ray recorder, I just had to have a look. In this issue, I''ll review features and usability, in the next, I''ll focus on performance.

As always, the major question for me when it comes to editing on notebooks is how much performance I lose compared to my desktops. Portability is nice, but I need to know what it''s going to cost me in time. To provide this perspective, I ran a series of tests that compared the 8710p with the HP xw4600 (Quad Core, Single Processor) and xw8400 (Dual Processor, Quad-Core Xeon) workstations. These include benchmarks with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Encore CS3 (SD and Blu-ray production), Autodesk 3ds Max 8, Grass Valley ProCoder, On2 Technologies Flix Pro, and Sorenson Squeeze. But let''s start with a good look at the 8710p.

Perusing the HP website, I saw two basic versions of the 8710p, each available in both Windows XP and Vista. The lower-cost model ($1,499) sported a 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 processor with an 800MHz front-side bus and 2MB L2 cache, 2GB of SDRAM, and a DVD +/- RW drive with LightScribe, with 802.11 a/b/g wireless capabilities, but no Bluetooth. The screen is a 17in. WXGA+ screen with a maximum resolution of 1440x900.

The review unit that HP provided was the high-end model, which costs $2,549 and includes a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 processor with an 800HMz front-side bus and 4MB of L2 cache, along with a 17in. WSXGA screen capable of displaying 1920x1200 pixels. Like the low-end model, the notebook shipped with 2GB of SDRAM, probably the minimum for Vista, which was installed on the test unit.

All units on the HP site spot a 5400rpm 160GB SATA drive, but the review unit shipped with a 120GB 7200rpm SATA Seagate drive. Those needing extra storage can choose between a 250GB 5400rpm, or 160GB 7200rpm drive, both SATA. According to the HP specs, even the 5400-speed drives could transfer 100MBps, which is more than sufficient for most HDV and DV editing tasks—even multiple camera projects.

The review unit also included a Matsushita BD-MLT UJ-210S Blu-ray writer (less than 12 months ago, you couldn''t produce a high-def disk; now you can on the road). It''s a rated 1X drive, but remember that 1X speed for Blu-ray is 36Mbps—about 3.3 times faster than 1X DVD—and that the fastest Blu-ray burner today is only 2X.

Graphics came courtesy of the Nvidia Quadro FX 1600M chip, with 512MB of dedicated graphics memory, and access to up to 759MB of system memory. The 512MB should be plenty for working with HDV, with the shared memory a nice safety zone.

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

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.