Two years ago I created my first real IT Lab with some HP ProLiant ML110 G5. I used this in the past years to test new products and projects. The Lab at this time was very limited, no storage, no cluster, not much RAM and weak CPU performance. Not much help if you work a lot with Hyper-V Clusters and System Center products.

I was looking around for some time now to find a cheap offer for new servers. In the last week I found a offer from Cisco with c200 M2 servers and I couldn’t resist to buy two of the for my Hyper-V Cluster nodes. The offer was a special deal which was even cheaper than building the servers by my own, at this point thanks to my former employer Atlantis Informatik AG.

Now what I will do is creating a new Hyper-V Cluster friendly environment with two Cisco C200 M2 Hyper-V nodes, one HP ML110 G5 as Storage Server and one of my old HP ML110 G5 servers as Hyper-V Server which all my Management servers and Active Directory will run on.

If you want to know more about Hardware you can use for a Hyper-V Lab I recommend the posts of Carsten Rachfahl on hyper-v-server.de (german).

Hardware Configuration

Hyper-V nodes:

2x Cisco C200 M2 - Intel Xeon 5620 2.4GHz Quad Core, 16GB RAM, Remote Management, IPMI, 6 Networkports

Storage Server:

1x HP ProLiant ML110 G5 – Intel Xeon E3110 3.0 GHz Dual Core, 8GB RAM, 4x 500GB Raid 10, 3 Networkports

Management Hyper-V node:

1x HP ProLiant ML110 G5 – Intel Xeon E3110 3.0 GHz Dual Core, 8GB RAM

Now after setting up my HP Microserver N40L as a Windows Homeserver I had to install the utilities to monitor the Raid and other Hardware. On the HP Support Site you can find a link to the AMD Download page where you can download the Chipset Driver which also includes the Raid Driver and the Raid utility.

Download the AMD Chipset Drivers for the HP Microserver N40L

Two days ago my HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L arrived. Since I need more disk space I was looking for a good NAS solution. My first experiences with some of the common NAS vendors were not that great, most of the time the NAS was very very slow. Now this may has changed in the past years but still I prefer a mini server with a Windows OS.

That is where the HP ProLiant MicroServer and Windows Home Server 2011 meet, so I gave it a try. And guess what, it’s a great solution and it does exactly what I need. It stores files with a good performance, it’s quiet, it does not need a lot of power, let me stream content to my Xbox and enables me remote access to my data.

HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L

• HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L
• AMD Turion II NEO N40L 1.5GHz, 15W
• 4GB ECC DDR3 SDRAM
• 2x 2TB WD Caviar Green WD20EARX 5400 rpm, 64 MB Cache, 8,9 ms, SATA3
• Windows Home Server 2011

Now at the moment I use these two WD 2TB Disks in a RAID 1, and the N40L still offers space for two other drives.

HP Elitebook 8460w boots with OCZ Vertex 2 SSD. Needs something like 16 seconds for off to Loginscreen. This is not a clean Windows installation, so maybe with a clean Windows installation the 8460w cloud boot up even faster.

Some weeks ago my HP Elitebook 8460w arrived. Now I had the chance to see the 8460w next to a 8560w. First things I noticed:

• The screen of the 8560w is much better
• The 8560w is also much heavier
• and the 8460w battery life is much better

Gallery (bad quality)

Some weeks ago my HP Elitebook 8460w arrived. The first thing I did was installing a new OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and Windows 7 with Servicepack 1, I installed all the drivers from the HP Support Website and everything worked fine.

Now last week I tried to update the firmware on my OCZ Vertex 2 drive. Now with an Intel Rapid Storage driver installed, the OCZ Toolbox could not find the SSD drive and I could not update the SSD firmware. So I uninstalled the Intel Rapid Storage driver and updated the SSD. After I did this every thing still worked fine. But some days later I got the first Bluescreen after I came out of Hibernate. After searching for a solution I could see I am not the only one with this problem.

Now after some research I think I have the solution. This could be the Microsoft MSAHCI driver in Service Pack 1. After I installed the latest Intel Rapid Storage driver everything worked again.

HP video about the design of the new Elitebook workstation series 2011.

last week my HP Elitebook 8460w arrived and I thought I should write a little review.

System Configuration

Sadly the HP Elitebook 8460w is not available in Switzerland, so I had to order it in the US and this is the configuration I ordered.

• HP EliteBook 8460w Mobile Workstation
• Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Processor (2.0 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache)
• Mobile Intel QM67 chipset
• 14.0-inch diagonal LED-backlit HD+ anti-glare (1600 x  900) with 720p HD Webcam
• AMD FirePro™ M3900 w/1 GB gDDR3
• 8GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2D)
• 500 GB 7200 rpm 2.5-inch hard drive
• DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL Drive
• DualPoint (TouchPad and PointStick)
• Intel Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 (3×3)
• Bluetooth® Wireless Technology 2.1
• TPM & Fingerprint
• HP 9-Cell 100 Wh Li-Ion Battery
• 56K v.92 high speed modem
• 2x USB 3 ports
• 1x USB 2 always on port
• 1x USB/eSATA combo port
• HP Elite Support with limited 3 year standard parts and labor warranty 3/3/3

I also replace the 500GB Harddisk with an OCZ Vertex 2 (240GB).

Design and Durability

Of course design is a subjective thing. But in my opinion is a really nice upgrade from the previous model. Very clean and industrial design, and the “gunmetal black” is a good choice. I also like the back with a radial-brushed, gunmetal finish and backlit jewel HP logo.

The quality of the HP Elitebook 8460w is just impressive. As a former MacBook Pro user, I am really happy with quality and the durability of the 8460w. HP sends here a clear message to his competitors, about quality of business notebooks. The Elitebook is made out of magnesium and aluminum materials, and meets the military standards (MIL-SD 810G) for drop, vibration, dust, altitude and high temperature.

Everything seems to be at the right place and all buttons and the whole chassis is feeling very “high-class”. The only thing which makes a cheap impression is the optical drive which looks a bit like cheap plastic, but I don’t think this will be a big issue.

HP removed all the little doors on the bottom. The new Elitebook series has a big magnesium cover on the bottom, which lets you easily access harddrive, RAM and other things. And as the rest of the notebook this makes a very solid impression.

The size and the dimensions are not the best in class. The Elitebook is around 3.2 cm thick, compare to the MacBook Pro which is around 2.5 cm this is quite a bit. But it sounds like more than it is. The weight is in my opinion, with something around 2kg, very good for a mobile workstation.

Keyboard

HP changed the keyboard design of the ProBook and the Elitebook to a MacBook like chicklet style. I think this is a huge improvement to the previous generation of Elitebooks. There is more space between the keys and this makes is very easy to type. The keys feel very smooth and there are no sharp edges, they also have a slightly gritty texture and a subtle curvature which make a comfortable type experience. The only downside is that there is no backlight keyboard option on the 8460w, the 8560w and the 8760w have a backlight keyboard.

HP also removed the touch sensitive buttons and added real hardware quick launch buttons. One for turn WiFi on and off, another one for quick web access and the third for mute and unmute.

Touchpad and Pointing Stick

HP also redesigned the touchpad from scratch. The touchpad is now a bigger, multi-touch glass touchpad. It’s nearly as good as the Apple glass touchpad. If you move from a MacBook to a Windows notebook, the HP Elitebook trackpad is one of the only trackpads which gives you a similar experience.

Business users which like a Pointing Stick instead of a touchpad will get this option. With a simple double click on the upper left corner of the touchpad you can turn it off. There is also enough space between the keys and the pointing stick.

Display and Audio

About 14 inch screens is always a big debate. I am not a photographer or have anything to do with colors. But I think it’s the screen it’s okay for a 14 inch. Most of the time I use the screen with a brightness of 50%, so it’s really enough bright if you turn it to 100%. The contrast is average but I think it’s much better than on the Lenovo ThinkPad T420 or the Elitebook 8440p. But if you are a graphic designer you maybe would prefer an Elitebook 8560w or an 8760w with a Dreamcolor display.

HP uses SRS Premium Sound branding for built-in stereo speakers. The sound quality is quite good for a business laptop. But of course multimedia notebooks have much better speakers.

Ports and Accessories

As usual HP offers a lot of ports and options in his business notebook line.  Besides the ports and slots I mention, HP offers pretty cool accessories like the well know HP docking stations and external monitor solutions. The HP Elitebook supports multiple display output (AMD Eyefinity) up to four external monitors, and lets you use a DisplayPort-to-HDMI converter for the display signal and sound.

The Elitebook 8460w comes standard with a 6 cell battery. You can replace the primary 6 cell battery with a 9 cell one, or add on a second 8 or 12 cell battery to greatly extend battery life.

Left

• 1x power adapter port
• 1x firewire port (1394a)
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• 1x SD/MMC slot
• 1x Express Card/54 slot
• SuperMulti DL; DVD+/-RW

Right

• 1x stereo microphone in
• 1x stereo headphone/line-out
• 1x eSATA/USB combo
• 1x USB 2.0 charging
• 1x DisplayPort
• 1x Security lock slot

Back

• 1x RJ-11 port
• 1x VGA port
• 1x RJ-45 port
• Battery slot

Bottom

• 1x docking connector (for HP docking stations)
• 1x secondary battery connector

Display

• HP Night Light (a LED light above the display)
• HD webcam

Internals

• Intel Core i5 and i7 2. Generation CPU’s
• Up to 16GB DDR3 SDRAM (2 slots)
• Mobile Intel® QM67 Express Chipset
• AMD FirePro™ M3900 with 1 GB dedicated DDR3 video memory
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Intel Centrino 802.11a/b/g/n (3×3)
• TPM 1.2 Embedded Security Chip
• HP Fingerprint Sensor
• Integrated Smart Card Reader
• HP 3D DriveGuard

Heat and Fan Noise

The Elitebook stays always very cool, much cooler than my MacBook Pro which was very hot on the spots where the CPU and the GPU was. I think this is mostly because of the thicker design and it’s also a sign of good quality materials.

I can’t really say something about the fan, it’s mostly really silent and I can’t hear any noises.

Wireless

I did not really think about wireless performance before, but with the integrated Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3×3) is a real benefit. I can see now new wireless access points which I could not see before, because they were out of range.

Battery life and Performance

A 14-inch mobile workstation is in my opinion all about battery life, and the 15-inch and the 17-inch are more like desktop replacements. HP did a very good job in terms of battery life on the 8460w. With my 9-cell battery and normal use (WLAN on, web browsing, display brightness 60%), I get something like 9-11 hours of batterylife without problems. I am also sure I could get more out of it, by activating power saving features. I am more than satisfied with battery life.

For its 14-inch size notebook this thing is a monster. Intel did a very good job with the second generation of Sandy Bridge CPUs even I don’t have the fastest Core i7 option (i7-2630QM Processor 2.0 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache) I still have enough power to even run Microsoft Hyper-V for demos on my notebook.

I would not really criticize the AMD GPU (AMD FirePro M3900), but it’s the weakest part of the system. But I think for a 14-inch workstation with this battery life this is not a problem at all. If you need more graphics power you should move to the 15-inch and the 17-inch mobile workstation which have better graphic options but less battery life.

Replacing the normal HDD with a SSD is always a good choice. It needs less power, it is a lot faster and move my notebook around even its still running and don’t have to worry about destroying the HDD. In my case I did not use the HP SSD option, I bought an OCZ Vertex by myself and replaced the HDD.

Here you can see the results of the Windows Experience Index.

Conclusion

The new Elitebook 8460w is more than I even expected. It is one of the best Windows based business notebooks in the industry. Sure it’s not made for high graphics designer but its a good mobile workstation with an extremely strong battery life and more than enough CPU power. The build quality HP delivered is outstanding and reaches Apple MacBook Pros.

More information about the HP Elitebook 8460w here.

Today I got an email from myus.com that the order from HP finally arrived and they will send it now to my destination. The great thing myus.com checks the content of the package and you can check the pictures online.

Until now I am very happy with myus.com and their service. Fast and good service and really good but free support.

Shows the new Windows 8 User Interface and a lot of new Windows devices.