HP Elitebook comparison

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

HP-EliteBook-8460w-8560w-and-8760w-header

I thinking about buying a new notebook and since HP, Dell and other vendors released new notebooks based on Intel Sandy Bridge this would be the perfect time to replace my current MacBook Pro with a new Windows Laptop.

So basically I made this HP Elitebook comparison for all Important things for me based on the Swiss data. (In Switzerland not every model is available.) I also took always the best available option for me.

	Probook 6460b	Probook 6560b	Elitebook 8460p	Elitebook 8560p	Elitebook 8460w	Elitebook 8560w
CPU	i5-2520M	i5-2520M	i7-2620M	i7-2620M	i7-2630QM	i7-2630QM
RAM	16GB	16GB	16GB	16GB	16GB	32GB
Graphics	AMD HD 6470M 512MB	AMD HD 6470M 512MB	AMD HD 6470M 1GB	AMD HD 6470M 1GB	AMD FirePro M3900 1GB	AMD FirePro M5950 1GB
Display	14.0 1600×900	15.6 1600×900	14.0 1600×900	15.6 1920×1080	14.0 1600×900	15.6 1920×1080
3G	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Glass Trackpad	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
USB 3.0	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
Weight	2.02kg	2.46kg	2.07kg	2.73kg	2.22kg	3kg
Thickness	3.4cm	3.4cm	3.4cm	3.4cm	3.2cm	3.45cm
Design	good	good	okay	okay	awesome	good
Battery life	okay	okay	very good	good	good	bad
Battery life+	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
Docking station	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
incl. warranty	1 year	1 year	3 years	3 years	3 years	3 years
Price	good	good	okay	okay	okay	okay

Maybe there are some mistakes in this chart but the most things should be right. And I don’t say one is better than the other one, clearly they are made for different tasks and workloads.

Other things:

I will add a Intel SSD
I will use 8GB RAM
I will not use an optical drive

What’s important for me:

I need long battery life up 6-8h (more would be better)
I need fast disk speed. Since I used a SSD I will never use a HDD again.
I don’t need a lot of graphic power
Resolution should be 1600×900 or higher
the notebook should be light and not to think
CPU power, should be enough to run Hyper-V for demos (boot from VHD)

Gallery:

Microsoft WebMatrix and Microsoft WebPlatform Installer

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

For a project at KTSI we needed a platform to quick deploy PHP and MySQL applications. There are a lot of solutions out there in the web, for example XAMPP. After testing some options I had a closer look at the Microsoft WebPlatform Installer and Microsoft WebMatrix. Those two tools do exactly what I need. With the WebPlatform Installer you can easily install a local instance of IIS Express with ASP.NET, PHP, MSSQL and MySQL support with in 5-10 minutes.

But the coolest tool in my opinion is WebMatrix. Webmatrix lets developers create, manage and deploy Web Applications very very easy. And if you need to to more Webmatrix lets you also work with Visual Studio on the same project.

New Awesome HP Notebooks (Elitebooks and ProBooks)

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

After some years with my Apple MacBook Pro its time for a new notebook. Now since my work now is really in the Microsoft field, it does not really make sence to buy a MacBook Pro again. So first I check out the new Dell Latitude E-Series, and now HP released the new Elitebook Workstations.

Now I don’t really like the new HP Elitebook p-series, but I really like the black desgin of the ProBook or the new gunmetal black of the Elitebook w-series.

What is important for me:

Screen resolution – 1600 x 900 or even 1920 x 1200
battery – life 6 hours or more
Size 14 inch or 15 inch
cool desgin
docking station
multiple monitor support

If you need more information you can get them here.

HP Network Interface does not start.

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

I just installed two new HP ProLiant DL360 G6 with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. Everything worked fine until I installed the HP Support Pack which includes Drivers and Firmware for the HP Server.

After I installed the HP ProLiant Support Pack one of my Network Interfaces could not start. I got the following error in the Device Manager:

HP NC382i DP Virtual Bus Device
This device cannot start. (Code 10)

I tried to uninstall the device and rebooted the server but this didn’t work. I had still the same error.

The problem was that just uninstalling the driver does not work, you also have to check the checkbox on “Delete the driver software for this device.”

After doing that you can rescan for new hardware and the system will find this adapter again and everything will work fine.

Install HP Support Pack on Hyper-V R2 Core Server

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

If you are using Microsoft Hyper-V R2 Core Server, installing the HP Support Pack is a little different. This post should show you how this is done.

Download the latest HP Support Pack for Windows Server 2008 R2 and extract that on your Management Server or PC.
Now copy the extracted folder to the Hyper-V Core Server. In my case i copied in the C:\ root of the Core Server via the administrative network share. If you have easy physical access to the server, you could also use a USB stick or something like that.
Now connect to the Core Server and use the cmd.exe to navigate to the folder with the HP Support Pack
Run the “hpsum.exe” to start the HP Smart Update Manager
When the HP Smart Update Manager is started you can use it like on a Full Server installation of Windows Server 2008