Hardware Geeks

Earlier today HP told me that their new Elitebook 6930 was showing 24 hours of runtime with in benchmarks. I was surprised because yesterday I found out Dell had a notebook with a 19 hour battery life but showed no proof, and gave sketchy detail’s on the system.

HP’s Worldwide Public Relations Manager (Business Notebooks) Mike Hockey said the following in an email to me “Micheal,, it is confirmed. HP can now achieve up to 24 hour battery runtime! This is achieved with the HP EliteBook 6930p, configured with a 6-cell primary battery, HP Illumi-Lite LED backlit display, the new 80GB Intel SSD, and the optional HP Ultra-Capacity Battery.”

The 6930, the unit where we get the 24 hours with the extended battery in neither an ultraportable or ultralight. It’s a 5 pound Notebook without the extended battery you need for the 24 hours. . We don’t classify it as ultraportable or ultralight. In HP terminology it’s a balance mobility category. For the rest of the world, it’s probably called mainstream. It’s your corporate 14” notebook

I apologize to HP if this communique was under NDA, because the email did not say it was. But HP has told me that one of their new Elitebook has up to 24 hours of battery life. That is 27% more than Dells 19 hour battery life claim which was 27% more of the 15 hour battery life claim by HP.

What is different about HP’s 24 hour claim is that they are going to send me a system to put the battery life to the test for my self so that I can see with my very own eyes. So I will let you know as soon as I get it.

Last night before I went to bed I saw an ad from Dell pimping out their new 19 hour battery life, but what buged me was I saw no info in the ad or on the landing page about how you get the 19 hours of battery life. Mind you it was 3 am and I was half asleep so I forgot to bookmark the page and now for the life of me I can not find it.

But how is Dell doing it? I have emailed some people at Dell to find out and I will let you all know as soon as I do.

About a month ago, I visited with Epson and checked out some of their new printers such as the nx400 all-in-one. I have to say I was pretty impressed with what I saw and for the first time ever I actually am looking forward to the release of a printer. But something else impressed me while I visited with Epson, and that was their ink.

Epson told me about their DuraBrite Ultra ink. They told me about how it instantly drys, how it doesn’t smear with a highlighter or deposit any of it’s ink on the tip of the highlighter. They also told me something I found hard to believe. They told me that the ink would not bleed if a liquid were spilled on a document printed with their ink.

I saw various examples but I was skeptical. I wanted to perform these test especially the liquid one my self, so Epson was kind enough to send me a nx400 to test the ink with.

HP today introduced two new Elitebook one a 12.1 inch Notebook PC the other a 12.1 inch tablet PC an upgrade to the popular 2710 which was the first Notebook from HP with a built in Business Card Reader and Lamp.

Some of the improvements on the 2730 when compared to the 2710 is the stylus holder, on the 2710 the thing would shoot out and would land in another zip code if you weren’t careful, that has been fixed on the 2730, the newer 2730 also supports larger hard drives, and of course has a faster processor (Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage or Low Voltage) and a bit of a better video chipset (Intel GMA X4500 HD). Oh and let’s not forget the name change, the 2710 was under the Compaq brand but the 2730 is under the HP Elitebook brand.

HP today announced three new elegent business notebooks. The three systems are 8530p notebook PC, 8430w and the 8730w mobile workstation and are part of HP’s stylish Eltebook line.

HP Is making an effort to give business users a system that has a stylish yet professional look to them, and also a system that you could use as as both a work notebook and personal notebook and with the 8730w the power to even game on it! The three systems all have a Shiney black and a brushed metal finish which HP calls the “DuraFinish” because it’s durable and won’t ware on you over time The keyboard also has the HP “DuraKeys”. The letters on DuraKeys do not ware as fast as the letter’s on traditional keyboards. These systems are meant to last a long time.

Microsoft today released the German, French and Spanish versions of Windows Home SErver Power Pack 1. This update fixes a coruption bug and also adds 64bit support.

“As you know, the English version of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 was Released to Manufacturing (RTM) on Monday, July 21st, 2008. Today, the Home Server team is pleased to announce the public availability of German, French and Spanish localized versions of Power Pack 1. These versions are available on the download center and can be downloaded from the following links.” sand Microsoft in an email.

I recently faced a dilemma, I had a NVIDIA 8800 GTX Video Card sitting around collecting dust, and a quad core computer that could not handle it because the power supply was not powerful enough, so of course I knew it was time to get a bigger, better, badder PSU—I just couldn’t decide on which one to get.

Antec sent me one of their new Signature Series Power Supplies and I knew exactly what I could use it for, yea, you guessed it.  I used it to finally put that bad boy of a Video Card into my System. The Signature Series from Antec is part of their new Super Premium Line, which meets 80 plus standards meaning the PSU is power efficient.

HP was so excited about this new Compaq 2330s that they announced it a whole 14 days ahead of schedule. It was originally set to be announced on the 19th but better early than late I guess.

The 2330s is a budget notebook PC for small business, it weighs only 4 pounds and has a nice little look to it. Kind of reminded me of the look the old ThinkPads had, a lot of people thought that look was ugly but I actually like that old look.