The Hyperlogos

While searching for a laptop, unfortunately just prior to the release of the Core 2 Duo, I was looking for a system that fit a short list of criteria. One, the keyboard must be excellent. Two, the panel must be large. Three, the display adapter must be made by NVIDIA. Four, it must be powerful - both in terms of processing power and available memory. At the time, the finest laptop available which fit the bill was the Compaq nw9440. This was then HPQ's absolute top of the line, and in fact different versions of this system still are. This review applies to one particular model of Compaq nw9440 - the EZ901#ABA - and there are numerous others. Current models are basically the same thing with a Core 2 Duo instead of the original Core Duo.

Hardware

Computers are made of a combination of hardware and software. It sounds obvious when it's stated in this fashion but it's not a thought that most of us carry with us throughout the day. Computers need to be examined in terms of each, especially since you can change software, but you have only limited ability to change hardware.

Processor

This system has an intel Core Duo T2600, a dual-core processor in a single package. The Core processors are based on an iteration of the Pentium 3's core rather than the Pentium 4, which is for the most part an evolutionary dead end. At the time this was the fastest x86-compatible processor on the market, bar none. The T2600 has a 2.16 GHz clock, a 667 MHz front-side bus, and 2MB of L2 cache.

Graphics

The other big collection of transistors in the system is the NVIDIA Quadro FX1500 256MB graphics card. It's attached to the system via means of a PCI Express x16 bus, and it's connected to the internal LCD panel via dual-link LVDS. This is a pro-level graphics solution, which basically means that the card is tweaked more for correct OpenGL display results and stability than for maximum speed in gaming, and that it utilizes 10 bits of precision per color rather than 8, as is the standard in consumer graphics today. Even in gaming, however, you can detect a visual difference. I'm not sure about current-generation Quadro graphics, but in the older units this did result in decreased performance (in terms of frames per second) as compared to the non-Quadro version of the same card.1

The LCD panel is 17" on the diagonal, made by Seiko and is 1680x1050 pixels - unfortunately just shy of full HD (1920x1080.) It is however a 16:9 ratio panel.

Sound

Sound is provided via an Analog Devices AD1981HD audio CODEC chip. This provides 24 bit, 48 kHz audio with a stereo mic/line-in and a stereo headphone/line-out connector at the corner of the laptop. This family of CODECs ("SoundMax") supports oversampling which permits selection of frequencies in 1kHz increments (more or less) and it also permits recording and playback at different rates simultaneously. The CODEC also supports "software-configurable DSP band pass filtering and parametric equalization (EQ)".2

Storage

My system is equipped with an 80GB SATA Hitachi laptop disk (HTS721080G9SA00) that spins at 7200 RPM, and a 8x-speed HP DVD+/-RW with Lightscribe (PATA.) The disk is quite a performer and will regularly provide sustained reads over 25MB/sec. The optical drive has gone out on me twice (and the second replacement was the wrong part.)

Input Devices

This machine has a keyboard unparalleled by that of any laptop I've ever used, although some IBM Thinkpads came close — especially the earlier ones, in which they were willing to add more thickness to preserve key travel. It is quite full-sized and has a full number pad, which is a fantastic feature if you are a gamer. It has both a glidepad and a trackpoint. In addition, the keyboard has a decent set of "special" keys, including a radio-killer button which disables Bluetooth and WiFi, and a mute key with an amber notifier light.

Connectivity

This system has a nice, broad range of ports on it, although it is slightly lacking in one or two areas. One area in which there is no lack is USB; there are two USB2 ports on each side, and they are even arranged differently from one another; one pair is stacked, and one pair is side by side, ideal for dongles or flash drives. There is no dedicated audio line in jack on the unit, but there is a mic port (and a microphone built into top edge of the screen.) Only one IEEE1394 port is provided, and it is the small type which is suboptimal. There is also no video input, but there is an S-Video/Composite output. 802.11g WiFi with WPA comes in the form of an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG chip.

The system has the typical V.92 modem (From Conexant in this case) and a gigabit ethernet interface (Tigon 3 - Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5753M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express). Internal expansion is provided by a single Type II PCMCIA/Cardbus slot.

The most troubling issue is the lack of a DVI port on the unit. It instead has a typical HD15 VGA.

Other Goodies

Depending on how you feel about TPM, the Infineon "trusted computing" module might be a boon or a curse; it's required for some Vista features, though this laptop was sold only with XP as Vista was not shipping when I got it. In Linux, however, it functions as a crypto accelerator, so I am glad to have it in the machine. Rounding out the security features are a smart card reader and a fingerprint scanner which is installed just below the glidepad near the front top edge of the machine.

Advanced Docking Station

The docking station has another four USB ports on one side, and two more on the back. It also provides the missing DVI port; I feel that putting the HD15 on the unit displays an ignorance of where the world is going, which isn't analog VGA, but putting that aside for a moment at least we can find it on the dock. Oddly, there's also a ExpressCARD/163 slot in here; perhaps that would better have gone into the unit itself? I actually don't believe that's true since I have no ExpressCARD peripherals, but most of what you might like to slot into the system today will probably be one of those.

Oddly, the docking station also contains a removable device bay, I think it's called an Ultrabay, which the laptop doesn't have. If you get an ultrabay optical drive (like a second DVD burner) you can install this into the docking station just by pushing - the cover and device itself push-to-release. This is a nice feature, although puzzling given the lack of it in the laptop itself. The niftiest feature of the dock though, and one which I am not using, is the lock — which I don't have. Nonetheless, this is a round key-type lock designed to be carried with the system, and which can be inserted into the docking station in order to lock down the computer and lock the station to the desk.

HP offers two docking stations to match the nw9440 (and related systems): the HP Docking Station (EN488AA#ABA) and the HP Advanced Docking Station (EN489AA#ABA). I have the advanced unit; I'm not sure what isn't in the basic unit, except the "integrated MultiBay II and ExpressCard slots"4

Software

Because this is a business-class system (HPQ5 refers to it as a "Mobile Workstation") it did not come with a full suite of crapware. It was shipped with Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2a, and it came mostly with the software to support use of the Infineon TPM chip. This software controls windows logon but can also do significantly more; for example, it can store passwords for websites under a single authentication system. It can verify your identity through a combination of fingerprint, smart card, and password, which is fairly nifty (if a gimmick.) I had my system set to log in on a successful finger scan, but under Linux (which I am now using) it is as yet unsupported.

I personally wiped the system and installed Ubuntu Feisty. I did have some problems, notably with screen resolutions, but I eventually solved them. It's worth noting that there are apparently a multitude of different actual machines sold under the 'nw9440' name, most of which are very similar except for changes in CPU and sometimes GPU, and that other people out in the world have not reported having this problem.

Other than the TPM suite the software is quite uninteresting.

Linux Support

Other than the aforementioned problems with screen resolution and the current lack of support for the fingerprint scanner, there are really no problems with this system. You do have to pay $20 to get any kind of modem support, because they used a Conexant winmodem and the drivers are only available commercially. They will give you a free driver, but it will not Fax and will only support speeds up to 14.4 kbps.

Conclusions

Various factors lead me to believe that of the available options at the time of purchase, the nw9440 is the one for me. Here's why:

Utility

At the time this machine was purchased I was doing two things: running a lot of Crystal Reports, which consume an awful lot of memory; and running virtual machines in VMware for testing. Crystal's memory consumption is excessive really, and it can also grind your CPU quite a bit. I got plenty of both. Running virtual machines doesn't necessarily use much CPU (depending on what you're doing with them) but each one needs its own chunk of memory. A couple of 512 MB-memory VMs and that 2GB doesn't seem like so much.

Now, I mostly exercise the system by playing games on it, and it excels at that as well. Laptops have become steadily more powerful as more people have chosen to use them in lieu of desktop systems, and now they are quite powerful. The large keyboard is critical for my hands (which are large) and I really enjoy the dual pointing devices. The large screen is also a major motivating factor; if you want to get things done, you need some real estate to work with.

Comparison to Macbook Pro

This laptop is, to say the least, a speed demon, but even at the time it had competition for first place, among them a Sony Vaio6 and Apple's MacBook Pro (MBP). The nw9440 has specifications virtually identical to those of the MBP, down to the screen size and resolution. While the MBP includes an internal camera (iSight), a backlit keyboard, and 800Mbps firewire, the nw9440 has an ambient light sensor,7 a TPM chip, a smart card reader, a fingerprint reader, and a number pad. Probably the biggest argument in favor of the MBP is size; the MBP is perhaps two-thirds the thickness of this machine at the most. The NVIDIA GPU in the nw9440 was more compelling.

Unfortunately, at the time this system (and the MBP) came out the MBP came only with ATI graphics. On the mac this is no big deal because Apple participates in driver development, but in general it seems that the programmers at ATI couldn't code their way out of a nutsack (together or separately.) ATI drivers have always been garbage, as long as they've actually had drivers. This tradition began more or less with the Mach32 and has continued ever since. Since I made my purchase two things have happened; Apple dropped ATI because some ATI exec made an ignorant, early announcement they had no trouble making, and went to NVIDIA graphics in the MBP; and ATI has announced that they will be releasing drivers as Open Source so that the community can fix them. However, this hasn't happened yet (neither the release nor the repair) and the GPU in the MBP is not as nice as the one in my nw9440.

Musings

This machine is primarily intended for use doing high-end professional work, like CAD. The overall design is very nice albeit somewhat thick. Even port layout is very thoughtful; nothing but ethernet is on the back, so you can get to everything even when the unit is docked.

One thing that might actually dissuade potential buyers is that this is an entirely legacy-free PC. No RS-232 Serial, no Centronics Parallel, no PS/2 keyboard and mouse. In fact, the only DIN plug on the unit is an S-Video output. If you are looking for a legacy-free laptop, this is an excellent candidate. If you have legacy peripherals, probably the best thing to do is to get a USB port replicator and cart it around with you, although individual dongles offering a single parallel port and the like are available - they're just usually more expensive.

I give this laptop two thumbs up (I only have two) and I'd buy it all over again, given the chance. I do slightly regret not waiting for Core 2 Duo, but the performance is well into the "acceptable" range. These days, "fast" requires at least four cores, but the machine is slick and clean and has been the equal or better of every task I've put to it so far.

Specifications8

Model EZ901AA#ABA

Here is the specific equipment information for my model. I have added some links to the text.

• 1. At least older Quadro cards were higher-clocked versions of basic geforce cards, sometimes with more memory, and with features simply enabled that were disabled on non-Quadro parts. You can activate these features in software on some cards. (e.g. with SoftQuadro.
• 2. SoundMAX Hardware - ADI Audio Codec FAQs
• 3. PCMCIA is like an ISA bus and Cardbus is like PCI; ExpressCARD is based on PCI Express.
• 4. http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_North_America/12451_na_v1/12451_na.HTML
• 5. HP/Compaq.
• 6. I didn't compare to the Vaio for two reasons. The simple business reason is that Vaios are festering pieces of trash. One that came in to my last place of employment about a week before my nw9440 had problems the day after it arrived. The moral reason is that Sony lies to its customers more blatantly than perhaps any other company in the same markets, and continually attempts to strangle the industry with new media formats with inexplicable restrictions and outrageous licensing fees. Plus, I'm still extremely annoyed over their destruction of Lik-Sang. (Yes, I can hear them quaking in their boots now.) (Wasn't this a useless footnote?)
• 7. This is kind of funny in that it is thought that cells which can detect light are an evolutionary precursor to vision organs.
• 8. (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-64295-89315-321838-f1-1839859.html)