HP Laptop EliteBook Intel Core i5 1st Gen 560M (2.66GHz) 4GB Memory 320GB HDD ATI FirePro M7820 17.0" Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 8740w (XT908UT#ABA)

Pros: 1) Anti-Glare Screen - I didn't even know you've been looking at your screen for 2 1/2 hours - regular lcds are hard on my eyes 2) 1680x1050 is bigger than I thought - big enough to work 720p comfortably. 3) the ATI m7820 graphic card can render and animate in blender like a champ 4) Installation CDs came which gave me that comfort I got when I bought my mac. 5) Keyboard is comfortable. 6) Trackpad is the best I've ever used. HP Elitebooks have the only 3 equal button cad thing going... the 2nd middle button is used in 3d model programs and firefox. 7) The power adapter appears to be UPS... it holds charge after I've unplugged it. 8) Quite possibly the perfect laptop for 3D modeling in college. 9) HP software is a different level than the consumer laptops. Security, System Checks, Software Recovery to a great degree. 10) Fingerprint scanner for coolness factor 11) LoJack Pro software is included 12) I'm satisfied with my purchase and I'm glad I didn't buy any other laptop.

Cons: 1) Screen flickering problem... Screen freezing after windows sleep (Screen flickering greatly reduces with software updates, freezing with sleep... come on windows... haven't you fixed this yet??) 2) Anti-Glare screen plus monster size means people 25ft behind you can see what is on your screen without a 3M privacy screen 3) It's a big 17" laptop... my friend said it wasn't a notebook, it was a tablebook(lol) 4) Doesn't feel as tough as I want it to feel(this laptop is meets Military Laptop requirements as written).... feels worlds different than your standard plastic laptop though. 5) CD drive tray isn't made out of steel. 6) The EMF from the massive power adapter will make your screen glitch... keep it away from the screen.

Overall Review: The Screen flickering is possibly due to incompatibilities of HP software... as I can't say how many times I've read about people reformatting their hard drives after buying an HP. The scary screen flickering that appeared to be hardware issues has disappeared for the most part after updating windows 7 with all updates and installing the latest ATI graphics driver from HP 8740w support site. Screen still freezes when you press the power button to wake it up after a night of digital sleep. Seriously though, this Graphic Card is VERY fast. (for a laptop) Two kinds of graphics cards... gamers which cut corners and rarer workstation cards which don't cut corners making them much slower. This is a very fast workstation graphics card. Ran Blender 3d modeler and animator... it renders and animates samples fast enough for me to view the animations. (not rendered... then i watched the animation... both simultaneously) Also ran Star Trek Online on max settings.

Pros: 1) The newest DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4 is supported and is beautiful 2) Most MMO Games max out at the built in 1680x1050 resolution 3) Runescape looks like a completely different game compared to my last laptop, Star Trek Online looks fantastic on this laptop, Lord of the Rings looks clean, crisp, and sharp 4) Fits well in both cases I bought for it - backpack & leather 5) Build quality, Build quality, Build quality a. awesome trackpad (3 equal buttons) b. awesome keyboard (great feel, great reaction, great size) c. awesome numeric keypad (ditto) d. awesome anti-glare 16:10 >720p screen e. awesome display latch system f. smokingly awesome graphics card 6) The monitor port and display port will help you work at 1080p externally if you need... even at the coveted 30bit color. 7) Blender can render & animate simultaneously 8) The best ATI professional laptop card on the market

Cons: 1) Simple adobe flash hardware setting can cause blue screen crash 2) A very new laptop card means driver issues.

Overall Review: ***You need to uncheck the Adobe Flash setting for hardware acceleration to play flash videos well.*** The Adobe Flash installation auto detects a capable graphics card and sets hardware acceleration... the hardware acceleration feature is not tested with this very new graphics card, and so there are crash problems with this feature. The graphics card borrows another gig off the ram in addition to its own gig of ram... reducing windows professional 64 operating ram to 3 gigs. No big deal in operation, and a mere 50 bucks of 8gig(2x4gig - ddr3 1066) fix if needed. The graphics card is amazing. Cinebench R10 - 5299 Windows Experience - 7.2, 7.2 (processor 6.9) Star Trek Online - Max @ 1680x1050 Runescape - Max Lord of the Rings - Ultra High & 2x (Auto button settings) @ 1680x1050

Pros: Workmanship is outstanding 3 button trackpad - wonderful time saver, also adds dimensional rotation in 3d programs 1 billion color external output; DisplayPort w/10bit capable graphics card A plethora of ports; I always seem to find a new port Networking everywhere; LAN, Wireless, & 56Kb

Cons: 1 billion color output = 10bit.. 10bit is not compatible with flash Artifacts are present on battery if video card is set to maximize battery life in Power Options. (No artifacts are present if video card is set to maximize performance in Power Options or if plugged in.)

Overall Review: I'm updating my review again for others benefit. The more I use this computer and figure out the quirks, the more this laptop is my favorite laptop I've ever owned including PC and MAC. Quirks: 1) The true problem that causes Adobe Flash to crash is 10bit color mode which is unsupported by Flash; An unchecked checkbox in the ATI Catalyst Control Center and a restart is the fix. 2) AMD external events utility.. this is a common ATI annoyance that affects some 3rd party programs... disabling this service or uninstalling the service and restarting fixes these issues with some 3rd party programs; ATI catalyst updates re-enable this service, therefore disable this service after updating ATI catalyst. 3) HP sender and receiver software... these two programs are listed separately by name from the normal HP software in the Programs and Features list in Windows. Uninstalling these two programs and restarting makes Windows sleep work wonderfully and makes all versions of Second Lif

Pros: - Superb keyboard. By far the best keyboard feel I've ever seen in a laptop. I was concerned the mouse "nub" in the keyboard and its corresponding buttons would get in the way of typing, but they don't. Also, full size numpad with all buttons in their proper location and proportion. - Outstanding build quality. - Center-click button. Indispensable for CAD modeling. - Sturdy screen hinges. Hold the screen firmly in any position you place it - and even opens to a full 180 degrees (although I'm not sure why you'd want to!) - The screen is beautiful. I can't imagine how the 1920x1280 Dreamcolor screen looks. Must be stunning! The matte finish on the screen is excellent. I can work outside with absolutely no issues.

Cons: - The arrow keys are a bit small, but that is the only drawback to this keyboard. - Track pad is a bit small. I'd also prefer multi-touch for scrolling like the Macbook Pro. This computer with the macbook pro track pad's size and multi-touch would be perfection. - It is heavy; to be expected with a computer of this size and build quality/rigidity. - The optical drive tray is the one thing that feels a bit cheap.

Overall Review: On paper, this laptop is very expensive for what it has. I almost bought a high-end gaming laptop, since it was far superior as far as processor speed and raw graphics power. However, I wanted a Solidworks-supported video card, so I opted for the elitebook. I am very glad I did. This computer is expensive for a reason - it is extremely well designed. Every aspect of it is comfortable, rugged, and aesthetically pleasing at the same time, from the texture of the keys to the screen hinges. If you are looking for an engineering/CAD laptop, this is it.. or if you have deeper pockets, one of the more decked-out models! This laptop *barely* fits in HP's leather carrying case, but it does fit.