8. Noise

Even the best notebook, which runs fast and has a long battery life, is no fun to work with if it has the acoustic characteristics of a blow dryer. Luckily, HP's engineers did a good job in this respect. Although the system fan was always on during our testing, its noise level was only one decibel above that of our office environment - 34dB(A) - which makes the machine acoustically unobtrusive. During DVD playback, the volume increased to 38dB(A) due to the disc's rotation; under heavy CPU and graphics load, the mean noise level was about 36dB(A).

Sophisticated Security And Support Concept

One of the most important features of the Compaq nc8230 is the integrated and multi-level security concept. This ranges from the very "simple" option of setting a system password, preventing unauthorized access even before the system boots up, to a feature implemented in the BIOS that encrypts the content of the hard drive. When enabled, users must first authenticate themselves using a smart card before they can use the drive.

Data Haven: HP Drive lock encrypts hard drive content at the BIOS level.

All active security features as well as the BIOS settings are controlled through the Credential Manager within the HP Protect Tools suite for Windows.

Full and easy monitoring of the security features: HP's Protect Tools Security Manager

In addition to these active features, the notebook also offers a number of passive security mechanisms, such as an optimized hard drive suspension, which is intended to minimize the vibrations of the drive and its mechanical components. There is also a means to prevent a head crash as a result of shock by parking the read/write heads.