HP ProBook, possibly the greatest laptop ever.

When I say the "greatest laptop ever" I do not mean that a ProBook will thrash anyone's AlienWare, though there are some ProBooks that could. The ProBook i'm specifically talking about is the "refurb" 4430s.

 For $450, I snatched this laptop while on a tight budget to replace my monster Acer laptop (Nvidia 240M, Core2 Duo, 4Gb RAM, 500GB MomentusXT, 15.6" screen). I loved that Acer. I could play Crysis comfortably in class, or I could run up enough Chrome tabs that all you could see were the favicons. Sadly, the Acer was no longer viable after taking a leap of faith off of a desk, so I got the cheapest decent thing I could find. The 14" HP ProBook 4430s. No webcam, no eSATA, no dedicated GPU, no fingerprint scanner, no 15.6 inch screen. I was expecting a budget laptop to get me through, nothing more.


When I ordered it, it had 2GB of RAM for Windows 7 Pro x64, so I ordered a 8GB kit, thinking it could use all the help it could get with extra RAM. When I started using it, I was amazed. 6 Hours of battery life, and attractive aluminum exterior, a MacBook style keyboard, and an i5 2410M. The only thing I thought I'd miss was playing games on it. This tiny, little bussiness laptop will even do that! Borderlands on Medium-High settings will hold 30-40 FPS. Source games will do 60 (I run VSync to keep from thrashing it too hard) and it will even play Civ V like a boss (in medium-low graphics). I couldn't have hoped for more.

The WEI rating on my ProBook

Aside from that, I am especially hard on computers. I carry my laptop with me everywhere, and run all manner of things they weren't designed for. Right now, I'm dual booting Ubuntu 11.10 (waiting for 12.04) and Windows 7. I have a web server running for development purposes and a VM of XP, Server 08 R2, Server 03 R2, Ubuntu, BSD, and FreeDOS in VMWare Workstation 8.0. I have filled the RAM completely and had to start nixing processes to keep from running out of RAM. Sometimes I have to use a cooling pad to keep it from getting too hot while i'm running Network simulations between different server types. 


Even when I run it through the gambit of horror that I tend to put on laptops, It doesn't slow down. Sure, it's not "snappy" but I have never found myself waiting for 5 minutes for the Task Manager to open up. All in all, this laptop is everything a student could hope for, and everything an IT guy could hope for, in one package.


The standard HP ProBook 4430s goes for about 600 dollars, with 4GB of ram, a webcam, USB 3.0, and was recently discontinued. The updated model is the 4530s and will run about the same with comparable hardware. If you're needing a laptop that is versatile, durable, and attractive, this is the way to go.