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    Is the newly redesigned HP ENVY 15 2011 a good laptop?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by DCardenas, Dec 16, 2011.

  1. DCardenas

    DCardenas Notebook Enthusiast

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    Can this be a good laptop? I'm gonna use it for music, web browsing, photo & video editing, and of course for gaming. Games like NBA 2k12, MW3, BF3, etc.

    Here are the specs:

    2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2760QM Processor (2.4 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.5 GHz)
    1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon 7690M
    8GB 1600DDR3MHz System Memory (2 Dimm)
    750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
    15.6-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)


    OPINIONS PLEASE. THANKS!
     
    DCardenas, Dec 16, 2011
    #1
  2. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

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    On paper, it's the best 15-inch multipurpose (power + portability) laptop on the market right now, but it hasn't been around long enough for critical reviews to come in. Sure, the style is painfully derivative of the MacBook Pro, but if you get a great screen, good sound, good performance, in a thin-and-solid case, for a good price, who cares?
     
    Mitlov, Dec 16, 2011
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  3. R3d

    R3d Notebook Virtuoso

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    Who knows? It just came out so nobody has one yet. I'm guessing that it'll run a little hot but will be pretty good overall.
     
    R3d, Dec 16, 2011
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  4. funky monk

    funky monk Notebook Deity

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    If they've chosen to leave out the optical drive then cooling could be pretty decent.
     
    funky monk, Dec 16, 2011
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  5. pengy_666

    pengy_666 Notebook Evangelist

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    I wonder how cooling would be better due to no ODD?

    Are you going by purely down to extra room? I just cant see the ODD not being fitted giving better cooling. Only way I can see that is if the HDD is a distance from other hot components.
     
    pengy_666, Dec 16, 2011
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  6. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    The HP Envy 15 has not been out long enough for a concensus on whether it is good or not.

    However, HP did a great job with its previous HP Envy products. And the specs on this one look good. So it's probably a safe bet that this one will be good as well.
     
    kent1146, Dec 16, 2011
    #6
  7. Krane

    Krane Notebook Prophet

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    You need to decide if video and/or photo editing is more importance to you than gaming. In so, you'll need to go with a Nvidia card and quad-core CPU. Accept nothing less.
     
    Krane, Dec 16, 2011
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  8. jhl1989

    jhl1989 Notebook Consultant

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    The 1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon 7690M is just a remade version of the AMD Radeon HD 6770M

    Which answers your question. YES you can play those games and specially Battlefield 3 in medium settings if not high settings because they might have made the AMD Radeon 7690M more powerful.

    And my guess is that this is THE best "1 inch" multimedia laptop out right now, beating the Dell XPS 15z and the Samsung Series 7 Chronos in specs.
    However, the old HP Envy had serious heat problems for me. If the new HP can reduce heat more then I wouldn't mind the price on this thing.
     
    jhl1989, Dec 16, 2011
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  9. funky monk

    funky monk Notebook Deity

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    If you leave out the optical drive then the space you gain gives you room for a much more substantial cooling system. An optical drive takes up about a quarter of the footprint of a system this size, if you dedicate all that extra space to cooling then you won't have any problems.
     
    funky monk, Dec 16, 2011
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  10. jhl1989

    jhl1989 Notebook Consultant

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    OR you can buy an optical bay caddy and buy a SSD. Take the HDD that comes with the laptop and install it on the caddy and install the SSD on the main hard drive slot. That way you have a 128GB or 300GB SSD running your OS and other programs making your system amazingly fast and then saving everything else like save files, music, movies, pictures, and etc on the 500GB~ 1TB HDD.
     
    jhl1989, Dec 16, 2011
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  11. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

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    Holy cow you ain't a kidding. :eek:

    [​IMG]
     
    Rodster, Dec 16, 2011
    #11
  12. pengy_666

    pengy_666 Notebook Evangelist

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    Thats assuming they use the extra space for cooling.

    I'm guessing that the reason for no ODD is purely to keep the machine slim, nothing to do with cooling. I am not a laptop designer but to be honest I feel that the cooling design process is one of the last thought out parts. It's like they literally throw that wherever it fits.

    Granted some machines have better cooling designs, somehow I think this laptop, this wasn't the forefront concept.
     
    pengy_666, Dec 17, 2011
    #12
  13. Karamazovmm

    Karamazovmm Overthinking? Always!

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    they actually did the improved cooling on the 1st and 2nd envy 15, the gpu had a single large fan and the cpu had 2 dedicated fans, so yeah there is a lot of things that you can do with the wasted space that is the ODD
     
    Karamazovmm, Dec 17, 2011
    #13
  14. pengy_666

    pengy_666 Notebook Evangelist

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    I did not know that, it's good that nowadays they do think about cooling more. I haven't met many laptops that are very well designed in regards to cooling.

    Thanks for that.
     
    pengy_666, Dec 17, 2011
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  15. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Nick, Dec 17, 2011
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  16. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    One of the best features of the Envy 15 1st/2nd generation, IMO. Wish HP had left out the ODD in this revision as well (inclusion of an mSATA + regular HDD setup would satisfy those who need two drives, too). In any case, this Envy 15 does have a slot-loading ODD.
     
    MidnightSun, Dec 17, 2011
    #16
  17. Karamazovmm

    Karamazovmm Overthinking? Always!

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    indeed, it was a great machine specially the ones with the dual cores in the 2nd gen

    the addition of the odd in the envy 14 made it a huge success, although sincerely it falls short compared to the 2nd gen 15
     
    Karamazovmm, Dec 17, 2011
    #17