About to pull the trigger on an Envy 15 BUT....

I've been snooping around the forums here and it looks like the Envy 15 is something that seems to fit well with what I'm looking for (somewhat despite the issues I've read). Before that I was going to buy a Clevo P151HM1, and was waiting for them to release one with the updated Ivy bridge processor, but realized that they had discontinued that line (I also don't really need that much GPU power).

I've taken a look at the benchmark stuff for the Ivy bridge but I know almost next to nothing about that kind of stuff, so it makes no sense to me besides the comments which say that the performance would be better. As someone who doesn't need a new laptop RIGHT AWAY, but my current one is going to quickly decline in performance with the heat issues I have, I was wondering how worth it would be to wait until around Q3/Q4 for the updated Envy's with the Ivy bridge processor. Is the performance that much better that it will be worth it? I would hate to buy the current version then the Ivy bridge version comes out and blows this one out of the water and I kick myself in the butt for not waiting.

 

There's no guarantee that HP will release the updated Envy in that time period.

Current benchmarks suggest that IB won't blow SB out of the water. We should see incremental performance improvements, modest battery life improvement, and substantial improvement in the integrated GPU. Given that IB is a die shrink of the existing SB architecture, this should come as no surprise. The jump from IB to the next generation Haswell may be as significant as the jump to Conroe. In non techy terms, that means it will blow SB/IB away. Historically, that's the way Intel's Tick/Tock program has gone.

Cliff Notes: Ivy Bridge isn't a huge improvement over Sandy Bridge. It will probably perform about 10-15% better overall. If that's worth waiting for, then wait. If not, then go ahead and pull the trigger.

PS: While Clevo has discontinued the P151HM1, the new line will be the P151EM, which will have IB and GTX 670M. All current lines have been discontinued until the new stuff is introduced, which will probably be in April. Nobody knows what the new units will look like, but they're being pretty secretive, so they might have overhauled the styling, which is currently anonymous at best.

 

Thank you very much Kenoka. You've been really helpful! I think a lot of the hesitation is me being wary of spending that much money on anything when I have an already functioning laptop. Although I would be in much better shape to replace it before it completely dies. I'll try to convince myself it order one this weekend

 

If you don't think the wait for ivy bridge is worth it, then think about the gpu update that will come, that might make it worth it. Right now I am waiting out with a 6 year old crap laptop that shuts down due to overheating when running skype and youtube at the same time ~_~. This update better come soon xD (atleast before i go to college)

 

If you guys are having heat issues on your current laptops, have you tried disassembling and making sure you don't have major dust accumulation around your cooling fans? That's a common cause of early death in laptops. You might also think about applying some fresh thermal paste for your coolers.

 

As for the GPU update: that's probably going to be the biggest benefit. Both in terms of the integrated 4000, which has been tested with Skyrim with playable (albeit not exactly Earth shattering) framerates, and the rumored 7750, which should be a decent gain on the 7690, which I've found to be frankly underwhelming.

It should improve both on performance and thermals.

 

I attempted to open it up completely but couldn't get to the fan to get it cleaned very well, even with some pressurized air. I'm sure that is probably a big factor in it though.

 

I second the suggestion to check your older envies for dust - thats how my 1st gen envy died.

 

Oh, it's not an older generation Envy. It's a dv5-1002nr from like 2008, but I'm sure it could use it just the same


Also, I just placed a customized order for an Envy 15 last night on HP's website. Got the i7 2670, 750 GB H-HDD, 8GB 1600DDR3MHz and Radiance display. I've read rumors of a recall of the screen to fix the orange-red issue so I'm even more excited to get it as that was kind of a big thing for me when ordering it. All the other complaints seemed to be fixable or at least replaceable by HP.

 

Keep an eye out for the keyboard issue.

 

what be the keyboard issue?