Can I upgrade my 1st gen Envy 14...nothing comparable on the market

I love my 1st gen Envy 14. I love the screen, the metal body, the size, and use to love the performance. Now I much rather just upgrade this computer than have to buy a new one, just nothing out there has caught my eye like the Envy does. Is it possible to upgrade the processor? I already have 8gb of ram, and a Momentus XT drive so I'm thinking the processor is what needs to be dealt with. Any suggestions? Cheers

=Jason-

 

Someone else correct me if I'm wrong... But the Envy series has their processors soldered in.. So, that means you can't. But, here's my question for you. Do you have the i5 or i7? Cause I think if you have an i5 you could hypothetically upgrade it to that gen (first gen i series) i7. anyone else have thoughts on that?

 

It's the i5, but if I upgrade to the same gen i7, then I'll lose the switchable graphics which is a no for me. It just saddens me that I can't find anything comparable now to a computer that's now over 3 years old.

=J-

 

I couldn't agree more. Every time I switch on the Envy 14 I am still stunned by the screen. Love the design and size. Also like the on or off switchable graphics. Most of the newer machines use some type of auto-switching which might or might not work. I like being able to use the dedicated graphics card 100% of the time if I want to. I'll be the one worried about battery life or not.

Did a bit of searching. I'm not certain the CPU is soldered in place. There have been reports off and on in the forums of people changing them out. So many forums over the last couple years I've forgotten who said what about what. At any rate, I did a comparison of the Arrandale processors (i5) and it appears any of them might work in the Envy. They have all the same specs for the most part. Just a good boost in CPU frequency/turbo. Not sure how much that would help but it would be some improvement if they did in fact switch out. Here is a link to the side-by-side comparison.

ARK | Compare Intel® Products

It would still just be dual cores but faster. It would likely be some work to get this done. The prices could be $200-$300 for another processor and not sure it is justified or find that they didn't work after all. Keep hoping somebody will come out with just the right thing but so far I'm not impressed. HP has pretty much done away with the Envy as we knew it. Tried the Envy 15 and it was a bit large and the screen was awful. Also didn't care for the auto-switching graphics. Ultrabooks don't impress yet either. Let us know if you decide to make a plunge or save your money and wait.

I also read in the forums that just because the sockets may interchange the HP bios might not support other CPUs in which case all would be for naught. Money spent and nothing to show for it. Priced a couple i5 560M and they were $240 or so.