***ENVY 14 Gaming Lounge***

Highest i've gotten is 8113 on my envy 14 with i5-580m overclocking the GPU to 525/960.
it gives me a good 6fps improvement from 30fps - 36fps in LOTRO - about 20% over stock

 

Tough one. I'm pretty sure the Alienware doesn't has a metal body, the envy does. The Alienware would have better battery life and it's smaller for better portability. But the envy has a slightly more powerful graphics card and CPU. The envy has a nicer screen. The envy also has very good quality build and cooling. Alienware is thicker and both laptops are around the same weight. The envy is also cheaper. I think I would choose the envy over the alienware. I'm not sure about the SSD but I have a 160GB Intel SSD in mine and it runs amazing.
And if you are getting an i7 with your envy you can overclock more (the GPU) than with the i5. It depends on your card but it is easier to get it to stock clocks with the i7, I think it's got to do with the voltage. I think one guy even got over the stock clocks.

 

All alienwares are made from a magnesium-aluminium alloy, that's why they weigh so much.

Performance wise, the M11x will have a tough time keeping up with the Envy. 3DMark06 is more of a test of the GPU, and CPU speed really has a pretty minimal effect on the score that you'll get. The Radeon 5650 is a superior card compared to the 335GT, and the only thing that's better about the 335GT is that you get the much smoother Optimus switchable graphics. Envy owners seem to have quite a bit of trouble with their switchable graphics. Personally I've gotten around 8200 on 3DMark06 with my GPU overclocked. I didn't touch my CPU. If you're talking about pure processor speed the alienware has got absolutely nothing against the envy. The i7-640M is powerful enough to even match the quad-cores, while the most powerful UM processor has a tough time keeping up with the older Core 2 Duos.

Since you're considering these 2 machines I'm gonna assume that you wanna game with them, and that's why I wouldn't recommend the alienware. Sure the graphics card may be fine, but trust me playing on an 11 inch screen isn't really that much fun, especially when it comes to FPS games. If you're gonna hook the machine up to a bigger screen it'll start to have problems handling the higher resolution.

They cost pretty much the same but the Envy is better in just about every single way but two - portability and HP's abysmal customer service. When it comes to future-proofing, the significantly faster processor on the Envy will get you quite a bit further. Besides, it's not a really nice feeling when you get a brand new laptop and you have trouble running some slightly more intensive programmes.

I'd recommend the Envy, well of course I would, that's why I'm on this forum. Get the alienware only if you really need the portability (but the weight of the machine ruins that a little too, despite it being small), or if you plan to chat up their customer service a lot. Of course I've never used the M11x, but I'm not impressed by the specs. Post this in the alienware forum too to get the other side of the story

 

SPNKr, I noticed you wrote that you have 4GB 1333MHz RAM, is that the speed in every envy or have you changed it or is it only with the i7s? I'm thinking of getting 6GB in mine or even 8 so I can increase the speed but I'm not sure if it will support a faster speed.

 

Yeah, and I did a bit of research, and it said that it crashed on quad cores
So I disabled cores 3+4, but it still crashes.

Also, I have 8.791.0.0 version of the 5650 card, does that make a difference?

 

Should i get the envy 14 with an i7 720 or 740? what kind of battery life does it get and how would it compare to an i7 640 in terms of gaming. i dont really use programs that are cpu intensive....just gaming. can anyone post their results of an envy 14 gaming at like a 1600x900 res or a 1080p res in games such as just cause 2, nfs, gta and modern warfare 2? the games i want to play most are just cause 2 and nfs. medium settings would be nice at 1600x900 or 1080p with 30fps average. the gaming performance in the beats edition envy 14, the looks, the quality and the futureproofnes has made me steer towards the envy 14's direction. i dont need a gaming netbook and the m11x is clunky and wont ever match an envy 14s build quality.

thanks for the help

 

@aleckazee: 1333Mhz RAM is only available with the quad-cores I believe. They're actually the same sticks as you get on the i5s but the Arrandales don't support the higher clock.

The 640 will get you a better battery life because you have switchable graphics. I get around 2 hours on my quad i7, with the 640 I guess you could get maybe around 3 to 3.5? Although during gaming battery life would be about the same. Gaming performance wise the two won't differ by much, and the 640M might even be faster because it has a higher clock speed, and pretty much no game out there makes use of all 4 cores.. yet.

The 720 and 740 are exactly the same. Except "improved manufacturing processes" have allowed them to get a higher clock on the 740.

By the way the 1600x900 Radiance screen is no longer available. But for the games that you wanna play, the 5650 will get you those framerates comfortably.

 

Anyone play Street Fighter 4? On the HP Envy 14 w/ i5 520 & 5650? Good game on E14 and Fps?

 

@martin96

I have both machines, an i7 Beats Edition Envy 14 and an i5 M11x R2. If I had to keep only one machine, it would probably be the Envy 14, though I would have gotten an i5 to have switchable graphics and more battery life. I love the M11x and it's a great machine, but it's not as future proof as the Envy 14 and even though it's small, it's nearly as heavy as the Envy 14, especially with its massive power brick.

I've also had problems with my M11x; I've had to get the screen replaced three times, the keyboard replaced once, and I ultimately received a replacement machine from Dell. While I haven't had any problems with it yet after one month, the M11x is prone to hinge failure, so that's something you might want to think about. The Envy 14 seems to be built much better and I haven't had one problem with it yet build-wise,.

Despite these problems I do love the M11x though and it goes with me every day. It's a powerful little computer, but for me it's a secondary machine, and if I had to choose one or the other, I'd keep the Envy 14.

 

Im looking at buying one of these laptops.
From what i can tell from reviews etc i have read online, the 5650 in the e14 is ddr5 ram whereas in a lot of other notebooks they are actually using ddr3 with the 5650? maybe this combined with the heat issues in the 13 and 15 made them want to tone down the core speeds?
I personally would rather lose a few fps having the peace of mind that my notebook is running well within itself and staying cool.
If you are that bothered about a few more fps then i would go for something with a 5870 in it like the msi gx660 which is actually less than the e14 to buy.
I think i prefer the e14 though, it has the x factor with its looks and overall performance i think.

 

Sadly, it doesn't.



The envy will run cool even if you overclock it by quite a bit.

 

both the sites where i am looking at buying this laptop in the uk advertise the 5650 as having ddr5 memory??

Graphics card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Graphics
- 1GB dedicated DDR5 memory
- up to 2714 MB total graphics memory
link is here : http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-envy-14-1050ea-06487011-pdt.html

and

Graphics card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Graphics
- 1GB dedicated DDR5 memory
- up to 2714 MB total graphics memory
link here: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/6866403/art/hp/envy-14-1050ea.html?srcid=867

 

You can't really trust advertisers. ATI never made a GDDR5 5650 in the first place, even the 5830 is DDR3. They also use the designation GDDR5 instead of DDR5.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

When I bought my laptop from HP they said I'd get the Radiance screen. Of course, we know that the Beats Edition never came with a Radiance screen. It's not that they're lying, it's just that it's quite commonplace for people to know nothing about what they're selling.

 

Sorry double post. How do you delete?

 

I got 5964 for 3DMark06. Does that sound right? This is NOT overclocked with i5-450 and 1600x900 res. That seems low doesn't it?

EDIT: Overclocked to 540/890MHz I got 6778

 

hey is it possible to switch out the cd drive for another hard drive or ssd? also it is possible to upgrade the cd drive to a slot loading blu ray drive?

 

also is it possible to have dual 1.8 inch drives in a single 2.5 inch drive slot or in the envy 14 at all?

 

The power adaptor that comes with the M11x (R1) is a standard 65w unit just like the ones you get with a Lenovo X61. It is relatively speaking small.

Is the adaptor for the R2 much bigger?

In any case both are dwarfed by the 100-125w adaptor that comes with the MSI GT1722 based laptops.

 

Search button: use it.

Yes there is a way. there were threads for both somewhere a while ago. i think the blu-ray will have to be external, and you need a caddy to fit the HDD or SSD in the cd place.

 

there is no slot loading blu ray drive a consumer can get that will fit into the envy's case

 

@SPNKr

i see you have a beats edition with an i7 720...what kind of battery life do you get doing regular stuff such as suirfing the net or writing up word docs? are there any applications that the 720 would be suited towards more than the 640?

Thanks

 

Just a little over 2 hours. The 720 would perform better in really intensive programmes like Photoshop, 3DsMax and things like that I suppose. Mostly rendering stuff.

I hear L4D 2 supports multi-core rendering too.

 

what would a 640 get?

 

Today I tried playing Counter-Strike Source for the first time in a couple months, and I was greeting by a black screen after 10 minutes (hard reboot) which Windows says was a BSOD. I tried again and suffered weird white and black dissolving gradients of dots and stuff before I had to hard shut down (but I had to hold the button ~3 times longer than usual to do that).

I thought I read a couple weeks ago that someone also had BSoD's after just a few minutes of gaming. Anyone know what's up? I have the newest drivers HP provided. Hope I don't have to RMA...

edit: Also, anyone tried Catalyst 10.11 on their Envy 14?

 

yes. it's meh. use the modded mobility 10.10e hotfix from

HTML:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=332429

i get 24 fps on everything ultra in SC2 using 10.11 driver, and 31 fps for the exact same situation using 10.10e

 

hmm well, after upgrading from HP's ~10.7 drivers to the modded 10.10e, I didn't crash after 5 minutes of CSS... so I guess I'm sticking with these, even if I can't adjust brightness with Fn+F2/3 on ATI graphics.

 

About the same on discrete graphics. I suppose around 3-4 hours on integrated.

 

Anyone else notice the extreme color change when moving to the 10.10e drivers? Much warmer.

I have a colorimeter, so no big deal. Just wondering if I am unique. I am using an external monitor primarily.

 

i'm not using an external and i haven't noticed the extreme color change. do you have morphological anti-alias on? that thing kills my fps and makes everything look incredibly blurry

 

if i order the hp envy 14 with a single stick of 4gb will this memory module work with it to make a dual channel configuration? Newegg.ca - CORSAIR 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model CM3X4GSD1066 G

 

or this Newegg.ca - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ

 

I love how I can play an hour of Bioshock 2 with the Envy on my lap and the bottom only gets slightly warm. Sure, the fan runs like crazy but I've got my earbuds in and can't hear it so it doesn't bother me.

 

Oh its a bug. It was annoying the hell out of me so I did a quick google search to find out to fix it.

Open your catalyst driver control panel. Top right where it says options, go to preferences and click restore defaults.

 

Hey guys, I just purchased an Envy 14 with the 300$ off coupon I found this weekend.

The model I ordered was with the i7-740QM 1.73 since the coupon allowed me to get a few extra parts. After looking around, would I be better off calling and changing the cpu to the i5-580M 2.66? I plan to use the laptop for school and work, not as a desktop replacement, but as a notebook for class and for gaming at work. When at work, it'll be plugged in. How bad of battery life am I really looking at with the 740?

I mostly play WoW at work, as well as some Fallout and some FPS games, but mostly single player.

 

Where do you work and are you hiring?

 

I'm a firefighter, lots of downtime, but it's hit or miss. Sometimes I'll sit around for 8+ hours, sometimes I'll get rocked for 16+.

 

Hey guys what settings have you been running Call of Duty: Black Ops to get the best play without lag online? Thanks!

 

I get 60fps with few drops with medium settings, native res, and no AA.

Drops come from ty treyarch coding though.

 

Boyiee, you and I are in the same boat. I bought an i7 with the rebate last week. However, after discovering issues such as it not switching graphics and thus eating up battery life I called to change my order today. They would allow the change, so after complaining for a while they offered a $50 refund if I stick with the i7. At first I accepted their offer, then called called back again and canceled the order all together.

I plan on going with the i5-580M... assuming it runs at the coolest temps of all the Envy 14's?

Boyiee, let me know how the i7 treats ya.

 

i agree with Spicewood....and also the only tasks that an i7 would be better at is multi threaded...most games today cannot truly unlock the power of a full quadcore and an i5 580 would be faster in single threaded tasks because of its higher clockrate. in my opinion, you should get an i5 because of the lower temps and higher battery life and because the performance is not too distant of an i7.

 

if you need the power though...get an i7

 

I practically only play RTS games, like C&C, so I dont see myself needing the power.

Does anyone have links for heat test results? I'd like to compare the i5-460M, i5-580M, and i7-720QM.

 

I am thinking of getting the Envy 14 i5-580 /5650 for work and for WoW. How does the Envy do playing WoW? Well enough for it to be able to use the Envy for a year or 2?

 

Yes you should be good for the next 3-4 years if you will only play Blizzard games. The i5-580 is actually overkill for most things--you should just get the 450m and OC, or the 460m. Have fun!

 

Well I thought updating from HP drivers to modded Catalyst 10.10e fixed my problems, but it didn't.

Counter-Strike Source has started crashing my system again.
Borderlands crashes my system.

Fortunately(?), Bad Company 2 does _not_ crash my system after only a few minutes. But I don't really play that so...

 

450m is actually not that great for blizzard games. I used to have a 450m and 5850m (in sig) and i ony got 35fps average in starcraft 2. Also OCing laptop cpu causes ingame problems, mostly in fps and mmo games. I strongly suggest people who play blizzard games to get the i7 720QM because despite what other people say there is a huge difference and it is a lot smoother.

 

What configuration would I need to play Civilization 5 and maybe some empire total war?

 

Picked up an i5-460 today and I cant wait to finish the recovery on it. I'm ready to install C&C and tear it up.

I almost bought SCII while at the store, but its hard to leave a game like C&C thats still so much fun.

 

so i just played starcraft 2 on my new i7-740qm envy 14. overclocked to 515/975 for the 5650m.

fps doesn't dip below mid/low 20s even with 5 battle cruisers, mothership, and about 400 units on the screen (that insane last one standing protoss mission). of couse, EVERYTHING is on ultra, including transparent shadows. and reduced mouselag as well.

this thing is a beast! the i5-580m definitely dipped below 20 fps even on an earlier mission... just can't compare with the 740qm....

interesting to note though, before i was able to get 37ish fps on ultra at the start of the first mission on 580m, but now with the exact same overclock i get about 34fps. so i guess the 580m is faster for fewer units, but much slower if there are lots of units.

sadly, the i7 doesn't have any boost in overclocking ability - the stable threshold is about the same as the i5 that i returned. (although a tiny bit better memory overclock to 1020mhz instead of 960mhz, but lower core overclock, 520 instead of 530, so i did get a max of 8186 for 3dmark06 instead of 8123 on the i5)

p.s. i never knew starcraft had such a good story until i watched the slides during installation! i've been playing that game since 6th grade and i never played the campaign mode! geez have i been missing out or what...

 

It's alright, its not only you, but most people (nowadays i see anyway). They prefer to throw out SP/Campaign altogether and ONLY play MP/LAN before selling the game.

I'm more of a person who love story, music and "eye candy" rather than gameplay (of course, it doesn't mean i love games that fit the criteria and have broken controls like the PC "Alone in the Dark" that forced me to use an XBox controller but i digress.)

And yet people wonder where the money goes to. xD