ENVY 15 vs. 8540w

Hey folks, before scoffing at the above, let me state the need.

I'm a casual gamer (mostly WoW, and that's not much of late) but a heavy developer, mostly server stuff. So that means virtualization. My current rig is just too old/slow to handle what I'm looking to do. So, I'm looking to step up.

The biggest thing for me that I'd really like is to be able to handle 2 internal drives. Eventually SSD, but not have to start that way. I can't seem to find that piece of info on the ENVY. The 8540w does have this capability.

So, that being the case, does anyone see issues w/the ENVY instead of the 8540w? Looking at the available specs, the video card doesn't have the DDR5 option the 8540w has, but I'm thinking that might be ok. CPU choices are comparable, as is the RAM speed...

So...thoughts? Is that enough to get good responses?

Thanks! - M

 

the envy can hold 2 1.8" drives while the 8540 can hold 2 2.5" drives if you're willing to give up the optical drive. I owned the envy it was great build quality but I sent it back and went with the 8540 (which I haven't received yet) since I do a lot of presentations and the vga on the 8540 is good for that and I got tired of the artifacts and slowness of the 5830 while using cad software, granted the card isn't meant to do that stuff so its no limitation on the video card's part. If space is your primary concern I would go with the 8540, but if you don't need the space and don't need the workstation card but want uberportability I would go with the envy. As far as prices go, the envy is almost the same price as the 8540 at similar configuration models and I would say that the elitebook would be a better value because of this fact.

 

I see you have the 8540w in your sig...mind if I ask the complete configuration and the cost?

 

I don't know if you can use bing.com's 20% cashback for the Elitebook, since the link on Bing takes you to their consumer page. (I don't know that you can't do it, but nobody seems to have tried yet). The 20% off is what sold me.

 

There's a comparison of the 8540w and alienware MX15 based on gaming possibilites http://hpfansite.com/hp-elitebook/hps-undercover-gaming-laptop-elitebook-8540w/ and the elitebook is seen as being a very capable gaming machine.
From my point of view, I've seen the Envy 15 in shop and while the look is quite nice, the quick experience i has with it wasn't as good.
The touchpad was not so responsive (can be that it wasn't adjusted) and somehow didn't look as sturdy as I expected. And also the keyboard has a weird layout with an extra row of specials buttons on the left...
I'm more enclined to go for a 8540w or 8440w/p to get the durability, better finish and matte screen too.

Hope this helps.

 

FYI, if you go with i7 ENVY 15, there are heat issues on ENVY 15 i7 model.

Anyway, What if comparing elitebook 8440w vs. ENVY 15 ? since their price range are similar.

 

Im going with the envy 15 for portability. Honestly the weird keyboard layout is kind of....weird but the keyboard itself is great. Nice size keys, very sturdy, no flex (obviously)

 

I don't know why peope are saying there are heat issues. Going to the envy 15 from a UMBP 15" the heat isn't an issue to me. The power of this system is amazing. Any of the engineering software I haev thrown at thing, it has chewed them up. Heat to me as not been an issue at all. Leaving teh slice adds to teh heat, but other then that this system is no where near as warm as my MAC. it has som quirks but don't be scared by some people saying the Envy with i7 getting hot. Warm yes but HOT no way. Think abaout what you have with the i7 in such a small package. I have absolutly no regrets in buying the Envy 15.