ENVY14 vs ENVY15 vs Dv6t-se : Trouble Deciding

Ok, so i've been looking to get back into gaming (light gaming) and just basically wanted a computer to replace my old dell 1520 2.0 C2D, 8600mgt, ect ect

both the envy and dv came out to about the same price (the dv was slightly cheaper):, but i am frustrated about the omission of a BLU-f|_|CKING-RAY player. As a "high performance" lappy in this new technological world, i think a bluray player is necessary. And plus, i don't buy regular dvd's anymore and it would be nice to always have a bluray player to hook up to an HD tv, or to watch HD on my 24" LCD external LG monitor at school without an external thing waiting to fall off of a countertop/cabinet... the only plus about the envy 15 is the graphics card... which IS a beast...
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ENVY15 $1,619 USD

* • Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
* • Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
* • 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* • 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive
* • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics [HDMI] - For i7
* • 15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display ( 1920x1080)
* • External Slot Blu-Ray to be bought online for ~100 when prices go down (so $1,519 without the ext drive for now)
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ENVY14 $1,535 USD

* • Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
* • Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
* • 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
* • 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive
* • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics [HDMI] - For Quad
* • 14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)
* • SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support (Slot Load)
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dv6tse $1,194 USD

# • Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
# • Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
# • 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
# • FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP
# • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For
# • 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
# • BluRay-ROM and DVD writeable

and with all this, might as well upgrade the ram or processor because the price is so low
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the pluses for the dv7tse are:
blu ray player
slightly cheaper
slice battery capability (not that imp't)

pluses for the ENVY14:
slightly smaller
better screen (someone please??)

pluses for the ENVY15:
-better graphics than the top two, but that's about it

the reason i don't want the envy15 is that i prefer NOT to carry around an external drive (but i'm looking into it :/)... might not need it as windows 7 has an ISO burner (so can i run programs without having the disk???? because that would help my decision. can someone comment on this?)

about me:
-i wanted either the top i5 or bottom i7 of the bunch (someone tell me why i wouldn't need a quad core?)
-battery life isn't important to me as i only play games with it plugged in and -I've dealt with 20-40 minutes MAX of surfing the internet with my wonderful dell. As long as the battery lasts more than 2 hours when i'm browsing the internet, i couldn't give a damn
-i do minor RAW photo editing in lightroom
-don't know if i will go SSD or not (i like the 500gb hd)
-i will be doing a lot of CAD work this year (mechanical engineer senior design)
-i like the backlit keyboards : )
-i will be playing CS:Source, Colin McRae, and possibly Mass Effect 2, Halo 3
-i AM a college student so the slight smaller FF (form factor) makes it a little bit better when i'm hauling it around (how much discrepancy is there btw the three?)
-i like to get the best possible gpu at the time so i will be relatively able to play new and upcoming games for at least 1 year (and the fact that i can't EVER upgrade the gpu in the envy14/dv6tse)...so that leads me to the 15, but it doesnt have a bluray drive arg
-i know i complain about the bluray and all, but it is more of a convenience that i don't have to carry around the drive AND i have to be real, i rarely use CD's unless i install software (i mentioned the ISO image mount...is this viable in a 64 bit version of 7?)
-it is important to note that it will most likely be desk-ridden (as my dell has been for the last 3 years with the occasional "undocking" to take to a meeting) and hooked up to my 24" LG, so it is nice for the scaling to be consistent (i suppose i can reduce the res on the 1080p ENVY15 to match, but then i would have to change the res every time i undock (to get full res) and dock (to match the 24")... guess it comes down to if the 5830 ATI gives at least a 20fps improvement over the 5650 in the dv and 14


-i've also heard that the dv6tse has somewhat "better" built quality? is this true?
-andddddd that the 15 gets really hot and the battery life blows?

questions:

-will my CAD (solidworks) be better on the ENVY15, or just marginal?

-the ENVY14 supposedly has a *really* nice screen? can anyone comment?
-since the ENVY14 has a lower resolution than the ENVY15, wont that help the rendering in CAD and framerates in games and hd movies out a bit?
-what does the ENVY14 offer over the dv6tse other than a higher res screen and slightly smaller FF?? and why do people get the 14 over the dv6tse? (all you ENVY14 buyers chime in as some of you HAD to have come across this....)
-what are ppl's 3dmark scores with these similarly spec'd systems i have put above?
- is there any slot-loading aftermarket BluRay drive i can purchase to install into the ENVY14?
--how much faster will games run on the ENVY15 (fps wise, max settings in Mass Effect 2 or any other graphics intensive games?) because if it IS much faster, AND since the price is the same (look at pricing above) wouldnt the only thing that i exchange with the 14 be the internal dvd drive?....the 15 makes sense in this light?
-otherwise, with the backlit keyboard and nice screen, the 14 seems like the way to go (if the 5830 isnt better by a MARGIN)
-given the above statement, and the fact that you get a better graphics card, more HD options (2 spaces), why would you pick the envy14 over the envy15? battery life and the backlit keyboard? The ENVY15 is only an inch wider and .3in deeper...


....and why is there so little disparity between the 14 and 15... is HP going to phase the 15 out (after all, it IS the 2nd gen...and the 14/17 were released with improvements/complaints about the 13/15, correct?)

i know it was a long read but thank you so much!

 

i had the same choices you had and went with the envy 15 because of the video card mainly because final fantasy xiv wont run that well on the 5650 but will on the 5830
FYI there is a 200 coupon on the 15 and the dv6tse priced over 1299

 

There are a whole lot of questions in there, it would behoove you to read up a bit more and answer some of them yourself (or maybe reading up got you into this mess in the beginning...).

No, the E14 can't be upgraded to Blu-Ray yet - there are currently no drives that would fit it.

The 5830 in the E15 is definitely faster than the E14's 5650, but part of its performance gain will probably be eaten by the higher resolution - it should game better, but not necessarily by a great deal.

The E14 has the advantage of the best battery life among those notebooks, and has the optional slice which will rocket it way above either of the others (dv6t:SE has no slice, E15's will get the E15 up to about the E14's standard battery life, or probably a bit better). It's also the smallest of the three, and has terrific cooling, so heat won't be an issue.

As for processors, most people won't actually end up pushing their i7 quad's enough to justify the upgrade over the i5. The i5 is not only perfectly adequate (or even overpowered) for most uses, it's also got integrated graphics, which the i7 quad couldn't fit, so it'll give significantly better battery life than the i7 in at least the E14 and dv6t:se, since you'll run on integrated graphics during most of your unplugged time. I'll add that I don't know whether or not CAD will benefit noticeably from the i7. Edit - Also, most apps aren't programmed to take advantage of enough CPU cores/threads to really utilize the i7 quad any more efficiently than they utilize the i5 anyway.

The games that you have listed will be perfectly acceptable on the E14, incidentally - they're modern, but not the most demanding modern games.

And finally, the E14's screen is said to be brighter and have a better color range than the E15's, though I believe the 1080p screen on the E15 is supposed to be pretty sweet as well. The dv6t:se's screen won't hold a candle to either of them.

 

ok awesome, so i'm basically "losing" an optical drive, backlit keyboard, and power efficiency (because of the inability to switch with the i7), but gaining a great graphics card

i'll most likely be running the 1080 res due to my 24" LG being a 1920x1080 panel anyways...

and seeing a thread where ppl are running 3dmark @ 10K with an OC'd 5830 GPU and maxing a 5650 at around 7.8K means about 22% better correct?

geez this is still killing me. I'll just have to wait for lots of people to start gaming with the envy14 to see what kind of fps's they're pulling

can anyone comment on fps comparisons btw the two at 1080x1920 and 1600x900?

if the graphics on the15 is significantly better, i'll have to go that way...and not worry about the switching graphics ....maybe.....

 

Hopefully this will be helpful to answer your specific question about the FPS for various games.

I have noticed that the Envy 15 runs about any 3D game at 1920x1080, all detail settings at the maximum possible level, around 30-45 FPS, including Mirror's Edge, Prototype, Fallout 3, borderlands, Bioshock 2 and some, like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age for example, get up to 60 FPS at times and then drop back down to around 40FPS, I have never tried running the other games you mentioned. Older games like Oblivion seem to run consistently over 60 FPS. Crysis Warhead ran at around 30-35FPS, sometimes dropping below 30. I tried the FFXIV benchmark and it only got 1512 score for the 1080p and 2871 for the 720p, so I don't think this one would run very well on 1080p. My 3Dmark score was in the 9000s. I have seen another Envy 15 owner on this forum who did some adjustments and overclocking and got a 3DMark score at the 10,000 level with an i5 processor.

I don't think it makes sense to consider that another laptop with a lower screen resolution would get higher FPS at 1600x900 because anything you can run at 1600x900 on the other laptop, you can run at 1600x900 on the E15 and it would look just as good if not better because the screen is larger and it will run more smoothly. I think the question is more, if you would be just as content with your purchase running these at lower resolution and some of the detail settings a bit lower, then maybe it's worth saving $500 to go with the dv6, or using those savings to buy an SSD perhaps. Also, how important is having a built in optical drive?

 

Afaik overclocked 5650 and a i5 450 gives around 9K.
I have no issues playing BFBC2 with medium to high settings at 30-40 fps on a 1080p external screen.

 

I heard heat issues in the envy, but am not rly sure

 

keep in mind that the 5650 on the pavillion I think has a higher stock than the 5650 in the envy14

 

yeah... i've heard about that (the clock on the envy14 being on the lower end of the clock spectrum), was the poster above quoting for a dv6 series, or an ENVY?... because 9K isn't bad at all for that in an envy14 and an i5

 

It must have been something else. I know some people in the Acer Timeline forums have gotten 9k; probably some other 5650-equipped laptops too. But overclocking the Envy has been tough - see the E14 gaming lounge for more details.

I'm pretty new to this stuff so I haven't tried it myself. I'm waiting for a reliable method. Magus, any luck at least getting it to a stable, permanent/semi-permanent 550/800?

 

i guess its up to how well the 5650 will hold up to the immediate future in the envy14 that's going to decide. I guess i know what the envy15 can do, it's just ill have to see until more people post about the envy14's performance.

when do you guys think we're going to get a review of the laptop and its hardware (graphics test, ect) from a website? what site(s) usually do that?

 

anyone in the same boat as i am, check out this thread.... i don't know why i havent seen this as of yet.

cheers