Envy 15 2nd Gen Benchmarks

So, what, you want 32GB of RAM so you can cache a Blu Ray on it?

With SSDs presumably going to reach around 5Gbps, 600MB/s, you will be able to copy an entire Blu ray from an SSD in under a minute. There is no real reason to cache it in RAM.

 

We need videos of people playing ME2!

Too bad I'm stuck in a blizzard and can't make it to my buddy's house to install games - otherwise I would have youtube videos up asap of his G2 envy.

 

If you have SSDs. But SSDs are MAJORLY prohibitively expensive as far as mass storage goes. I'm not gonna put movies on an SSD. It goes on a spinning drive, and it gets cached to something faster. Which is why I have 4GB on my media center... I can skip through most movies much easier now because the majority of the file is cached once it's loaded.

 

Okay I know the Windows performance figure isn't worth all that much but curious if there are some tweaks I can do concerning my HD. WEI rates my 7200 rpm 500 gig HD at a glorious 5.9, everything else rates 6.8 or better but the score locks at whatever the lowest scoring item is. My platters in my desktop also get that kind of score so is that a fairly normal rating for disk drives or is there something wrong with both my systems?

 

Nope. WEI limits platter drives to 5.9. Another part of why it's a worthless benchmark.

 

Okay. well I won't let it worry me too much then. It always bothered me my desktop got that score. I just assumed it was because they were WD "Green" drives. I had read something about them being slower on account of how they used power or some such. Then when I saw that the drive on the laptop is a 7200 was getting the same score I wondered.

 

ok according to CDM i am pushing between 360 and 370 MB/s with dual ssds... sound about right?

 

it will vary depending on the benchmark, but using a straight sequential read benchmark you should get 500MBps or higher. I was getting almost 520MBps using HDTunePro3.5 until i got rid of the raid.

 

I don't see why though. Even a cehap flash drive has fast enough transfer rates to handle HD video.

 

Benches of the SSDs and some questions about SSDs. How does it perform booting the system and shutting down Win 7? Does RAID improve the longevity of the drives? What are the drawbacks of RAID other than data loss upon drive failure for the SSDs (Highly unlikely other than defect).

I'm assuming I can install 1.8" drives or sub a 2.5" SSD when the time comes and all I would need are some brackets for the 1.8".

 

Anyone have Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta and is playing it? I want to know how well it runs!

 

And tell me how many HD movies you can store on that cheap flash drive? Now price out spinning-disk drives, and tell me how many HD movies you can store on those when paying the same amount for them as you did for the "cheap" flash drive.

 

Boots very fast, shuts down in seconds. It doesnt prolong the drives life, it is fairly equal. You will throw these ssds in the trash from being outdated before you "wear them out". RAID (striping) adds performance by speeding up transfer rates and cutting down latency, but yes if one drive fails everything is GONE. It also blocks the OS from passing the TRIM command to your drives, which may make your drives slow down over time faster than they would un-raided (there is more to say here... but thats the basic idea). Yes you can have either 2 1.8" drives or 1 2.5" drive, pretty much any type that has a micro-sata or sata, respectively.

 

so my envy might have to go back. not because of the scuffed bezel, but because the left side fan seems to be rubbing against something. the sound that it's making is not a clean sound, sounds like it's slightly obtructed. not my job to open this machine up. i am unhappy about this to say the least.

 

That's too bad Mine isn't making any noise like that, so at least it's possible that you can get yours fixed by HP.

 

i might be going on my third envy now, i am increasingly frustrated.

i don't want them fixing it, i'm not going without a laptop this time. they will have to find a way to make me happy this time, and that means some kind of advanced rma. support said they would, but I have to call sales.

 

My point is that if a flash drive can handle it, a mechanical drive which is 10 times faster should have no problem.

 

Go in the BIOS and tell the fans to not stay on all the time. The left side fan is almost never on like this if you have the i5, and the noise goes away. Not the best solution of course, but the cooling system for hte CPU is so excessive with the i5 that the fans are basically useless anyway.

 

bottom line is my machine a) came with scuffs and scratches on the bezel and b) the fan is making a rubbing noise. i shouldn't have any of these issues. HP is going to send a replacement machine and match the price I paid for my first machine.

it sucks, but for the money i spent, i shouldn't have to accept any of these issues.

plus the noise is on the left side... meaning it's a graphics cooling situation.

 

While in the "using the laptop" position... the left side is the CPU cooling and the right side is the GPU cooling. Wider vents are dual fan CPU ans smaller vent is single fan GPU.

 

Speaking of the dual fans, I am really suprised they left them both on the i5 models, I believe 1 fan would be more than sufficient for the new processor. I have yet to see the CPU break 65C.

New subject. Could you please advise what is the best way to delete everything from the RAID0 drive for a clean install? In other words does just rebooting and reinstalling win7 delete everything properly from the SSD's for full performance? Also should there be a 199MB partition labeled 'SYSTEM' after a clean install? It has no drive letter associated with it but showed up after install.

In the RAID BIOS options there are 2 other choices without specifics as to what they do...If I undo RAID0 and decide I don't like it, can I retstore or recreate RAID0? I see no option for that unless option 3 (remove RAID) changes to 'create RAID'

Thanks

 

Yes, there should be a system partition. That's how Windows 7 sets things up. Just reinstalling Win7 will be fine as long as you don't set it to do a full format. If you undo a RAID, you should be able to redo it... I don't know anything about that specifically with the Envy though.

 

After u delete the raid array using the ctrl-i at bootup... there will be nothing whatsoever on the two drives that you can ever see. Just install windows as usual.

The controller on the intel drives however will not be "Trimmed" at this time and will not be at full/brand new drive performance. I do not know any method of doing this outside of windows (since the drives are HP branded). Once you install, you can then run the SSD toolbox and it will trim the drives back to new condition. The toolbox can be set do do this in the background at an interval you choose as well!

You can go back to raid at any time, you can even clone through usb to an external drive, recreate the array, and then clone back... but i dont really recommend it. Just stick with fresh installs whenever you change something that big.

A hassle that could be done would be to split up the array, do a quick install of windows, trim the drives, recreate the array and reinstall again. This will put the drives back at peak performance. This is actually a common thing for people with "ssd syndrome" to do if you read the SSD forums.

Make sure you have that swsetup folder, im sure you do, just saying that there will never be a recovery or restore partition or anything ever again after you pop that raid apart.

I like having the drives seperate because real world performance is pretty much the same since these G2's are so fast. I like to be able to TRIM them at will. I like having a C and a D drive to work between. I make a hidden folder on the D drive and have all my IE and Firefox temp files go there, along with the windows pagefile, and any other temp files from various programs.

Have fun!

 

@lsramair

Thanks for the tips!

I decided to go with dual drives. While the benchmarks of RAID0 are nice, I agree with you, in real world use the difference won't be noticable. Add to that the safety / redundancy of dual drives along with TRIM and it makes even more sense.

Another question, I believe it was Bigcat400 who said that the HP G2's don't have the most recent driver and i thought he was able to update his...Have you tried to update yours?

Also would like to confirm if the following info is correct (from TweakTown SSD guide):

"you do not want to install the Intel SATA drivers or Matrix Storage Manager. Microsoft has the only driver that can pass TRIM commands through the SATA ports to the drive.

The Microsoft driver does not work with all SATA controllers, but the Intel ICH SATA driver from Microsoft does. This driver is built into Windows 7 so you are already running the right driver. In time Intel will update their drivers, but we really have no idea when.

At this point you are clear to install the rest of your drivers. Don’t forget the Intel Chipset driver; it doesn’t overwrite the SATA drivers."

Full article here: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3116/tweaktown_s_solid_state_drive_optimization_guide/index4.html

Does this mean I should not install the 'Intel rapid storage technology' app.?

Thanks again.

 

No. I know of reports that G1s couldn't be upgraded because they had an HP part# on them and Intel update tool would not recognize them.

I haven't heard anything about G2s but looking at their part# with the rapid tool, I see the HP thing on them so we are probably in the same boat so HP would have to release firmware updates for them, if ever.

It's just a matter of someone with non-raid system to try it the update tool out.

I decided to keep the raid for now myself. I saw reports in the SSD thread that TRIM was actually degrading performance for some users. Others claim is a marketing thing more than anything else. In anycase, I don't really care for now. Will just keep monitoring performance to see if there is degradation. For now, it is extremely fast

 

Sorry, I guess that wasn't you then. I remember reading a post from someone on one of the envy threads who 'unraided' and I thought was able to upgrade.

I'll give it a try maybe. Is the update tool from Intels main site? Also I wonder if their is a way to use the serial number to get it to acknowledge the SSD for the update?

 

I tried and no u can't update the firmware... There r 2 trim firmwares from intel, we have the first one. There was Actually only a second one made because the update process of the one we have was flawed. Since ours were made with that firmware, there is no issue with the firmware.

Also, don't install any of the intel rapid/msm drivers... The stock win7 is the one to use with these drives. Do install the intel ssd toolbox tho! Works great. Still install the chipset/inf too.

sorry I didn't respond earlier, posting this from my Verizon Storm2 via a femtocell up here in the mountains.

Ready for the big game!

 

Thank you.

Enjoy the game! You going to watch it on your storm 2?

 

You are referring to non-raid drives, correct?

 

Yes, non-RAID.

FYI; I tried ThrottleStop 1.93 on this machine (see signature) and was able to get full performance from the HP 65W 'slim travel adapter'. Ran prime 95 for 45 min. and a few passes of 3Dmark06 (battery fully charged) and the adapter got quite warm but not hot. For some reason the multipler option only goes to x20 but it appears that I still get x23 (i5 TB) at times.

Unfortunately while onbattery there is no change, just like the i7's. Unplug and it drops instantly to X9 or 1.2Ghz. One thing I figured out is that you can still get full performance out of the 5830 while on battery, just turn off the 'power play' option in CCC. The clock tool also still works on battery.

Is Unclewebb still looking into a fix for the i7's on battery??

 

My "benchmarks":

The following games played flawlessly at maxed settings at 1920x1080 on 22" external while doing dual display, so I could see the IMs pop up while gaming and pause and chat for a bit then go back to the game.

Farcry
Assassin's Creed I
Bioshock
Crysis Warhead (Frame rates dropped a little during battles)

I was able to extract 6 gig ISOs in 2 minutes.

Thats all I've got for now. I'll update later as I notice more impressive things.

 

HA! i could but slingbox on the storm isnt the best right now. We have directv at my parents place here.

The Envy is keeping my hands warm! The colder it gets i just add another thread to Prime.

 

Yes, it runs at 1280x720 on Medium at 60+ FPS constant. Things were too choppy at a higher resolution/setting (at least for me). On this small of a screen, the game still looks great.

Does anyone know how to set a custom resolution? I really want to run some of my games at 1366x768 instead of 1280x720.

You can't max out Crysis Warhead at 1920x1080. Maxing out would mean everything was at Enthusist settings + AA on max. My desktop, which is about 2 times more powerful (in gaming) than my Envy 15 can't come close to doing this (Phenom 955 Quad 3.2 ghz + GTX 275). Of course the Envy 15 still runs Crysis on very enjoyable settings (1080p + medium/high settings for consistently fluid gameplay).

 

ok well i put it all on enthusiast and it runs fine. oh and AA max too. perhaps your video card sucks.

 

Thats pretty amazing that you can max out Crysis w/ max AA....
Needless to say, screen shots or it didn't happen.


A GTX 280M in SLI only gets ~35fps @ 1280x1024 according to notebookcheck.net

 

dundundun

hold on



I gotta say, it looks so much more pretty when im not killing people.

 

Any envy bought in Europe that can verify if usb 3.0 is on the machines ?
According to HP sweden, they suspected that it wouldn't be included, but they have been wrong before...

 

The right screen reminds me of what I had to do in organic chemistry lab @_@.

 

lol its day 1 block flow diagram for the back end of a styrene monomer plant. really I had it up so i didn't forget about the work I need to do, not so much bc I was actually working...as you can tell lol

 

That picture doesn't show the FPS.

I play at Gamer at 1280x720 and I get an average of 40 FPS.

 

For the fast majority of people, its too choppy if you're not getting at least 24 FPS (the vsync max FPS oddly enough in Crysis..). To get smooth game play you really have to have a minimum of 24 FPS or its going to get all stuttery and no fun to play because you're going to be impaired when aiming/running due to choppiness. Can you run FRAPS and give us how many FPS you're getting on a regular basis? Also when in combat shooting + getting shot at by bad guys?

 

ahh thats what it is, I was trying to figure out how to do FPS on the screen. I'll try it out later today.

 

Att: riceboiler
I just got the Envy 15 Gen 2 today. Bought in Sweden from komplett.se. It does have USB 3.0! I got the i7 model.

 

Doing that diagramming in Excel? Jeez... at least use Dia or something

 

In Crysis and Crysis Warhead, press the ~ key to bring up the console. Then type in "r_DisplayInfo = 1" to show FPS. Using the in-game FPS monitoring is better because using FRAPS incurs a performance penalty.

 

The battery life is so much fail on the six cell.

 

Really? I don't think so. Considering what I normally have had to do with a notebook on battery, this thing ROCKS on battery. I'm sure I could watch a full HD movie on the 6-cell, which is better than a lot of machines would even consider. For just surfing it's still not bad considering it's a 6-cell. Compare it to the battery life of any other machine that has NEAR this kind of power when plugged in, and you'll see it's well up there in power/performance.

 

The power is great when I'm at home, it's nearly as good as my desktop without taking up much space. You can barely watch 1:20:00 of 720p video before it goes into hibernate, though.

I'm definitely not buying the slice battery, I think it defeats the whole point of a portable notebook. I'll consider buying an extra 6-cell. Overall, I think the laptop is great, except for the battery.

 

LiPo batteries are supposed to handle discharge to 0% better than standard LiIon, so ive been using mine down to 1% most of the time. Havent had any issues yet and gets me a little more time.

 

You must have something out of whack in your power plan settings. I got 2:16 and 2:22 watching full screen 720P in the first two tests I tried. For the tests I used the 'digital copy' versions that came with Star Trek and Iron Man blurays. Watching in WMP full screen at 60% brightness with earphones at a loud setting.

Not sure what your watching your movies from? Let me know if you want details of how I set up power plan and video settings to extend run time.