*HP ENVY 14 & Envy 14 Beats (1XXX series) Owners Lounge, Part Deux*

you can get an external Bluray for like $90 ... that aints so bad. And it would still be much more portable than those big logs of 17" laptops.
As for 1080p you'll get close with the radiance display 1600x900, and itll most likely look way better than most other LCD's out there.
Otherwise just plug it on your LCD TV

 

Hey all. Been a regular on the DV8 forum for a year now. Still love that machine and damn if nothing has gone wrong with it in a year of heavy use!

But 9 lbs and 0.75 hrs batt life does not a portable make, so having found the outrageous combination of the return of Radiance and $500, I went for:

i5-560,
4GB on one stick (will add the second myself),

750GB HDD (have an SSD in my 2740 and it is nice, but not $500 nice for 1/3 the space! (May well put the 750 in an external case and get the Seagate Momentus 750/7200 for, like, $100 - r/w speeds over 100 mb/s)

Radiance display

$924 - not possible!

Now, only 3 concerns:

1) will they run out of radiance displays before they run out of orders to fill?
2) I've had only two kinds of experiences with HP notebook quality over the past year: excellent and horrible; which will this be?
3) If I get don't get an "excellent" E14 the first time around, will they be out of Radiance display models to replace it with?

 

From what I've seen the envy has been hit and miss, but lately I've seen more posts about hits than misses, if you do have the misfortune of recieving a fluke, I am pretty confident they will continue to stock the radiance screen as they've always carried it in the parts store.

 

Wanting to purchase an Envy14, just not sure whether to go with an i5 or i7 processor.

 

First of all, the i5 is going to give you more battery life w/ the switchable graphics, I'm assuming thats somewhat important to you otherwise I would assume you'd opt for an actual gaming laptop. Performance wise either way the graphics card is gonna bottleneck you long before your processor will. in fact, in a few titles the i5 outperformed the i7 by up to 5 fps. I'm not sure what else you'll be using the laptop for, but in all honesty the i5 is more than sufficient enough for the average to heavy end user.

 

It appears that my desires to stay within reach of the leading edge laptops exceeds my wallet. I got the i7 840QM w/Radiance (from HP's outlet store) a couple of weeks ago and love it. Yeah, it is a battery vampire but I can throw anything at it (plus I have the slice). I almost don't want to read anymore threads, in fear that as soon as my return period runs out they will announce the refresh to SB... Oh well. Is there a support group for this type of addiction?

 

What do you think you're posting on?

 

Sometimes those who need help, don't even know when they are getting it!

 

Just pulled the trigger for the Envy 14. I chose 4GB 1 dimm and was wondering if this memory is compatible with my Envy 14?
CT51264BC1339 - 4GB, 204-pin SODIMM , DDR3 PC3-10600 from Crucial.comUS

Is this the best option?

 

It should work fine I think. You can find a bit cheaper on newegg.com

 

Just ordered mine, the comeback of radiance display and 500$ coupon was too good to resist. I chose 640 GB HDD and i5 580 (2.66). In the hindsight, I should have gone for 500 GB and i5 460 (2.53). With the amount saved I could have gone for the slim-fit extended life battery. I already have an Envy 14 lying around that is going to be shipped back to Amazon - too many build issues.

 

link? Sorry I don't know what makes it compatible with the Envy 14.

 

Pretty sure any 4GB 204 pin DDR3 RAM will work, which means everything on this page: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...178 600000399&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Pagesize=100

 

^^^On that page...Why is the Lenovo stick 150.00 vs 50.00 for others comparable? I'll be looking to upgrade my RAM next, as well as getting the slim Xtra lyphe....Too bad when I ordered yesterday I forgot to switch it to the single Dimm 4GB so I can upgrade cheaper.

Glad someone pointed me to this site yesterday....Perfect timing for the release of the radiance....I've been given so much info here in the last 24 hrs.

WOOT!

 

whats an Xtra lyphe?

 

is it possible to put a 2nd hdd on the E14....?
i have heard that the slot load dvd can be removed and replaced with a 2nd hdd on other laptops but i never heard it can be done on the E14.
i rarely usually use the dvd drive... i have several loptops on the past but i dont even remember a single time popping a cd or a dvd in there... =)

 

^Xtra Battery

 

last try...i still haven't heard a reply from anyone on this.

just curious...has anyone completed a minimized image recovery and noticed an increase in temperature on your cores? seems like mine are now running about 10-20 degrees (celsius) higher than they were with all the factory installed bloatware...

the fan also seems to be running a lot more than it did with all the bloatware, etc.

any ideas on how to remedy this?

 

i havent done a clean install yet, maybe try a full recovery and see if that helps ... maybe some of the HP stuff helps control the fans.

 

Hello all, thanks to the recent $500 off $1399 HP coupon I was able to configure an HP envy 14 with almost everything I want..... everyting except an SSD drive.

Is the Envy 14 line capable of running sata III SSD drives like the Crucial RealSSD C300 or am I limited to sata II drives?

As per installation of the drive, what size form factor (i.e. 2.5") fits in the envy 14?

Also after I remove the original envy 14 hard drive and install the SSD, won't I lose all my data including windows? Am I right to assume that I will have to fresh install everything with the provided recovery discs?

I am asking these question to the notebookreview community because after browsing the forums for some time, i've determined that the knowledge of the notebookreview community is unmatched by any other web site or forum on the internet. Thanks in advance

 

You're limited to SATA II.

2.5" drives fit that are 9.5 or 12.7 mm in height.

Yes, you will lose all data. You will need to use the recovery disks. OR you can do a clean install. See page 1 of this thread.

 

Thanks for the speedy response 2.0, would this ssd be compatible? Would any adapter/mount need to be purchased to make it sit properly or is the size exactly right?

Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH120G2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

I've seen some 128 Gb SSD's for $199 , that would be a better deal than 120 Gb for $229.

 

i'll lose all my files if i do that, correct?

 

When doing a bios update I went from 07 to 23 without loading the updates in between, does doing the update in this way give me all the updates in between 07 to 23?
or do I need to down each update in the order it was released?

 

Yep, just swap it with the HDD that's in there now. Nothing more to it.

 

All BIOS updates are cumulative. Meaning they contain all changes since 07.

 

So not only is the Radiance back for awhile, but there's a $500 off $1399 coupon as mentioned here (NBK4267893) which let me build an i5-560 / 4 GB / 256 GB SSD / Radiance machine for $1,434.30 shipped to my door.

Can't decide if I want to sell this MBP and jump on that. Would you?

 

this SSD is a killer deal , 128 gb for 149.99 after mail rebate:
Newegg.com - Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425-S2/128GB 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

though I will wait at least 6 months before getting one for my envy, prices need to drop.

 

Hell yes I would sell the MBP, here's my logic.
I assume your profit on the MBP is ~$750 (is it the newest one? need more info) so the Envy 14 will 'cost' you worst-case $850. That's a great deal, be sure to purchase an external HDD and dual-boot Ubuntu though.

 

It's from the June 2009 refresh -- definitely not the newest.

Really is a great deal. Only real things keeping me on this MBP are the much better battery life and that OS X has grown on me a little.

 

does anyone know if the display port supports 120Hz monitors?

 

Hi all,

I've been looking to replace the 7200 RPM 500GB HDD that's currently in my HP Envy 14. It's amazing how noisy that thing can be, and it even makes the fan sound quiet.

So far, I've been looking at the OCZ Vertex 2 SSD. From reading reviews, this seems like a very fast SSD, but on a laptop that might not always be the case. Anyone recommend this, or are there more cost effective alternatives which still offer a good performance on this laptop?

 

I can't speak for alternatives, but I can say that I was impressed with the Vertex 2 I used to own.

 

Other than Sandy Bridge hardware, what are we looking forward to in upcoming Envy refreshes? I'm torn on snagging this Radiance-having, SSD-equipped Envy 14 -- $1434 is a hard price to beat for a machine like that, and I like Windows 7 and OS X both, so...

 

Still waiting for a killer 120gb SSD deal.

 

Samsung 470 is my all time favorite SSD. A little on the expensive side, but very low power consumption, and very fast speeds with multi-controllers, I believe it has toatl 256mb cache. Also comes standard with 3 year warranty

 

I have one in my envy and I absolutely love it

 

so can you stick in any 2.5 inch ssd drive and it will work without any problems? Or are there specific requirements to look for in the drive?

 

Hi. Has anyone in here experienced wavy noise from the fan ? Like not a constant airblow sound but alittle bit wavy on low cpu usage ? Maybe its because I accidentially touched the fan when I had the computer open.

 

AFAIK there's no specific requirements, just that the 2.5" drive needs to have a height measurement of 9.5mm or less to fit inside the case.

I think my next purchase will be the OCZ Agility 2 180GB. This capacity seems to be the sweet spot for $ per GB here in New Zealand. From what I've read, the Agility 2 is slightly slower than the Vertex 2 in write IOPS, but probably won't make a huge difference.

 

Your power plan settings will also effect your core temperatures, if you are changing power plans.

 

newbie here, if this has already been answered, would you kindly point me in the right direction?

I currently own an Envy 14 with an i-7 processor and the non-radiance screen. I just placed a new order a new Envy 14 with an i-5 processor and the radiance screen with the coupon.

My question is, would I be able to simply image the old laptop and transfer it to the new one? It appears that I only have to install the software for the Intel Turbo Boost Technology and possibly drivers for the Intel video card.

Has anyone done this, and would I encounter any issues stability issues down the road?

I have everything set up exactly the way I want it, and would hate to have to do a clean install for the new screen...

 

does anyone has guidelines on how to use SetFsb on the i5 ?

also, is the DDR limit of 1066 for the i5 :
- a Bios limitation
- a CPU limitation
- a motherboard limitation ?

 

Yes you can do that. When it's done and you boot up, windows will detect the change in hardware and install and/or ask for the missing drivers.

However, note that the product key is tied to the old notebook. So you may encounter some issues unless you enter in the product key of the new one. Goto to control panel and system to enter in the new product key (found in the battery bay) of the new computer.

 

$500 off coupon is expired now..doesn't work for me at least

 

Wow iwonder what the limit on the coupons was. wasn't it like 1500 or something? hp just made some serious quota this week.

 

Pretty sure it was 1800..gone in 3 days. I have feeling a lot of orders will be delayed this month lol..with this much sales im sure HP will have another coupon out in a week or 2

 

Has anyone heard of putting a Radiance screen into an ENVY 14 Beats?

 

I think it could be possible but no one on this forum has done it. If you succeed you will make a lot of folks happy.