*HP ENVY 14 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge, Part 1*

I noticed the 160 gb SSD option? Is this an Intel X-25?!?! If so, that is freaking awesome. I'm starting to contemplate purchasing this over an M15x.

 

that's good news for me, although, most of the time i listen to music in bed and have everything plugged into my amp to drive things correctly

still, good if im floating around the house

 

Ok my thoughts on the CTO:
Starting price is 100 dollars more than initially advertised (999$ vs 1099$)
Intel core i3 processor standard...that's unacceptable on a performance laptop.
The cost of the 256gb ssd exceeds that offered by Sony on the vaio z.

All in all, the price gets too close to the vaio z to my liking. This was supposed to be a viable alternative to the excellent though costly z series offered by Sony.

 

Not all i3s are the same. The 370M by some accounts appears to be equivalent to the i5-520M. Simply not worth the $25 upgrade.

 

Has anyone used Squaretrade warranties?

 

Highest end i3, and even next gen i core bus...
Envy 14 was never supposed to be a performance laptop, envy 17 is.
Envy 14 was supposed to be the perfect mix of portability performance craftmanship, style, autonomy and most of all portable device screen quality.

 

I would choose the i5 450m, same generation as the new i3 370m, but its base is higher than the 430m but unlike the i3, it offers a decent turboboost. The 520m is sooo not worth it in this situation as it is a 100 dollar upgrade and the base duel core clock speeds are the same, just like .2+ ghz more for the single core.... Keep in mind the 450m was released in another quarter and could have been updated. It also has 4.8gt/s

 

why would it be ill advised to get the i7 740qm on this, aside from the aforementioned "heat," none switchable graphics, and apparently shorter battery life?

 

Those pretty much are the reasons, and thus it's ill-advised. With that kind of setup, you're going to be chained to an outlet, so you might as well go for the Envy 17.

 

Are there any places that have the Momentus XT 500GB in stock right now?

 

Ditto. The Envy 14 isn't supposed to be solely performance-centric. On paper at least it's got all the good things a laptop should have. It may not excel and be the best in all areas, but you have to admit it accomplishes what the Macbook line accomplishes: It gathers and combines all the strengths that normally don't go together in a notebook to create a better notebook experience.


As an example, it's pretty thin. It may not the thinnest, but that's because it comes with a slot-load DVD drive, an i-M processor, and a dedicated GPU. If the recurring heating issues with the new Macbook Pro 15s/17s are any lesson, form factor has to accommodate function. I don't mind the extra .1"-.2" of extra thickness if it means more room for fans and ventilation. It's also got one of the best screens around. No debating that point as it's one of the reasons I'm really looking forward to picking up this puppy. The build quality at least on paper looks like it'll rock. Aluminum on the outside with magnesium on the inside to keep things nice and sturdy. None of these plasticky parts falling apart that often occur with $400 HP. Once you fix the touchpad scrolling in the wheel settings, multitouch navigation combined with Scrybe multitouch gestures will be a joy. Typing on the chiclet keyboard for hours should also be a major improvement over my clunky Asus. Also can't say no to the new LED backlit keyboard while I'm at a dimly lit coffeeshop. Above all, I'll be able to play SC2 on low/medium settings with no stuttering.
Even though I've given up full-time gaming, I'm expecting to have friends in youngsters in my church who'll want to play a few games on Friday nights. Perfect excuse to ditch my law school buddies at the bar/club at least one day out of the week.


Now that's what I call a package of all things good. My friend who recently bought an Envy 15 always tells me how happy he is with the notebook. He originally couldn't justify paying $1,000+ for *a* notebook. But he ended up spending $1,400 for the baby plus the warranty and the anti-glare screen. But he now takes it everywhere and couldn't be any happier. Now if only HP had offered a chick magnet as an accessory to go with the Envy to improve his luck...

 

Yes, they're in stock at Newegg for $129.99 (before shipping).

 

The Envy is not in the same class as a Vaio Z. The Vaio Z is 13", the Envy 14 is 14.5". An Envy 14 with i5-520m, 256GB SSD, 1600x900 screen, 4GB RAM costs ~ $1800 without any discounts. A similar Z runs over $2200. I don't know what brand the Envy 14 SSD is but the Vaio Z is a proprietary one that is decent but far from top end as far as SSD's go. The Envy 14 has a better GPU too. $400 is far from "close" pricing.

The Envy is more of a competitor to the MacBook Pro if anything, and is much cheaper than a similarly equipped MBP also.

 

Not to mention the fact that they're asking 150 dollars more for the 740 over the 720?!

 

Would the i5's offered be enough to tackle some intense video editing and photoshop CS5+lightroom 3 use?

 

sorry soldier, no deal on the military discount and bing cashback. sure, you got the email stating otherwise, but at the end of those 60 days, and you get the real email from microsoft stating that you purchase was ineligible for cashback, don't say i didn't warn you

 

Yes, I think you'll be okay. If you're concerned, go with the Core i5-520M. Isn't Photoshop CS5 GPU accelerated as well?

Either way, if you are going to be doing this kind of stuff and don't care about battery life, then just go with the Core i7 or the Envy 17.

If battery life is even of the smallest concern, do yourself a favor and stick with the Core i5.

 

might as well go with the i5 450m, same dual core clock speed, with editing, its going to be using dual core, not single core, so the turbo boost is useless. The 450m still has a turbo boost, just not as high, still not worth 100 dollar upgrade for that tiny increase in single core clock speed

 

Yeah, you may be right. I suppose almost all of the software he'd be using would be multithreaded anyhow. Might as well save the $100.

I'm still torn about going with the Core i5. There are some games I love to play, such as Sins of a Solar Empire, that are extremely, extremely CPU bound, and only use one thread. I think the i5-520M would give me a nice bump in performance in that game, as every little bit seems to help.

 

Thanks much

 

I think it's kinda funny when people ask can this run photoshop and similar applications. I realize photoshop is more CPU etc intensive now than it used to be, but my P3 500 mhz computer could run photoshop without any of this fancy i5 crap But as for CS5, my few year old desktop with a core2duo can run it just fine and then some

 

i was fortunate enough to have a post listed on the first page of this thread, so if u want to add anything, let me know!

 

I'm the kinda guy who would have buyer's remorse to have bought the e14 with 430m, knowing that the 520m cpu is marginally better. Better to be safe than sorry. I got the i5 520m as did many others.

 

Funny, I'm having buyers remorse for buying the 520m. I could had thrown in another few bucks and gone form the 160 to the 256GB SSD.

 

Don't worry, you may not be alone come time to buy. I'm kind of like that too. On my Dell Vostro 1500 back in 2008, I got the best GPU and one of the best CPUs since I knew I'd be gaming often. The one area I skimped on was choosing the 80gb HDD. Ended up regretting it later.


The not-so-economical lesson: Pay extra for the upgrade if you even THINK you might need it!

 

I'm torn between the 450m and the 520m... argh

also, how much ram should be sufficient? i figure 4gb is enough?

 

Honestly, 4GB is plenty for almost everything. If you're really worried, go with the single DIMM 4GB module. That way if you really think you need it later, you can just pick up another 4GB module on your own and pop it in.

 

you mean the 450m, 430 is crap if you accidentally get that

I would still go with 450m. Its marginally better for 100 bucks IN THE SINGLE CORE CLOCK SPEED. ITS THE EXACT SAME for dual core. It is also part of the new line of i5s released this quarter. might have additional changes taht could save power, or just allow for faster rates

 

Neither! Get the i3-370M, a tube of thermal paste, an i7-620M, a razor blade and a screwdriver. Plop that i7 in your sparkly new Envy 14, and enjoy decent battery life, switchable graphics and processing power beyond that of the i7-720QM or i7-820QM.

Errr... I don't think that was the advice you wanted, though.

 

One thing I am having buyers remorse on is that I got 2*3 6gbs. I just thought ahead that I'd be too lazy to go buy memory and install it and that in the next few years 6gb will be standard.

Can someone give me the positives of 6gb to make me feel better

 

I heard from peeps that the 620m may not even work..I dunno what they mean by that like as in compatibility but I would expect hp to offer that if they offered the 840. So maybe it really doesnt work with what they have

 

I want to just hit the buy button and order the envy 14 but I am torn between using a SSD vs a SATA HD. I feel that a SSD would be great because:

1. Faster start-up, as no spin-up is required
2. Typically, fast random access for reading, as there is no read/write head to move
3. Extremely low read latency times, as SSD seek-times are orders of magnitude lower than the best current hard disk drives
4. Extremely fast write
5. No noise: a lack of moving parts makes SSDs completely silent
6. High mechanical reliability, as the lack of moving parts almost eliminates the risk of mechanical failure
7. Larger range of operating temperatures
8....well you get the idea.

However I have run across information that states that they like to wear out. "They only last a few thousand read/write cycles before they're dead. If you're going to run Windows XP or, worse, Vista on a SSD I'll be very surprised if it lasts more than 15 months."

Thoughts?

 

Yea i7-620 is kind of heavy on power usage compared to the 540m (nearly 15w différence on load was it ? on a bench linked in the previous thread) compared to the extra power you're getting. The best plan for year to year upgrading is probably getting a 370 or 450 now and when the new gen 3ghz+ turboboosted i5 are coming out go for them (im thinking of the future i5-550m or 570m).

 

They gave you false information about SSDs. If you were to write several GB per day, everyday, they would still last over 8 years factoring in current wear level algorithms and write amplification.

I run SSDs exclusively on all my notebooks (5 total) for more than a year and let me tell ya, once you go SSD, you never go back.

 

That is very over-exaggerated. As far as I know, no one has killed a SSD under regular usage yet, and these people have owned SSDs for years now. See, "a few thousand read/write cycles" is actually a lot. The majority of drives now are guaranteed to last at least 5000 read/write cycles.

Don't worry about the NAND dying from this. A SSD only lasting 15 months is quite frankly BS. Pick up an OCZ Vertex 2 or an Intel X25-M G2. Both of these are great performers. The OCZ Vertex 2 actually should last even longer due to the wear-leveling technologies it uses.

If you have the time, read this article, as I think it will explain things better. AnandTech has some amazing articles on SSDs, and if you have a couple hours to spare, go read his "SSD Anthology" articles. They are long, but extremely informative.

This is absolutely true. Going back to a mechanical hard drive for OS usage is painful if you've used an SSD.

 

Video card too.

 

Well, I'll let you know in about three weeks. As soon as I see a coupon, I'll grab a Envy 14 with a i3-370M and put a i7-620M in it.

Theories:
If the Envy 14 can handle the heat and power usage of the i7-XXXQM, it can handle that of the i7-620M.

Here's some helpful info that has been fueling my theories:

Intel® Core? i7-620M Processor (4M Cache, 2.66 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBPD, SLBPE, SLBTQ
Intel® Core? i3-370M Processor (3M cache, 2.40 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBUK

I recommend clicking on the "compare" button to get a side-by-side view of the two CPUs.

 

I forgot to mention the power consumption is identical.

 

I gotta ask, where are you getting this i7-620M from? It's a viable option for me, assuming I could find one at a decent price, as I'm knowledgeable enough to replace it. I just don't know where you could find one that's worth the price.

 

Those core i7 620ms are ES, they are not really stable.

 

Well, isn't it obvious? The Black Market. I'll use an i7-620M that was pulled from a Cold War Era SCUD. Ha.

Actually, eBay.com has a steady flow of listings that usually start at $200.00 and sell around $270.00.

 

Ebay, or HP part store, or directly from Intel if you have a friend work in there. (They are selling all CPUs with 35%-50% discount)

Be caureful, those are mostly ES on ebay

 

Don't forget the core i5 580m planned to come out last quarter to replace i540m with 2,6/2.8ghz dual core clock and 3,3 ghz turbo boost (basically higher clocked than a i7-620 but new gen and with more efficient power consumption hopefully, but 1mo less of cache tho).

 

whats ES? (10 char)

 

engineering sample

 

ES = Engineering Sample.

I think the word "beta" would be analogous.

 

Engineering Sample (not for resale), can have varying degrees of functionality added or removed, higher temps, etc. I have a Q9200 Core 2 Quad (all are ES, never released) in my current notebook. It runs a little hot but with a little voltage regulation runs great. Got it cheap too.

 

Interesting, I just dug up-- well Google did all the work-- some articles on that CPU, and it looks like the i7-620M without, as you mentioned, a 4MB cache. I wonder if that explains why, as Yun said, so many i7-620M out there are ES models? Maybe the i7-620M production has ceased?

 

HP part store is selling 620m for $989 w/o tax and shipping

 

I mean those 620m on ebay are ES

core i7 620m items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!