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

For headphones, I can't recommend highly enough denon ahd1001's for the price, performance, portability, they are my favorite.

 

is there enough space to put ssd as main and 500gb 7200 as storage?

 

I hope so, if I can set a deadzone on the bottom two buttons, that would be amazing.

 

I use those for my desktop, and yes they are very nice and comfortable. Not going to isolate or cancel noise though so that may not be the best option if he really wants that capacity. But if it's not needed, those headphones are some of the best audio quality you can get on the (relative) cheap.

 

Basic Touchpad Setup Tips

EDIT: 7/16 -- Forgot to include that There is a control for sensitivity under the 'pointing' options for both touch sensitivity (how hard to press before the cursor activates) and 'palm check' which controls what happens when you accidentaly slide your hand over the pad, it helps prevent the cursor from jumping around by accident. Set both to your personal preference, I use about 60% for both.

First on the 'Wheel' tab (synaptics mouse properties panel) set the vertical scrolling to '1' line at a time. This makes the scrolled text look the smoothest on screen. Anything higher and it jumps around.

To start scrolling make sure both fingers are slightly seperated and start your initial motion parrallel with the pads edges. vertical or horizontal. The pressure setting make a big difference in 'starting' the scrolling on the first try.

Once the scroll symbol appears (or the page moves) you no longer need to have both fingers on the touchpad, just leave one in contact and it remains in scroll mode and just the one finger will move the page(s) up and down (or L/R). You can also 'walk' long pages by alternating fingers in a walking motion as long as one finger remains in contact. Like the old yellow pages ads 'let your fingers do the walking'

Now you need to set the 'edge motion' control, by activating this you can just scroll to the egde of the pad and hold your finger(s) there and the page will keep going until you slide away from the edge or lift off the pad The settings for the edge motion speed can be touchy and requires trial and error. You can also set the edge motion 'zones' or how close to the edge you need to be before the motion starts, this also is a touchy setting and the best way to describe it is you want it as close as possible to the edge so that it activates right as your finger hits the outer edge of the pad. Any further away and it will scroll to soon. The zone settings will graphically let you see when your finger hits the zone area which helps in the setup.

Edge motion should also be activated in the 'tap and drag' options, this will allow you to do the same as a left mouse click to hold on to and drag an item around the screen, with edge motion you can tap and hold a finger on an object and simply move your finger to drag it around the screen, place it where you want, and lift your finger to let go of it. Edge motion allows you to continue dragging items when you hit the edge of the pad, just like scrolling above ( but with 1 finger).

Also 2 and 3 finger swipe and pinch to zoom work well. Tap zones is another useful feature, you can set the corners to be dedicated button areas with assigned functions, I have the upper corners as page forward and back for my browser and the lower right is the refresh button. Note: by 'buttons' I me areas that you just 'tap' the pad to activate, not actual butons and ths will not interfere with normal touchpad use, you also have other choices availabe or assignable functions..

You can aslo look into using the 'gesture motions' by Scrybe... But that's a whole other novel.....

Whew... It's harder to put into words than actually use the pad, hope this helps you guys to get things working smoothly. As I said above, a lot of it is personal preferences, but don't shy away from some of these features just because they sound odd or complicated. There is a few day learning curve but then you'll wonder how your ever lived without this touchpad

One final note, the only time I ever actually click the physical buttons on the touch pad is when I need to 'right click' to open a menu option....

 

In an Envy 14? There's only one HDD slot. If you need both, your best bet is a compromise like the Momentus XT.

 

to add to that, I just set a tap zone in the lower right of the touchpad that activates right click instead of normal click, so it's really not ever needed to click the physical buttons on the pad :]

 

Alaskajoel, I know you don't want to hear this right now since you jsut got your new baby, but hear me out...

there are quite a few large tech pubs that have been trying very hard to get their hands on a test Envy. If you think you can, I bet one of them would be more than willing to "rent" it from you for a week or two.

 

JBuds are an option for a cheap, but pretty decent quality for the price, ear bud.

 

Hey guys, I have a few questions. Whats the best value SSD that I could buy for my new envy (good price, strong performance, as opposed to one high and one low)? also, are the CPU and video cards able to be replaced at all?

 

I think we already know a couple aspects of the Joanna review. Battery life half a mbp, touchpad the worst she will have ever used. Tweak settings? why bother!


silence on screen comparisons
silence on relative game performance
silence on relative cooling and temperatures


hopefully I will be proved wrong at least on the latter topics, especially on screen comparisons. I would still love to see the envy 14 lined up side by side with a mbp 13, 15, vaio z, 3820tg, protege, etc etc.

 

the video card isn't removable, and the CPU removability is unconfirmed.

in terms of a good value SSD, upgrading to the 160 gb directly with HP isn't a bad deal. If that's too much for you, there's a 96 gb SSD from OCZ on sale at tigerdirect right now for $141 or so after bing cashback and a mail in rebate.

 

How about using a high-speed SD card with Win7 ready boost? Anyone know if that might yield similar speed results to something like the Momentus XT?

 

Now there are See above, hope it helps...

Edit, wow this moves quick, See back one page, which I guess means you've already seen it, unless you read the last page of a book first

 

no they won't. if they are willing to rent from a user, why not just buy&return from the source directly? your logic is flawed sir

 

maybe they didn't order early on and will now have to wait up to 3 weeks or so to get one

 

Alright - This will probably be my last post for a while.

Benchmarked L4D2 - Boy is this a fun machine! I have a secondary monitor setup to 1080p that I used to monitor CPUID Hardware monitor while playing the game on the native 1600x900 screen.

Settings:
4xMSAA
Anisotropic 8x
Everything else maxed out

Playing on laptop screen, with secondary screen also running
Min, Max, Avg
24, 61, 40.000

With the secondary LCD Turned off the numbers I got were: (same level)

Min, Max, Avg
28, 60, 43.100

With V-sync Turned Off:
Min, Max, Avg
24, 72, 42.450

I'm really quite pleased! Temps were very well managed too:

Max CPU Core Temp was 76c, and Max GPU core temp was 74c

For comparison, On these same settings with my Vaio Z11 Temps reached 92 CPU Core and 89c for GPU Core. (i5-520m and GT330m) Best recorded FPS on the vaio were (with v-sync turned on):

Min, Max, Avg
21, 60, 35

This is such a blast! I'm very pleased with the ability of the E14, but the killjoy will be this processor whine. As soon as I stopped playing and went back to firefox, it started up again.

 

Could the solution to the noise be this?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6347979-post1478.html

(sorry if it's not: I haven't been following this thread for a while now)

 

In case you missed it, you need to set the synaptics 'wheel' (vertical scrolling) to '1' line at a time, default is 3 lines and thats why it is not smooth, Also 2 finger really has a lot of advantages and you only need to start scrolling with 2 fingers then you can remove 1... Just takes some time to get used to.

 

Nice job AlaskaJoel! Now go chill with your wife for a bit lol

 

There is a free app called ThrottlStop ( HERE) that you can use to lock the CPU multiplyer to maximum on all threads. Not an ideal solution but it may help until you or HP figure out a 'fix'.

 

Nope - this didn't work. Also muted the Microphones and got nada.

@JBB - I'll try that App and see if it works later tonight. Thanks!

 

Thanks, yeah, I've been fooling around with the trackpad settings for the last hr or so. I think it just takes getting used to. I'm really used to having actual buttons that I can rest my hand on.

 

i love my denons. i have a pair of dn hp-700's that are for dj'ing, but i use them just for listening to music. they sound awesome. love the bass, not too much either.

 

I bet the 14 will make resting your hand on the bottom edge actually feel natural, the 15 has a rather 'sharp' front edge compared to the 14 so it's not comfortable to rest my thumb on the front, ther is no 'pillow top' raised palmrest like on the 14 it's flat....

 

Anyone else's screen much brighter at the top left then the rest of the screen? Mine almost hurts my eyes at the top left, but the rest of the screen is just about right.

 

Wow, a new CPU generation is better than the older one?
You are a genius!!

It makes no sense to wait with pc hardware bcuz when Sandy Brdige arrives there will be a new better out soon too with the Tick in 22nm with more power, more efficiency and so on.

 

meh, I need the tactile feedback of an actual click haha, double tapping just doesnt do it for me, using the thumb feels quicker for me actually

 

As I've stated before, these places usually receive test units straight from the manufacturers, but HP is not sending any review units out until "middle/late august", so they are desperate to get one to review. I can assure you, there is a precedence for what I suggested. knowledge > logic

 

exactly. before this it was "wait until i7 comes out!!!" and now its more waiting

for what i do, a ssd and an i3 will be a world of awesome performance for me

 

A little sidetracked question...
Do any of you guys know how much the ATI 5650 on the envy 14 can be overclocked?
I like the 5830 on the envy 15 a lot and if overclocking the 14 can narrow the gap between the 5830 (envy 15 ) and the 5650 (envy 14 ) significantly, I may go for the 14...

Thanks so much guys!

 

Every individual chip overclocks somewhat differently. But most can do 10%-15% on clocks. Some more.

 

I believe I've read a few places that it's possible to overclock it up to a 5750 fairly easily.

 

You can overclock the 5650 to match the 5830's factory settings, but you have to do it slowly.

 

In case this hasn't been 100% verified yet, I can confirm my unit has an Intel 160GB X-25 G2

 

Here is a link to the the AMD clock tool that works for the 5830 and 4830. Someone can be the first envy 14 guinea pig if they want to see what kind of OC'ing they can get. There is also more detailed GPU temp readings available in the temps tab, core, shader and mem...

AMD GPU Clock Tool v0.9.26.0 For HD 5870 download from Guru3D.com

 

The 5830 has twice as many shaders. So even if you can achieve its clock speeds, you're not going to match it... However, the Envy 14 has lower resolution which will help the gaming performance when compared to the 1920x1080 equipped Envy 15.

 

You can not know that! The 5830's OC capabilities have ranged from under 10% up to a wopping 60% for some, same range (or close) with the memeory OC ranges on the E15. Each GPU will have different stable maximum speeds....

 

The dv6 owner's, myself included, have been able to OC the 5650 to 650/1000 and any further it seems to be unstable for a few of us. At those clocks it is about equal to the stock 5830 but it can be overclocked higher as well.

 

Does over clocking the graphics card void the warranty on a laptop?

 

Yes. 10 char

 

Ugh a whine from the processor!? Please tell me it isnt soooo

 

For the 520m processor whining issue.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/480987-vpc-z-arrandale-i520m-whining-noise-cpu.html

Sounds like only motherboard replacement can solve it.

People with other cpu's won't get it (from what I've read so far, only 520m and some 430m are affected on laptops in the i5 generation ?), it looks like it's a 520m problem coming from some intel 520m/motherboards combinations only. And apple was solving it by "motherboard replacement".

I guess a bios flash could solve it too, so you guys who got a 520m better check the updates on hp website... or call to RMA or see if there's gonna be a fixed bios released. That's if it is even bios fixable, but my personal bet is that it is a capacitor or something used to put the cpu in low voltage state that is faulty somewhere on the motherboard or the cpu, looks like every motherboard whines in c4 but most are nearly inaudible.

Theres a hereifixedit.com style fix here :
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/har...-rid-cpu-noise-good-core-duo-please-read.html

Judging from that, I guess just putting in your energy profile "minimum cpu activity" to 5% instead of 0% would prevent the cpu from entering the C4 whining state.

 

If you are going to do a full wipe of your computer (imo. essential on any laptop if one possesses sufficient knowledge) you can do the partitioning during windows installation. If not, my favourite program for this task is easeus partition master which is a licensed program. Alternatively, you can use most later ubuntu live discs for free for the partitioning and then format to NTFS filesystem afterwards.

 

Thanks so much for that post. +rep.

Im getting a 450m so im safe

 

Crap. I'm getting the 430m. Curse my early buying habits!!

 

Well there is still a chance nothing will go wrong at all . Maybe the guy just got unlucky.

 

Well lol I guess this problem only concerns a little % of 520m/430m + some faulty motherboards combinations... or else internet would be flooded by " MY LAPTOP IS WHEEZING" which is not the case lol.
Meh, anyway I'd like to add that if you get the whinning issue get your envy replaced anyway instead of using a "fix". If a transformator or capacitor is faulty enough to make audible whining sounds there's chances that component will die way earlier than it should and if that thing dies, chances are that the cpu will fry with it.

 

I don't think that it does and, even if it did, how would they possibly know the you overclocking broke/messed up the laptop?

 

what makes you think that 450 isn't affected?