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

All right, fine. Just add in that HDD's offer much more storage capacity than SSD's and I'll be happy. I have a lot of games and media. I could never consider a SSD for that reason alone.

 

No offense, I don't mean to start an argument, these are obviously concerns,,, but the Envy 14 is clearly a high end model which is probably being purchased with people who ARE more concerned with speed than capacity...

I mean obviously if I wanted I could find a new 2010 laptop for about $400 with a 500 gb hard drive. Why doesn't everyone do that?

Oh yeah, cause the envy has speed and power, even if it does cost 2-4x as much...

 

bout to pull the trigger on this configuration, what does everyone think?
any suggestions?


HP ENVY 14 customizable Notebook PC
EPP_00_VX756AV


Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz
6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics - For Dual Core Processors
14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam + Dual Digital Integrated Microphones
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
Corel(R) PaintShop Photo(TM) Pro X3 + Corel(R) VideoStudio(R) Pro X3
Full-size island-style backlit keyboard
8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
$1! SAVE NOW!! Norton Internet Security(TM) 2010 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Estimated build date: July 9, 2010

Free standard shipping on this item

« Save for re-order Remove »
Qty. Update »
Price: $1,315.99
Discount: -$131.60
APP Price: $1,184.39

 

for fun I just configured a hella expensive envy, core i5-520, 8GB DDR3, 256 GB SSD upgrades. It comes out to $1,836 with the student discount before tax.

Then I headed over to the apple store ad configured a 15-inch macbook pro with the same cpu (the cheapest of the 3). That baby starts at $1,800, which is incredible, and includes 4GB DDR3, a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive, and a low res display. Upgraded it with 8GB DDR3, a 256 GB SSD, and an HD display to match it up with the envy 14 specs and....$3,049 before tax LOL

PC FTW!

 

How about this:

SSDs are faster and generate less heat and noise than traditional hard drives. They are also more stable due to a lack of moving parts, and consume approximately the same or slightly less battery life. However, SSDs cost substantially more per GB and have smaller overall capacities. SSD owners should expect ~50x better read performance and ~2x better write performance than owners of a Momentus XT (a "fast" HDDD) at approximately 15x the price per GB.

 

What is the best all in one printer to get with the envy when I order it?

 

Apparently HP doesn't want my money, because they won't let me use a Canadian billing address even though it's being shipped to the US.

 

as tempting as it is, i would get rid of the $1 norton subscription. its just going to slow down your computer and then bug you when you don't want to renew.

 

One thing I wish this computer had was bluray.... Guess I gotta buy an external one

anyone know where I can find one for cheapish?

 

Actually, the Envy 14 is an excellent example of cost-benefit. You can get the best display out there, a killer i5 CPU, an ATI 5650, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB storage for only $1200. The Vaio Z is a premium model, as is the Macbook I was originally considering. But I would consider the Envy 14 an excellent value for your money. Hence why I was opposed to SSD's, because they are in my mind the opposite of value. The Momentus XT is an excellent value, however.

I buy everything based on value. I guess I failed to recognize that there might be other types of buyers here, and I'm sorry about it.

 

What if you tried a US billing address but shipped to Canada?

 

But when a consumer goes to configure their Envy and sees the list of storage options, that fact will become readily apparent. 160 and 256BG SSDs versus 320, 500 and 640GB HDDs.

The purpose of the FAQ (though in its infancy or perhaps adolescence) is to answer potential questions one might have about things they may not be familiar with or knowledgeable on. It's not meant to "steer" a purchase, but to inform a purchase.

Anyway, I'm going to look over the FAQ again to see if there is any bias or steering and correct it. Offhand, I think the memory section sort of steers a bit. So i'll clean that up.

 

How cheap do you want? You can get a lower-end one for $80-$100 if you look around.

I'm gonna wait a year for an internal replaceable one.

 

edit: double post

 

Sure it's important, but you can't use it as the only metric. Not all of us have tons of files, so we don't need a lot of storage. So even is $/GB is higher, I have less need for GB. So 160 gigs is fine.

Also, keep in mind that the ENVY 14 is not a $500 entry-level laptop. It's meant to be high end, and therefore is not targetted at the "most consumers" that you mention in your post. Those people are looking at cheaper laptops.

As for why so few people buy SSDs: I don't know, maybe they're misinformed. Just because a lot of people do something doesn't mean it's right. A lot of people are debating over how many more Mhz when they should be looking at the HD as a source of performance bottle necking.

 

Cheapest I could find was on Newegg for about 120... but I don't really know much about quality.

Are there different quality bluray drives? Or are they all pretty much the same.

If HP comes out with an internal one for the E14 (is that just speculation..?), will I have to send it back to have them install it? Or is that something I can do myself (without voiding the warranty)

 

OK, fair enough.

As far as memory, I'm still not sure on it myself. Personally, 1 stick and an additional 4GB stick down the road sounds like a good option, but I'm not clear on the "risks" of that second stick's compatibility. Perhaps more info on that?

Definitely note that other than something like Photoshop, no one app will cause your memory usage to be more than 4GB. As such, more than 4GB is mainly good for multitaskers or specialty apps (clearly reword that).

 

dang... i was only able to get 100 dollars back..

 

eBay? This one sure is slow though (only 2x), so I wouldn't go for it. I'm guessing a $120 drive off Newegg is worth it for you, depending on how many Blu-ray's you have.

I doubt HP will come out with an internal one. Aftermarket would be your only option, and I have no idea about warranty (I'll most likely be installing it after my 1 year is up anyway). The problem is, no internal Blu-ray drives currently exist for the Envy 14's drive size.

 

Does anyone know if HP has provided units to reviewers like CNET or notebookcheck.net, or when we can expect to see reviews?

 

Hey Valismp! Thats totally what I said!

Thanks for understanding our view also lol, now I feel like I was harsh.

Also

I called HP but apparently they neither accept bits of string nor monopoly money. Lol

(just kidding btw, born and raised in Toronto, just moved to America 2 years ago)

 

I'll have to agree the Envy14 even with it's great value is a premium model. Many of us are notebook enthusiasts on these boards. But in my experience, many of my friends and fellow students I've seen 3/4 have consumer level laptops, meaning sub $800-$900. Or if they have a mac, most are the whitebooks which is the consumer friendly model. Aside from the screen and teh 14.5" size, the parts in the Envy can be found in the consumer friendly dv6tse. Not sure where I'm going with this, but yeah SSD's are not usually for the average consumer, but neither is the Envy I think.

 

SSD are still expensive, but once you try one, you won't go back. Best single upgrade you can do in terms of performance and comfort, especially in a laptop. I wouldn't be bothered with a decent £100 / 100 GB SSD in a notebook, still expensive, but they are definitely worth considering, even as now.

 

But it's $1 and if you want you can give it away to a friend and/or sell it to someone

 

That's a tough one because it's mostly knowledge from past experience from other folks issues that I've read about on the site. For sure there have been incompatibilities that occur mixing RAM from other manufacturers. But it's not a consistent thing. So not sure how to word that other than to throw out a general warning.

Yes, that does need to be noted. I'll get on that.

 

I'd just say you most-likely don't need 8gb or 1 stick, if some one intended to use the high end programs that are capable of utilizing 8gb I think they would know they need 8gb...

I suck at English

 

I believe that laptop magazine has had a review unit for at least a month now, and IIRC cnet too, they might not be allowed to post up a review yet? They had a iphone review up on the very first day it went on sale.

 

fair enough, the first thing i will be doing with my envy is doing a clean install of win 7 ultimate using the free copy my college gives me. no bloatware for me

 

That's doesn't bode well for the prospects of the unit if they are being made to hold off.

 

I might do that or I may just pick and choose what to remove.


also will probably do those recovery discs and upgrade to win 7 professional with the anytime upgrade stuff

 

I have no idea what you meant there.

Yup, same thing I'll be doing.

 

I mean like.

Like say a graphics designer knows he needs it to run 3 programs at once, he would already know that he needs it,

So people who are on the fence about what ram they need (because they don't know a lot about ram), if you don't know any specifc programs you'd use that requires the 8gb, then you probably don't need it.

The people who need 8gb of ram know they need 8gb of ram, otherwise you don't need it... XD

 

On the envy 15 review at CNET, it says
# Reviewed on: 11/19/2009
# Released on: 11/01/2009

took them 18 days to review the envy 15...

and the envy 13
# Reviewed on: 09/29/2009
# Released on: 10/18/2009

Another 19 day gap

Somebody better have a review up soon...reading this forum with no hard info is getting quite old lol

 

If you're an addon fanatic with World of Warcraft, that uses up quite a bit of ram. But if that's all you're running you won't use 4gb. Most I've used alone with WoW was like 1.75GB I think..

 

windows 7 will be more than happy to eat up more memory for caching if you have it, resulting in faster load times etc. i agree, 8gb is over the top unless you know you need it, but that doesn't mean it won't at least add a little speed even if you technically don't need it.

windows vista/7 use a dynamic % of your memory for caching depending on what else is running

 

Clueless people tend to run lots of demanding trojan horse viruses in the background, so they need all the RAM they can get to keep their IE session running smoothly, you don't have to be a power user to use lots of RAM!

P.S. I believe that if you do not get matched pairs of RAM such as 4+2=6GB, then you are running in an asynchronous mode which won't deliver the full potential of the RAM. 4+4=8GB would be synchronous and faster.

 

I'll probably find that funny when I stop fuming about not being able to buy the thing.

 

Yeah, I monitor my memory usage on my gaming PC all the time. Even Stardock's strategy games, which are known for using quite a lot of RAM, never get above 1.5Gb for the app. Add 1.5GB for Windows and background processes, and 500MB for an open Firefox, and you're still under 4GB.

 

if i want to buy a 256gb ssd on ebay, what are brands i should avoid? what are brands i should look for?

 

The Crucial Real SSD C300 has great performance. The Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue much less so. Essentially, look for any of the newest generation SandForce drives and you'll get better performance and better battery life out of it.

 

and we're talking 2.5 inch drives, right? just double checking

 

Exactly. Which is why it disgusts me when someone starts complaining about the price on the Envy 14. This is HP's premium line, of course it's going to be a little more expensive than the DM or DV series. The Sony Z and MBP are the only two other laptops that bring style, speed, and quality together just as the Envy 14. Those two are quite a bit more expensive than the Envy 14. Even without a coupon or Bing the Envy 14 still presents a good value. Of course a coupon would sweeten the deal but some are acting like it's some heinous crime that HP doesn't have any coupon offers right now.

 

Sorry Zhankfor.

What I would do is

A) get a good friend or family member with an American credit card to purchase it, then give them the cash // direct deposit into their account

B) go to a local computer store, offer them $50 to order your computer and say you will pay for it upfront?

 

QFT. I'm switching from Mac to an Envy 14, based on its drastically superior price vs. performance. And the Envy 14's display...

 

A couple review sites have had the e14 since may 5th and it looks like they are being forced to hold off on posting a review. They will be posting their reviews on July 16th if it goes down the way it did in the past with a 19 day gap. What is the estimate on first owners having them in hand?

 

about the same time as that.

 

my order status has changed every 12 to 24 hours
order received
order processed
order dropped to factory
order in production (now)


at this rate, i will have my laptop in a few days (i got 2 day shipping)
chances of it continuing at that rate.... 1:999999

 

This is what I'll probably do. The downside is that my dad was going to pay for it with his American Express and then I'd pay him back so I got their extra year of warranty coverage. Oh well, I'll see what I can do.

 

Just to see if I got this straight, the i5 520 is the same as the mbp's lower i5 offering? Been searching for awhile to see which chips they used but maybe I just suck at using google

 

yeah it looks like the mbp is using the i5 520m