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

take a look again
it says both on the same page

 

Amazon also shows it has 3 DIMMs which is blatantly incorrect, the panel info could be false too. The PDF spec sheet which is still linked to on that page, still shows it has a 1300x768 panel. I have a theory that "NR" in the model name means "non radiance"... and the "EG" models which are selling in germany could mean "europe, germany"... this is just speculation though. But if you look at the NR models for the envy17 on the HP support website, they show up as offered with a lower spec display.

 

How is Amazon's return policy? I'm just wondering in case I decide to order from them, and it is indeed the wrong spec and I need to return it.

Not a huge deal, since I think I'll still order from HP Direct.

 

Simply add it to your cart and change the zip code to yours. It will calculate tax, if there is any.

My California tax is 9.25%.

 

yeah, and NY is 8.375%

But I too received my $100 discount for being a crotchity customer, yay! To be fare tho, I did feel a bit swindled, as I was told the processor could not be upgraded. I probably would have gone w/ a different one, or some other slightly different configuration. As well as the whole USB 3.0 mystery.

So, if someone decides to upgrade their processor later through HP, do they take your old one and give you an upgrade for a discounted price? Or do they charge retail and send you back both processors?

 

It would be awesome if the Envy 14 did support USB 3.0, but unfortunately, all signs point to no...

I guess I'll suck it up and deal with eSATA.

 

Take a look back into my posting history to see about upgrades to the CPU because I was the one who has been posting about it. I added some new information about it today too, its back a few pages. But basically how it will work is that you go to a local repair shop that is listed as an HP authorized service center. Have them replace your CPU with a genuine HP replacement CPU part so that you can keep your warranty, they will order it for you. If you get any kind of discount it would be negotiated from that local repair shop who might want to keep the old CPU and resell it as a spare part, and this side deal would have nothing to do with HP, you could just as easily resell your old CPU on ebay or craigslist after they do the upgrade. Have them put the cpu in an antistatic bag with a pin-protector or antistatic foam block to keep the pins from getting bent, if a pin gets bent the CPU is worthless, they are very sensitive to static so don't remove it from the antistatic bag and sit it on the carpet and take a picture of it for your ebay auction! I see that all the time

 

Can anyone comment on amazon delivery dates on E17 vs those who first ordered through hp? How long after it was on hp before amazon started shipping units. Trying to get an idea on the E14, Thanks.

 

over and over I see many people advising people not to get warranties cause they are the biggest scams in the consumer market. Unless you treat your laptop like crap, there is really no need to get a warranty.

 

I'm honestly kind of upset about the whole USB 3.0 thing, I mean some laptops come equipped with them already.

I just hear the laptop-comparing-jerk-in-class being like Oh yeah my dad bought this for me for like two thousand dollars. Oh yours doesn't have USB 3.0? Oh yeah its really cool I can like

*STEAM FROM EARS*

lol.


Also,

Agreed. I do treat my laptops like crap and I've never needed anything fixed. My fathers warranty on his Toshiba cost him ~$200 dollars for 2 years. He never needed a repair. Even if he did I couldn't imagine it costing him more than ~200 anyways. It's been four years since he got it and the only thing hes needed to replace is his battery...

 

Someone will always have nicer things than you. Once you accept that, you tone out the laptop-comparing-jerk and learn to love what you have

 

Yes, because accidents never happen and hardware never mysteriously fails. *sarcasm*

 

I disagree with this statement. Something like 1 out of 5 laptops, and one out of 4 netbooks, will experience a malfunction requiring repair within the first 3 years of ownership.

Laptop Reliability Study: Asus and Toshiba Come Out on Top

In my case, i had a battery (~$75) die in the first year, and the motherboard (~$250) die in the second year of ownership of my Dell 600m. Thankfully, my warranty cost a lil bit less than it would have cost me to replace the parts, not including the value of the labor. Now, i dont replace my laptop every year or two. In fact, i just gave it to my dad after 7 years of usage.

My point is that if you are looking at premium laptops, and plan on holding onto it for more than a year or two, get at least a 2 year manufacturer warranty. Otherwise, if you find you are spending only $400 - $600, then just take the standard warranty (usually 1 year).

Lastly, if possible, purchase it with a CC that gives you an extra year on the warranty.

 

I've been burned once by not getting a warranty, or well..the graphics card burned. But eh...warranty would put me way over budget so I didn't get it.


I'll take good care of the envy and hope it sticks around for a few years.

 

Couldn't agree more. How does the song put it:
"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."

In my experience, its not always easy to accomplish this. But once you do, you'll have such internal peace. IMHO, its the first step to eliminating mankind's insatiable greed.

 

A crap, Toshiba and Asus came out on top?

Me and my Dad have Toshiba and Asus computers in the aforementioned unnecessary warranty story XD


Also,

I don't mind people having better things than me,

I just live in Orange County, where people are rude enough to rub it in your face obnoxiously regardless of you being a stranger, its just annoying

 

I know what you mean about Orange County, and you're a thousand percent right. I used to live there, and they are EXACTLY like that!

 

Should we be expecting any decent BCB discounts this month? Seems to be at 5% for HP right now. From what I can tell this is the last month to buy stuff through Bing before they end their discount program.

Also, did anyone actually get in on the 25% BCB for the E14?

My main concern about the 5650...if I HDMI out to my plasma can I run games at 1080p or is the 5650 a little lacking for this?

thanks

 

You will get the warranty that covers defects from HP for free automatically, it lasts 1yr, or 2yr if you buy the laptop using certain creditcards.

Buying laptop insurance can be _a lot_ cheaper than buying an ADH plan from HP, and it covers accidents as well as theft. The HP plan doesn't cover theft. If you think that lojack is better than theft insurance, think again, they only guarantee you get the laptop back, it could be damaged or something, also the lojack software is constantly running eating CPU resources and the possibility exists for people at lojack to abuse their authority or hackers to hack into it and spy on you with it. Not good!

---

USB3 just came out and theres nothing that even takes advantage of it except storage devices, you have got Esata for that atleast.

I am more upset about the envy having an ATI card in it, utter fail, I am anticipating buggy drivers and bad support, theyll stop updating the drivers after 6 months or a year even with bugs causing new games to crash or be unplayable, etc. That is what happened with my previous ATI.

What would be awsome is if they stick an Nvidia in there with optimus, and offered a 900p radiance @ 120hz for the people that like 3d games and movies, they can use the shutter glasses that way.

 

What do you guys say about the gaming ability of this laptop. I am planning to grab a i5 version of this laptop and do some gaming

Dragon Age Origin
BC2
Bioshock
Dirt2 etc etc

I am also considering dell m11x because of its portability, but the daam hinge issue is holding me back.

Waiting for some review. Hope it lives to some of its hype

 

Speaking of which, I'm guessing its not just as easy like a PCI-E but does anyone know how integrated/soldered on the graphics card is to the mobo? (on the envy 14, ofc)

 

I'm sure i'm way out of the loop on this. But, what hinge issue?

 

Trust me when it comes to hydrid switching drivers, ATI is wayyy faster than nvidia...

 

HP Pavilion dv8t Notebook $949 after Coupon
	Pavilion dv8t Entertainment PC - 2.26 GHz; 756GB Dual HD; 6GB Memory HP has the Pavilion dv8t 18.4" notebook for $949.99 with free shipping after coupon code NBE725947 (expires soon). Includes Intel Core i5-430M (2.26GHz) processor, 6GB RAM, 640GB 7200RPM hard drive, Blu-ray, GeForce GT 230M 1GB graphics. Tax in most states. [added 7/1/2010 | expires 7/8/2010 11:59:59 PM ]

 

^ I haven't heard of the hinge breaking, although the plastic enclosure popping open I guess I've read happen a couple times. It's more of a hinge creaking issue and uneven keyboard keys causing them to touch the screen and scratch. The screen touching I thought was normal - from the oil marks from the keys on screen since my Unibody macbook did this same thing but the screen was never scratched for me.

 

WoW! All of this surprises me, because I always thought that the build quality of the Alienware line was supposed to be pretty good.

 

edit:guess I was seeing things,lol no delete button
edit2:Maybe I'm not so crazy after all.

 

It will be a separate card, so that it will be replaceable if it fails. Youll need to remove this card to get access to the CPU if you plan to do a CPU upgrade too. I posted some more technical details about that a few pages back, regarding flashing the VBIOS if you do a cpu crossgrade from arrandale to clarksfield or vice versa.

 

Just noticed it too -- it didn't seem like anyone changed the title either.

I changed it back; all seems normal again.

 

You aren't tripping.

But,

You are now manually breathing.

*whoa*

 

i believe i'm the second person in this forum to actually dream about the 25% BCB...
Right when i had the dream, i woke up...at 4:20 in the morning...and thought to myself, "who's credit card do i use to order with the 25% BCB??"

i later reasoned that 25% BCB is impossible at this time...so i went back to sleep.

microsoft, where's your free money at?

 

So I really want to get some kind of SSD on this baby, but $300 is really pricy for the 160GB that HP is offering.

Is it possible to upgrade this laptop in the future? I'd like to buy a Momentus XT SSD-Hybrid hard drive ( Amazon.com: Seagate Momentus XT 320 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32 MB Cache 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive ST93205620AS-Bare Drive: Electronics) but I'd like to confirm whether or not I would be able to install it myself or not.

 

How do you get academic 10% discount if order on HP website? I do have an university e-mail account.

Thanks!

 

I'd like to use this thing with an external monitor when I'm at home but all the replicators/docking stations HP is offering only have VGA, do they not make one with DVI?

I'm not even sure the docking stations they offer would work with the envy 14.

 

Costco offers the Envy 14 with free shipping and a 2-year warranty.

I will be using my Costco AMEX card which will add to my executive card rebate.

Here's the link to their configurator:

http://www.costco.com/CTO/HPConfigurator.aspx?Prodid=10029570&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|56670&N=4017749&Mo=1&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName%3aBC&cat=28163&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=&model=VX756AV

 

It won't be a removable card as it is not MXM. The graphics chip and ancillary circuitry is soldered to the mobo. The CPU however will be in a socket.

 

$300 is actually cheaper than what the ssd sells for anywhere at retail by a good deal. But yes, if you want to wait it's very easy to install a hard drive yourself later. Very easy.

Student discount - HP Academic Purchase Program

 

If you don't have an account yet visit Student discount - HP Academic Purchase Program to create one with the student discount.

If you already have one you can either just create a new one with a different email address or call HP and ask them to modify your current account so that you receive the academic discount.

 

If you match the specs @hp.com and factor in the 10% discount from epp or student discounts (including alumni discounts) - The hp.com price is about the same, just under 1199 at 1183.49


So no difference if you activate an epp account or student account.

 

additional comment about Costco:

They also have a 90-day return policy. Returns have never been a hassle, in my experience.

 

same thing happened to me. I had to call my bank and have them allow the transaction to go thru, because i believe the purchase was over what my bank will allow me to spend in one day on my card for security reasons. Just call your card issuer and ask them whats up. then call hp. only took me about 5-10 minutes all together.

 

My Dad's HP EPP takes it to $1019 (15% off). The printer deals are very good too. $60 off just for ordering with a PC.

 

Have to consider tax in most cases when buying from HP vs. amazon.

 

Huh? First it's July 20th, now it's in August?

 

OK here is a recap: July 18 to 20th is when we can expect to see the first official reviews get posted, from the reviewers that HP sends review units to, we know for sure at least one person has had a review unit since may 5th, which was the day of the press release. We will hear from the German envy owners before that though, one of them says he got notified this morning that his order is shipped.

The ad embargo date is August 22nd, that date is printed in the 1010NR spec sheet, its a ban on sales advertisements, the embargo will get lifted on that day.

 

My 2 cents on everything with the SSD:

Here's whats up, a lot of people are saying the SDD is over priced, this is false. Heres the same one that the Envy 14 would be equipped with :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167024

It's $430.

For people who are on the fence, I'd get the SSD, these things are relatively new and will retain value for a very long time. Try it out, everyone says its worth a try and the speed is likably noticeable.

If you don't like it, simply don't put many writes on it and you can easily access & remove it then sell it at least ~350

Why not give it a try if its so highly recommended !

 

I'm just waiting for the gen 2's to be around $200 for 160gigs or something.

(ya know when they get cheap when gen 3's come out)

 

when the gen 3s come out you're gonna want a gen 3
i know i would

 

only if they're not hugely expensive.

(could save up and all but still)

 

Son of a!