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

Dunno about HP, but my acer has a program that shuts off the ODD power while it's not in use. Would be cool if the same could be done to the USB ports, and maybe the speakers even.

 

Does this mean that we have some $wiggle$ room (or price reduction via telephone)? Broadcom's okay, but their drivers are usually really bad, with regard to BT drivers. And that's the bad thing about this, is that it's a 2in1: net card and a bluetooth.

 

hdd caddy? that's a good idea!

 

I agree, that would be brilliant if it fits, allowing you to use a small SSD as the boot drive, and a standard HDD for your files.

 

I had the same config, until my parents/family told me the SDD was too expensive . To make matters even worse I already have a 1 TB External HD, so the 320 GB HDD that HP offers will be pretty useless.

Lucky you!

 

Yes, the 450m will be able to run multiple VMs without issue. All CPUs released these days are capable of running VMs. Hell, even the Intel Atom series can run them.

There is a difference between VT-x (which nearly every new CPU is capable of) and VT-d (which only certain CPUs are endowed with). The primary difference is that VT-d is capable of directly accessing certain pieces of hardware. Read more here: Understanding VT-d: Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O

 

Do you honestly lug around a 1TB external wherever you go? I thought the whole purpose of a laptop was to be portable. Needing an external plugged in via USB wherever you are must be pretty inconvenient.

 

Yeah, this is pretty much the truth. When I last posted, a bunch of people replied, comparing the battery performance on the Envy 14 to various other 14.1" laptops- except that the Envy is 14.5" That might have something to do with the shorter battery life. It might also be accounted for by how the Envy owners in these threads are using their computers. Who knows. We need a standardized test, like the ones provided on this website or on notebookcheck.

I understand that people here are enthusiasts and want to see what kind of battery life to expect. But to dismiss the battery life on the Envy 14 as bad, based on battery meter readings from people who haven't even had the laptop for a week is absurd.

 

No no no, I keep the 1TB External at my desk at all times (unless I'm backing up a family computer or moving large amounts of files at once to another computer.) That being said if I download music, videos, games I can easily place them on the External-I usually keep new or my favorite songs on the computer though-which at most takes up about 1gb-2gb.

 

Im about to pull the trigger on this. No sales on july 4. Its time to buy guys.

 

Yo guys!
I don't think my messenger bag's laptop compartment is padded enough!
I'm thinking of buying a sleeve.
I can't find a good one though..

Sleeves should be snug, right?

Help me find one!
Other might want it too!

Thanks!

 

Get the one from sfbags.com

 

Does anyone have a good estimate of when/where the Envy 14 will show up as a demo model in retail stores (like Best Buy, etc.)? I would like to see it in real life before buying a laptop for college.

 

Hey,

im following this thread since it was opened.
The Envy 14 looks just perfect for me but what i need to know is if it is strong enough to play starcraft 2 because thats something i really want to do with my laptop.
The laptop has a pretty high resolution and im not sure if the 5650 can handle sc2 well on high then ( i almost doubt that )...
but maybe someone has tried gaming yet?!
if it just isnt good enough or needs to be reduced to medium graphics ill prolly stick with the roccat gamerbook. ( which is quite ugly i think )

so long

xqz

 

just up the processor to AT LEAST 450m and youl be good.

 

Lol, if your looking for a gaming notebook you should be looking around in the Asus subforum. If I were to get a gaming notebook, I'd be looking at the Asus G73JH=awesome laptop IMO.

 

i would think this laptop could handle sc2 on max settings as it is not a very demanding game

 

I am an engineer =P
(or at least will be taking my certification test this year)

 

YouTube - Geekanoids iSkin Soho Laptop Sleeve Review
Exists in a lot of different colors other than pink.

 

Nice site, but a bit expensive and ugly for my taste
It did provide me with good info though.
I'll try amazon.

 

must..keep waiting....200/300 coupon or BCB means SSD for me...

*heavenly music sounds*

 

You will easily be able to play SC2 on ultra.

 

Maybe he wants a laptop that is portable but can still be used for lighter gaming. The G73h is too big to realistically carry around on a daily basis, unless you are a masochist.

 

just go to fry's electronics and look at the 17inch model...It gives you a good comparison.

 

Think the 13 inch will be a closer comparison.

 

IMO medium @ 1600x900 > max @1366x768

be that as it may;

 

So July 4th sale, eh? Damn CSR claims.

 

Maybe, but we'll never really know unless he creates "What should I buy" thread with full details as to what he wants.

Besides, even if you get a smaller-more portable laptop, your still sacrificing performance. Envy 14 is the perfect mix between the two IMO, and we'll see how it holds up soon enough.

 

I am thinking I will replace my Sager with one of these. I am intrigued by the i7 processor too.

 

Need I remind you that an i7 will slash you're battery life twice over?

 

I am going to stick in one of those intel i7-640LM...

 

I can plug in at work/home/hotels. I only need battery for the airport and you can often find power at airports now too.

Thanks for pointing that out though.

 

Hey, so I joined this forum just now...mostly because I have a question--
Do you think the envy line will have updates by summer of next year? I'm going to college in the fall of 2011, but I want the envy now :-| But would it be in my best interest to wait...?

 

lets compromise and say the 15


(no, the 15s stupid buttons on the left side kill the keyboard and make typing on it a burden)

 

if you dont need it now then i would wait. there will most likely be some sort of update to it by then or another better laptop out

 

just putting this out there again, but between say an OCZ and an OEM Samsung SSD, are there any real world differences? or is it just a pissing match as far as numbers go?

most drives are just rebadged sammmys, right?

 

Hey Guys, So I've been following this thread and well I
m quite impressed. So one of my friends named Bronsky sugggested me to opt for an envy 14. Should I go for it? Here is what I need it for:

So is it a good idea? Also before I get to excited is the ENVY 14 available in Toronto Ontario Canada?

 

I really like this idea, but are we sure of the socket type? IIRC, the i5 520m can use the BGA1288 or PGA988...

I'll probably take mine apart as soon as I get it to double check if this is possible...hoping to see it by Thursday / Friday!

 

450m and i7 720qm Sockets Supported = PGA988 (envy is using that one then)
620LM is on socket BGA1288

Anyway, even then how would you get a 620LM, nearly all low voltage mobile processors are meant to be soldered to motherboard.

Then again, a 620LM will not perfom better than a i5 even in heavy multitasking, just take the numbers and cut them by half. Gaming may not be affected a lot but cpu intensive tasks will.

 

The i3-370M and i5-450M seem to only support PGA988, according to this Intel page: Compare Intel® Products since the i5-430M and i5-520M support PGA988 or BGA1288, my money goes on the motherboard having a PGA988 socket.

The -LM and -UM processors I've checked (including the i7-620LM) all list BGA1288 as the only socket type.

 

By lowering the screen brightness all the way down, turning wifi off, how long do you suppose an envy14 with quad would go on battery just for doing note-taking?

 

Hi

it was a very nice weekend with more soccer, barbecue, ....

I just had a little time now and tested a few minutes WoW on Envy 14.

I copied the whole folder from my gaming computer and only changed the resolution to 1600x900. Most quality settings were on max. Only shadows are off because I don't use them. The UI scale also needed a little adjustment because I normaly play on a 24" monitor.

It's 8 o'clock in the evening here in germany, Dalaran is quite full and everythings seems to run as smooth as with my gaming PC.
Everything looks sharp and clear. I certainly can game with this if I'm away from home.

If I turn shadows ON to max it getts laggy. So shadows OFF again.

Flew around a little bit in Icecrown. The HDD seems a bit slower than the one in my gaming PC. Sometimes there is a little lag when reaching a new area.
But no real problem because viewing distance is on max btw
If it does lag there are quite some quality options I could reduce.

Now back to the 24" screen of my gaming PC. No need to use Envy 14 for gaming if there is a more powerful machine waiting right next to it.

Ahh... one thing about temperatures.
Its very nice that CPU and GPU are on the right side of the chassis, because keyboard and chassis on the right side get quite warm/hot when gaming. But the left side of the keyboard with its often used WASD Keys stays a lot cooler. So no hot fingers

(room temperature about 30 degrees celsius here)

 

me too... probably going to open it up and some some arctic silver on it...

 

Samsung read is 250 and write is
180mb whereas ocz vertex is 280 read and 275 write
It's a big dif if you do video editing or transferring large files but generally not much .. Also OCZ Vertex 2 has a Higher Mean time before failure so that's angoodnthing
Ocz utilizes also the fastest controller on the consumer market the sandforce 1200..

Generally if price really is a issue nd you really can't spend 85 more for an ocz go for samsung

 

You will void your 1yr warranty just for 3C of temperature? Might as well lap the CPU too and hope for 8C.

 

Thanks for the update.

I don't want to sound like a blind HP zombie, but this is some really thoughtful engineering by HP. No warm left palmrest!!

 

Yes, wait for college. There are definitely going to be updates, new hardware, goodies that will make it worthwhile. Unless there's a compelling reason you need it now (like you wanna play a certain computer game) you should wait. Prices can only go down and quality can only go up. Trust me, self-control will absolutely pay off in this area.

 

This does not seem to be true. Witness this post:

StarCraft II Beta - English (NA) Forums -> ATI 5650 mobility radeon performance?

 

Hey Andreas, nice to hear from you.. I will get back to you for Linux instructions these days.. Have fun with the notebook!

To everyone else, I made a video of my envy and am uploading the video now.. Please bear with me as the connection here is really slow..
To your viewing pleasure I was shooting in 720p, so its going to take a bit..


EDIT: Damn, this connection is slow.. I am uploading at 6kb/s, the estimate is at over 1000 min.. But the number is coming down quick, so I think its a conservative estimate..

 

well i ordered my envy 14 . hopefully it is everything i hope for and if not i can always return it.