*HP ENVY 17 & 17 3D (2XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Great info!! I was just curious. I have a thumb drive that I already have 4GB dedicated to ReadyBoost, and I have a second one lying around somewhere.

 

I honestly think it will be un-necessary. The 8GB is more than what you'll need...

 

While not aimed at laptops, I bumped into this pretty decent analysis of SandyBridge memory options.

The Best Memory for Sandy Bridge | bit-tech.net

(skip to page 12 for the summary if you don't want to read all that crap).

Bottom line is that 1333 may cause a small penalty in certain cases, anything faster than 1,866 has rapidly diminishing returns.

In today's world with the SB architecture, 1600 is the sweet spot for the true power user. (I know the Envy can't do faster than 1600, I just think it's a neat article)

 

Trying to be famous are you?

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

BAD PREDICTIONS

 

hey fiver5 were you using any particular video test -- or you just noticed the obviously stuck red pixel in all conditions. If I remember your posts right, this one stuck out in all conditions no matter what was on the screen!

 

that is totally funny. fiver5 has done his homework and speaks the truth for the useful life of the laptop -- but this reference to Bill Gates and his 640K comment is just priceless! +1 rep

 

Hey, thanks !! testing out the new signature

 

I noticed it within the hour of turning it on. I wasn't that bothered by it at first, but on video playback any dark scenes made it terribly obvious - and annoying.

After that I ran a number of screen tests to see if there were any other problems. There weren't, just the one stuck red pixel. Hopefully whoever gets it as a refurb is happy with it or doesn't notice.

 

..........

 

Bobmitch if you're still watching I really hope you don't go. I don't think its appropriate to put that in a sig either but I'd rather see that go away than you...

 

maybe HP is building ahead! maybe what you ordered is one of the very configurations they are planning for the retail chain and "quick ship" models.

 

Ha right! As you may be aware, my quest for the Envy started way way back in September 20th, 2010 when I first heard about and ordered my Envy 17. I was so excited I googled this laptop after placing my order only to find out that HP was about to release the Envy 17 3D shortly!

I called HP within 30 minutes of my order and asked them to cancel. Ordered the 3D model when it came out, waited a month. Sent it back because of warping in metal (which was due to over tightned screws in the battery compartment which we all found out soon after.) HP then sent me a new one, but they blew it by spilling the beans that the SB version is coming soon. Back this went too, lol.

Forward almost 7 months later and I shall finally hold in my hands the most sexy, sleek, amazing laptop I have seen in a while. I plan on having her work for me at least 4 years, I hope.... Unless I come across serious cash and can afford the latest thing in a couple of years. Hope you all get the laptops you want.

KJ

 

Alrighty I am joining the Sandy bridge boat since i am getting a replacement laptop from HP for my less then a month on i7 720QM Envy 17.

By all specs it should run cooler, and some talks with a few owners seems to point to it being cooler.

Basically getting:

 

congratulations! its that in-box envelope that really seals the deal, huh:laugh:

 

What was that? 5% or something off on your next HP.com order? Or was it just a $10 coupon? HHAHA Either way, welcome to the Envy line everyone who ordered...

dlleno, I do hope you are going to order yours soon.... Yeah, I know, you are waiting for some development regarding that darn clickpad....

KJ

 

Yeah took me forever to negotiate the terms to get that envelope included, let's just say they'd sooner put out a fully loaded Envy 17 before that envelope.

 

Check you PMs dude...just the last one...haha

 

What is hp home and home office store in box envelope? I ordered an HP Envy 17 3d and didnt get one, I wasnt even offered one.

 

Sorry but it's a envelope for those privy. It's really something special.

 

haha very funny, i know its not something major, but im paying 1900 for this laptop i want all the amenities that come with it. but seriously is it some type of recovery software or something?

 

It more then likely is some envelope with other products of HP, maybe a 5% off coupon. Really it's nothing.

 

Yeah, that is what I was saying... a very very very small % off next purchase...or $10 lol. No biggie... also tells you about other products like ink, printers, etc.. nonsense really. They would have been way cooooler if they offered anyone who bought the Envy 17 SB or Envy 17 3D SB a coupon for a free copy of....oh I don't know, maybe CRYSIS 2?!??@ Hahah that would be awesome, I wish.


KJ

 

thanks for letting me now, I thought it was the recovery cd's, because I wanted to order them with my laptop but I was never given an option to like with other laptops.

Also I am sorry been kinda busy, I know someone asked for a coupon they could use to buy the laptop. Well the coupon i used was one that was meant for the regular HP Envy 17 the $400 off on i believe the code was NB5492 im not to sure if that is the code but its along those lines. Also when I first tried to apply the coupon the sales rep wouldnt let me no matter how much I complained. I called back a few times to no avail. So what i did was i kept calling until I got someone from outside the U.S. I told her that I wouldnt buy the laptop without the coupon she told me to hold so she could ask her supervisor. After holding for about a minute she said fine and on my first shot with a sales rep from outside the U.S. the coupon worked. It could have been a stroke of luck and not the sales rep, but you guys can try that.

 

For those of you who already have received your shipment, can you tell me about the sleeve that it ships in? Is this similar to the sleeves you can buy at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc? Is it sturdy enough to take with me to work some days? Or would it be best if that case were put inside another case? I'm looking for a new leather briefcase (the messenger bag type) that can hold a laptop this size...I don't take my laptop to work everyday, but when I do, it would be nice to have a briefcase design. Any ideas?

 

Got an e-mail this morning saying it shipped today and will be here 3/21.

 

The sleeve is microfiber or suede sleeve. Nothing special, and is actually a lil too short as it leaves one side exposed a little.

 

Timcfox, when did you place your order? Cuz I ordered on 03/12...I wish it could be shipped tomorrow, is it possible?

 

Aloha,

I am ordering an ENVY 17 3D but I'm on the fence as to ordering the HP Academy price or holding out for a deal like some of you got at $400.00 off.

I'm getting the normal bells & whistles with the following specs. I would like to know if there is a way to set up the dual hard drive so the second one mirrors the primary one all the time and how to set it up so that it is.

Any input will be appreciated.

Processor 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2820QM 2.3 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache with Turbo Boost up to 3.4 GHz

Office software No Additional Office Software
Memory 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Graphics card 1GB Radeon(TM) HD 6850M GDDR5 Graphics [HDMI]
Hard drive 2TB 5400RPM Dual Hard Drive (1TB x 2) with
HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Primary battery One 6-Cell and One 9-Cell Lithium Ion Battery


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Mahalo,

Richard

 

You US citizens should really consider yourselves lucky... You can configure the laptops you want and can get them at ridiculously low prices, with all the coupons and stuff.

Here in Europe we can usually just pick from 1-2 pre-configured models. No i7-2820QM, 6830M (?!), etc. - at least were I live. Not to mention the prices...

 

how much higher is the price in Europe?

ever consider get one from ebay US?

 

The 3D model you can get here is 1499 Euros (~ $2100) compared to $1599 in the US. And you even get a weaker GPU (6830M).


Don't think I would ever get one on eBay...

 

you should try. ebay do offer a lot of good stuff. even thru I do hate them charge so much nowadays for sellinf stuff, but as a buyer, its great. just need to know where to look

 

Are you guys familiar with those silicon keyboard covers (iSkin) for the Macbook? (iSkin) Has anyone stumbled across anything like that custom-fitted for the Envy 17? I know I've seen some "universal" ones online, but I'd really like to find one...they help with keeping things out of the keyboard, and they also help keep dirt/debris on the keys from scratching the screen when the lid is closed.

 

I ordered on 2/28. Not sure why it's taking so long. My first Envy 17 3D shipped eleven days before the published build date. I checked again this morning and the FedEx web site says that my Envy was picked up on 3/17, but no activity since.

 

I'm going to have the IT guy at our office install a second drive when my Envy comes in. I ordered the 640G 7200RPM HDD option on the Envy. I'd like to install a 240G solid state drive and make it my primary OS drive. Does anyone know if that's possible, and, if it is possible, does anyone have any suggestions on the best 240G SSD money can buy? I've read good things about the Vertex 3, but I don't think it's available yet.

 

mrgod2u, welcome to NBR! You made a great choice with the Envy 17 3D SB edition..... I looked at your specs and I have only one piece of advice to give....

Your hard drive selection I highlighted in red bold..... you might want to rethink that selection. We have recently discussed the issue of the 5400rpm drive vs. the 7200rpm. The 5400rpm really cripples the performance of the sexy beast of a laptop...it really is sad (I should add, I did not experience the 5400rpm on my Envy, but I currently have a 5400 on my dv7-4283cl and its killing me) I was lucky to order mine before HP stopped specing this Envy with the 7200rpm HDD alone.

If you don't mind slow performance and just want insane amounts of storage, then keep your configuration as is.....

If you want normal, to super fast, then consider just ordering the laptop with the 1TB 5400rpm drive, then swapping it out with a 7200rpm HDD, or an SSD you purchased elsewhere. Best of luck, and ask any questions. Everyone is very chill here.

KJ

 

Hi and welcome to the forum! we have a good group here.

Essentially, what you are asking for is RAID 1, which is not supported out of the box by HP. For dual (identical) disk configurations such as the one you chose, RAID 0 is available out of box from HP but that does not meet your needs as you describe them. Raid 0 essentially splits the data across two disks to increase I/O performance, but this significantly reduces disk reliabilty because a failure on either disk means total data failure.

Raid 1 (I believe. you'll want to validate) appears to meet your requirements but is not available in the disk controller supplied by HP on the Envy 17. Win 7 pro and ultimate appear to offer a software fake of RAID 1, but before doing this I would want to study up on un-intended consequences. Perhaps someone who has attempted this can provide more detail.

I would also worry about support -- HP won't support this configuration, as I know, so if you have any trouble with your laptop and you send it in with that configuration in tact, HP will probably send it back to you or refuse service until you re-configure to the shipped configuration. Also note that RAID 1 is not a backup solution, and offers no protection against accidental data corruption or file deletion. The only thing RAID 1 gives you is protection againsts drive crash.

Also, and this cannot be over-emphasized: you may also get a disk performance hit when you configure disk mirroring as both drives will be banging away all the time, and Win 7 itself has to keep track of everything (also consuming CPU). Moreover, a single 5400 rpm drive is already performance limited, soo..... do you really want to do that? If I had a pair of 5400s I think I would configure RAID 0 (which is fully supported by HP), and then impliment a really robust backup solution

 

RAID 1 (Mirror) will impose a performance hit on writes (have to write twice for every request), but will benefit from a performance increase on reads (the file can be read from either spindle). You can suffer one physical hard drive failure without losing any of your data though.

RAID 0 (Striping) will benefit from a performance increase on both reads and writes due to the additional spindles, but as has been said, you are not protected from any hard drive failure.

Personally, for home use, a RAID 0 solution is better. Backup to a USB drive, they are relatively cheap.

 

BTW, my Envy 17 3D arrived last night.

Order Date: 03/04/2011
Expected Build: 03/15/2011
Shipped on: 03/14/2011
Received on: 03/17/2011
​

Now I didn't get much time to play with it last night (only created the backup DVD's) but I can tell you that it was on for over 4 hours working that DVD and the case barely got warm to the touch. You could hear the fan kick in every so often and the heat coming out of the vents was hot, but there was virtually NO HEAT radiating from the palm rest area.

Since I ordered the 2820QM processor, I'll pop open the memory compartment and see if its 1600MHz ram for you all. Give me a little time.

I checked out the 3D videos and they looked good. Switchable graphics worked well.

Also, that ThermalTake power supply I bought works AWESOME with this laptop. The power brick is so small compared to the behemoth that HP ships. Its only 95W, but the Envy doesn't complain about downclocking like it did when I had the slim HP power adapter. I think the ThermalTake might have the ability to push 120W when needed which is probably how it gets by that power requirement. The angled tips work really nice too as it keeps the space to the right of the laptop open for a mouse. The behemoth HP sends comes straight out with a fairly long prong and the cable is a little stiff.

Finally, I'm SO PISSED OFF that HP screwed up my laptop installation. I ordered the 160GB SSD and the 640GB HDD. I turned it on, went through the prompts and checked my available drives. I had a single 320GB drive in windows!!!

At first I was like W-T-F. I heard somebody else report this and thought maybe they upped the SSD. No such luck. Instead the boneheads RAID0 (striped) my SSD to the HDD. So basically I have a 160GB x2 stripe (320GB) exposed to the windows 7 OS. The remainder of the 640GB drive is wasted (their controller can't expose it as raw disk to the OS) and the speed of my laptop SUCKS since they striped a SSD to a turning spindle.

Now if I was a normal home user, I would be screwed at this point and sending it back in for repairs. However being a technical professional I am going to try and solve this on my own. I turned on the RAID menu option in the bios so I could see what they did. My plan was to make my backup DVD's, break the stripe, and restore from DVD. I'm hoping this works, wish me luck!!!

 

definately those are the expected best-case expectations when RAID 1 is implimented via the disk controller. you're also right to point out that there could be a performance increase on read in some cases, but we can't really claim much here -- this is not a parallel read because the data still comes from one and only one spindle and is limited by the seek time and xfer rate of that disk - the performance increase happens only because the controller gets to pick the "best" spindle from which to obtain the data, i.e. when one is busy it can pick the other one.

But when implimented in the OS, i'm guessing one might not enjoy any of the (small to begin with) performance improvements from RAID1, and since the implimentation will consume CPU horsepower as well, I'm not convinced its a good idea in a laptop.

 

HP's RAID solution is hardware though. It's not a software RAID. Software RAID is a waste of resources... ick!

 

yay! congratulations dude. you can always use a hw info utility to see your RAM speed. and use the BIOS as well to see if this speed can be configurable. In any case I'll wait for your info and then update the technical details summary. thanks in advance!

ugh unbelievable! this is so stupid -- HP doesn't even support raid 0 on dissimlar drives; some bonehead had to have striped this after the image was burned, perhaps?; thats just soo baaaad! maybe you should call HP and get them to give you a refund lol

 

yes but HP's hardware solution is RAID 0 only. they don't support RAID 1. unless you're saying you've seen it in the BIOS? the original question was "how can I impliment disk mirroring" to which the only answer is "RAID 1", which can only be implimented via, ugh, software.

 

wait -- cam121 how can you have 320GB implimented as Raid0 when the smallest drive is 160?

edit: my bad that was a brain fart; lol where did that come from?

 

cam121 I have a simple solution for you.... Call HP and DEMAND, I mean DEMAND that they send you an new 160GB SSD overnight!!! Assuming the 640GB 7200 is working fine.... HP has to learn sometime!!! Sheeeeshhh...

Oh, and do not send your laptop to get "fixed." They might do more damage then good, and you don't want to live without your laptop, you let them know. Good luck, and let us know too...lol... Oh, and I'd love to know what ram speed you have, thanks.

KJ

 

That's how RAID0 works. 160 GB from the SSD and 160 GB from the HDD.

 

brain fart; ya my bad, lol

 

Oh...so they can RAID0 from an SSD with an HDD, wow? But essentially they cripple the speed of the SSD that way then?


KJ

 

yea the data is striped across both disks -- so it uses only 160MB of the HDD. half of the data resides on the SSD and half on the HDD, so you end up with a 320GB drive exposed to the OS.

because the reads and writes cross both drives, the speed is limited by that of the slowest. for example if you write a 100k word document, 50k of it will reside on the SSD and 50K on the HDD. so when you read or write,you can do so no faster than the slowest drive.

essentially, what HP did to cam121 is give him a pair of 160GB 7200 rpm drives in RAID 0, and he gets no beneift from the SSD

 

Yeah, at least that's what cam121 said.