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

Not sure about the HM76, but the HM65 in my Envy 3000 is mSata2/Sata3/Sata2 guaranteed.

 

When you all are done with the Envy, do you just close the screen? Does that save the battery?

 

I turn it off. My solid state makes it boot in under 20 seconds. Problem solved.

 

Same with my hybrid. I've put it to sleep maybe once. If i have stuff open then hibernate, but a cold boot is just super fast.

 

I have my machine setup so that I can either boot from my SSD (disk #0) or Hybrid(disk #1) - installed W7 on BOTH (don't tell Billy). There is VERY little difference in boot time. WEI reports 7.9 vs 5.9, but in reality, booting is probably the most disk intensive thing most will ever do.

 

Cool post! Can you put a stopwatch to them & post results?

 

If you are talking to me... I will get around to it sometime... just not right now. PowerDirector 10 is the only application I can definately tell starts up faster on the SSD. Video rendering (~5 min realtime input) isn't significantly faster, but inital importing of video clips (several GB files) is. My biggest complaint with the SSD is it makes me realize how terrible my internet connection is...

 

I appreciate the info. My replacement Envy is on a plane right now and I was thinking of getting a SSD or MSATA. I got the hybrid drive but left off SSD/MSATA figuring I could do the SSD or MSATA cheaper. Newegg is having a JULY 4 sale on OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC SSD for $80 After rebate. I know with it only being 120GB I'll be able to do my OS and several most used programs but just didn't know if upgrade was worth the $ . Already on a tight budget as I needed to do huge RAM upgrade as I use multiple VM's. If you had it to do again would you do it? Is it a pain having to tell all the software to write to the data drive?

 

Envy 17 32xx 3D series​

• The mSATA port is SATA III @ 6Gb/s, the mSATA supplied is the Intel 310 80GB mSATA II
• The Intel HM76 chipset is capable of 2x SATA III portsand 4x SATA II ports
  

Intel® Solid-State Drive 310 Series Compact Size, Big Performance
Mobile Intel® Express Chipset HM76: Product Brief

 

Tell the programs to "Save To D:/"
Your SSD OS boot and programs will be C:/

 

Thanks, I appreciate the reply and am aware of the above. I didn't know if there was a boot loader program you could set up that automatically would redirect data to D drive without manually changing it on each piece of software. Not a big deal to do but if it can be done automatically cool. My biggest question is really that people are saying the hybrid drive boots really fast. I know the hybrid storage portion of the drive is only 8 I think, its dumbed down to 3GBs, but again people have said they are running dual boot systems and the hybrid drive boots almost as quick. I am trying to find what " almost" means in real time. Do you have any thoughts? Thanks

 

Can anyone explain the logic in HP's port config as above, especially considering they supply mSATA II????? Suppose I'm seeking rationality where it won't be found.

At least there's confirmation that HP supplies an mSATA. I revisited the build pages a few times. Ordering mSATA with the build was never offered as a component or accessory.

Perhaps tomorrows call with case manager with provide some clarity.

 

The 128GB mSATA III SSD is Samsung, its only available from notebook suppliers, I couldn't find a retail source for it,,,,,,,,,

BINGO!




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​

 

Why have " almost" when you can have the real thing?
Kinda like the 1st guy that proposed to me, gave me a Cubic Zirconium in the Engagement Ring because it kinda looked " almost" looked like a Diamond, dumped his cheep sorry [3 letter word, starts with A] real quick.

BUT,,,,,,

The HiBird is more than adequate for movies/music/documents etc.
Its not NEAR as reliable as an SSD, Intel has 5 year warranty's on some (520 series) of their SSD's.
Get a 330 series (they are really cheep at the moment), load your OS to it, put it in bay 2 (SATA III) and your notebook will boot from there.
Intel® Solid-State Drive 330 Series

OR,,,,,
Set up up like this as an option:
mSATA 80GB OS boot and programs
120GB SSD SATA III for games/video editing/astronomy programs,,,,,stuff that REALLY benefits from the speed of the SATA III
750GB HDD HiBird for music/movies/documents etc.

I had a boot time of 12 seconds with the Intel 80GB mSATA SATA II, I closed down a lot of unnecessary start up programs in Windows, and a bunch of others I didn't need (Skype, HP Bloatware etc).

 

Thanks for the response. As for you question why have almost when you can have the real thing. The answer is simply money. Can I afford one yes, but I could also afford to go buy a new 2013 vett tomorrow, would it be prudent, probably not. I mean why not get a couple go huge 400+ GB satas and a MSATA for that matter, could I afford it... Yeah... Is it practice for me personally... Nope. To each their own, if the hybrid is close, probably good enough for my personal needs.

 

"almost"
For reference purposes, I have changed nothing from the distribution software (Norton enabled), and I timed from boot loader select, w/ GUI startup, on a passworded account to the wireless completing negotiation, and we are talking ~30secs on the hybrid and slightly >25secs on the SSD. There is no comparision with my XPro dual core.

 

When you all are done using the laptop, what do you do? Close the lid? Turn it off?

 

Turn if Off...

 

Cool. That's what I was looking for. What are your machine specs.

 

A lot of the folks here are ticked about the Hybrid drives being crippled.

Well, I'm interested in doing a three-drive array, and I would actually be interested in getting a second Hybrid, regardless of the 3GB/s cap.

Soooo... if anyone here is interested in unloading their Hybrid and replacing it, I would be interested.

 

Are you SURE you visited the correct page?
Laptops | HP® Official Store




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What program did you use to create the image you posted if you don't mind sharing? Snipe and?

 

I don't know what AU4U used, but I like Lightscreen.

It's very simple.
Prt Sc - saves a shot of the whole screen.
Alt + Prt Sc - takes a shot of the currently selected application
Ctrl + Prt Sc - lets you draw a rectangle on screen and takes a shot of that

You can set where it saves the photos, and what format, as well as how it names them. I also use one of the options in it to give me an audible "camera snap" sound so I know that it worked, without having to stop and check my screenshot folder every time.

 

I have Faststone Capture, W7 has a snipping tool, but Faststone does editing.
FastStone Screen Capture - The Best Screen Capture Software
You will need a key to unlock it.

 

Using Windows: Push Print (whole screen) / Alt + Print (current window) on your keyboard and paste the contents anywhere using CTRL + V. Finished. Without any annoying extra software.

 

Just ordered the ENVY 17t-3200 CTO with the 750 GB Hybrid HD (CAN'T WAIT)
I held off upgrading to SSD or mSATA with the plan of doing it my self given the HP high priced for SSD/mSATA. I have the following questions:

1) Is there restriction as for the Brand/Model/Size of SSD or mSata that is supported?
2) Any suggested brand/model ~128-260 GB for SSD or mSATA?
3) Any suggestion as for SSD vs mSATA?
4) I am planing to boot from SSD or mSATA do i have to re-install the OS?
5) Does the SSD have to be in bay 1 (if i go with SSD)
6) If I am planing to dual boot with Linux, any suggestion on HHD/SSD/mSATA configuration? I was thinking Linux on SSD, Win7 on HHD if feasible. Main laptop usage: Running xple VMs, Software Dev, Multimedia and some minimal gaming
7) Any success in runing Linux on ENVY 17t-3200?

Sorry for the many questions . Any response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

 

17-3200/i7-3720/8G/6300/Sandisk Extreme 240G #0/HP Seagate Hybrid #1

 

Smurf, I don't like the "full-featured" screenshot programs either. That's why I like Lightscreen so much. I'd really recommend you try it.

The one and only thing Lightscreen does is save a JPEG each time you press PrintScreen. That's it.

It doesn't pop anything up on screen or ask you to do anything else. It just saves a picture in the background, and it never interrupts your workflow.

There's no need to open a program, paste the image, select a storage location, give a filename, or even press save. Just one button and done; it automatically saves it in a pre-designated location, and it gives it a unique filename, based on the date and time.

And, since nothing pops up on screen, I selected the option of having have it make a shutter sound. When I hear the shutter, I know the picture saved.

If you want to remain a purist, that's cool and all, but I'd bet that if you used it for a couple weeks, you'd find it invaluable.

 

Thanks for everyone's help / comments except I don't think everyone goy my reasoning for the question. I know how to do print screen, snipe, et. What You might not have known was in this example a screen shot was taken then edited with arrows , et, to look very professional and I was looking what software he used that may edit the screen shot effectively and quickly.


Thank AU4U for the reply.

 

I heard bad thing about the bay 1, when the hybrid drive just run 3gb/s SATA II instead of 6gb/s SATA III. So if I replace the hybrid drive with my 256gb Crucial M4 and the hybrid drive will become 2nd drive, what happens with my ssd?

 

Put the SSD in bay 0 , put the HD in bay 1, SSD will be 6gs , hd will be 3 gbs.

 

This annoying program costs 20 Bucks each, fortunately, I have a bulk corporate licenses for up to 500 PC's.
I would give you the licensees for free if you asked, but I wouldn't want the program to annoy you, soooo you can guess what my answer would be.

FastStone Capture is a powerful, lightweight, yet full-featured screen capture tool and screen video recorder. It allows you to easily capture and annotate anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular / freehand / fixed regions as well as scrolling windows / web pages. It also allows you to record all screen activities including onscreen changes, speech from microphone, mouse movements and clicks into highly compressed video files. You can choose to send captures to editor, file, clipboard, printer, email, Word / PowerPoint document or upload them to your website. Editing tools include annotating (texts, arrowed lines, highlights), resizing, cropping, sharpening, watermarking, applying edge effects and many more. Other features include image scanning, global hotkeys, automatic filename generation, support for external editors, a color picker, a screen magnifier and a screen ruler. FastStone Capture saves files in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIFF and PDF formats.

• A small handy Capture Panel that provides quick access to its capture tools and output options
• Global hotkeys to activate screen capturing instantly
• Capture windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular/freehand regions and scrolling windows/web pages
• Capture multiple windows and objects including multi-level menus
• Record screen activities including onscreen changes, speech from microphone, mouse movements and clicks into highly compressed video files (Windows Media Video format). A built-in video editor allows you to draw annotations and add zoom effects to video files
• Options to specify output destination (internal editor, clipboard, file, printer ...)
• Draw annotation objects such as texts, arrowed lines, highlights, watermarks, rectangles and circles
• Apply effects such as drop-shadow, frame, torn-edge and fade-edge
• Add image caption
• Resize, crop, rotate, sharpen, brighten, adjust colors ...
• Undo/Redo
• Support external editors
• Save in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIFF and PDF formats
• Acquire images from scanner
• Convert images to multi-page PDF file
• Send captured images by email
• Send captured images to Word and PowerPoint documents
• Send captured images to a Web (FTP) server
• Screen Color Picker
• Screen Magnifier
• Screen Ruler
• Support multiple monitors
• Run when Windows starts (optional)
• Minimize to System Tray area
• Small footprint in memory
• And many more ...

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1) Any will work, I like Intel, you DO NOT have to wipe it clean of EVERYTHING to do a firmware update, MyDigital has had lots of firmware updates, each includes removing the OS, and programs, updating, reinstalling,,,,,can you imagine doing this 7+ times. I'll pay a little extra for the convenience,,,IMO

2) You may NEVER need more than 80BG as a OS boot. Windows only needs 40GB, plus some programs,,,HOWEVER, a game can be up to to +/- 10GB so you will want to place it on a separate drive, preferably SSD. Read the instructions on a game, manufactures recommend that you NOT install to your primary drive.

3) Do 3 drives if you can afford it.

• 80GB mSATA as a boot + programs
• 120GB SATA III for games/cad/video and photo editing/astronomy programs,,,,stuff than REALLY benefits from the speed of the SATA III.
• HDD for movies/music/documents

4) If you purchase an Intel product (SSD) you can use the Data Migration Tool, it does everything for you, quick and easy!
You MAY want to do a clean install as well.

5) You can place the SSD in bay 1 OR 2, depends on the SATA speed of the SSD and the speed you wish to get from it. The envy has SATA 2 and 3 bay's.

6) If you have a large enough SSD (120GB), partition it 80/40, load Linux to the 40GB, on your PC boot you will be asked which you want to load.
NO GAMES on you OS drive..............

7) WiFi, trackpad, audio, a bunch of others don't work, thats for the Envy 17-3090NR 3D, check the UBUNTU forums for scripts, there is a sub forum here as well. 3290NR 3D is still too new for scripts, there are other MAJOR problems with the Envy to even consider installing Linux, for me......

 

Thanks for this explanation, but I'm propably one of the purest purists I even install software on a VM to try to port it without installation to my "real" machine (except there is a portable version which I definetly prefer). This way my system stays as clean as it can. Sure, it's time consuming, but also a great feeling
I like Windows (except the registry which is a bunch of unmanagable crap), but I don't like most programs' uninstallers.

@AU4U: Thanks, but I even don't need it


Edit: @llinuxer: Have a look at http://www.laptopreviews.com/hp-envy-17-3000-review-2012-02 (the short Linux section)
I don't know if there are differences besides the new Ivy Bridge, but Ubuntu is said to run on the Envy 3000 without driver issues. I didn't try it myself, yet.

 

Thank you for this!

I was planning on getting a MyDigitalSSD Smart Series drive and doing RAID on two 2.5" drives. That kinda throws a wrench in the works. Or at least makes me really think before I purchase.

 

Speaking of VM's, what are you using and have you tried others to compare? Virtual box, windows vm, ???

 

Well I'm not a purist. My machine is to get things done expediently. Sort of hard to make a PDF, compile code, edit a screen shot with serious notes, ET, without software. Oh well I do also understand trying to keep the registry clean.

On another note, not being the purist, I'd be happy to have a license of that software.

 

Well, about 4 years ago I used VMware but then settled over to VirtualBox and stayed there. Works ok, the only thing which could be better is dual monitor support. I heard it's better in VMware but didn't try it yet. I only would use that extensively when programming, but I rarely do that in my spare time anymore, since I'm already doing that 8 hours a day on a not-so-clean-as-my-envy-workstation

PS: Purists can do anything, but with a bit more effort

 

So wait, is this delay in delivery (for ENVY 3200 CTO non-3D) being experienced by everyone that recently ordered?

If this is the case I am considering cancelling this order! If there is one think I cannot stand is substandard customer service and being lied to while i am forking out ~$1500.

 

SENT VIA PM,,,,,,,,

 

I doubt anyone can answer that question Non-3D or 3D. There have been many many folks with delays and some without. A lot of people ordered the refreshed unit the minute it hit the web site. Many ordered just after. Some thought the delays where do to new Envy production line, shortage of a component, shortage of another component, bios problems, more people ordered when the refresh was released than they expected and HP was overwhelmed, 33% coupon causing mass orders, they moved to a bigger production facility, the list is long. What the cause was I Donno. It seems like latest batch that were delivered today and a few days before seem to have the production bugs worked out. The 15" seemed to have more issues than the 17". Mine looks good but all I have/are now doing is burning the recovery disks. Funny thing is it has already errored out on disk 3 & 4 out the 5 disks it will require. I had to put in a replacement disk each time. I am hoping it is the media and not the optical drive. All that said, I wouldn't cancel the order. If it ships on time great, if it ships late & your upset send it back. I will say it is next to my DV6 and the screen kicks the 6's behind. Good luck.

 

Excellent!!! THANKS!!!!

NBR's PM must be slooooooooooow though. Still no message. If it comes through I'll let you know.

 

Sent at 10:52 PM.

 

I stand corrected...sort of.

Yet another example of insufficient disclosure. A newb to hp.com, or even occasional buyer, would have little, if any, clue that those options are mSATA...not without a phone call. A betting man would put the odds at they being 2.5" devices. And it seems to me that all the manufacturers are doing there best to phase-out sales reps for the consumer lines. There may be no one to call in 5 years.

Perhaps I'm too exacting but we are talking about a product for which the manufacturing process requires the utmost attention to detail. Why slam on the brakes when it comes to marketing??? mSATA...4 letters doesn't occupy that much screen space, plus its a scrolling field. LOL

Thanks for the dialogue, AU4U.

 

Here's the kicker, Intel held off for 2 years releasing it from testing, the component, it WORKS,,,,Thats it!
There has been NO firmware updates for the 80GB 310 mSATA, testing takes time and money, you will have the quality built in,,,,,it integrates flawlessly into the i7, and who makes the i7?

I had a boot time of 12 SECONDS!
I shut down a lot of unnecessary background processes in Windows start up, other programs like Skype, HP Bloatware,,,etc.
If someone argues that the SEQUENTIAL WRITE is low,,,,who needs that for a boot drive,,,,you need RANDOM WRITES for the program updates. Your not doing long sequential writes like movies and music to your OS drive,,,,are you?!

 

A single SATA II SSD out performs any 2x 7200RPM RAID.........
RAID is old technology.
Its 2012 Dude.......

 

I know RAID is a joke in terms of speed. I'm not in Pre-K.

Blistering raw speed is not my goal for this laptop - that's what my desktop is for. I mean, my desktop isn't gonna set any world records, but it's stable at 5GHz, I have way better graphics for gaming, CUDA for video encoding, and my SATAIII ports outnumber my drive bays. The ENVY can technically do gaming and video editing, but compared to the desktop, it sucks.

Where the ENVY shines, however, is as a stylish, portable, multimedia center, and I would like to make it my primary computer, in terms of holding the primary instance of all my data. For most day-to-day uses, the ENVY *feels* almost as fast as the desktop, and it's a very enjoyable laptop to use.

My combined Personal + Work files take up nearly 1TB on their own, so a single 1TB drive just won't let me keep everything with me at once. Plus, I don't want to slow everything down to 5400RPM.

So, for myself, I want an SSD large enough for my OS & Software, and a bigass media drive to go with it. I could use an mSATA + 2x 7200RPM Drives, or possibly even mSATA + 2x Hybrid Drives. And RAID 0 would be for the dual benefits of performance boost and the simplicity of managing one logical media drive.

Personally, I get frustrated managing files across multiple drives. If I could buy one monster SSD that held everything, I would.

Honestly, I can't wrap my head around your logic of buying a slower, smaller, way more expensive mSATA drive, to accompany your 2.5" SSD and 7200RPM Drive. I would just recommend to get a larger 2.5" SSD instead.

You could buy a larger, class-leading 2.5" SSD; it would be faster than the Intel, and it would save you a truckload of money. Then, if you insisted on separating your OS from your software, you could partition the SSD. I mean, I wouldn't, but to each their own.

I know that we all want to fill the mSATA slot, cuz it's pretty b!tchin' to rock three drives in a laptop. But I don't see how that makes sense.

 

Ever thought of a NAS? I started to hate sync'ing data across my devices. I have 4 laptops around and keeping files sync'ed is more than annoying. Of course, LAN would be the better connection if you move large files (except streaming). So portability is limited if you don't use the ENVY as a DTR.

Luckily I can store my important data inside the cloud relatively secure ("secure" in the way of loss & privacy) within my 20gb+ space. But as soon as the "cloud" isn't ok anymore, I would go over thinking about a NAS or anything related to network storage.

Since I'm more security related I would suggest you not to have personal data (as long as it's important) on a RAID 0.

 

I agree, like you said if the unit is portable, NAS is not a great option, when the cloud is not there or unavailable this really sucks for me and can be slow for large files, and since RAID 0 is set of two disks roughly half as reliable as a single disk, I wouldn't ever trust that with the current build of HD's that seem to be coming out of the factories. I don't know there is one good solution, so as my Economics prof said many many years ago, pick the best wrong answer.

 

Mine shipped 2 days early, and had it in hands before the expected ship fate. Everyone is different though, which is silly cuz it should be uniform.



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