*HP Envy 15 (11XX / 12XX series) Owners Lounge!*

I use mine for school and gaming... but I also do a video editing and other multimedia work as a hobby

Found the 6 cell on hp's part surfer site

http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=576833-001

 

Both will be fine. The 520M will be slightly faster, but it depends on how much that is worth it to you. The 520M and 430M are both very close to each other in the price/performance ratio, so it's really up to how much you want to spend. I would highly recommend getting an SSD instead of upgrading your processor if money is an issue... an SSD is the single best upgrade you can do for overall performance at the moment. Only if you plan on doing a lot of movie encoding or other things that take a lot of CPU horsepower should you give a faster CPU priority.

 

The glossy FHD screen is pretty good. Gamut is a close match to sRGB, contrast up around 600:1, and color response curves are fairly smooth which means it responds well to profiling. Of course, any desktop display with an IPS panel will eat it for breakfast, so set your expectations accordingly - for color critical work you are still better off using an external display.

 

@PitaBred How much of an increase will an ssd give in gaming performance? I vaguely remember reading somewhere (might be this thread) that the hard drive is only "accessed" once in gaming with a card as powerful as the 5830. Thats a terrible description, but its all i can remember. Regardless, if an ssd ends up in my laptop, it won't be when it comes to my door. I'll put in an ssd later when i can afford it, because the +300 upgrade for the 160gb ssd and the 250gb hdd is out of my price range.

 

Oh, thank you very much. I was just looking at HP's normal site. +rep
Unfortunately, it costs $122 on there, whereas it's $75 when ordered with the Envy 15. I won't need the extra battery until probably next year, when I have to be more mobile on battery longer. Any input on whether it's worth it to save $50 but have the battery sit for a year?

I kinda want to get a 520m just to be safe even though I really doubt it will benefit me. By the way, I plan to get an SSD later, can't afford it at this time.

SSD will help in loading and saving games, making it very fast, but will not help the performance of the game.

 

there is little to no improve in terms of fps.

the improvement is in loading times.

 

HERE is a link to a full screen test result from my 1080P glossy disply. It ha contrast, brightness, color gamut etc. along with a couple of icc profiles. Just scroll down the page and yoyu'll see my posts.... All the results are after calibration with Spyder3 elite v. 4.0.

Bottom line is it works very well for mobile editing with the limitations that Larsv mentions above. We get great print output color matching direct from the Envy do to spyder3's printer calibration / profile program, it allows us to print direct from the notebook without the hassle of transfering to a desktop w/ IPS display for final CS4 adjustments 98% of the time....

 

It won't increase actual gaming performance at all, once you're in-game. But I am always the first one into levels when playing multiplayer games. What an SSD does more than anything is it makes everything "instant". Firefox starts up in 1-2 seconds instead of 5-10. Files save faster. It's amazing how much the main storage is the bottleneck in computers these days. If you have any friends with an SSD or can go test out a machine with an SSD in a store or something, you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

thanks JJB I'll install it and test it. Do you use LR? It performs faster on SSD's?

 

Ok so I just 3DMark06'd my laptop (dv6tse - i5 450m - ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 - 6gb DDR3 RAM) twice with the gpu OC'd to 649/928, and got a score of about 8100 both times. How well does the envy 15 normally do in this test? How far can the gpu be OC'd? And how much of an improvement does this give to the 3DMark06 score? Oh and what are some other tests I could run, and how well does the envy 15 do in them (standard gpu freqs and OC'd freqs)? Thanks in advance!

 

How can I restore my laptop to factory settings? I've sold an Envy 15, and the restore partition is there. Just don't want to reformat since I don't actually have a DVD with windows on it.

 

Use your HP restore discs if you made them, it should restore it to all default factory settings and wipe your personal data at the same time.

 

Erm, that would be a problem. Got it refurb, so no discs and never got prompted for them. Any way to make them now?

 

I forget since I have not used any of the HP software since I clean intalled Win7 months ago. I think it's the HP app is called HP Support Assistant or something like that. There should be an HP recovery or restore option somewhere in it, it will warn you (IIRC) with a popup that makes you confirm you want to restore all original factory settings and that you will lose all data etc....

 

Just got my Envy 15 and its amazing! Love it. Anyway can someone take a look at one of my threads ( link)?
No one seems to know or no one's answering .

Mucho thanks

 

Question: if I order the E15 with the standard 500gb hdd, does it come with all necessary brackets, cables, screws, etc, so I can mount my own hdds?

Is this two 2.5" bays, or a 2.5" + a 1.8"? Or, god forbid, two 1.8"?

 

Given your CPU, that seems like a pretty good score. Why did you settle on 928 for the RAM? The 5830 is highly bandwidth limited. Try kicking it up to 1000 or 1050, which almost everyone can hit. You have an insane core overclock if it's stable like that. I can only get to about 550 without problems.

 

It's 1 x 2.5" which doubles, with a special HP bracket, as a 2 x 1.8" for the dual SSD option.

 

@PitaBred I have a dv6tse with the ATI Mobility Radeon 5650, not an envy 15 with the 5830. I am considering getting this laptop mostly for the increase in graphical performance, however with such a small difference in memory clock (or is 100-120mHz a big difference for gpus?), and apparently a decrease in core clock, this doesn't seem to be worth the extra money. And as another downgrade, I would not be getting an ssd in it. Could anyone give me some 3DMark06 results, preferably with their specs aswell? Also, how well does the envy 15 do with games like Crysis? With my current laptop, I can get about 18-20 fps on my native res (1366x768) and all settings on high. Overclocked I get about 2-4 fps more. Thanks in advance!

@JJB Would I be correct to assume that the 250gb 5400rpm hdd that comes with the ssd for $300 is smaller than, for example, the base 500gb 7200 hdd?

@idaWHALE Your question in the thread you linked to seems to be answered.

 

The 5830 has, I believe, more shaders and some other features that the 5650 does not have. For 3D06 results and specs see my signature, just click the 3D score and you'll see details and OC settings...

The 250GB HDD in the 'combo' SSD/HDD option has to be a 1.8" as that is the only way to fit 2 drives in the single 2.5" drive bay -- 1 x 1.8" SSD and 1 x 1.8" HDD.

PS: Your current (DV6) 3D06 scores are not comparible to ours (1080P screens) because you have a lower than default resolution for 3D06 your actually running the test at 1280 x 768 vs. default 1280 x 800, so your results will be artificially higher do to the lower resolution.

 

the 5830 is a lower clocked gddr3 version of the 5870 where as the 5650 is a lower clocked 5730 missing some shaders...something like that

 

Has anyone else had problems with intermittent connection issues while playing games? Ill be playing left for dead 2 or tf2 and all of a sudden everything freezes and the red text "problem with connection. try to re-connect" or something like that. most of the time it recovers but happens like 2 mins later. Any suggestions?

 

sounds like its a router issue on your end.... how many bars does windows show when your connected if on wireless?

 

sorry to butt in off topic..

I'm looking to buy a new adapter for the HP Envy 15 (Gen 1). I've bits of the thread already and saw that alot of poeple use the Kensington 120W. I was wondering what is the size of the adapter plug to the laptop itself??

I'm from australia and the only kensington mini adapters I found are these
Kensington 120W

and it doesn't say it works for HP so I'm not sure (main thing is the plug and that smart adapter thingy they say the Envy has...not sure what that is)

The other thing I'm worried is heat? some reviews online says the adapter generates quite a bit of heat. But knowing how subjective that can be, I was wondering what is the heat generation like compared to the regular adapter..

thanx b4hand

 

I really like the Coolermaster USNA 95W. It's extremely thin and light and includes a USB power port on the very slim power brick. it works just fine with the Envy 15 and charges my iPhone at the same time.

"usna 95" - Google Product Search

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My Envy 15 is the quad core core i7....HP says it requires the 120W adapter...will it work with the 95W adapter??

 

The adapter itself should work. I have the older version of it, works great. It's about the same heat as a regular adapter.

The question is what tips it comes with. You need an N30 or N30B tip to work with the Envy, so if you find a Kensington with that tip, you're golden.

 

It works perfectly fine for my i7. It includes an HP tip that fits in the Envy 15 power plug.

I asked someone else about the wattage before ordering, because I noticed my own laptop watt usage sometimes climbs to 95W according to my Kill-A-Watt meter. I was told that the Kill-A-Watt reading doesn't take into account the 10% additional power used by converting from AC to DC, so the actual usage of my laptop would be about 10% less than the Kill-A-Watt reading. Also, according to the video it's rated for 150W peak usage.

Even when charging USB devices at the same time as powering my laptop, this power brick seems to operate at a cooler temperature than the power brick that came with my Envy.

 

Quick Q about the 15 g2.

Does it have the same quality screen as the Envy 14? I know its higher resolution, but does it also have the same high color gamut and contrast ect?

 

I have an E14 and E15.
The E14's screen is slightly better for colour/contrast
The E15's screen is slightly brighter.

Both are good screens, I would be happy with either, its only when you put them side by side would you notice a difference

 

Is the glossy display really that much better than the matte display? If things like viewing angles and brightness are equal, with things like contrast and blacks being nearly equal, I'd rather have matte, but it seems that in the envy 15 the glossy is very significantly superior to the matte display...

 

I had both side by side and calibrated for photo editing with Spyder3 elite. There is no comparison, the glossy blows away the matte screen in brightness, contrast, sharpness and color gamut. As a photographer the glossy is the only choice. Some people swear thay love the matte screen though....

 

As a non-photographer, I like the versatility that the matte screen gives me. I can use my Envy without issue in garishly lit offices and airports and all without having to make all kinds of adjustments to myself and my screen to avoid reflections. Depends entirely on your use... the matte is still a wonderful screen for watching media on. Better than any other matte screen I've used, and I actually get comments on how nice the screen is. If you need things to be absolutely color perfect or need insane brightness, then glossy is the way to go.

 

Are the viewing angles the same for both screens? And I thought the glossy screen overpowers the reflections enough?

I think I'm going to pick this up now that there is $200 coupon.

 

Be careful with the 95W adapter though...when you use your laptop with AC power connected to an adapter <120W, it will throttle your CPU.

 

I love my image quality... but I'll also be using this in meeting halls, classes, and the like where I can't control the lighting (though the lighting tends to be relatively dim). Matte is what I'd prefer; I was looking around at other students' laptops in class today, and musing that I could easily see all the matte displays, and the reflections of the students with glossy displays...

But it seems like the 220 nits (vs the 170, as measured by JJB) should almost make up for the reflections...

 

I had a matte screen laptop before I got my envy 15. I decided to try the glossy with the envy and am very pleased. I use it in my backyard, in my fluorescent lit office, in meeting rooms, cafes, and have not been frustrated by glare or reflections. The brightness overcomes most all of them, and slight adjustments of screen angle or machine angle take care of the rest.

It's not the lack of brightness that turned me away from the matte though, it was the sharpness and contrast loss.

 

Hey guys, I just got my envy 15 today, and just wanted to ask if these temperatures are normal? I'm just running a couple of tabs of internet browser, nothing else.

42-44 degrees idle cpu temp does seem very high to me..

 

When I had one, it idled in the upper 40s. If I did anything at all it would go to low 50s. Part of the reason I returned it. I don't know if it's common though, or if mine was a fluke.

 

mine idles right at about 14-17 degrees celsius and only increases about 15-20 degrees when gaming. i do have a cooler though.
does anyone know how to use the built in microphone for chat in games and other programs? right now they seems to only work when the web-cam is on also.

edit: i forgot to mention to people trying to help but I got the multiplayer working normally again. it was some problem with WPA encryption over WEP. Thanks though

 

hmm..so it is not normal that the cpu temps are that high.
maybe i should return it and then buy a new envy 15, i heard that there was a new 200$ coupon somewhere.

 

What cooler are you using, the NZXT ones?

 

Those aren't bad temps but a bit high, mine dropped to 30/21 at idle after a clean install of win7 and getting rid of ALL the HP crapware. Also if it's really brand new you need to give it a few days, it's still indexing your HDD and doing a lot of backround stuff plus the thermal paste on the processors will cure and stbilize a bit during the first week.

Also your room temp has a lot to do with your CPU temps...

 

im using the x2 cooler by coolmaster with some mods
best cooler I've had
hey JJB how did you get your 3Dmark06 up to 10273? I have same setup except for the ram and I got mid 8000's. And the ssd's don't affect 3Dmark06 do they? Did you do some OC'ing?
Just curious

 

I can't comment on the glossy, as I've never had one. What I can tell you is that the matte is one of the best matte displays I've ever seen. I'd rather be able to keep my display dimmer and not worry about reflections, especially with the limited screen angle of the Envy 15.

 

Yes that score was with OCing the GPU. Click on the score in my sig and it will give you the speeds I used. HERE is a link for the AMD clock tool which is the only one that works with the 5830.

 

the first thing i did after getting my envy 15 was to do a clean install of windows 7. i guess i'll have to wait it out a couple of days before checking on the cpu temps again. btw, does the gpu temps seem okay?

 

GPU seems high if that is at idle. Here are my current temps in a 68F room with jus IE8 open (8 tabs):



Check Task manager and see if your CPU is staying at 0% with no active programs, the culprit is usually backround services or processes that keep kicking the CPU out of idle. ALso check to see how quick your CPU drops back to 0% after completing a task, it should be like 1 to 2 seconds. At full idle ( nothing at all running ) you should be at 0% 99% of the time with the occasional flicker of 1 to 2% then right back to 0%. Clean installs still load a ton of MS services that are unecessary along with anything that is from HP

 

alright. thanks for the detailed response.

i might just buy a new one tomorrow with the 200$ off coupon and make them ship it to my college and return this one. they do pay for the return shipping right?

 

Hi, just wanted to chip in that MSI's AfterBurner also works to overclock the ATI graphics cards. You have to turn on unofficial overclocking, but it supports profiles and hotkey switching. It doesn't let you clock as high as AMD-GPU-Clock-Tool though.