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

That was my suspicion as well.

 

You will get SSD read performance but HD write performance.

Edit: That's for raid 1.

 

Yeah I'm kinda regretting not buying the Gen 1 Envy when it cost 1699 USD at Best Buy.

My ideal config would be:

i7-720
6GB RAM
320 GB SSD (What advantage to battery life & heat does this option offer over the 500 GB HDD? Also after formatting is all said and done, how much HDD total capacity does the system see? You know how 120 GB HDDs become 111 GB HDDs how much is 'lost'?)
1080p Anti Glare

The machine just costs too much (2500 USD), I can afford it, I just don't think it's a reasonable price. I have no need for the optional slice considering I won't really be traveling much.

As for the 90W adapter issue, is there a fix to that? I cannot be hulking around the huge power brick.

 

Just keep in mind that the extra's are cheaper if you buy now as opposed to later on. So for things like the slice and such if you think you may want them in the future then now is when to buy em. I know the cost for the SSD's are around 50% cheaper if you buy it configured that way now instead of buying retail later.

 

Well I'm going with the i7 and SSD ... This will be a desktop replacement of sorts. Even with the slice, the additional battery life will still be abysmal (due to i7). Not worth the 125 USD in my opinion.

I might as well just buy a 300 USD netbook for the computing at the airport and what not.

And yes, I have it configured ... It's in my cart. Now I just have to make sure Dell lets me cancel my order. God I hate being so indecisive with computers. What was I thinking ordering a desktop anyway.

 

There is a very light ( .8lbs) & slim (3/4") 120W kensington that works. Look back to yesterdays posts for links and prices (may be on the main 'owners lounge thread).

EDIT: Remember you get a 21 day 0 cost return option with HP, try it and return if you don't like it.

 

Well guys, I'm 2200 USD poorer I just bought it. I'm sure I won't be returning it though.

I wanted a powerful machine, with a durable good looking chassis ... This is as good as it gets. I hope those dual G2's are worth it.

 

Heh, you better hope they're G2s!

 

interesting. I didn't do a clean install but instead just removed several bloatwares (especially the of the auto-update sort) through the control panel and both dwm and explorer seem to behave.
simple browsing is keeping my core temps at 32-27, although I removed the battery cause I'm a bit paranoid about it's performance deteriorating.

 

If your battery is fully charged you cannot hurt it by leaving it in the computer, the charge circuit shuts down when at 100%. Their is a very good battery guide on the HP site somewhere and I think even in the user manual...

 

I'm mostly concerned about the small recharge cycles it goes through as it loses it's charge down to, say, 95% and it then charged up again. I kept the battery all the time in my acer 5920 and after 18 months I was down to about 15 minutes battery life, that's all...

and now for something completely different.
when opening the HP mediasmart webcam app in a dark room, no IR led of sorts lights up. I tried re-enabling the light sensor but I'm still only illuminated by the screen itself...is there a manual setting for it?

 

Flea...how's the performance of the 520? I can't decide between the 520 and the 540, and you're the first person I've seen who opted for the 520. Can you shed some light on it's performance? Thanks.

 

well, I get the same 3dmark06 scores as everyone else, windows is as snappy as as the HDD allows, temps are low and battery life is as good as you can get on the envy. I don't do video or picture editing, mind you, so I'm hardly pushing it to the limit. I have yet to see one of it's cores reach 100% load.

 

That is very interesting fact. I was planning to do clean install regardless anyhow because I like a clean system. I tend to clean install my PC at least once every 12 months...

 

282 GB + 15 GB ... What exactly is on the recovery partition? I'll move it to an external HDD prior to my clean install of Win 7 but I doubt I'll be needing it. It's a shame that we lose so much compared to total capacity.

Wait ... You mean to tell me that they're shipping Envy's with G1's? Really? That aside, is there a huge performance difference?

 

Some 2nd gens have G2s and some have G1s.

There isn't a huge difference, except that G1s don't support TRIM. Since they ship in RAID and TRIM isn't supported under RAID anyway, that part doesn't matter a whole lot.

Search this thread for SSD and you'll see people checking their SSDs - some sent their Envy back or threatened to. It seems that you're more likely to get a G1 if you send your Envy back for any reason and need a new one.

 

As far as gaming, even the 430 would be sufficient. The GPU would choke well before any of the i5's.

In a double blind test of real world use, I'd bet a fortune that not a person would be able to tell the difference.

Now if they were encoding and doing things that would tax the cpu severely, then yes, it would matter. I tend to leave my computer when I do something like that and grab a drink or whatever for something like that.

 

The partition contains the complete system restore / recovery disc data (and OS) and is copy protected. All you need to do is burn the recovery discs from the HP or Win 7 software which will essentially give you the complete partition contents, then recover that 15GB of space. If you do a clean install you will want to copy the SWsetup folder before you start, it contains all the drivers and some software (if you want it). Note also that you will lose the Corel photo and video software with a clean install, unless someone has figured out how to bypass the copy protection.

As for intel G1 vs G2 performance comparison here is the best despcription I've read: http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=11

 

I don't know if this will answer your question but I think its the link JJB was referring to:

Using and Testing the ENVY Accessory Battery

 

Actually I was talking about the following:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread94560.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846

And there is another one that has more specific tech info on Li ion batteries which I can't find right now.

 

Thanks.

There was an issue with my order, and as such I will have to reorder once the problem is fixed.

Looking forward to owning one. Too bad I might have to pay a restocking fee for my Dell order, oh well.

 

The faster memory bandwidth is only true if HP shipped with higher speed RAM parts. Its a crap shoot as to what HP willl give you.

 

Can anybody help me turn off hyperthreading on my Envy?

 

Now why would you want to do that?

 

It can reduce the performance of some applications which aren't coded to utilize 4 threads.

 

I've never heard of this ? I thought that is the idea behind the turbo boost which only runs the maximum boost on one thread and one core. On my 540M 1 thread = 3.06 Ghz max, 2 = 2.9x Ghz and 3 or 4 threads = 2.8 Ghz max.

 

Turning off hyperthreading will only net you gains if you're overclocking your processor. At this point it doesn't seem to be worth it to turn it off. Have you seen any published benchmarks that show significant gains by turning off HT? If not, I would recommend leaving it as is.

 

It's possible. I tested it with 2 thread chess fritz benchmark on 540m. 2 thread manually set to cpu0 and cpu2 is faster than 2 thread without affinity setting. But 4 thread is still the fastest.

 

Ah, hadn't seen those. I only knew about the one hp guide, but I tried

 

ghnnnnghghhhgh....
okay, I'll put the battery back in, I guess a few weeks more lifetime isn't worth letting increased amounts of dust n stuff into the laptop through the ram slots.

thanks for the guides, rep for you!

EDIT: the whole heat issue explains the reflective metal surface on the battery I guess, it bounces part of the heat from the lappie back. so...keep it CLEAN guys, fingerprint smudges on it will make it absorb more heat!

still, this makes me even more satisfied for having gone for an i5. not only do you get longer life on a single charge, but your battery will degrade more slowly since it's cooler than the i7.

 

Actually I don't think the reflective quality of the battery has anything to do with heat absortion. That would only apply if it were heat from some form of high frequency energy like Infrared or microwave etc. The ambient temperature inside the case is what will be absorbed by the battery regardless color or finish of the material.

 

Anyone know the battery life hours of both i5 and i7? if difference isn't much I would like to configure one for i7.

 

anytime two objects are at a different temperature, they exchange heat through irradiation by a factor depending on the fourth power of the temperatures in play and depending on the surface material. a metal surface absorbs about a third than a black plastic one, so it can make a difference, just saying.

 

Hummm, trying to make a decision. If you could pick one thing from the HP store worth up to $100 what would you pick?

 

Your getting electromagnetic radiation confused with thermal heat transfer:

"Heat transfer is the transition of thermal energy from a hotter mass to a cooler mass. When an object is at a different temperature than its surroundings or another object, transfer of thermal energy, also known as heat transfer, or heat exchange, occurs in such a way that the body and the surroundings reach thermal equilibrium; this means that they are at the same temperature. Heat transfer always occurs from a higher-temperature object to a cooler-temperature one as described by the second law of thermodynamics or the Clausius statement. Where there is a temperature difference between objects in proximity, heat transfer between them can never be stopped; it can only be slowed." (Wiki)

Your theory of the reflective metal surface lowering heat transfer would be correct if we were dealing with a significant source of electromagnetic radiation (high frequency light, infrared, microwaves etc..). There is no significant source of e.m. radiadtion affecting the battery, it is simply trying to reach equilibrium with it's surroundings via 'heat transfer'. The color and reflectivity have little to no impact in this case.

 

Can you use it in the HP parts store? Maybe you should order spare parts like a keyboard and fan assembly for future repairs, LOL

Just don't order one of the 'pocket drives' which I used my $50 coupon on, sounds great in the description but it is anything but 'portable', it is a cartridge type drive designed to plug into certain desktop models and weighs over a pound and 1" thick.

 

Good to know. Was considering one of those pockets as they looked handy and portable. Based on your comment I guess not (marks that off the possibilities list )

 

shiny surfaces, aluminum in particular, reflect longwave radiation. Thats how heat blankets made of basically aluminum foil keep you warm. So if you have an aluminum surface inside your sustem, it will hold reflect heat inwards.

Or is it shortwave?

 

add $200 and pick up an hp mini, they look just like a miniaturized envy!

 

Can someone please confirm if ALL 2nd gen Envy 15's have the external optical drive? It's just that I spotted an advert for the Envy 15 - and it says that the Blue Ray drive is in-built. Is this definitely an error?

Here's the ad:

http://www.johnlewis.com/230825421/Product.aspx

 

They are available as external options when you order them from HP. They're definitely not built-in.

 

Sorry but that is incorrect, here is a description of how thermal emergency blankets work;

"In first aid the blankets are used to prevent/counter hypothermia. A threefold action facilitates this.

The airtight foil reduces convection
Heat loss due to evaporation of perspiration, moisture or blood is minimized by the same mechanism
To a limited extent the reflective surface inhibits losses due to thermal radiation." (wiki)

In the context of the battery in the envy which started this discussion, the reflective steel plate on top of the battery has no bearing on reducing the heat inside it, especially the silly comment about fingerprints and smudges may cause more heat to build up. If this were true then the reverse would be that when the battery heats up during charging or rapid discharges then the internal heat would not escape but be reflected back inside the battery by the same piece of steel.

Yes there is a very limited amount of reflected radiated heat from several sources inside and outside the computer but the vast majority of the internal tempereatures are from thermal heat transfer.

 

And to quote my girlfriend: they are adorable... sheesh! I wish my envy was matte black like the mini tho it is a very awesome looking machine.

 

Alright I have a dilemma ... My Envy order didn't go through and so I was credited the amount in full, and told to place another order.

But then I came across the elitebook 8540p ... And boy, I am not sure I want the Envy anymore. I know elitebooks are HP's top of the line when it comes to build quality, but I'm wondering how well the the Envy holds up in the quality department compared to these elitebooks.

 

To be honest with you, if it wasn't for the $2000+ price tag on the Elitebook 8540p, I would go for it over the Envy any day. HOWEVER. The GPU in the 8540p is only a Quadros-equivalent to the GeForce GT 330M. Not as good as the Envy's. If you want to go over the $2,000+ price tag and going all out, get the 8540 w.

Quality-wise, the Elitebook wins.

 

elitebook is nice, but compared to the Envy, the price is ridiculous.

 

Well build quality is on the top of my priority list. And I will even settle for an already configured build in the hopes of doing after market upgrades to the HDD and Memory.

 

If you want good gaming power, then the 8540w is the better option than the 8540p.

 

I really don't want to make this a physics argument, I got enough of that in my aerospace engineering classes, but I'm sure you heard about conductive coefficient (not sure that's what it's called in english, aint my mother language) and emissivity, the latter applying to ANY surface that can "see" another surface at a different temperature, not sure what you mean with EM sources, anything above absolute zero emits heat through EM radiation.
Both of these properties are changed significantly if there's something covering the surface, like lots of finger grease, black paint or thermal paste, not sure how that sounds silly .
All I know (well, I hope) is that HP engineers put the metal plate there for a reason, so keeping it clean makes sure it does whatever heat transfer it needs to do optimally
in detail,
if the middle of the lappie is regularly hotter than the battery, there's probably a gap between battery top and laptop bottom, and the metal plate reflects the IR radiation emitted by the warm laptop back, insulating the battery.
if the middle of the lappie is cooler than the battery, something I'm starting to suspect, then battery and laptop bottom are probably in direct contact, the metal allowing much better heat conduction than, say, plastic, sucking heat off the battery.

ug, now I'm tired...bed

 

That's called black body radiation. Black color can transfer heat more efficiently throw air, but it doesn't make black body itself hotter or cooler. Because it can transfer heat in quickly but also transfer heat out quickly as well.