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

On normal HDD maybe, because beginning of the HD is slightly faster. I think 100GB is good for OS.

 

FYI. From the type of usage you guys seem to be doing this unit sounds like the kind of thing you might be interested in. Its "rugged" external 2.5 enclosure with esata interface tho it seems to be powered by an extra usb cable so might not quite meet your requirements.

 

Those temps look normal to me except on mine the other core is the cooler running one. Here is a screen of mine which has been on for 6 hrs, balanced power plan with the fans off (via BIOS)



For me the 'power' reading is not reliable with HWmon or any app I have tried.

 

1080p, 2aa, shadows, high textures, everything else off, average around 40fps.

coming from ps3, some of those effects can make the game just a little bit more difficult.

 

the only benefit is that if you OS craps out you can reinstall with out loosing anything saved to the other partition.

Hen mine arrived I plan to split the 500GB into 200 OS, 300 storage.

 

JJB:

lol...how are they normal? They're a good 10-15C cooler than yours. They are abnormally cool.

 

LOL back Those are with the fans off. I get about the same as he does with fans on.

 

I don't think 18 degree is normal core temperature. Because normal room temperature is around 25 degree.

 

Here are my temps with switching to 'fans always on' after about 10 min. since reboot, temps still dropping...



18 degrees is the temp with the cooling system running which can make the temps cooler than room temp since it is so efficient. My room temp is 66 for reference (18.8C).

 

man, if it keeps the i5 at the high teens, why does the i7 get so hot? I would expect idle in the mid 25's MAYBE do the i7's crack over 45-50* at 100%?

 

No idea. Boot up, had the laptop on my lap, been browsing the internet for 2 hours. Update Anti-Virus software, look at a few pictures, launch Adobe CS4 once and closed it. That is about it. Nothing heavy. ALl done indoor, no A/C on. At my desk surrounded by 1 thinkpad, 1 desktop, 1 sony CW series, 1 HP Envy, and 1 Asus Z71v..all on at the same time eheheh

Must be the fresh install. I think JJB said something he noticed a few temps dropped just by doing fresh install. Also, went I received the laptop, I had it on crunching speed test and stuff for 10 hrs straight to burn in. It is said somewhere the thermal paste needed time to settle in with burn in process.

 

The i7 720QM idles at 15.34W and 4 cores, the i5 540M idles at 4.xxW and 2 cores. More surface area + more power = more heat.

My i5 hits a max of 77C during the Everst stability test which is 100% to all for threads, the amazing thing is how fast it cools back down when stopped, great cooling system.

 

What about your webcam?

 

Maybe all the other machines are just sucking all the heat out of the envy, LOL

EDIT: My temps seem to have stablized to 26 and 18 with fans always on, balanced power plan, itunes music and 7 tabs in IE8.

 

hmm.

This is one cool running machine.

 

Can anyone suggest a good notebook cooler for an i7 hp envy 15?

 

Oops, looks like you edited

Here is a revised screen 'ACPI' way down also after turned fans on.



FYI, the 'ACPI' temp sensor is actually the internal air temp and is taped to the middle area under the left palm rest above the CPU.

 

Ya I did, after you edited yours with the updated temps.

 

Works fine. No color issue.

I did notice a slight "purple" color on initial boot of the web cam software. Wen directly into the setting, adjusted the "White Balance" setting by turning off auto. Worked fine afterware. Turn back on auto on white balance and now it is working . no issue.

 

thanks!!! can't wait to get mines.

 

Just got mine today. Sending it right back to HP.

Everything works ... except for the backspace key, the enter key, and the space bar (all of which will do either nothing or send up to five characters, none of which are backspace, enter, or space bar) and the arrow keys don't work at all.

For a first-time HP buyer, that's a fail. Trying to decide if it's worth fixing it and re-evaluating or just sending it back for good. I did get a very friendly tech who spoke well of his experience with the Envy line and suggested I complain loudly to Customer Service about it -- he said that nearly everything they see for people calling in about Envys are software issues, viruses, etc. and that this was the first legitimate hardware issue he'd written up for an Envy in two weeks.

Dunno if I like being the statistical anomaly, though.

 

I have been looking for these links but cannot find them. Can someone please advise as to where they are? Thanks.

 

I guarantee you're not. Their CSRs don't know much.

Just ask for a coupon and expedited shipping.

I got $150 total for my whole ordeal.

 

Hey Smile.

What do you think of the CW vs the Envy? Worthwhile "upgrade"? I've been on the fence for weeks.

 

I have the CW (White) C2D version, not iCore. Got it in Oct 2009 before they release iCore

The CW is pretty solid. It depends on what is your need. Envy is almost twice the price of CW. YOu can get a pretty solid CW for 950ish and meet most of people needs. Envy has better Screen, GPU, and larger in size
i have some picture to compare them here

http://mobiletech.knguyentu.com/2010/03/hp-envy-15-2nd-generation-impression.html

 

dear JJB, deity of notebookreview forums, may i ask you something that hopefully hasn't been asked before?

according to your signature you got an i5 with 8gb ram, whereas the i5 can only be ordered with 4gb ram. did you customize this yourself or what's the trick? (and while we're at the disadvantages of the i5: do you also know a trick to get usb3 with the i5? )

 

You can upgrade to 8 GB DDR 3 RAM by buying on your own two 4 GB DDR2 RAM sticks and pop them into your Envy. Also you can't ever get USB 3.0 on an i5 Envy. The USB 3.0 is controlled by a HARDWARE Controller installed on the i7 Quad motherboards by NEC. The i5 Dual motherboards do not have such a controller installed so nope sorry.

PS: Even if you able to get hold of a i7 Quad motherboard Envy and pop a i5 Dual or i7-620M in it, the BIOS locks the USB 3.0 for them as the BIOS is programmed to not enable USB 3.0 on ANY Arrandale based CPU present.

PPS: Installing 8 GB of DDR3 RAM requires you to disassemble part of your Envy as one of the two RAM slots are located under the Keyboard and next to the CPU Socket.

 

I have some experience with CF cards and their use in safety critical embedded devices.

The sandisk ones are crap since they cannot guarantee a single controller or memory supplier will stay consistent throughout multiple shipments, so different batches will have different bits inside, which sometimes don't support the full CF spec (won't affect digital cameras, but more arcane parts of the CF spec that some embedded systems use, since they are in the spec.) They sometimes can't even tell what's in the batch they shipped.

Delkin was much better quality wise, but they are just a reseller and didn't have in-house expertise that could provide technical data about the compatibility tests performed on each of the controllers that were included in their CF cards. But also could not guarantee which controller chip was in each batch, but at least they knew what was in which batch. They definitately did more tests on each card before shipping them out than sandisk, because DOA's were very rare.

Silicon Systems, now a part of Western Digital, on the other hand, specializes in supplying CF cards to safety critical, mil spec and embedded customers and could guarantee a certain model of controller chip could be in every batch and also had extensive test data. Their cards are VERY EXPENSIVE, but they are the creme of the crop and fully tested before each leaves their factory. If someone's life depended on the data stored on the CF card or if your livelihood depended on it, I would definitely purchase CF cards ONLY from them.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=637
http://californiapc.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=123

~$280 for a 16 GB Silicon Systems CF card!!!

However, I haven't *EVER* considered buying the silicon systems cards for my personal use, but then my pictures aren't part of my livelihood... and if I lose them, then so be it. (Yeah, I've had a couple of Sandisk Extreme II's go bad on me... but only after I had transferred the pictures off of them and they had been sitting there unused for a year or so... so I don't trust the sandisk ones at all, eventhough these extreme cards cost quite a bit (when it's coming out of my pocket.)

 

So, I got my Envy today.

So far, so good. Haven't done a clean install...debating whether or not I will.

As far as everything goes...outside of a weak-ish space bar, everything seems sound. Trackpad does take some getting used to. It does get warm, though manageable.

I haven't really pushed this thing yet, so I imagine it will get warmer at some point.

I'm actually having more trouble with the Wireless-N router I got. That thing is ticking me off...well, I can't connect to it with the Envy. Haven't tried with the Dell...guess that'll be tomorrow.

 

Good to hear that your Envy 15 didn't have issues with the webcam. Perhaps it's something that they finally fixed in the 2nd gen models.

 

Went to your website but didn't see your pics comparing the Envy 15 to the Sony CW.

 

There are a few of them at the bottom....

http://mobiletech.knguyentu.com/2010/03/hp-envy-15-2nd-generation-impression.html

 

There they are. My apologies.

I never realized how thick the Sony Vaio CW was until I saw that pic comparison.

So which do you like more: the CW or the Envy 15 2nd Gen (since you do have both of them)?

Thanks!

 

I'm also using the Envy for the same purpose for S/W Development. The core i7 doesn't get too strained even with multiple VMs running. Most of the activity is I/O. The palm rests are warm but the bottom does come close to unbearable for any long stints of time. I'm waiting for the nextgen MBP release for comparisons.

I've used the Antec notebook cooler and that really works well and quiet. As mentioned here before while on batteries the CPU is throttled.

 

Guys, quick question.

Which wireless adapter do the Envy's ship with?

 

Can someone please please upload their IOS installer from SWsetup folder for me, I really need it
Thanks in advance

 

Envy 15 feels exactly the same as MBP15" on the load. I don't understand why the MBP15" gets away with it while Envy 15 gets ragged all the time when HP managed to put in three to four times the performance in a chassis almost exactly the same size, with a higher resolution screen.

 

hmm, here's a two day old and running issue:
my envy fails to recover from hibernation if it's plugged in when I wake it up, I get to the resuming windows screen and then black, nothing...if I do it on battery, it goes fine.

weird...

 

Smile:

I too was actually looking at the CW. It's a beautiful machine and the high-res screen is the ace it has over almost all other 13-14in machines out there. But I want an SSD and if I get the 160gb X25m, well then it will be about the same price as the CW with the SSD+HDD,520m options, with coupon.

The only thing making me think twice is the size, but seems like the Envy is only a tad wider? I'm talking in table area real estate, not the thickness. I thought there would be a pretty big disparity, but seems like there is barely any. Size wise, is there any appreciable difference where you ever say, "oh the envy is too big I should take the CW." Or are they too similar in size for that to ever possibly come up? Thanks man...

Btw...the CW runs very cool too, right? Did some digging in it's owners forum and seems the CW and ENVY 15 are the two coolest running machines out there....well, and the DM3.

 

The second Gen Envy ships with Intel Wifi 6200 Advanced Centrino -N. Not sure about the first Gen though.

 

Ok, thought I had got off lucky after reading the many horror stories, but I seem to have a rattling fan when it is idling - the back right fan seems to fall into resonance sometimes and ratttles when running at low speeds. A blast of compressed air sorts it out for a while.

Any disadvantage to turning fans 'always on' in BIOS off? If not I may do that as the fan doesn't need to run when I am doing email in my air-conditioned office!

 

It will just cycle on and off even for basic browsing. I found it is more distracting than always on. CPU temp will also be higher.

 

I have the same issue with a fan on the left side. I do not know how to fix it and have just learned to live with it.

 

I also had the continuous buzzing noise from the CPU fan (at idle) and ended up swapping the whole fan assembly out with one from another envy that was being returned. This worked for about 1 week before the same noise came back. What is very strange is the old fan made no noise when I installed it in the other computer

I have a new replacement fan assembly ordered from HP parts that I will be installing soon and will advise if it solves the issue.

I have seen numerous posts regarding this issue, yet HP Envy tech support claims they are unaware of any problems with the fans. PLEASE CALL HP TECH SUPPORT AND REPORT YOUR PROBLEMS FORMALLY otherwise they will never correct issues such as this. Direct HP Envy support # (USA) 1-866-408-5408 and request a 'trouble ticket number', this will get the problem listed in thier system and hopefully some corrective action will come from it. Doing this also creates a record that will help you get support for the issue in the future or get full return credit (after 21 day policy expires).

 

Personally, I think all laptops should have their fans running at all times. Keeps temps down in such a small, enclosed space. Hopefully, the fans aren't too loud in any given laptop.

 

Smilepak can probably answer better but I have the CW and have played with the Envy extensively in store. As a matter of fact, Best Buy should have both of them for you to play with. Though the CW in store is a lower spec model, it can give you an idea of the size.

Personally, the Envy is actually quite wide for a 15.6" laptop. It's 14.9" versus 13.5" of the CW. It's noticeably wider footprint. Even the Asus G51 which uses a 15.6" screen is only 14.5" wide. However, depth is about the same as a CW. I'm with you on footprint. People focus on thickness and weight when in my opinion, the FOOTPRINT is probably by far the most relevant attribute in determining how "wield-y" a notebook is.

See if you can actually view the CW 1600x900 screen in person. I'm one of those that's HUGE stickler when it comes to screens and I've complaining non-stop about the vertical viewing angle and low contrast. The Envy is DEFINITELY better in this regard.

 

That pic of the GPU and SSD makes it appear to be two drives. Is it?

 

yep, the envy has two zif connectors for up to two 1.8" hdd or ssd. the 2.5" drives only utilize the first connector. its very cool.

 

Is it easy to get to?

 

Has anyone ever found where to get an adapter to add an SSD after-the-fact?
I have found a few SATA to MicroSATA adapters on the web, but I understand a way to mount the 1.8" SSD is needed.
(My Envy 15 should ship by the 23rd. Can't wait!)