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

For dual drives you would need to order the 1.8" 250GB HDD and bracket assembly (includes cables) from HP parts. Thats the only way to get all the neccesary components needed. Then you can install your choice of 2 1.8" drives.

Choosing the dual SSD or SSD + HDD option when you configure your Envy from HP is by far the lowest cost way to do this. Dual 1.8 160GB intel drives for the $550 upgrade price is about half what you could buy them for yourself plus you get all the hardware etc already installed.

 

what JJB said. although, there is no guarantee you will get a gen 2 ssd if that matters to you. and if you are doing raid 0 with them no TRIM anyway. I was going to go with 2 SSDs but the 250GB hd made sense. Also, the mounting kit and 250GB hd was out of stock last i checked. don't go buying a $450 SSD till you know you can use it.

 

Actually, since the Envy has a 15.6 inch screen and the Sony CW has a 14 inch screen, 14.9 inches isn't that wide (even when compared to the 14.6 inches of the G51JX). We're only talking 0.3 inches more when compared to another 15.6 inch laptop.

 

I don't have much knowledge when it comes to SSD; however, I've read that heavy users will start to notice performance degration sooner than normal users unless the SSD have trim controller. Can someone educate me on this subject in regards to the SSD drives that come w/ Envy 15 2nd gen (core i7 series).

thanks.

 

It depends, I like both in their own way

Intel Wifi 6200 Advanced Centrino N

I was under the same dilema. I came close on purchasing the CW several times, but the lack of SonyStyle CTO offering is what prevented me from purchasing. If SonyStyle CTO had offered what Bestbuy Offered, I would've jump on it.

The CW I've owned is a white C2D version originally bought Sept 2009. They then replaced with iCore afterwards, but kept the same casing.

I like CW for the fact I can get it with different color. While it is thicker than Envy, it isn't that heavy. Fairly light for that matter and not too bad built.

Ideally, I would like a CW in Blue + i5-540m or i7-620m + SSD.

What I like about the Envy is the fact the weight and power ratio. Yes Alienware is powerful, Yes Dell XPS 16 is powerful, and Yes Asus does have some pretty strong powerful laptop as well.

But when you compare the power to weight ratio, Envy beat them by far. Under 5.5lbs! All of these other laptops are over 6.5lbs at least.

When you have 2 dSLRs + 4 lens + 2 flashes + all other camera equipment, an additional couple of lbs does make a huge difference.

I finally finishes with a full configuration setup how I like the laptop to be. Completed with Acronis image back up. Man the Envy is FAST!

On a different note, if you do a size to size comparison between HP Envy 15 and MacBook Pro 15, they are almost about the same size.

 

IMO the CW and Envy are not even in the same catagory for comparison for my needs. Take photo editing for example, the Envy has ~21 square inches more screen and 44% more viewable area on the larger screen when you figure in the higher resolution display. As it is now with the Envy I can see less than 20% of an image I'm working on at 100% magnification (actual pixels). Also as far as size goes I would wager the CW has more volume than the envy.

The closest size Sony to compare would be the E series which is heavier, low res screen, lower spec GPU and i5 520m max cpu. The F series is really the only thing that macthes the Envy spec wise but again it is in a different catagory do to size and weight.

 

Sorry, got a duplicate post somehow....

 

I just bought the Envy 15 (2nd gen) with core i7. I do not possess the technical know how or confidence to do a clean install of Windows 7. I've never tried a clean install on a computer before and I'm a bit apprehensive about messing things up.

Does the clean install really make that much of a difference or would I be just as well off manually uninstalling the bloatware on the computer?

 

New Envy owner here ... been lurking for a while. Just received my gen 2 i 720 with dual SSD. Ironically, I was teaching a class in Shanghai last week the day it was built there and the HP office is on the same floor as our classroom. Turned out to be easier to let them ship it.

I know the answers are somewhere here, but I've read until my eyes are blurry and I can't find the following:

(1) What program to I run to retrieve the Intel serial numbers so that I can tell if I have G1 or G2 drives?

(2) What is the exact sequence of steps to un-raid the drives and enable TRIM in Win 7?

I'll be doing serious work with kdb+, a high-performance, memory-resident time-series database that parallelizes over as many independent IO channels as it's given. I seem to recall reading that the Intel SSD HW controller presents 10 channels to the OS. Does anyone know if the un-raided drives will perform IO in 20 parallel channels?

TIA

 

no. I simply uninstalled the bloatware and windows is anything but sluggish, idling the cores stay always under 2% load. things I suggest to keep are 3d drive protection, beats audio panel, webcam program, and that's about it. hp support assitant gives you most of the info you might want to look up in one place, provided you turn autoupdate off, but that's up to you.

 

Yeah, they're not really int eh same category for me either but they're the two that both fit my needs/wants.

What I find surprising is that Sony hasn't come out with a competitor to the Envy. It's always been their forte to make sleek/sexy looking laptops (for PC's that is).

 

I suggest just ordering an Envy to try out, especially if the $300 coupon is still working. You have 21 days to try it and a no questions asked return policy, they even pay return shipping.

 

hmm, how do I customize what programs to open with the quicklaunch buttons? the quicklaunch application doesn't open anything...

 

No idea on the last question, sorry.

 

Thanks JJB. Based on your response, I won't un-raid the drives on this machine. Too much effort since it will be going back to HP in 21 days. In spite of > $50 of international calls from Hong Kong and Shanghai to make sure the order went thru properly to get the Bing 20% Cashback, MSFT is saying they have no record of the transaction. This amounts to more than $500. I suspect HP will offer me the recent $300 coupon to keep it, but that won't cut it.

What really burns me is that when I was on the phone with the HP CSR to resolve the security hold the bank had put on my card due to the international charges (always nice to know your card won't be available when you need it most), I suggested that perhaps it would be best to cancel the order and start over with a clean slate. I foolishly backed off when they assured me there would be no problem with Bing. Now of course the same rep says that this is out of HP's hands and is my problem with MSFT.

To those who are contemplating purchasing from HP, learn from my mistake: Do NOT take anything HP reps say at face value.

The sad thing is that the joke is on HP, as returning the machine will cost them more than $500. The recent HP dual SSD refurbs go for less on bay and I know the sellers aren't losing money on them. Maybe I'll pick mine up on ebay in a month or two, or I'll just wait until the next Bing deal and order again, this time with screens shots and email logs of every step.

Oh well, at least I have a spiffy machine to play with for the next two weeks in London as compensation for my troubles. So far it's proving to be a worthy successor to my three-year-old MacBook Pro Core 2 duo.

 

For those who are curious, my dual SSD Envy i7 came with G1s.

 

As did mine.

 

If you read the small/fine print for Bing, it states that using Bing will negate any other discounts that the Seller (in your case, HP) might be providing.

 

There is a new HP provided windows 7 'softpaq' update availabe on the HP drivers page. Here is a link to the 'Latest drivers: HP ENVY 15' post that has a direct link to the download: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6026152&postcount=143

I installed it with no problems so far, not sure what it really does.

Interesting item in the 'read me'. While installing I scrolled down the list of applicable HP products and it listed the HP envy 14-1000 and the HP envy 17....very interesting

 

ANyone know how to control / adjust the icore processor voltage / speed?

On the old Intel Mobile, there used to be Notebook Hardware Control, but that isnt updated to support the icore

 

Not that we know of so far. The Core i Series somehow does it automatically by itself of both voltage and speed. There has not been a single program that can let the user override its management except for CPU Genie (unconfirmed if it totally works) but I could wrong.

 

JJB,
Do you think there will be any substantial differences between a 14 inch and 15.6 inch Envy (aside from screen sizes)?

 

@bankergolfer

Absolutely no idea. I was hesitant to even post that info but it was the first actual mention of the new sizes I've seen from HP's website.

 

Got my Envy today. Actually it was delivered a week ago, but I was out of town. So I just got it.

Yet to do much with it. Started working on it. I will probably do a clean install tomorrow.

One minor irritant so far and I am wondering how people are managing. The sharper front edges of the laptop are quite discomforting to my wrists. What are people doing?

 

You will get used to it.

 

I just hope the 17 won't trounce the 15 in specs, especially GPU wise...that would spark some envy

 

What I'm referring to is the Bing 20% Cashback. I read the Bing fine print, as well as all the posts here on various problems with Bing (which I have used often). That's why I spent a lot of $$ on international calls to ensure that my account was removed form the EPP list and that no HP discounts were applied. I was very careful to go thru the Bing link showing 20% cashback when I placed the order.

The problem was that HP held up my order due to a bank-required security check on my credit card. I told the HP CSR that I was afraid that Bing might not see the transaction due to the delay and it would be better to cancel and reorder. She checked with someone else and said there would be no problem with Bing. Now HP says it's a MSFT issue and there's nothing they can do.

Next time I'll know better.

 

If the 14" does get rlease in the next few days, I might consider returning this and get that. 14" does fit nicely in my bag.

 

Hopefully, coz obviously its a great laptop. I don't want to return it. I may have to think of some way to deal with it. BTW don't Macbooks have a similar sharp front edge?

 

Doing some research, the opinions are that the 14 inch will probably offer up to an i5 CPU (but no greater) and that the GPU will probably be no better than an ATI 4830 (as to not cannibalize sales of the Envy 15 and its ATI 5830 GPU).

That would be disappointing if these opinions were true.

Then again, I didn't realize how small 14 inch screens have become since going to the 16x9 aspect ratio. I'm used to the 4x3 aspect ratio of the old generation laptops. 15.6 inches (in the 16x9 ratio) seem to offer a suitable working screen area.

 

MBP doesn't have such sharp edge because it is unibody.

 

Stupid question coming...

Where can I find information on my RAM? I want to know what speed my RAM is, but I cannot find it anywhere.

I want to make sure I have 1333, not 1066.

 

Use the HP Support Assistant. Open it select troubleshoot and then General Information

 

well, it's official, 10.3 catalyst drivers make my Envy freeze up after waking it from hybernation, so I get a black screen before getting to the login screen.

downloading 10.2...

 

yes they do, even though they're unibody it's still a 90 degree, rather sharp edge.
so mousing around with your palm on the edge is just as uncomfortable on both machines

 

I have turned off hybernation and just use 'sleep' mode, it recovers faster and you get the added benefit of recovering about 6GB of disc space that windows dedicates to hybernation storage. Also I have had no issues with the 10.3 drivers with 'sleep'.

 

Um, my macbook DOES have sharp edges, just not sharp corners.

 

I tried to do this one (disable hibernation) and found that the machine (Win7) would just crash while sleeping. Perhaps other settings need to be adjusted.

Yes, resuming takes a long time. Longer than booting from cold. But re-opening all apps I use is a pain, so I don't shutdown. It'd be nice to just sleep tho.

 

it doesn't recover from sleep either.
I'm keeping hybernation because I use it so much since it's faster than normal booting, and only sleep when I don't need it for less than an hour or so.

 

I'd put money it most certainly will.

That 14" would be a dream.

A 1600x9000 RGB/LED with a 5650/5670 caliber card please.

 

*BUMP* this would be nice to know for me also!

 

Run the QLB setup program from the SWsetup folder.

 

Giddyup. Thank you.

 

Is there a way to change the function keys to work the usual way, preferably just changing f5 to make F5 refresh rather than having to do Fn + F5? I read that you can do it in BIOS but can we do it for only one key?

 

I would like to know this also

 

I am sticking with Firmware F18A and not updating to the new ATI 10.3. Those seems to be too buggy at the moment.

 

Something is very strange here. I have 3 computers in my home office right now, all running Win 7 Pro. They all are set to 'sleep' after x minutes in all power plan settings. Not once have any of these machines crashed , locked up or had any problem with waking from sleep. I also have a 2nd envy in factory restored config (RAID0 SSDs) that I am returning, it has no issue with sleep either.

This envy had Photoshop CS4, Nikon capture NX2, iTunes, IE8 w/ 7 tabs and HWmon, all running last night when I just closed the lid (set to sleep). This morning opened up and within 2 seconds everything was just like I left it except the iTunes song that was playing was paused....

I'm so used to this feature that I would be really peeved if it started crashing like your systems. Not sure what could be causing your issues, let me know if you want any details of my settings etc.

FYI: currently running F19A and 10.3, but no problems with earlier versions either.

 

Go in to your BIOS when you boot up the computer (press esc, it's one of the options) and turn off (set to disabled) 'action keys.'

I think that should do it.

 

JJB,

I've had this same issue repetedley on 4 different Vista and 7 laptops. I've never once came to a solution.

 

I'll look at the BIOS when i get mine. I know in Lenovo's there is a TPM or some security chip thing that is "disabled" by default but it still crashes the Sleep cycle, you have to set it to "off". Might be the same with these HP's.

In the Lenovo's case it will sleep correctly the first time, but a 2nd time it locks up and you have to power it off to get it back up.