*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Does it change when you put it under load on the battery?

 

did i do it right? kept prime 95 running took a printscreen, and then plugged it in, saw the multipliers shoot up almost immediately.

 

yeah thats rights right then

theory has it that multiplier should be maxed out when doing prime95 when on the battery since its so intensive.

 

no, stays at 9. i think it hit 8 actually for a second, but may be wrong. so its 9 unplugged, and varies b/w 10-12 running plugged in with minimal load, and 20 when under stress?

 

will the i7 refresh be fixed?

 

here's a question. i have a PM55 mobo, can I instal an i7 myself at some point? or is it incompatible? why does hp make you switch b/w 5830 gfx cards exactly?

 

i think its probably the heatsink or fan assembly that is diferent is what it is. i7 produces more heat, the gfx card and cpu cool along the same sink, so that's probably what it is. i'd just upgrade to a better i5 i guess.

 

Nah, I think they purposely set the i7 mobo up with 4 dimms and i5 with 2.

That should be the only difference and an i7 should work just fine.

 

Does this mean that the i5 is slightly faster than the i7 when on battery (if only 2 cores are being used)?

 

Yes. Actually, in many cases, it is also faster when plugged in.

 

no, it slows down.

 

it would be awesome if when running the notebook with the slice attached you could draw power from it like an ac adapter and run at full speed. not happening though.

 

I thought you had the i7 refresh, or are you assuming you got the last of the old beats?

You should be able to switch but I would check the pin layout of both models to make sure and voltage requirements.

if you wanna but might want to see what folks with an i7 are going to experience next week. CSR told me i'd have my laptop on the 28th. I guess I'll open it up and test it out.

 

What was the power plan setting doing when you unplugged the power?

It may be set to reduce CPU performance.

 

wow, then i may get me an i7, if i keep the thing. hoping the $300 coupon will magically reappear sometime within the next 20 days, would do an i7 config next time around.

 

let me check on that for you

 

cpu was set at maximum processor state when running on battery. graphics has been running at power conservation settings when unplugged though. think i might try gaming with batman AA unplugged and see how it does.

playing batman Arkham Asylum at high detal, 1336x768, some special light settings off, no physics, b/w 30-45 fps.

 

yeah that would be a good real world test to see if it effects much, plug it in mid beating to see if things smooth out perhaps.

 

Hi Guys, I did 3dmark bench

3dmark Vantage: 10868 for the CPU and 3919 for the GPU

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 820 @ 1.73GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 Series
8.670.5.1000

 

Thank you for checking

So it appears HP has 'crippled' i5 CPU performance when on battery just like the i7's.....

 

how is the experience? not the stupid windows score but your usage.

 

Is there just no way no affect the CPU multiplier outside of the bios? Either that or hack the bios to use a different multiplier.

Is anyone an expert on this?

 

Wow, when the refreshed Envy 15 was announced there was so much hype. Now, it just keeps getting worse. I hope my Envy isn't held together with duct tape.

 

I did the same thing - cancelled my i5 order. My i7 is showing a build date of Jan 28 - hopefully it wont run into delays.

I have a question on i7 - the heating issue with i7 envy, does it happen under heavy load (games, photoshop..)?

 

As far as I know this has been an ongoing and unresolved issue on all the original i7's...

 

So far very happy, i run 3dsmax rendering using vray. It renders images faster than my desktop q6600, and 17" sager with q9650.

with the size of this laptop and portability im very happy.

 

very awesom any stability issues with your programs?

 

How's the antiglare screen?

 

I'm going to wait and see how the i5 puter is. If it runs cooler than the i7 does, I'll be happy. I wont have it long enough to care about usb 3 too much. 3 years or so.

 

So far no problem, I will try more softwares. and will post my experience.

I will also try running some games, maybe dragon age

 

I like it a lot, very bright, less reflections. just how i like it

 

One more question, I've got to ask... are the headphones worth it?

 

the sound is very nice. you can get it cheaper if bought separately.

But i like the black glossy beats envy edition, so having the headphone was part of the package

 

Here is me being an optimist:

HP shipped the i5 beats with the old i7 motherboard, so it is subject ot the same issues as the i7. The non-beats i5 is still in production, and it has a new motherboard with switchable graphics, USB 3, and no multiplier issues.

Don't hold your breath.

 

If you have it on battery with no load, is the multiplier still at 9? Or does it just max out at 9 on battery and it can clock down lower?

 

battery with no load and with load is 9.

 

Not sure what issues you are talking about, but Intel revised the PM55 chipset with the B3 stepping before shipping Arrandale. PM55 chipsets without the B3 stepping will not work with Arrandale. I assume Intel included any known bug fixes with the revised stepping.

The only issue I can think of is the fixed multiplier while on battery power. That is a processor level issue. Apparently, when you disable turbo mode is locks the multiplier down. Hp has to disable turbo mode while on battery power because the battery can't power the processor at the highest turbo mode speeds (you would get stuttering and reliability issues.)

The other issue would be poor random read/write (4k) SSD speeds. That's a controller level issue, which is indeed part of the chipset. Anything regarding heat or battery power will have nothing to do with the chipset or motherboard. It remains to be seen if Hp used the same cooling solution on the i5s as the did on the i7s, which is the most efficient cooling setup out there besides maybe Alienware.

 

Can you find the manufacturer of your display? I'm curious if it's an LG. Also do you know what chipset you have? Thanks!

 

So I just saw this Sony Vaio at Best Buy for $950:

Core i5 520
Blu Ray Combo Drive
4GB Ram
512MB GT330
500GB 5400rpm
14" 1600x900
Expresscard34 slot (For USB 3/eSATA)
I THINK it has switchable graphics
Weighs a tiny bit more than the Envy 15

You sacrifice in weight, looks, graphics, and screen, but you get Blu Ray, future proofing, smaller form factor and $150 extra dollars in your pocket.

What do you guys think?

 

It might not matter to most people i guess, but to me the biggest deal breaker there is that:

YOU WILL HAVE NO HD AUDIO BITSTREAMING WITH THAT VIDEO/SOUND CARD!

 

...

There is no winning in this game, is there?

 

Running on AC in power saver mode (120W PSU) caps multiplier at 12x on a 720. With the 90W PSU cap is at 11x. So obviously it's more complicated than just LFM (7x) or full turbo mode.

 

If it's the CW series the website says its got intel HD audio and HDMI 1.3, no other details but since they talk about using it on your HD TV for blu ray I would guess it has support for HD Audio out...also no mention of switchable graphics.

 

What about the 90W when on performance mode? Any limitations on multiplier?

 

Hey all,

I'm interested in buying a lightweight, durable, medium-to-high performance laptop. So far, the HP Envy 15 seems to be able to do it all.

I have a few questions concerning some issues/complaints I've read about it:


1. Touchpad - I've read on and off about how it's buggy. Some users reportedly found their cursor jumping all over the place. Has this issue been fixed as of late?

2. Heating issues - I'm well aware that packing an i7 processor and a high performance GPU onto a slim design can be a risky venture, especially after seeing how wary Apple has been of packing high performance GPUs into even its most expensive MBPs. Which brings me to the question. How are the temperatures on this laptop while gaming?

5. How is the 2nd generation Envy 15? One guy on the 2nd gen said there's no more creaky palm rest. Any other improvements?

6. Finally, in the event that I'm unable to use my restore partition to reformat Win7, how would I be able to reformat without an optical drive? I've seen people mention something about using a thumb-drive? Without going OT, could someone post a link or two explaining how that's done?

 

Yep same limit - 11x, no turbo boost. So on 90W PSU it's currently an 1.46 GHz processor.

The ThrottleStop utility developed by unclewebb (see the separate thread about Envy 15 LFM multiplier) can unlock the 11x cap when on the 90W PSU. There might be a risk involved if running GPU and CPU all out, but for me that's not likely. Anyways for me the 120W PSU stays at home while the 90W follows me to client offices.

 

I'm pretty confident that this is fixed. Haven't heard anyone mention this in a while

 

Nice to hear. I've posted in the "2nd Gen" forum for a second answer.

 

Personally I don't think the touchpad (or driver) was ever broken. Multitouch without separate buttons takes some time getting used to - I still occasionally lay a finger or palm on the touchpad while dragging, which makes the pointer jump. It can be really annoying until you get used to it, but it's not actually a quality issue.

The Scrybe gesture software that Synaptics makes is pretty cool - it needs to evolve more but is useful now.

 

never mind