*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

at idle the i7 cuts cores, and consumes less power, so YES it should actually run cooler at idle thana C2D imo

 

Heat really depends on how efficient the cooling system is and how it distributes heat out of the notebook. While on idle, the power consumption of the i7 is around the same as the C2D, it doesn't mean heat necessarily will be low or high.

 

Well, I'm frankly surprised that anybody thought that any notebook this thin with this hardware could possibly run modern games without getting hot. I'm surprised that people didn't know from the outset that you must get a notebook cooler for a machine like this.

I recommend Antec. It's very light and brings my current machine from crash-inducing hot to room temperature.

 

I understand a cooler is req for gaming but for surfing the net thats B.S.



Just fyi. If I return the Envy I will be getting a MSI GT729:
Intel Penryn Core 2 Quad Q9000
17" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) LCD Display
4GB DDR3 Memory-- I'll put 8GB in it
320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive--- Put in my Intel x25-m G2 160GB
Blu-Ray Disc Drive
ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4850 1GB.
AND ITS ONLY $1599!

The MSI 1727 is the new i7 model but they put a 128bit nVidia GS 250 gfx card in it. not sure why they did this For the price I paid for my Beats envy i could buy both MSI's and put the ATI 4850 in the i7 machine.

 

Seriously, you guys whine more than a group of teenage schoolgirls.

So you want an extremely high-powered laptop, with a blazing fast processor, and you don't expect it to get a little hot?

Have any of you ever heard of this thing called "thermodynamics?" It's a really new scientific field that studies the relationship between work and heat and energy. They are still doing a lot of research in the new field, but the results are very exciting!

 

Did you sign up just to start calling people names? I think most agree systems get hot under constant load but laptops should not be hot to the touch sitting at idle. That is what the poster stated.

 

Funny look at the bottom of the envy
Notice where the slots are for the fan to get air.


Now look at the inside where the fans are.



Notice how one fan does not have an opening to draw in fresh air?! wierd.

Anyways anyone who has this, does it feel metallic to touch?

 

case mod!!

 

Ha right on top of each leg if on your lap. great design :roll eyes: Guess the engineers thought we would use the "middle leg" to support the notebook
At least with the slice this should not be an issue, i hope.

 

Technically, I did not call anyone a name.

I signed up to read reviews and ask questions, but after reading 100+ pages of this thread, I have a strong desire point out the obvious.

That is, I've never heard of a laptop that can run graphically intensive games without getting hot.

A Corvette engine at idle runs hotter than a Prius at idle.

 

What about a HDMI/DVi cable, and then use a VGA adapter? I wonder if that would work? lol

Nevermind, that won't work.

 

I dont' care how hot it gets as long as it doesn't cause it to crash, does not cause the underclocking of anying or refusing to overclock the cores and finally doesn't prematurely kill the computer.

 

I tried the Envy 15 in the shop, the palm rest area was the hottest of all the laptops on display. Aren't laptops cooler if you just run them from battery instead of the mains?

What are the dimensions of the new MSI range? I can't see much info on them.

 

Calling the size of the memory data path a negative is a little odd. Without the speed of the path you won't know which one is better. You also don't know if the graphics core even needs more bandwidth.

The 250m has the very similar bandwidth compared to the 4850 above.

The 128bit is just how wide the data path is from the GPU memory to the GPU core. 250m should set the speed of that path at 1600mhz. While the 4850 should have a 256bit data path, but only run at 850mhz.

128bit * 1600 / 8(bits to bytes) / 1000 bytes to gigs) = 25.6 GBps
vs
256bit * 850 = 27.2 GBps

The GPU core also needs to be able to use all that bandwidth to have more bandwidth matter.

250m core performance is expected to be a little below the 4850.

The 250m is a 40nm part though, so should do more work at less heat/power consumption levels.

 

What would be more wierd is the fact the opening for the fan at the bottom and they offer the battery slice that covers all of it..ahahahha

I wonder if they were thinking of using the battery slice as shield for the heat?

 

Keep in mind that the two pictures aren't facing the same direction. Its correct that there isn't a vent right on top of the fan, but there is an opening in the side of the case, and though not as effective the second fan is properly just there to help blow out the heat, and not take cool air in.

 

The unit I tried in Best Buy before making up my mind and making the purchase was barely warmer than any other laptop there, comfortable to touch and rest my palms on and the bottom was lukewarm. For someone not to expect that a metal notebook will give off more heat while gaming is ludicrous. Use a MBP (any unibody model) in your lap and your bollocks will be saddened. If you will be playing lots of games on any notebook, then get a notebook cooler - that's why wherever you can purchase a notebook and on any laptop vendor's website there will be several choices for coolers. I'll eat my words if when I get my Envy I am disappointed in heat dispersion and cooling, but until then anybody jumping ship because a palmrest is warm will be more disappointed when they get their MSI, Asus or Toshiba X505 behemoth and it feels like an overheated Labrador in their respective laps. Relax people!

Edit: this was not directed at noxity, I just quoted him since he was the last post. Sorry if you thought that noxity!

 

^The MSI is NOT hot at idle like what was stated about the Envy. It can sit in my lap all day while cruising the internet and doing office work. Any notebook will get hot while gaming, that is a fact.

Thanks for the info. I would give you rep but it says I have given too much in the last 24 hours :/
All I ment was that I wish MSI would have used at least a GX 260. Guess we can't get everything we want.

I have read that the 1727 does 11000 3dmarks out of the box.

 

Yes, but what does it weigh?

 

7.9 lbs 1.5" thick. Probably about the same as the Envy with a slice but the MSI would be thinner than an Envy with a slice. It is only .5" wider than the Envy. I have a previous post comparing the Envy, SXPS16, Asus g51J and the MSI with all the specs. You should check it out.

 

Envy 15 = 1.04" + Slice = .33" = 1.37"... Not to mention it makes the envy a 15cell laptop which should destroy the heavier and thicker MSI laptop in terms of battery life...

 

That is very close to the thickness of the MSI... What about the weight?
I have no doubts about the battery life. This is why I am giving the Envy a chance. Don't understand why everyone is jumping down my throat :/ All I have said is that the MSI is not hot whatsoever at idle like what has been said about the Envy.

 

i'm not jumping on anyone's throat, just pointing out the facts.

weight = 5.18Lbs for envy15 + 2.65Pounds for slice = 7.83pounds for a laptop with a 15 cell battery...

 

Thanks. I think everyone would like to see the day when we can customize much more of a laptop and have user replaceable components. The graphics card should be a pop in/pop out component like drives in Dell's smart bay.

 

Just the facts... ME TOO

 

True except for one important fact: The MSI 1727 uses GDDR3 memory and not GDDR5 as in your calculation. Even if it uses 1GHz GDDR3 and the HD 4850 800MHz GDDR3 the later will have a higher bandwidth.

 

I didn't factor in any memory type. Assumed they were both the same. I went off the specs on Notebookcheck

The 4850 says it can only use GDDR3. 250m can use GDDR3 or GDDR5. I don't know what MSI chose to use on either.

I'd have to lookup how many transfer per cycle each type can do. Its probably something like 2 per cycle vs 4 per cycle. My calc was just one transfer per cycle, so you would take my calc above and multiply by 2 or 4.

The point was the width of the data path is not the deciding factor. Its the width * speed with the same memory type. If they use different memory types then its width * speed * transfers per cycle of that memory type.

Then you have to consider if the core can use the bandwidth. You are not going to get any benefit if you pair any amount of 256 bit @ 1000mhz GDDR5 memory with an intel 4500 core. GPU can't use infinite bandwidth. I have been out of this world for a couple years, so would trust AMD/NVIDIA to pair their core with enough bandwidth to keep the core fully loaded.

Maybe they don't do that, but I had read AMD thought their 4800 series had bandwidth to spare.

 

Well the 4830 is more of a 47xx than a 48xx series card. I believe that the process used to make it is very similar to the 47xx series (i.e. 40nm, low power draw, low heat, good performance).

Edit: Link to Ati's info on the Mobility 4830/4860 series http://www.amd.com/us/products/note...00/hd-4830-4860/Pages/hd-4830-4860-specs.aspx

Link to Ati's info on desktop 4770 http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk.../Pages/ati-radeon-hd-4770-specifications.aspx

 

BTW - what programs can take advantage of Ati's Stream processing tech (their form of CUDA) for transcoding or offloading CPU cycles to decode x264, etc?

 

If the GTS 250M (40nm) used GDDR5 memory, even w/ a 128-bit bus width, it would effectively be equal to GDDR3 on a 256-bit bus width but would still be a bit below the HD 4850 (55nm, on par with the GTX 260M). The GTS 250M GDDR3 is still fairly close to the HD 4830 (40nm) GDDR3 however.

 

Well the Envy only has a hd 4830 with DDR3 though.

 

While i didn't have clear shot to work with to read the SAMSUNG part numbers for memory chips used on the envy 15 in the vodoo sub forum I believe the code I got is accurate.

Which was: K4W1G1646E-HC12
Those chips are 800mhz GDDR3. I know some software tools have ID the memory as DDR3, but don't know if they are accurate.

 

oh cool? Good work and yay?

 

Yeah thanks for the info. I don't know where that DDR3 nonsense came from...

 

The Hp guy from the Hp forum who told us why there was no E2E said it was ddr3 and also some guy used some program that said it was DDR3

 

SAMSUNG has a nice part number builder:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/partnumberDecoder.do

Took some trial and error since the first 3 characters on the this shot are a little hard to makeout:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=39829&d=1256609057

But no other combinations matched up with the ending.

WCCHENG posted this readout in the sub-forum thread,
Not sure what software generated this:
----------------------------------------------------
Primary Adapter
Graphics Card Manufacturer Powered by ATI
Graphics Chipset ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 Series
Device ID 94A0
Vendor 1002

Subsystem ID 7009
Subsystem Vendor ID 103C

Graphics Bus Capability PCI Express 2.0
Maximum Bus Setting PCI Express 2.0 x8

BIOS Version 011.022.003.007
BIOS Part Number BR33919.001
BIOS Date 2009/07/28

Memory Size 1024 MB
Memory Type DDR3

Core Clock in MHz 425 MHz
Memory Clock in MHz 800 MHz
Total Memory Bandwidth in GByte/s 25.6 GByte/s
----------------------------------------------------
I think if it was DDR3 memory that bandwidth would come out to 20-21GB/s.

All in all not a a major difference (DDR3 vs GDDR3), but some seem concerned about the GPU memory.

 

The more and more I read these threads, the more I think Dell SXPS i7 seems to be a better choice for me. Heat issue is huge deal breaker for me. I could careless for E-2-E. It is a nice to have. Weight and thickness does matter to me. DDR3 vs whatever doesn't matter to me. Having i7 Core does.

Hmmm

 

if you're concerned about heat, i wouldn't point to the Dell's... If you're i7, and plan on gaming prepare to deal with heat...

 

Um... i assume you mean the SXPS 16 with i7 processor?

From first hand experience i can tell you it gets really hot when put to gaming. Also pretty hot when doing simple things like surfing and using office software.

Its thicker, larger and heavier than the Envy too.

Maybe look at the new Lenovo Idea Pad with i7 coming out... they usually make solid laptops too. Its one of the ones i'm considering along with the Envy 15.

 

Anyone have a collection of the images of the cooling systems from all the 15"-16" i7 notebooks?


Sager 8690 // Clevo W860CU
http://www.powernotebooks.com/specs/images/8690/8690bottomopen.jpg
1.6"-2"
The bigger cooler is on the 280m GPU.

MSI 1656
http://www.xoticpc.com/laptop/1651/16517.jpg
1" - 1.4"
Anyone know the layout? Following the heat pipes it looks like GPU top right, CPU buttom right, and something under the triangle?

I haven't seen inside the Dell Alienware m15x or Studio XPS 16.

What other I7 models are poeple looking at in the 15"-16" range?

 

But we have 3 fans!!!! lol.

 

I owned Y550 before, it ran super cool even I was playing games.

But Y550 doesn't offer 1080 p screen, only has 720p XD

And it's far away from ENVY 15, the desgin, quality, materials. ( Y550 has soild quality , but it's plastic. )

But it's way cheaper than ENVY 15

 

The Envy would get just as hot as the XPS 16, if not more so, when playing games that load the CPU...

 

On a brighter and less aggravating note - what games are you all planning to play on your Envy 15's?

I pre-purchased Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition from Steam so that's my top game. I'm getting the Fallout 3 GOTY Edition tomorrow since I gave my PS3 version to my girlfriend and maybe, just maybe (if I'm extremely lucky) either the Star Wars: The Old Republic or Star Trek Online betas lol. ::Fingers crossed::

 

Ok - here is an answer regarding dual HDD:

"Yes the HP Envy 15 supports dual drives. From what I understand, that option will be available at the end of the month."
"Yes, that is correct. You will be able to get two dual drive configurations:

- SSD/HDD
- SSD/SSD in Raid 0 - killer performance and reliability!!
The HDD is 5400 1.8"

The single HDD shipping now is a 2.5" 7200rpm drive, so no reason to have dual 1.8" HDD. They different configs share the same physical space in the notebook, just different disk holders and cables - very nice.

Should be available on CTO approx. 2nd week of Nov."

based on:

http://www.thenextbench.com/t5/HP-Envy-Notebooks/Dual-hard-drives-on-the-Envy-15/td-p/49181

 

Can we get a hold of these disc holders and cables later?

 

ok, beginning to fume a bit... Today was the latest day mine was supposed to ship (bought on the 18th). 'Tis not so. I suspect my academic discount pushed me behind in the queue...!

 

I just ordered mine today with the HPA, so I hope for both our sakes that you are wrong. Best of luck with the order though...

 

Looks like we might get it - waiting for confirmation on that forum

 

I didn't use HPA but I used the bing cb on the 18th and i'm still waiting as well.