I Need Speed- So which is faster? Envy 14 or DM4T?

By faster I mean faster using the internet (what do the wirelessn cards do anyway), smooth while watching hd youtube playbacks( i effn hate chugging along), faster downloading annoying pdf files, faster and smoother in general! I don't play any video games. Thank you kindly for helping this college student who cant make a decision

I guess my main problem is deciding between the SSD on the dm4t and the graphics card on the envy. i don't play any games so it seems like i wont need it based on what people say but wont it make videos and stuff so smooth? i hate slow!

HP Envy 14 -$989.99

• Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-370M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)
• Memory 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Hard drive 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Graphics card 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics - For Dual Core Processors
• Display 14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)
• Primary optical drive SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Personalization HP TrueVision HD Webcam + Dual Digital Integrated Microphones
• Networking Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Included Software Bundle Corel(R) PaintShop Photo(TM) Pro X3 + Corel(R) VideoStudio(R) Pro X3
• Keyboard Full-size island-style backlit keyboard
• Primary battery 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Office software Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010

OR

HP Dm4t - $982.79

• Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.53GHz
• Memory 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Hard drive 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
• Graphics card Intel(R) HD Graphics
• Display 14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
• Primary optical drive SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Personalization HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader + Digital Microphone
• Networking Wireless-N Card
• Keyboard Full-size island-style keyboard
• Primary battery 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Office software Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010

 

haha you won't need a 5650 to watch youtube, the dm4t will be "faster" for sure.

 

Why would it be faster...? Personally I think he should go for the ENVY 14. It's better for school in my opinion. Longer battery, and backlit keyboard (some people do need it).

Not to mention the better screen will make streaming Youtube videos more enjoyable.

 

Because it has an SSD...
That other stuff can be nice but I didn't see any mention of it in his post so I just went by faster. And the dm4t will be significantly faster. It's also a lot lighter fwiw.

 

In my experience it's best to have a graphics card and not need it, rather than need one and not have it. Sure, the SSD is nice, but youtube doesn't have much to do with the hard drive so it won't be slow at all on the Envy. If weight is not a concern, i'd go for the Envy.

 

It seems like you might actually be internet limited, not GPU limited. Either of those will play 1080p just fine, but if you have slow internet they'll stutter unless you let them load. As for the wireless card, they let you connect to a broadcasting router which you would most likely utilize at college. On the wired connection front, both have gigabit(1000mb/s) ethernet connections so that won't limit you either.

 

so my problem is my internet connection? both of these are very fast? so i guess then my question becomes which configuration would you advanced techies say is better for this average user?

 

The average user does not need a graphics card as powerful as the 1gb ATI 5650, nor does the average user need a hard drive as fast as an SSD.

For your case, since you say you won't game, I'd actually suggest just spending a few hundred less and get a dm4t with those exact specs, except drop the SSD, and pick up the 512mb ATI 5450 just to be "safe" as one guy mentioned, or just don't get it at all. Again, the Intel HD is more than enough for watching movies and running Windows 7 (can also play world of warcraft at medium, heh). It'll still blaze by for normal things, and as someone else mentioned, if you want faster youtube and pdf downloads, then you'll need a faster internet connection. Usually university networks are pretty fast, so if you're experiencing abnormally slow speeds, you should speak to your university IT.

Of course if you really insist on spending around $1000, then I'm with the Envy 14 band. It's definitely the more "well-rounded" product, with a nicer screen (you'll really appreciate it when you see it), backlit keyboard, and the option for more battery with the slice. Also, the hard drive is easily upgradeable, so you can just get a SSD later when the prices drop.

 

well the truth is my sister is getting a mac and i just wanna be better than her at the same price, thats why i need to spend $1k. But maybe I just will drop the ssd and go dm4. as you guys can see i don't know much at all about laptop performance at all so this advice really is helping me a lot so far

 

lol that's reason enough I suppose. Good luck to you on proving to your sister that your pc is superior to her mac =)

 

A 700$ pc will outspec a $1200 mac

 

buy the dm4 without ssd and buy the seagate hybrid drive
its part ssd/500gb $130

 

If you will not be running 3D games or graphics/video editing apps that are designed to make use of dedicated graphics card, then you won't really notice a huge difference using the Intel integrated GPU.

However, no matter what you do you WILL notice the difference with the SSD. If you want faster speeds for web browsing and playing videos that you have downloaded to your hard drive, get the SSD. Browsers like chrome save some of the data from web pages to your hard drive so they load faster. Most significantly, you will notice an exponential improvement in bootup/shutdown and load times for every application you have installed.

 

I was reading and I've read that I should wait on SSD;s they are still in the baby stages, still have a lot of room to grow before they become necessary. Maybe i will just get the bare bones HDD and the barebones intel graphics. i mean if you guys say i wont feel a difference between the graphics cards why bother?

 

What I wonder is, how much faster can new SSDs even get before they're limited by the connection? Anyone know what the current limit is? 3 GB/s?

SSDs may be in the baby stages (and they're hideously expensive as a result), but you will notice a huge difference.

I agree with a previous poster, though. If I were you, I'd futureproof and get a good graphics card. As data transmission increases in size and speed on the internet, it'll keep you up to date (think HD videos and stuff).

 

If your not playing games, The DM4t will be as quick as heck with your SSD configuration.

 

I think they become necessary after you start using one and you decide you never want to go back to traditional HDD

 

This will do it for you (out do the $1k MAC by a good margin that is):

HP Pavilion dm4t customizable Notebook PC
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor
•4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
•FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
•512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5450 switchable graphics [HDMI, VGA]

Price: $1,154.99
Discount: -$46.20
APP Price: $1,108.79
Notebook instant rebate: –$150.00
Price after savings: 958.70
​

Note the cpu is the big one here. The Graphics are just in case you get into any 3D stuff in college classes (physics, design, etc) or find a game you like. I would also wait on the SSD, though the seagate hybrid drive is not a bad option.

(I have an SSD for my desktop top and have the hybrid waiting for my new LP when it gets here.)

SSD's have a limited life (number of writes), yes it is a long life for the average user, but the uses you describe are probably the worst case. Things like Youtube, Hulu, web surfing, research, and long hours on the system all lead to lots of writes to the disc (and videos tend to be larger files as well so 160gb may not be as large as you think it is). SSD's spread the writes across the drive to help level the wear but do some research. On systems with SSDs and spinning drives it is always recommended to move as much of the daily write activity to the spinning drive. And things like the Windows and internet temp directories are some of the first things that should be moved, in other words your youtube downloads.

And yes SSD's are still new and there is a lot of risk with them still. Yes they are fast, quiet, cool running, and extend battery time. But the disk is not you problem.

 

on the same internet connection, watching the same videos, a $5000 pc will perform exactly the same as a $1200 mac.

 

first off how you get an envy for < 1000? i need to know this!

 

With SATA 3.0Gbps it's around 280MB/s. With SATA 6.0Gbps 560MB/s maybe.
The next big thing after they have capped that will be either better SATA or PCI-E SSD which can handle a lot faster speeds.

 

QUOTE=tvdang7;6501746]first off how you get an envy for < 1000? i need to know this![/QUOTE]

HP Academy pricing starts at 989.99

But there are no Laptops that I know of with SATA III (6.0Gbps)

 

Fixed that for you.

 

same thing.......

If the primary use is web surfing and watching videos, it makes no send to spend more than, say, $500 on a PC or laptop.

Unless you spend the money for a decent Internet connection, much of the the money you spend on your computer is wasted.

Same thing with the arguments about which web browser is fastest. The fastest web browser will look exactly like the worst one if you're feeding them with a crappy Internet connection.

People generally don't understand where system or network bottlenecks are and spend their $$ on the wrong things. And then they complain.

 

well i sure as hell don't wanna end up complaining, so what kind of specs am i looking for? ive read that cpu plays a crucial role in HD video, yet i don't see any core i3 for less than $500...

 

Answer! How do you get it for less than $1k ?

 

Student discount

 

Ah, gotcha.

 

The intel IGP of i5's is enough to play bluray movies?

 

I don't know what IGP means, but I have been authoring and playing BD-R media for the past couple years, using Xeon dual cores and Core 2 duos even AMDX2s. the encoding takes less time if you have a better CPU and more RAM, but i5 should not be a problem at all, especially for playback.

 

As I sit here and type, I have both computers. I am returning my dm4t due to a screen encasement defect. I have the envy 14 which I will keep. To sum it up, they are both really good computers for the money.

dm4t
-lighter
-no too much smaller but seems much more portable.
-Build quality and sturdiness seems better, it feels more solid
-Screen a bit less reflective
-Clearly a little slower for some reason
-left palmrest heats up once in a while but not too much
-Port placement interferes with wireless mouse a bit
-I actually like the looks of the dm4 better. It's cleaner and less gimmicky but thats personal.
-keyboard is a bit cramped for extended typing - the palm rests don't extend too far back
-minor keyboard flex but less than envy
-mousepad works fine.
-screen resolution and picture are average for this class
-thumprint reader is very convenient and worked very well!
-screen seems a bit small...you will be scrolling down through webpages constantly.
-mine had a minor defect but my envy does also. I think these little things will get ironed out as HP makes more and more of them.

envy 14
-better port placement - away from mouse
-noticably heaveier and larger - not as portable
-deep and smooth palm rest - much more comfortable typing experience
-screen even more reflective - this can be annoying unless you have highest brightness....then it's no problem.
-screen resolution and brightness is the best I have seen on a laptop. Absolutely brilliant
-for editing documents, surfing, or working with data, the addtional screen real estate makes a difference.
-faster - noticably. Perhaps it's the GPU? I seem to notice a difference even on integrated....I guess benchmarks will tell the story
-right palmrest heats up a bit but not much at all and overall...very cool
-exhaust port right top can blow on you if you use a mouse....minor annoyance.
-More flex on keyboard but nothing noticable or major. Less than other brands
-screen and unit bend more than dm4. Does feel a bit less solid and sturdy.

So, if speed and screen are your factors....pick envy14 for sure.
If ergonomics are a major concern (as it isn't for most of you young folks) - pick envy.
If portability, weight and sturdiness are paramount or if you really like the idea of a thumbprint reader (I know it seems silly but I really did like it) then choose dm4

I think either way, you can get a very capable machine for not too much. Dm4s can be upconfigured to be almost as fast i think.

Hope that helps......

mcap

 

great review and comparison, mcap - it's good to hear you found one that you are happy with.

 

that comparison was extremely awesome. Made me even want to get an envy again. it just that people always say a laptop will last you three years.. Why get an expensive one then if it will just be replaced at the same time as en inexpensive one?

 

Thanks...it's a big investment and something you will use almost every day for a few years. So, I am glad I was able to share some info...

Good luck

 

Well in case anyone cares I've decided on the dm4t without the SSD and without any upgraded graphics. Being on this forum makes you want the most upgraded stuff possible even when you don't need it! Shame on you guys! anyway, thanks for all the help osts comes to about 700 but ill get it down over the phone

 

LOL - wasn't the title of your post "I NEED SPEED"

In any case, great to hear you found a laptop you are happy with. Enjoy!