Just recieved Hp Envy 14"! - with radiance

Hello everyone, I recieved an early christmas gift and Im utterly amazed that my parents ( im 15 ) went out of there way for me.

Im extremely lucky to have amazing parents like this, so thanks guys!

Now onto the computer itself; the laptop was 1397$ but we managed to smash it down to 1340$ with TWO years warranty and a bag thrown in! So the computer made out to be 1110$.

Specs

Processor: i5 520m
Ram: 4gb (planning to upgrade to 6)
500gb 7200rpm HDD
ati radeon 5650

and GUESS WHAT!

a radiance 1600x900 display! What a lucky barstard I am!

I post a review/unboxing video(s) and a written review

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year!

 

How did you get the Radiance 1600 x 900 screen?!
When and where did you purchase your HP ENVY from??!

I have been wanting to purchase this computer for months now, but can't find one anywhere with the Radiance screen

 

I purchased it today 20/12/10 I live in Australia so I guess I have older stock. I bought it at JB-HIFI on the Gold Coast (its a smallish town?) under 500,000 people or so. So the stock must be old, I'm damn lucky to get one with the radiance thats also brand new.

best of luck in your search.

 

nice! the australian model is actually the best overall model i have seen that can be bough just by itself, i love my 1050ca from canada, but i have a bilingual keyboard which is annoying. I touch type so it's not a huge issue, but none the less... pretty much the only stopping it from being perfect.

I hope you enjoy your radiance envy as much as I have, and make sure you rub it in apple fanboys' faces

 

Haha I plan to!

I have a good friend who has a MBP 13" and he is always raving on about how amazing his screen brightness/quality is time to show him who's better hehehe.

I'll do a video review/unboxing if I can, no visible defections just getting used to the keyboard and trackpad. I would like to do a clean install but Im not sure :|

 

Congrats Orange Canary!

I for one fully support doing a clean install if you want to get rid of the bloatware. I personally did my first ever clean install of Windows on my brand new Envy 14 solely off of the guides offered on this forum.

With guides like this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/432564-hp-laptop-out-box-guide-2-0-windows-7-a.html and justinkw1's drivers thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-drivers-software-forum/496027-drivers-hp-dm4-dv5-gen-2-g32-cq32-envy-14-intel.html doing a clean install of Windows is a breeze.

Plus, as long as you make your recovery disks, there is no real risk of something going wrong during the format because if worse comes to worst you can always just pop those in and restore it to factory status.

I love knowing exactly what I have installed on my computer and that there is no unecessary junk taking up space or other resources.

Again, congrats, and enjoy!

 

How is the ENVY's trackpad working out for you guys?

I heard that was one of the con's about this laptop. Yet I hear from other people that's it's nice, just something you need to get used to.

 

I find the envy's trackpad to be pretty good. Only thing that gripes me is the buttons would of been nice to separate into dedicated buttons, but hey what are you going to do? The overall tracking is nice, just make sure you dont wiggle your second finger if your one to leave two fingers on the trackpad.

I want to do a clean install, I have a question though. Do I just put win 7 on a disk, and then place it in the computer? Never done a clean install before and I've heard its great for performance.

I've played Dragon Age: Origins so far and I can have everything maxed with x4 AA and get good FPS. Just got the ancient elven set and juggernaught set in the one sweep woot!

Will probably go down to a game store soon and pick up some new games been missing out on alot!

 

Essentially, yes. You can find links to a free and legal download of Windows 7 and instructions regarding the process here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/428068-legal-windows-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html. Make note that you need to burn the disk as an ISO image. Also, be sure that the boot order on your Envy is set to check the DVD drive prior to booting the hard drive or else putting the disk in will do nothing.

A comprehensive walkthrough for doing a clean install of Windows 7 can be found here: Clean Install Windows 7 - How To Perform a Clean Installation of Windows 7 - Part 1 of 3.

If/When you do the clean install I recommend clearing all of the partitions other than the one labeled HP_TOOLS. The RECOVERY partition is just an image of the factory state of your Envy stored on the hard drive and will not function after a clean install. The other two partitions are part of the stock Windows install and should be removed. I say to keep HP_TOOLS because it stores information important for updating the system BIOS if you choose to do so and is the storage area for the HP System Diagnostics (UEFI) which can be accessed to diagnose hardware issues through the BIOS and HP BIOS Update (UEFI) which aids in the update process.

 

How do I remove partitions? all a bit weird, Im updating drivers to save on a external HDD before I do a clean install.

 

Partition removal is part of the reformatting process after you have booted from the Windows 7 disk. It is explained at the applicable step in the guide linked above beginning on this: Clean Install Windows 7 - Show the Windows 7 Advanced Drive Options page.