Hey guys, first post.
I finally joined the forums after following this thread since right before the release and subsequently placed an order for an Envy 15 on launch day thanks in part to that coupon being passed around. I got the base i7, 8gb 1600 DDR, and Radiance display but now Im starting to regret not splurging on the SSD after all the glowing acclaim for them....but oh well haha
I figured id share a video I found about the "top 5 features of the new Envy that we wish our laptops had". Its from Nov but hopefully it hasn't been posted yet since its technically about ultrabooks..
Tech Buzz: The Ultra edition - Crave - CNET Asia
This was the only video I've found that really shows off the proximity sensor wake-from-sleep function and both cascading on/off sequences for the backlit keyboard.
Anyhow, I search tirelessly for new info on these laptops so if i find anything of value Ill be sure to post it here.
P.S. Sahaskatta, if you have any pictures from your experience with the Envy, PLEASE don't hesitate to post them...ill take all the new content i can get!
-
Ordered my Envy 17 3D back on the 7th as soon as it came out with the 33% coupon code from LogicBuy.com (got the 1333 MHz RAM rather than the 1600 by accident... oh well, not gonna make a big deal about it). Anyways, I had a few dumb questions:
1. One of the videos on HP's site mentions that these new Envy's come with a 2 year Norton Anti-Virus subscription, but I don't see that mentioned anywhere else. Is it true?
2. Is is a 3D Bluray player or just a regular Bluray player? It wouldn't make sense if this was just a regular 3D Bluray player considering the laptop IS, afterall, 3D.
3. No mention of Lightscribe anywhere. Does the Envy line have Lightscribe? Not sure why HP wouldn't just put this feature in all of their computers.
4. The laptop does come with one pair of 3D active shutter glasses, correct? Because this is another thing I don't see mentioned anywhere.
I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later as HP loves to leave out tons of useful information. Thanks in advance. -
-
Just use Microsoft Security Essentials and don't surf any pr0n sites and you'll be ok. It's about as good as any antivirus out there, it's free, and it doesn't place a heavy load on the machine.
-
2. It will play 3D blu-rays.
4. Yes, it comes with 1 pair, additional pairs are $99. -
Thanks for answering my questions. No one on here knows if this new Envy will have Lightscribe?
And I know, I couldn't care less about Norton Anti-Virus. I just don't like it when a company touts having something, then when you finally get it, the feature is nowhere to be found. I just want the satisfaction of knowing that HP is sticking to their word in every instance.
As for 3D Bluray, not every Bluray player can play 3D Blurays (from what I've read online). I know my old Sony Bluray cannot. And HP never actually said that this was a 3D Bluray player. 3D capabilities are all software related though? I had no idea. I'm a tech n00b apparently... -
-
Not to mention they just make great products! If they had a gaming base like the PC does, I actually think I would buy one, but since they don't, not to mention I'm a disabled vet (not rich by any stretch), I go with the Best I can afford and use, which for me is the HP Envy! -
this deal on the 17 was just posted on the front page of the Verge:
Best deal and Coupon HP ENVY 17 Laptop + Envy 17 Review - LogicBUY -
Still thinking of ordering this laptop, Envy 15 - just wish it had mSATA but anyway, for this config, this is best price that I see with current coupon. Do you believe for this config, is this still considered a good deal and thanks.
HP ENVY 15 customizable Notebook PC
LY277AV
$21 OFF! Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2760QM Processor (2.4 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.5 GHz)
1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon(TM) [HDMI, DP]
8GB 1600DDR3MHz System Memory (2 Dimm)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
No Additional Office Software
8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
15.6-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support
Full-size Radiance backlit keyboard
Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9
2 year limited warranty included
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Price - $2,027.99
Coupon -$669.24
Price after savings - $1,358.75
Gary -
the hdd upgrade is a terrible move.
its almost 2012, no one should be using 5400rpm drives. -
The 1TB drive was included in the recommended Envy 15 config and I need space not smaller SSD and with only one drive bay, then have to make that choice. Also, I have been reading many times that due to 1 TB data density being so high that speeds with at least 7200 rpm drives may not be that much slower. Still, is this price still a good deal compared to the prices I might have already missed and thanks.
Gary -
-
I have never heard that a more dense drive would have faster access just because of density - historically the reverse was true. Is there a source for this?
-
I don't know much at all about this but here is something I found. Maybe I am not understandying correctly here but you can read it and see.
Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB Review (WD10JPVT) | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews
Gary -
Interesting stuff - but by that logic, a high-density 7200RPM drive would also be faster than a less dense 7200RPM drive, no?
-
-
-
A 1 TB drive could have 4 250 gb platters. a similar 500 GB drive could have 2 250 GB platters. Subsequently, they have the same density, and a 5400 1 TB would still be slower than a 7200 500 GB.
Now if the 1 TB drive has 2 500 GB platters, it will be faster. will it make up the difference between 5400 and 7200? I don't know. -
Slightly higher density will never make up the difference between 7200 and 5400 RPM. We are talking a 30% performance gap. The density argument mainly comes in when you are comparing two HDDs with the same speed, and often the same size, but one manufacturer is using 2 500GB platters, and the next one is using 4 250 GB platters. The higher density one might perform 10% better, and thus you might choose it.
You can't buy a 5400 RPM and expect it to be anywhere close to a 7200 RPM which is miles behind an SSD. -
SSDs are nice and all, but for me the cost/benefit just isn't there if I can only have 1 drive. The cost of a reasonably sized SSD is so exorbitant, and if it's my only drive I can't live with 120 GB or so. Much easier in a desktop or 17 inch where you can have SSD + HDD, without that option I'd rather just have the highest density 7200 rpm I can get.
-
ssd+portable USB3 drive. Having used ssd for a few years now, I can't go back to regular drives.
-
Thanks and going to 750 GB 7200 rpm on that recommended decreases price. So, even better.
Gary -
Plus, with the coupon it was roughly $400 for the SSD, which at least for me seems reasonable. Your HDD is almost always the limiting part in modern computers, and if you want to upgrade something an SSD is by far the best bang for your buck. -
Well, while we're all waiting in line for our orders to show up, I'll be the guy with an accoustic guitar.
Except my accoustic guitar is an Envy + MIDI keyboard.
I'll post a 100% Envy made track once a day until arrival!
So, up first:
This is my first foray into "dubstep". I really don't listen to it, but I was messing around at a friends house and ended up throwing this togother.
Again, 100% Envy 14. Not even using an external audio interface! Yet again, a laptop with onboard sound capable of 24-bit processing is simply pure awesomeness. For all the hyperbole and marketing hype "Beats" is known for, this is still a super solid feature. Vocals were courtesy of a cheap Shure SM58 with a crap XLR-to-USB A/D converter. Everything was monitored through Audio-Technica M50 headphones.
Software in this case was Reason 6, and keyboard control was from a Novation SL 49 MK2.
I actually had my portable audio interface (RME Babyface) with me, but was out of USB ports(!) and didn't feel like unplugging my mouse. How lazy is that?!
Took about three hours from playing the first note to the final export.
You guys might hate it, but I thought it would be a fun little daily thing as we wait for our new toys.
Here ya go!: "Halp Plz!"
If there are any requests for tomorrow's installment, I'm all ears! And as a rule everything will be entirely Envy, no outboard gear otherwise! -
How did you get into making music? That sounded awesome, and I suddenly feel inspired to try, heh. -
Am I the only one who would want a 20" Envy? LOL
Note, I don't take my laptop out of my house -
If you never take it out why not get a desktop? -
-
-
I used to run a managed services company, providing IT to businesses who don't want to do it in-house. After a year or two I had enough clients that I was probably responsible for 500+ laptops (among other things). In any given week I would expect to get at least 3 with failed hard drives. My hypothesis after doing that for a few years was that all laptop hard drives die eventually. Granted, these were business laptops which probably got used and abused more, and most of my clients only did 3 or 5 year hardware replacement, so many of the laptops were old, but still.
My hypothesis has held up in my personal experience, any laptop I have had for more than 2 years has started to show signs of a dying hard drive. I personally haven't had a laptop HDD die, but given enough time and use I feel certain they would.
As for backup, I do have several solutions. The problem with real-time backup is it sometimes conflicts with programs. For example, if using Visual Studio and rapidly making changes and recompiling over and over you can get ahead of the backup which will cause an error (since it will try to modify a file the backup is currently backing up). Thus, I close the real-time backup while working in Visual Studio. The one major HDD failure I have ever had happened during a 6 hour programming marathon in which I had the backup disabled. It died and I lost everything from the last 6 hours. Not the end of the world, but man was I angry. Anyway, an SSD just makes it so I don't have to worry about something similar happening. -
-
Okay why does it seem like half the people talking here have NO idea what they're talking about
SSD = MORE RISK
Hard Drive = LESS RISK
Many many people I know have had their SSD's randomly die on them. And I'm talking about SSD's under 2 years old! Ask anyone, SSD's are more prone to dying than regular 7200rpm drives. Not only that, but SSD's don’t even give a warning sign, when they die, they just die! Whereas HDDs always start giving signs of wear before anything goes bad. And when does go bad, info from HDDs may be recoverable unlike SSD's. Additionally, we all know everyone says SSD's have a limited life and they can't be used as rigorously as HDDs (hens the reason why they say don't even run an automatic perpetual defrag when using SSD's). SO this adds even more risk to these modules, let alone the fact that they are prone to going bad! You have to understand the tech is at it's infancy and there's much more improvements to come with these things in the near future.
So with that said, if you're going to use this as your 'main' pc, you actually don't want to have an SSD in there because we only have one memory bay. Whereas if there were TWO bays, then you would install windows on the SSD, and you would keep all your personal important info on the 2nd HDD. But if you do end up using SSD's just make sure u back ur up ALL the time and have an external hard drive handy. -
I had always been a fan of electronic music but never knew anyone where I lived that actually made it, so I figured at that point it was as good of a time as any to start that journey. I bought a MIDI-keyboard that came with a free copy of Ableton Live Lite edition, and it pretty much was downhill from there.
I started dedicating a couple of hours a day to -really- learning the piano (on my own, with a $20 book and the internet) and music theory, and since I was only working with myself, started researching audio engineering principles for mixing/mastering/etc. A few months later this branched off into learning synthesis principles.
Basicly I just did that for two and a half years and am where I am now. Truthfully the engineering/mixing+mastering parts have been the most complicated to learn, but they (and everything else for that matter) have been super fun (minus moments of head-into-wall frustration at times) to learn and do. I basicly stopped doing anything else. I use to be huge into videogames, but music software became my videogame.
Computers combined with a much wider (and cheaper) availability of pro-audio gear has really made it to the point that now in 2011 you can do anything your mind and skills will allow you to do for very cheap. The world of "pro" quality recordings has been brought to every bedroom in the world if you're willing to learn!
If I were you I would dig up a copy of Reason (older versions can be had via less scrupulous means) preferably the recently released version 6. I say this because Reason has a few distinct advantages when it comes to learning this whole little universe.
First it's self contained. This can be viewed as a drawback because it can't use external VST plugins and such, but knowing what I know now I believe this to be an attribute. Foremost, it makes it both extremely stable and resource friendly. Second, it has everything you need to do anything you want. It makes you think and use problem solving to achieve something in your imagination instead of being on the never-ending hunt for the next latest/greatest VST to do it for you. Also, due to the way it gives you a graphical representation of hardware, the entire time you're learning it you're also learning exactly how to use hardware in a big studio setting. This is knowledge that isn't exclusive to one piece of software, you can step into any studio in the world and instantly know how to route/use pretty much any hardware they have if you become proficient in Reason.
As I said above, I started with Ableton, and we still use it for all our live duties, but knowing everything I know now, if I had a time machine I would, no questions asked, go back in time and learn on Reason first.
Not to mention, pro-audio software can be expensive, and in the grand scheme of things the value you get out of Reason 6 (which is $349) is just jaw dropping once you compare prices for other DAWs and plugins.
Either way, even if you can't afford it again if one wanted too they could find older versions available "elsewhere" for "internet" prices...
So, let's pretend you grab a copy, install it, and you're like "ok.. what now?".
YouTube is your best friend in 2011. Even three years ago when I started the self recording/self producing thing they didn't have tutorials and such like they do right now. If you search for "reason tutorials" these days you could watch videos for months and not run out of new material.
A friend of mine recently got into doing this and within two days he had a complete grasp of the basic workings of his DAW just from YouTube tutorials!
After all that, it's basicly down to your creativity and how much time you want to invest. The time investment part will, from my experience, directly correlate to how much fun you're having while doing so. If you're not having fun you're not going to get very far for obvious reasons. If you have fun while doing it you'll just keep spiraling down the hole and end up where I am now.
Thankfully, that fun has allowed me to make music my living and that's a blessing I could never be thankful enough for!
Gear wise, as an Envy owner, you really don't need anything else to start besides a pair of decent speakers/headphones. Any gear you would be this early you would end up replacing anyway, so that's a good thing! Computers are the most incredible instruments ever!
If you got involved and went deeper you would end up wanting an external audio interface (anywhere from $100-$9000), a pair of good studio monitors (the speaker kind, not the screen kind) which you will come to find as one of the most important links in any audio chain, and depending on what kind of music you plan to make, things like mics, preamps, etc. Last but not least if the computer is your creative hub you'll probably want a midi-controller of some sort to either play keyboard with or have physical knobs/sliders/etc to use instead of the mouse.
Luckily, if you're a fan of electronic based music (not just electronic music itself, also modern pop/hip hop/lots of indie stuff) you don't need anything other than what you have for quite some time!
If you go to any type of pro-audio forum you're going to see a massive dividing line of hardware/software fanboys these days just like you would see in a PC vs Mac situation. Some people will say you can't make pro sounding stuff on just a computer, others will say it's the best way, etc. I greatly encourage you not to listen to any of that garbage either way. Everything has its place, they are just tools to get something out of your head and into reality.
Obviously if the song I posted was done entirely on a PC without so much as even a cheap external audio interface, it should show that with a computer the only limit is -you-.
Other than that, the sky is the limit!
If you pick up a copy of Reason (or Ableton for that matter) feel free to hit me up at [email protected] and I'll gladly go as far as to even give you personal walkthroughs with Skype or whatever!
Making music is the most fun I've ever heard so I love to share that feeling if I can!
PS: If you've never played an instrument don't even begin to think that you're screwed. I played some shows with a gentleman that goes by the stage name of "deadmau5" (you may have heard of him, he's probably making more money in electronic music than anyone alive at the moment) who has never played a single moment of an instrument. He draws everything in visually on the sequencer and if you didn't know that you would think he was Mozart! In 2011 you don't need to know how to traditionally play an instrument, you just need a good ear and time to learn. -
I have yet to have a laptop HDD fail on me so far.
I take it torrenting on a SSD is a bad idea -
Well SSD's are less prone to damage from drops, there's no read/write head or spinning disc to get damaged.
SSD'd do have the memory corruption problem but that's not much of an issue on the amount of use most consumers would ever put it to.
As far as pure mechanical failure I couldn't say either way. I've never had any problems with a dying hard drive in a laptop or desktop over the course of 20+ years I have been using computers regularly. -
Our gigging laptops are put through ALL kinds of abuse, and I've (knock on wood) not lost a HD yet.
In fact, I've never had an HD go bad period, desktop or laptop.
Lord now that I've said that I'm afraid of what will happen... -
I don't really know where to start. Lets get some facts, first, the Intel 320 series is rated at a .4% annual failure rate, roughly half of the standard .8% failure rate reported by most hard drive manufacturers (some studies suggest this is upwards of 13% in reality, moving hard drives fail, A LOT).
AnandTech - The Intel SSD 320 Review: 25nm G3 is Finally Here
Next, SSDs are only limited by the number of times a NAND chip can be rewritten, which on modern SSDs is in the MILLIONS of rewrites. We are talking rewriting the ENTIRE HDD MILLIONS OF TIMES before the NAND chips fail. When they fail you can still read them, just not write them.
SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" article in StorageSearch.com
http://www.ramsan.com/files/f000252.pdf
The gist of those 2 websites is that SSDs are more reliable than hard disks, and should last a good 20 years if you don't consider performance degradation an issue.
Finally, why do you know people who have had drives just die? Probably because they went with cheaper SSDs. In the SSD market you really do get what you pay for. Those manufactures cut costs and that leads to reliability problems. Intel is the industry leader in terms of reliability, and pack their drives with multiple backup NAND chips, power loss protection systems, and other features to insure no data loss and excellent reliability.
I would need to see the individual failure cases you are referring to, but I have never heard of a complete loss with an SSD. Even if the controller dies you can still re-mount the NAND chips and dump them, thus recovering all the data. If a NAND chip dies modern SSDs are built to copy the data to a backup chip and continue on as if nothing happened (since as I mentioned, a NAND chip failing to read is an infinitesimally small occurrence, when NAND fails it wont write but still read). I suspect if people you know had total failures it was either a power problem that fried the whole SSD, or they didn't bother trying to recover the data (in the case of a failed controller), since remounting NAND is easy, and you can buy NAND dumping equipment for under $100 if you are less technically inclined. -
On the topic of HDD reliability, I have to say that on any of the recent HP models, including these ENVY laptops, that it's very VERY good.
HP has a hard drive protection mechanism in place that detects when the computer has been dropped, bumped, or any other sudden movement occurs - it does this by using an accelerometer.. The power light then flashes red quickly - which means that for that one moment, the computer locked the hard drives to prevent data loss/corruption.
Obviously, this is made for HDDs and not SSDs, because of HDD's moving parts. -
Another point on the reliability of SSD/HDD, I've seen those old HDD iPods fail, but I've never seen the memory on an iPhone/etc fail, and let me tell you I know some people that have put theirs through absolute hell!
I have always thought (admittedly with no research) SSD's were waaaaay safer. -
I just wanted to add, there has been some problems with SSD firmware glitches, which will cause the drive to "fail". In reality the hardware is fine but the firmware has a glitch which won't allow the drive to be used until it is re-flashed. The Intel 320 series had a problem with its launch firmware and it did cause quite a bit of grief. I realized a minute ago that many of the failures you have heard of are likely software failures, and not actual hardware failures.
It doesn't make them any less of a problem, but it is a much different animal than actual hardware failures. -
To the actual owners or ppl that know the specs in detail I ask this question, since it has not come up in the search of this thread:
I even bumped onto the manual online: HP ENVY 17-3000 Manual
But it still didnt go into detail as what the 2 audio outputs can do (namely s/pdif or not)
Page 33 of the manual:
Audio-out (headphone) jacks (2):Thats it
Produce sound when connected to optional powered stereo speakers, headphones, earbuds, a headset, or television audio.
So does this latest Envy 17 support S/PDIF?
Cause I still have a nice 5.1 system with a digital audio output...so I hope at least one of those audio outs on this laptop has the S/PDIF option so can hook up my 5.1 system? -
Couple of things re: SSD and delivery dates. I am very old and don't know how much time I have but I don't have a lot of time waiting for things to boot up. The switch to SSD was likely the best upgrade I ever did. I am still using the original X25-M I got when they first came out. It had some major firmware glitches but Intel got them fixed. It is now in its second build and still rocking along. Overall, Intel has a good reliability rating. If they all fail, no big deal as I try never to do anything important with a computer! Stuff is stored on thumbs and external HDDs around the house. The speed of SSD makes me never want to go back to the platters.
As to shipping. As I recall from the Envy 14, it shipped about a week before the stated date but got held up a day or so in Alaska going through customs so it actually arrived about the time it was originally supposed to ship give or take a day. Had the same experience with an HP ZR24W when they were hot off the press. I ordered the Envy 15 a couple days ago by talking to a living human at HP. She confirmed that the ship date was the worst case scenario and they were expecting the machines to ship several days before. Either way, with the time I do have left I'll just wait---- -
-
But how did you know? Did you test it?
And what should I do with my system? Its a Logitech Z-5450 5.1 speaker system.
I got 2 optical outs and 1 coaxial out (so 3 digital outs); And I have also got 3 analoge outs:
And there is also one 3.5mm jack on the side of my Control Center.
So perhaps I can use that 3.5mm jack on the side to connect to the 3.5mm jack on the laptop, but I wonder if the sound would be as good as when I could have used digital outputs or the 6 ch analogue outputs... -
I just found this for the envy 15 http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c03092357.pdf
-
Will the envy 15/does the 14 have spdif audio out?
edit: just scrolled up and saw the answer being no...thats unfortunate -
I too would be overjoyed to see an envy 13 with all the specs of the new 15 but without an optical drive.
-
Confirms the 7690M GPU. If only we had specifics on the GPU...
Did you find one for the 17/17 3D? -
But I will go with what the PDF said. cause that looks like real advertisement printout
NOW AVAILABLE - Updated ENVY 15, ENVY 17 / ENVY 17 3D
Discussion in 'HP' started by eafd, Nov 16, 2011.