Pondering Envy 17, thoughts on i5 vs i7 and extra drive bay?

I just returned a dv7t select edition, the screen was just too small compared to what I'm used to (900 height sucks).

I have two questions on the envy 17, anyone out there with the i5 2.53ghz version, what is your experience like on that vs a core 2 duo? Is it worth the upgrade to the i7? I know battery life is going to suffer on the i7 a little more, and a lot of applications will probably run faster on the i5 due to the frequency differences. I could see video or audio encoding being faster on the i7, but I'm not sure if it's worth the cost and power/heat. I will be using it with virtual machines as well, but I figured the i5 with HT would suffice for running VMWare or virtualbox.

Second: If I don't get a second hard drive when ordering, will I need to then order additional cabling etc to use the second hard drive bay?

Thanks in advance, hopefully I can get some feedback on how any envy 17 owners feel about theirs, speed, heat, battery life etc.

I won't be using it for gaming, so that's not an issue for me.

 

I'm pondering much the same. I am going for i5 over i7 to avoid heat and battery issues. Also SSD. I'm told by other posts additional drive caddies need to be bought separately from hp spares (part# 603772-001) which is a real pain. Why cannot hp shopping include it in same shipment? Better still why not include a spare caddie with the new PC if one drive bay is empty?! Ah well!

 

I notice on hp direct web site now inc SSD & Sata drive combo as option, but only quad core processors!

 

Too late now, with the release of Envy 14, All Envy 15 and 17 just come default with i7 Quad and there is no i5 option

 

wow...I guess they made the decision for me. Although I'm much more likely to purchase now than before. Did you see the defaults? Now it's not a $300 upgrade for the i7, and 6gb comes standard (only $100 for 8gb ram). This is nuts.......

I was sorta comparing this to a 17" macbook pro, but having 2 hard drives is SO nice in the envy, and it's quite a bit cheaper with double the ram.

 

Another side note, I do like that apple is using the dual core i7, I think that chip is a better choice for laptops looking at the power consumption and speed.

 

regarding the hard drive extra parts, that really blows. it costs $88.35 from their part store, lame.

 

Premium laptops = premium price!

Sony's pretty good at this game too.