Why does HP not offer RAID 0/1 and 920XM/940XM on their laptops?

When I review the Envy 17 which is HP’s flagship consumer laptop, I do not see an option for RAID 0/1 nor the 920XM/940XM CPUs. Currently, the Envy model does not offer Blu-ray burner. Only Blu-ray ROM when in stock.

Some HP laptops can have a Blu-ray burner when in stock, however the Envy manuals do not list the Blu-ray burner as a part replacement.

Does anyone know the history of why HP does not include top-of-line items listed above on their flagship model?

One obvious answer is cost, however each person can configure the options they need verses the cost of each option.

 

Because the Envy 17 isn't a 15lb gaming rig? It's designed differently. It's not "obvious" that the answer is cost, especially as you said it's configurable. It's just not the goals of the design.

If you want an uber-1337 gaming r0x0r5 system, look at Alienware or similar to sell you absurdly overpriced parts that barely perform faster than their slightly lower clocked standard parts.

 

I guess you could just install your own BR Burner?

 

Actually, the Envy is a gaming laptop or at least it used to be a gaming laptop. Just as Dell bought Alienware as their gaming systems, HP bought Voodoo PC in order to compete in the gaming market. Voodoo PC made the Envy laptop and Firebird desktop.

I am not looking for a gaming laptop. I would like to use RAID 1 to prevent loss of service should a HDD fail when you are away from home. Of course there are other components that are single point failures. What can I say, I like RAID 1.

I would like the faster CPU over the gamer graphics card since I am not interested in gaming. If I am willing to spend the money on the faster CPU, my choice.

I wondering what was the evolution from Voodoo PC to HP. I guess the answer is, HP decided to get out of the PC gaming market and took some of the features that I appreciate with it.

 

Has anyone succeeded in replacing their Envy optical slot drive with a Blu-ray burner slot drive? My question is why not offer the Blu-ray burner as one of the configuration options for the Envy when other laptop models at HP have the option?

 

And HP decided that there are too many players in the gaming laptop market, so they decided to do something completely different and actually design a laptop instead of just throwing all the hardware into it that they could fit. The Envy 17 has a 5850, not a top-of-the-line 5870. It's not a gaming-uber-monster, it's simply a nicely designed laptop that happens to be pretty good at gaming.

Again, if you want those specs in a laptop, you need to start looking at Alienware, Sager, or various other specialty manufacturers that will make a 2" thick laptop with cooling for those desktop-class processors, and under an hour of battery life.

 

The hardcore gaming market for notebooks is a niche market and HP's production and sales strategy wouldn't make it cost effective for them to serve this market segment. HP's consumer sales strategy has worked well for them as they go after the biggest market segment, i.e. consumers who desire well-designed, balanced portable laptops with multimedia capabilities and at a lower price point than comparable Apple models.

RAID 0/1 configurations are offered in HP's flagship enterprise models and the 920/940XM will be an option on the Elitebook workstations. However, no overclocking capabilities is offered.

 

Thank you both for the suggestions.

Configuring the Elitebook 8740w, you can only get RAID at the expense of removing the optical drive and the max CPU is the 820QM which I can tolerate.