guys what is the difference with envy i5 430m and 520m

i see alot of people o here with 520m is there something wrong with the 430m all I can see is the 520m has a .17 difference is there anything else.

 

It's ~5% faster with 2 cores and ~15% faster with 1 due to more turbo boost; the 520M also supports AES-NI while the 430M does not.
To me, that's ~$50 worth of difference, not $100.

 

this AES-NI u speak of how important is that, and why don't u think its worth 100 bucks more.

 

Basically, some new instructions that make it a lot faster to use AES encryption. See here for some idea as to what it means.

How much the upgrade is worth is a personal decision, but one reason I think HP is charging too much is that online stores are listing the i5-520M and i5-540M for $220 and $260 or so respectively.

 

u personally wouldn't get it though

 

No, because the difference in performance isn't very big.

 

IIRC the i5 model can be manually upgraded to an i7-620m (dual core, 2.6-3.3ghz) for ~$250-275 (ebay dealer shirleyfu1117 or laptopmonkey) .. kinda thinking of doing so myself

edit: found a post by johnnobts that says i5 models can also be upgraded to full i7 quad
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6062260&postcount=3282

 

Most people won't notice the difference between i5 processors.

 

the only encryption app i trust is TrueCrypt and it's not accelerated by AES-NI.. so no points there.

if you use bitlocker or 7zip there are significant gains:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/clarkdale-aes-ni-encryption,2538-7.html

 

and the AES instructions only matter IF your os and/or applications are programmed to use them. Intel was thinking in terms of encryption co-processor cards when introducing the new AES instructions to come of the the i-series chips.

 

I didn't see it mentioned in the Tom's Hardware article, but do you have any source on this? I'm wondering why. It may play into my choice of encryption software.

Thanks

 

can someone look at these links I can't figure out what the embended means in the intel chips.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47341

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43537

 

Look at the Wikipedia article on embedded systems.

 

i read that and that is way confusing is there like a way to say it in laymens terms lol

 

Special-purpose computers, basically.
I found on Intel's website what "Embedded" means in this specific case:

Basically, the idea is that if you're designing a special-purpose computer, you expect to be able to continue to manufacture it for an extended period of time, and so Intel marks specific processors as "embedded" as something of a guarantee that these will be available for some time.

 

so if the CPU burns out in 2017 we should still be able to get a compatible part (i5-520m). of course by then it will be a very low spec computer and hardly able to run windows 10.

 

i poked through google for articles on AES-NI and checked truecrypt.org documentation (no mention of it). relevent to me since i already have a dozen HDs disc-encypted with TC. i don't know how much more AES-NI can speed up operations though since I don't see any performance penalty as it is, at least on dual/quad core systems. i like the idea of specialized coding/decoding instructions but in practical terms i don't think there will be any noticeable difference since its already extremely efficient.

 

Thanks. I do have multiple TC containers that I'd explore the possibility of migrating to BitLocker if the gains were sufficient; I just couldn't find mention of AES-NI incompatibility in the TC documentation.

 

Can we downgrade the i7-Quad to an i5? I'd get the best of both worlds... USB 3.0 and more battery life!

 

i haven't used bitlocker before only because TC works so well for stacks of encrypted (non-system) drives that i have no need for alternatives. i fire up the TC GUI > auto-mount devices > enter key > all my drives mount. it has been perfectly reliable in my experience over the last 3 years. i have not experimented with encrypting the system drive although TC can do that. Seems a little complicated and i keep my system drives clean of anything risky. if i were going to, i'd try TC first because it's open source (hard to sneak a back door into publicly reviewable code) and free. also bitlocker only comes with the enterprise and ultimate editions of windows, neither of which is offered on the Envy.

 

i don't see why not. but if you go dual core, get the i7-620m, it doesn't cost much more than i5 if you buy on eBay.

 

A few things on this...

1) Any version of Windows 7 can be upgraded to another... Real easy and it's part of the software. Just pay and unlock the features. Already on the hard drive -- windows anytime upgrade.
2) If you want to encrypt the hard drive in the notebook then Bitlocker works best with a TPM chip, and I don't think the envy has one (annoyingly)

 

Doesn't really work (been tested by people on the forums). You WILL lose USB 3.0 Ports AND your RAM will only MAX out at 8 GB. The BIOS written for the Envy coded any Arrandale-based Dual Core is locked out of the NEC USB 3.0 Controller and the two extra RAM Slots. That means only your eSATA/USB 2.0 Port will work and the other two are disabled.

 

That's odd. Does that mean the i5 Envy's might actually have USB 3.0, just pop in an i7 quad? Meh.

 

Wrong again. The Core i5 Motherboards don't have the NEC USB 3.0 Controller soldered on it, so no. The Core i7 Motherboards do have the Controller soldered on, but the Controller is BIOS-Controlled to not work with any installed i5's, only i7 Quads.

 

I'm running the 620m and happy to report, it doesn't seem to run overly hot like the quad versions do.

As for usb 3.0 and needing > 8gb of ram.... well, let's just say *I* don't have a need for either yet; not sure about everyone else though. Really wish I had firewire or optical SPDIF output though, I've gotta pay more to turn the envy 15 into a music listening transport now.

 

Wrong again? 'The hell are you talking about. THis is my first post here. Also, I made no statements that could have been wrong. I asked a question. Did someone have their Wheaties pissed in this morning?

 

Sorry, no need to offend you. I have a weird habit of answering questions that are asked in continuation of an original question regarding to the topic. So I answered yours in continuation of the question you quoted from the other person regarding the issue.

 

AH, Got it. I think...

 

yes, as previously posted, you can swap and i5 for an i7 quad and vice-versa. the only thing that needs to be changed is the CPU heatsink has a piece of plastic that needs to be removed (when swapping an i5 for an i7 quad).