My HP Envy 15 Monster Laptop Specs
I’ve been tweeting and crowing about how awesome my new HP Envy 15 laptop is. There are some good photos of the laptop and its packaging over at notebooks.com (this photo is borrowed from the site). Quite a few people have asked what I put in it, so I thought I’d post the specs here. I went pretty much full boat with this laptop. It wasn’t cheap (a little under US$4k), but it is blindingly fast. I figure I’m good for the next 3+ years of this Microsoft product wave, no matter what I need to do.
As an example of how great it is, I can have a MOSS VM running (4Gb), an SP2010 VM running (8Gb), and all of my usual desktop apps up and running, while listening to streaming Web radio, and the thing barely hiccups. And that’s with everything installed on the same SSDs: OS and all of the apps and VMs. (One thing to note is that the two 160Gb SSDs come set up as a single 320Gb drive.)
I can’t recommend this laptop enough!
HP ENVY 15 customizable Notebook PC
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-820QM Processor (1.73GHz, 8MB L2 Cache,1333MHz FSB)w/Turbo Boost up to 3.06 GHz
- 16GB DDR3 System Memory (4 Dimm)
- 320GB Dual Solid State Drive Flash Modules (SSD 160GB + SSD 160GB)
- 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics – For i7 Processors
- 15.6″ diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display (1920×1080)
- External Tray Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support with 2 USB Ports
- Webcam Only
- Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
- HP QuickWeb, Corel VideoStudio Pro X2, Corel Paintshop Pro X2, Stardock My Colors
- HP Color Matching Keyboard
- One 6 Cell Lithium Ion Polymer Battery + One 9 Cell HP Envy Slim Fit Extended-Life Notebook Battery
UPDATE 2001-05-29: One thing that I realized was missing from my monster laptop right before a presentation: a VGA port. Spring for the HP HDMI to VGA Display Adapter if you think you might be doing any presentations with a projector. Mine’s on its way.
You left off the rest of the equipment: Vinyl Roof, AM/FM/8-Track, whitewall tires…
Wise guy.
M.
Marc,
It sounds like the “Hemi-‘Cuda of laptops, but I still prefer the brushed chrome finish and lit-up keyboard of my MacBook Pro.
Ben:
Great to hear from you (albeit only with a semi-religious screed)! Hope all is well, and my laptop can kick your laptop’s backside anytime.
M.
I never was a huge fan of HP in the past but I must say, this looks very nice and sleek. What sort of battery life do you get on it with/without the extra slice? The laptop itself looks a lot slimmer than I expected!
Not a lot of data on the battery life yet, but based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s at *least* 5 hours with the slice attached, probably longer.
M.
Really interesting Marc,
I have a fairly recent HP business laptop and I hate how noisy it is (the fan seems to blow up to hairdryer levels constantly) and I have been looking to upgrade in order run SP2010.
How is the running noise of your new rig? It’s the one thing I am wary of when thinking of getting another HP.
Thanks – and thanks for the blog, I follow you here and on EUSP.
Cheers
Ben
Ben:
The only time the fan really makes a lot of noise (and it isn’t all that loud) is when the CPU is totally maxed out. It’s actually pretty hard to do that, though. The only time I can force it is when I’ve got SETI@Home running on all cylinders searching for aliens.
I’m glad you find my stuff helpful!
M.
Marc,
When you run SP Vms etc for a while, how are the following:
1. Heat in the palm rests?
2. Have you experienced black screens?
3. Do the fans run lound? If yes, then how often?
I’ve ordered one w/ i7 and been trying to get others opinion to prep myself in advance whehter to keep it or go with i5 due to heat output from i7.
thanks for replying.
Shazam26:
I find that the temperature isn’t a problem. I’ve had slower laptops that ran much hotter. I do have the extra “slice” battery, which acts a little like a heat dissipator on the bottom of the machine.
The only time I notice the fans much at all is when I’m *not* using the machine and I let BOINC take over to search for aliens with SETI@Home. (Seriously. I’ve been running it since 1999. If the buggers are out there, I’m finding them.) When that’s running, I give it 90% of the CPU, so the fans run quite a bit.
As for performance, not a single complaint. No black screens or anything. The VMs (VMware® Workstation 7.0.1 build-227600) run as if I’m logged into heavy metal servers somewhere. I don’t think that I’m going to be able to max out the CPU with the current set of applications.
M.
Hey Mar,
I’ve been reading where under heavy load there is buzzing sound coming from the notebook. Have you experienced this? Also, now that you’ve it for a while what did you find that you think could be troublesome in the long ownership of this laptop?
thanks for your response.
-Shahzad26
Shahzad26:
The only real complaint that I have is that the slice battery usually falls off in my backpack. I love this laptop. There’s no buzzing with mine.
M.