Got a New HP Envy, I7 Processor, 16 Gb RAM!!

[Turk]

My 9 year old HP Pavilion's Hard Drive crashed, so I bought a new powerhouse in the HP Envy. Got it at Sams Club.

- I7 Processor
- 16 Gb RAM
- 1Tb Hard Drive
- Bang & Olufsen Audio
- Downloaded Windows 10
- Microsoft Edge Browser

Disabled a lot of the (anti)Privacy stuff including "Cortana"

It folds back into a Tablet. It's sweet!!

BUT, where's the F5 refresh button?? That button now lights up the keys.

 

[Merkava_4]

Does it have the track pad centered, or off to the left side?

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Does it have the track pad centered, or off to the left side?


It's off to the left, but centered below the keyboard.
There's a keypad to the right.

 

[Rand]

No ssd?

go get a SSD and clone the HDD to it.

best upgrade ever.

If a 9 year old computer was fine you should be ok with a 250GB size ssd like the samsung 850evo for under 100$

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: Rand
No ssd?

go get a SSD and clone the HDD to it.

best upgrade ever.

If a 9 year old computer was fine you should be ok with a 250GB size ssd like the samsung 850evo for under 100$



Another IT guy I know said that as well. Think I'm going to go get one.....

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: Rand
No ssd?

go get a SSD and clone the HDD to it.

best upgrade ever.

If a 9 year old computer was fine you should be ok with a 250GB size ssd like the samsung 850evo for under 100$

I have one and they are definitely fast. Boot and shutdown is so much faster than a mechanical drive. The only thing I worry about it reliability. I haven't had any problems in the 1 year that I have owned it.

 

[razel]

I love that you love your new machine. Your joy of a new computer is missing these days. Actually I think only the older generation still loves new doo-hickey computers. Younger people just criticize new gadgets too much and expect them to wax their cars or frankly buy gadgets to make themselves feel better.... but anyhow.

Your F1-F12 top row keys are probably defaulted as function keys. I think if you press the FN+F5 it will function as a refresh. You can change the default however, in the BIOS... but getting to the BIOS is harder. In Win8/10 it's easier to go to settings:update:recovery:advanced startup... your laptop will restart... REALLY dig 3-4 screens of options to find, change UEFI settings... that I found is the easiest way to get to the BIOS in Win8/10 laptops.

And yes BUY an SSD. Don't spend too much. A good price is $80 for 240/256GB. In fact the Samsung 850 500GB is currently $150. A killer price for one of the best SSDs.

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: razel
I love that you love your new machine. Your joy of a new computer is missing these days. Actually I think only the older generation still loves new doo-hickey computers. Younger people just criticize new gadgets too much and expect them to wax their cars or frankly buy gadgets to make themselves feel better.... but anyhow.

Your F1-F12 top row keys are probably defaulted as function keys. I think if you press the FN+F5 it will function as a refresh. You can change the default however, in the BIOS... but getting to the BIOS is harder. In Win8/10 it's easier to go to settings:update:recovery:advanced startup... your laptop will restart... REALLY dig 3-4 screens of options to find, change UEFI settings... that I found is the easiest way to get to the BIOS in Win8/10 laptops.

And yes BUY an SSD. Don't spend too much. A good price is $80 for 240/256GB. In fact the Samsung 850 500GB is currently $150. A killer price for one of the best SSDs.


Yes, I easily figured it out that now I got to hit Function/F5 to get a refresh, not just F5 like my old HP.

The only complaint so far is the front leading edge where the backside of my wrist rests on is somewhat sharp. The shop easily could've broke that edge, but didn't.

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: Rand
No ssd?

go get a SSD and clone the HDD to it.

best upgrade ever.

If a 9 year old computer was fine you should be ok with a 250GB size ssd like the samsung 850evo for under 100$

I have one and they are definitely fast. Boot and shutdown is so much faster than a mechanical drive. The only thing I worry about it reliability. I haven't had any problems in the 1 year that I have owned it.


SSDs are waaaay more reliable than HDDs because they have no moving parts ("solid state"). They just aren't good for long-term offline storage - you can't throw one in your closet and expect your data to be usable after months or a year.

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

SSDs are waaaay more reliable than HDDs because they have no moving parts ("solid state"). They just aren't good for long-term offline storage - you can't throw one in your closet and expect your data to be usable after months or a year.


Serious lol, considering SSDs basically are in self destruct mode as they are used.

Dell only warranties SSDs in the enterprise for significant less time than rotating HDDs; you might want to explore why that is.

Quote:

Dell SSDs come with a standard three
years warranty (extendable up to five years on certain high performance enterprise SSDs).
Enterprise Value, Read Intensive and Slim SSD Class Drives are not eligible for extended warranty coverage beyond the standard
three year warranty


Regular HDD can be warrantied for 7 years.

Regarding SSD for mobile computing, as you note, is where the SSD has an advantage because of their solid state nature.

Pick the poison.

 

[mjk]

What happens when a SSD fails? It fails completely, and at once. Correct me if I am wrong.

With a HDD, you may be aware of it, and be able to do something about it...


At least that is how it was explained to me by a retired IT professional.

Originally Posted By: Ethan1
Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: Rand
No ssd?

go get a SSD and clone the HDD to it.

best upgrade ever.

If a 9 year old computer was fine you should be ok with a 250GB size ssd like the samsung 850evo for under 100$

I have one and they are definitely fast. Boot and shutdown is so much faster than a mechanical drive. The only thing I worry about it reliability. I haven't had any problems in the 1 year that I have owned it.


SSDs are waaaay more reliable than HDDs because they have no moving parts ("solid state"). They just aren't good for long-term offline storage - you can't throw one in your closet and expect your data to be usable after months or a year.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Turk
It's off to the left, but centered below the keyboard.
There's a keypad to the right.


You see I can't deal with that. I gotta have the trackpad perfectly centered on the palm rest.
I do believe there are some models of HP Envys that have the trackpad centered though.

 

[BearZDefect]

Not long ago there were SLC enterprise SSDs available for servers at a few thousand a piece. I imagine they could outlast the service life of the rest of the machine in most usage scenarios. But otherwise, in a server SSDs may be best for read-intensive use.

On the other hand, large virtual server providers like Amazon and Microsoft have rolled out SSDs in their mainstream storage. Amazon did so over a year ago and I haven't heard tragic stories. I wonder if they have an aggressive monitoring and replacement schedule for SSDs in those arrays.

I understand Intel has a new solid state storage medium coming to market that fits between mass storage and RAM, and may be more reliable than SSDs under write-intensive use.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: Ethan1

SSDs are waaaay more reliable than HDDs because they have no moving parts ("solid state"). They just aren't good for long-term offline storage - you can't throw one in your closet and expect your data to be usable after months or a year.

I know a few people that work for companies that make SSDs and they will tell you otherwise.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: razel
In fact the Samsung 850 500GB is currently $150. A killer price for one of the best SSDs.

And where'd you see that?

 

[HMan]

Originally Posted By: razel
I love that you love your new machine. Your joy of a new computer is missing these days. Actually I think only the older generation still loves new doo-hickey computers. Younger people just criticize new gadgets too much and expect them to wax their cars or frankly buy gadgets to make themselves feel better.... but anyhow.



I'm of the so called younger generation and a new computer still gives joy. I still take joy in new hardware mainly because I can't afford nor desire to buy new hardware often (credit cards are for people that suck at math) and I end up using dumpster dive hardware most of the time. Last computer I bought/built from new hardware was 6 years ago and I'm going to try to get it to last until at least next tax year.

 

[asand1]

Originally Posted By: razel
I love that you love your new machine. Your joy of a new computer is missing these days. Actually I think only the older generation still loves new doo-hickey computers.


This, I recently upgraded from a single core Athlon 64 3000+ and 2G DDR1 system to an AMD FX 4300 3.8 quad and 4GB DDR3. I'm still loving it after 4 weeks.