Returning my GX640; waiting for the new Envy

So I've decided, after two GX640's, that I've had enough of the heat this thing puts out and will be waiting for the upcoming Envy 14. Back-lit keyboard, switchable graphics, 5830 GPU, 5.2lbs! I think I found my perfect laptop. HP "claims that it has repositioned the internals so that cooling is optimized.", so hopefully the heat issues from the Envy 15 will be resolved.

Really wanted to like the GX640, but I can't stand the ugly casing, heat and crappy keyboard especially when compared to the new Envys.

 

Aren't HP's coolings meant to be pretty dismal too, cant remember? Also the performance is about a fraction of the GX640's, but i can understand, looks before performance for you

 

A "fraction" is probably an overstatement. I will take a 5830 with switchable graphics vs 5850 anyday. The Envy 17 also has the 5850 with GDDR5, though not sure if I want to go that big. Both Envy's can be outfitted with quad-core i7s as well, so no difference in CPU department. Plus the Envys have back-lit keyboard, edge to edge display, slot-load drive, and the Envy 14 is only 5.2lbs. Seems like a no-brainer. Price is not an issue for me, so the only thing GX640 has over the Envy is the slightly better GPU.

 

No, the 5830 is minor in comparison, i'd take performance over int/medium gpu, or just Buy a netbook because its something that i just wouldn't use,

Backlit keyboard - more finikey stuff, edge to edge display, can't really say im fussed but i prefer bezel, slot loaded drive, pointless when they break and weight, well.

And price i haven't a clue, its down to what you use it for, but i'd take performance over some looks, gimicks and extra's anyday.

 

Lol, the 5830 is "minor"? Dude, you have a GT725, correct? Your 4850 OC'ed gets about 11k in 3dmark. The 5830 OC'ed gets about 10k in 3dMark. I don't think 1k difference separates performance GPU vs "int/medium gpu".

 

Actually, that extra frame WILL count in games like crysis,

Oh and you just compared new to old, you can't really be making that comparison either,

Infact you stated from 3dmark06, get me a vantage run then i'll be happy.

Last time i checked the 5830 got 8k in 06, but if i decided to throw in a qx9300 along with a mild overclock, 14k on 06 is easy... (A properly OC'd 4850 with a p9500 hits 12k easy in 06 too)

But im not saying its a bad card, but its just not close to the 5850,

 

thought the envy 14 will have the 5670 and not 5830 GPU?
pretty huge diff. between the 5670 and 5850ddr5(gx640) me thinks........no?

 

HP says: "Both ENVY notebooks feature powerful Intel® processors(1) and ATI™ Mobility Radeon high-definition (HD) 5830 discrete graphics for gaming, videos and 3-D images." HP Expands Design Leadership with Updated Consumer Notebook PC Portfolio

The 10k OC'ed 5830 are paired with i5-520m. With a i7 I'm sure the scores will be higher.

 

I think envy's now been announced with 5830, but either way , 5850 and 5870 are pretty much the same at this point, and the 5830 is not in the league as them two, while good, its still far behind,

 

3DMark06 scores are somewhat meaningless, but the difference at stock clocks is around 8k vs 11.5k. Vantage shows a truer measure - the difference between the 5830 and 5850 is 4.5k vs 7k Vantage GPU score at stock clocks.

If the Envy 14 will have switchable graphics with an HD 5830, that's quite good; I would've given it serious consideration when I was buying. However, I think you're still being unrealistic about heat. If the Envy 14 has the same GPU as the Envy 15 but in a 14" chassis, that's getting ambitious. Perhaps HP will fix things up so it won't heat up as much on the outside as the Envy 15 does, but I seriously doubt you'll be able to use the Envy 14 for gaming on your lap either, because I don't see HP specially setting up their air intakes to solve this problem.

 

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the Envy 14 will actually use an HD 5650, not a 5830.

 

And the Envy 17 has a 5850, not a 5830.

 

i wish i was in us, envys are so expensive in canada.

returning my gx640 this week, man that thing got to 110c today running furmark. 24C amb

 

really, what source are you getting this from? some are pointing to the 5650others to the 5830. Their base does include the 5650 which is all we know from the HP rep on youtube..

 

I was reallly close to pulling the trigger also, but I just cant get over that bling bling speaker grille and the CCFL screen. Brightness is pretty equal to LED but it will loose its brightness over time. all CCFLs do.

 

Yeah, my last GX640 hit 110 in Furmark as well, so I returned it. My current one runs up to 99C, but it's still too hot for comfort so it's also going back.

 

As far as I know,that 99C figure is the memory controller, and I've seen some posts even with the G73 at or near such temperatures. In any case, you won't see temps like that except in Furmark, so unless you bought your laptop to run Furmark continuously I don't see how there's a problem.

 

Yes, except the cooling on the G73 is significantly better, and quieter, than the GX640. I wouldn't be too concerned if the machine didn't get so hot and loud under load.

 

The temperatures and noise while gaming haven't concerned me at all so far. Furmark is not a game.
Also, here's the G73 hitting 95C. As I said before, the temperature Furmark monitors seems to be memIO, which should be fine at 95C anyway.

 

Furmark is not a benchmark, it's a torture

 

Yeah to be honest the G73 actually handles temps just about the same as the 640, but at the end of the day we can't compare 15 and 17 inch models, its blasphemy!

Granted the 73 is better in the cooling department, a single fan solution shouldn't even be close to a dual, especially like it is, so i can't fault it, but it is hot.

 

At the end of the day, the GX640 runs hot, any way you dice it. It's certainly possible to have more effective cooling in a 15.6" form-factor (see Sager NP8690 for example, 53C at load!). Maybe MSI should learn something from Sager and Asus.

 

The NP8690 is also very large for a 15 incher, and it has an hour of battery when idle.

 

Again, sager and asus, dual fan solutions vs's singles, mount a fan onto your GPU and youl probably find it as cool, if not cooler then sager and asus.

Now the envy 17 inch, thats something to drool for,

5850
eyefinity
i5-i7 support,

although everyone still doubts the cooling 100% haha.

 

You sure are just a fan boy....

There is heat concern with every laptop that is all metal, in case you didn't notice metal conduct heat with a much higher efficiency than plastic (which is the primary concern of those), and since the gx 640 uses a plastic bottom, guess what?

And don't take it that I don't like the gx 640 or MSI as a brand, I actually point these to people in the search for mobile pcs, you know the ones that you can lug around without breaking your back, otherwise known as laptops, sometimes confused with those 18'' all in one solutions.

The gx 640 is a great machine and a machine that runs really hot, if it was not for the plastic bottom I doubt that it would have so much recommendations. aside that have you saw the internal temps of the envy 15? might want to check that, and fyi most of the reviews on the net shows the gen 1 envy, not the gen 2 which is the current one

 

Indeed, the body of the Envy 15 is a great way of getting heat away from the GPU, so the Envy can keep its insides cooler at the cost of having its outsides hotter. Ultimately it doesn't really matter much, does it? After all, you can't really use either the Envy or the GX640 on your lap for gaming. The Envy does have an advantage in that it requires less airflow because the body does a good job getting rid of heat, so it should (though other factors might get in the way) run quieter than the GX640. Sure, its internal temps are nice and cool, but you also have to take into account that the difference between the HD 5830 and the HD 5850 is actually quite large, and I would expect the Envy would run much hotter if it had an HD 5850.

Sure, she GX640's internal temperatures are quite hot by desktop standards, or by the standards of most laptops that don't have higher-end video cards, but they're pretty much the same as figures I have seen from many people with ASUS G73s, and more importantly they're not going to cause any harm.

 

I agree with you there, thinking that you can game in your lap is a absurd idea at best. If not for the heat the airflow would do the trick. The envy 15 only has two not so large grills in the bottom.

The most interesting characteristic of the cooling in the envy is the grills on all sides, and the two copper fan solution for the cpu and a single copper fan for the gpu, so the superiority of the cooling is not for debate. However due to the materials used in the body construction there is simply noway that you can game on your lap.

The 5830 is a good card, but is not anywhere in the league of the 5850, the difference should be in terms of 10fps in demanding games, and that sometimes count for a playable or non playable experience.

The thing here is that I was puzzled by the fanboyism and the aversion to what is a great pc, with a higher quality in terms of build, the gpu loses, but in terms of cpu it is in the same league (for the same price), or better, much better (and that's important for me since I play mostly strategy games, and a powerful cpu makes a great difference in games like empire total war, napoleon total war, to name just a few)

The point being here is that those are great laptops, and the difference being in the terms of the quality of the screen (going up to a 1080 screen) and the power of the gpu, along the better chassis (I'm hoping that the new FX series is out soon).

So for me all in all they're pretty balanced.

To be clear I have a MSI ex 625, very happy with it, just sad with some constructions problems and heat, if I increase the airflow I have up to 10-15fps of advantage, no oc required. That is I place a fan beneath the laptop and the difference is visible. Try this sometime, the PROBABILITY is that there might be some throttling issues, as in my case, since the body was not updated when they inserted those much more powerful internals

Here are some photos from it (its not mine) since the upload didn't seen to work here is a link to some pics

 

I haven't seen throttling on my GX640, and I've graphed CPU and GPU speeds and temps in a few games and benchmarks. The body might not have been updated, but the internal cooling setup may have undergone significant changes - these pictures show the inside of the GX640. Do you know what the inside of yours is like?

 

just try, I thought that I didn't have it, but it was a noticeable difference. And yes i can see from the pics that its was revamped (the cooling), much better, I wish I could exchange the cooling solution on mine

 

Ouch...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Envy-15-1130ef.29835.0.html

Google Translate

 

^
The link shows an Envy 15 though, hmm... kinda interested in the Envy 14 as well, it looks so sexy.

I am only hoping that it will not generate as much heat as the old Envys.

 

That is one of the worst reviews that I ever saw.

The more popular configuration which uses the i5 540m don't generate that enough heat, moreover it can be said that the reviewer didn't provide the a pic of temps, or that I had a better translation as to where the heat was.

The temps in his pc are surely from a amateur that did nothing but to run things in what state they came, no bios updates, no clean install, and as we know msi is one of the few companies that don't load the pc with bloatware. Actually at the envy forum there is a clear difference in terms of temp with a clean and without it.

And have you compared the pics with those of the envy guts and other laptop guts? There is a clear difference in what the quality is.

Now give me some all metal chassis that uses high end components and I'll be happy to withdraw any comments made on the quality of the cooling

 

Dude seriously,envy 14 will be around 40% weaker than msi gx640 in gaming.Due to 2 reasons
1.It may have 5830 but it will be SERIOUSLY downclocked,hell asus gaming laptops also have their gpu dc'ed.
2.Weaker gpu+downclocked <<<<<<mob 5850
3.For gaming i recommend you to keep msi,or buy asus or aw or sager.HP laptop do not have the cooling required for high end gpu's

 

seems like this was too good to be true as well. Gives off way too much heat apparently.