TEST: Get More Out of Your ENVY 17

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Maybe you’ve already ordered an ENVY 17. Maybe you’re kicking around the idea of buying the new notebook. Well, now that I’ve had some extended playtime with the beefiest laptop in HP’s consumer arsenal, I wanted to share a couple tweaks, tips and observations from the trenches. Consider this a living document that I plan to update and plug new things into it. And, hey, if you’ve already ponied up the cash for the ENVY 17 (I’m looking at you, notebookreviews.com forum gang!), I’d love to hear about any tweaks / thoughts you may have – and I’ll keep updating this story.

First, a little credit where it’s due. I was checking out a Quick Look of the ENVY 17 over at Tested.com where Will and Norm gave their two cents. I was hanging in their forums. I want to give a couple of my cents as well. But first, the reality check. I got hooked up with a machine that’s pretty powerful by current standards. Here’s how it breaks down:

CPU: Core i7-2860QM @ 2.50GHz
RAM: 8GB
GRAPHICS: ATI Radeon HD 7690M XT
STORAGE: 80GB SSD + 750GB 7200rpm HDD
OPTICAL DRIVE: Blu-ray

The ENVY 17 starts at $1,249.99, but this machine as configured right now (2/2/2012 at 1:39pm...and five seconds) goes for $2,144.99. Your mileage will, of course, vary with what you opt to put inside your machine.

TIP: Graphics
You can get a surprising amount of kick out of the 7690M XT graphics in this guy. For video or photo editing this thing rocks. The big, bright screen does a great job. Same goes for games as well, but of course, you need to make sure that you’ve got the right drivers. As of this initial writing, I have driver version 8.882.2.4000 (from 11/28/2011). I’ll spare you benchmarks info (check here for more on that) but you need to keep on top of this. Me? I’m religiously checking for full updates to the drivers. The first place to check: HP’s support channel for your laptop. Next stop: AMD’s support page. Feeling like living on the edge? Catalyst beta drivers (they call them “preview drivers”) do exist at places like The Guru of 3D, but you’ve got to be ready for uninstalling drivers or worse. That’s my disclaimer on that one.

And then there’s the odd quirk you could occasionally run into.

For example, I tried playing the demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning just the other night and I was getting this really odd black screen error. Couldn’t see a blessed thing. The second that I went into the options and turned off “Post-Processing” the problem cleared right up and works great. (Grab the demo here, it’s kinda awesome).

Then there’s other games like, say, Battlefield 3 that look amazing with my setup. In single player, I have the resolution set to 1920 by 1080 and the setting cranked to high – it looks and plays great. Going into multiplayer, I’d recommend dropping the settings to medium and the resolution to about 1600 by 900 or so.

I’m going to be straight with you, I usually keep the resolution a little more modest for most games. Skyrim, for example, runs at about 1600 by 900 with settings up high and it looks fantastic. And if I need to drop resolutions even further, I’m not sweating it. Saint’s Row The Third and Deus Ex: Human Revolution looked equally great around 1366 by 768 resolutions.

(As I run into more game quirks, I’m going to update this section. But if you have a specific question, hit the comments and I’ll see what I can do.)

TIP: Audio

You may not use the Beats audio button as much as I do, but it’s very useful. Just trust me on this. There are headphone pre-set settings – if you find yourself going between the external speakers and your own cans. But you can also save out your own profile / audio settings. Here’s what mine looks (and sounds) like

 

TIP: Small Speed Boosts

Not everyone uses their laptop the same way. Let’s agree on that much. So where as I might use all the features, some of you might not. So, consider the case of stuff like CoolSense and the Wireless Audio functionality Built into the ENVY 17. CoolSense tech is actually handy if you’re running between locations and don’t want to monkey with the fan / heat settings for a CPU. But if you’re planted at a desk – which I find myself doing with desktop replacements – you might not need it. Same theory goes for wireless audio. If you own Kleer audio products, this is a dead-simple way to stream music from your laptop to some speakers. If you’re nowhere near said speakers, you might not need that software kicking around in the background.

Here’s what I do: Go to the start menu and type, “msconfig.” After hitting enter and the window pops up, click on the “Startup” tab. From there, I uncheck apps that I don’t really need loading the second the laptop starts. Valve’s Steam client, iTunes, Quicktime, HP CoolSense, and HP Wireless Audio Manager are a couple of the things that I personally opt to check off for the time being. (and if you see something you’re not sure of, ask / search online before unchecking).

TIP: Don’t forsake the ImagePad

I honestly think that this is more of a reminder just for myself, sometimes, but here goes: Use the multitouch functionality. It actually works! In the trackpad area, a two-finger swipe lets you scroll in the direction you go. Zooms in and out like a charm as well. And this is coming from a guy that normally eschews a trackpad in favor of an external mouse.

All right, like I said, this is a starting point. A work in progress. I’m planning to add more here (or maybe break it out into smaller stories). And if you have some tips / observations of your own we want to hear ‘em! Got questions? Lay ‘em on me! I’m here for you.