In this review I am looking at all that came in the box with the HP Envy 700-214.
It has been a long time since I have had a desktop PC. I honestly never thought I would go back to one with the quality of laptops out there. But you pay the price for mobility as I bought this desktop with a monitor package deal for just under $900 and couldn't touch that price with specs for a laptop. However, seeing that I need some good horsepower under the hood, my minimal road travels usually only require email and doc prep, so I didn't need much for being mobile. But in the office I need quite a bit. I do desktop publishing, short videos, financial software, etc. And I need the ability to allow coding and such to happen in the background, while I continue to work.
I knew I needed an iCore 5 or higher to get accomplished what I wanted so I only looked at desktops meeting that requirement. Memory had to be 8GB or more and for some reason I thought this machine had dedicated graphics memory. It does not. It shares the system memory of a max (and defaulted at) 1792MB. so around 1.5GB of the 12GB system memory is being used for graphics. I should not run into in any issues, but dedicated would have been nicer.
So as a desktop it is as fast and quick as I expected. I am a Windows 8 fan, even though I am not using touch screen in the office (I do on my Asus T100, which Windows 8 comes a live on touch screen) but in the office it just not practical as my screen is not in my face.
**A side note on Windows 8. Dual screen is a little wonky because to access some of the settings you have to be able to get the "Charms Bar" located on the right side of the screen and the opposite is true for the left side of the screen to access current running Apps. Without touch screen setup Windows 8.1 gets a bad wrap, and I would say rightfully so. All of the changes are behind the scenes and I can attest to the fact that Win 8 runs lighter and faster than Win 7 especially on older machines. On my little Asus Transformer Book T100 I use Win 8.1 as is. However, in the office setup I employ third-party software called ClassicShell. It is free and essentially it brings back the Start Button/Menu on the desktop. Now Windows 8.1 added the feature back to skip to the desktop on startup, Classic Shell has that feature as well, but it takes a trick for it do it and I just allow Win OS to handle that task. Once you get a round the learning curve of Win 8.1 theoretically you could do with out the Start menu on the desktop, but most don't want or can't take that time to get used to it. So ClassicShell (and others out there) help bring it back. The rumor has it that Windows 9 will bring it back, which they should have just did it from the beginning in Win 8 but again that's my opinion.
Getting back to topic, I do use dual screen setup, I cannot multitask without and over the years my screen sizes have increased now running dual 23" monitors 1 is HP (bought a pc/monitor package deal) and the other is an older 23" Hanspree (not as nice as the LED HP, may have to swap it out as reading text is just not that nice in comparison and now I know why I squinted. I just thought it was my eyesight)
Anywho, the system graphics handles it all just fine. Have not noticed any issues yet, I have not thrown the kitchen sink at it yet, but I really don't forsee any issues there with it.
The pc is very quiet, much quiter than I expected which is good. Again, once I start throwing larger tasks I am sure noise will pick up but I don't expect much.
The 2TB harddrive is nice as I won't run out of space for what I am doing, but it is a little sluggish on wake from sleep. From full off, the pc starts up quickly (mostly thanks to Win 8 for that) and gets me going in under 1 minute once a few things load. I knew going that the harddrive could be a bit sluggish compared to lesser size, say 500GB or 1TB but it works fine.
I really wish I had an SSD of at least 128GB for OS and subsequent programs and the 2TB for storing files and such. But I couldn't find one and probably wouldnt' have paid the price anyway. I can make upgrades down the road, which this desktop definitely allows.
I can even add another 4GB of memory to total out at 16GB if needed. Honestly would add a dedicated graphics card first though.
The wireless card inside is very strong and works well. I was a little worried about this as it doesn't have an external antenna. I am only 30 feet from my wireless router (diagonally) as my office is the basement of my home but it picks up the signal just fine at full bars. It did waiver once from 5 to 4 bars, but just shortly. Could have been someone standing in the direct path upstairs, but it didn't disrupt anything I was doing.
I have more USB ports than I know what to do with, which is fine by me.
One item that was complete junk in my opinion is the included wireless keyboard and mouse. The mouse is a joke. I am used to Logitech products for the last 10 years. Actually I have an HP wireless mouse elsewhere and so I at least expected that quality. This is definitely novelty at best just to make the features sound more appealing in the "What's in the Box" section.
I have tried all the settings possible, but the mouse jumps quite a bit, even when not being used. Precision is very hard, so it has to go as when I am doing desktop publishing or video editing precision will be key.
The keyboard is okay. The keys are nice and evenly spaced, but it does make quite a racket, especially the space bar. One aspect I do not like is the shortcut keys. I am used to the Logitech where I have dedicated media key functions (play/pause etc) this keyboard is not dedicated but requires the use of a dual press of FN key and the desired command. So not very convenient. The sound level is independent though so at least that is easy.
Obviously you can tell I enjoy Logitech products, so if you are not used to them then maybe it won't be an issue for you; outside of the mouse I definitely thing you will notice that. I do like the 10-Key Numeric pad as it works great and the keys are layed out nicely. My complaints mainly rest in the mouse department.
I needed a PC fast as my current rig was overheating as it just couldn't handle all I needed to do and I nursed it along for over year. I thought about building my own machine as I could get exactly what I wanted and would have even more longevity but I needed one quick and I have bought HP before so knew of their solid nature.
I am a bit of an audiofile so the Beats Audio sounded like an extra bonus. I can't tell any difference from my previous setup as my speakers have not changed (still rocking Altec Lansing THX with external sub from 2001!)
Well there is my two cents. I don't like reviews that are one liners of "works great" as that tells me nothing about how you use it! So this is how I use and what I expect from it. Hope it helps you with your decision.
One item I did want to add is I prefer small towers (slimline) but I was not able to get one with the chipset I needed (again unless I built my own). The size though is not bad, I had to add a little side table to my desk to accommodate (I hate desktops on the floor, requires too much cleaning out of dust and pet hair)