i will go with 2nd one .. you get more powerfull cpu ( quadcore cpu vs dual core cpu - comparison : http://ark.intel.com/compare/76348,75117 ). for the vga the 2nd one is a little weaker, but i think it's not big difference ( you can google the comparison between those two vga ). and for the 2nd one you can easily upgrade you memory to 16GB ( ENVY 15t-j100 maximum memory is 16GB ) , only need to buy a new 8GB memory. if you play with VM , memory minimum is 8GB for creating some lab experiment with atleast 3 vm.
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then you will be doing great with 2nd one because it is quad core processor .. if you're using vmware workstations to play with VM , you can use the unity feature without needed to worry for performance .. if you use dual core and use unity feature it will give an impact on performance. the GPU between those two is not realy big difference.
2 VM with 8GB RAM is more than enough unless you need to use 3D graphics in VM. I have notebook with 8GB RAM and i can run 1 windows 2008 server ( AD, ms-sql server, vcenter server ) and 3 vsphere host on my vmware workstation each with 1GB of RAM and some tuning..
but if you use a lot of graphic intensive program in your school ( CAD, Video Rendering etc ) you should get the 1st one .. you will benefit from the higher vga memory when doing heavy rendering..
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I like the Select Edition's extra video ram, but not sure how important that extra 2gigs will be for you. On the other hand, an extra ram slot (assuming both have two) allows for an upgrade to 16 (or 12). Everything else is pretty much equal in my eyes.
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Get the second one. I don't think you'll need those extra 2 gigs of VRAM unless you really like Adobe Premiere or After Effects. The processor speed will be noticable in gaming though.
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It's impossible for me to tell what difference there is between the two graphics options. Going by the Anandtech description there's virtually no difference between the chips, so it's probably up to the RAM used (DDR3 vs. GDDR5), and that's not specified by HP. I agree with others that RAM size doesn't matter here, it's just the speed.
I don't think there's any need to worry about battery life. It should be enough for your needs with any of the options.
So my feeling is that you should go for the quad edition, simply because the CPU difference is meaningful, while the GPU one is impossible to judge and probably small.
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Just googled and apparently there's a recent review at PC Mag. Strange I didn't find it before. Anyway, it shows battery life as a little more than 4 hours, but recommends the Asus N550JV-DB72T as a similar but better laptop for around the same price.
Edit: There seem to be some other good alternatives, such as the MSI GX Series GX60 and Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p, both of which are much better for gaming.
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It's fine, I personally liked 1920x1080 resolution readablity - now at 2560x1600+ resolutions you might want to increase the text size slightly, you can do that under the Control Panel -> Display -> 100% / 125% / 150% (suggest 125% if required for extremely high resolutions) in Win 7, I'm sure Win 8 has something available too.
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Core i7 4700MQ single core performance is just slightly better than the i5-4200M, however it has hyperthreading and benchmark performance using all cores well beats it. I would suggest it if you do many applications, launch a lot of processes together and/or do multitasking.
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M Graphics with 4096MB would be better for gaming purposes, still only average in gaming performance. I would suggest the first one, if using it more for gaming.
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Im planning to customize an HP Envy 15t. I will be using this for mainly school, a little for virtual machine experimenting (Max 2 at once), and light/moderate gaming. Whats your opinion on this. Also of now they both cost pretty similar. The main difference is i5 4200m with gt 750m or i7 4700mq with gt 740m. I also want a battery life of about 3-4 hrs. Hopefully I can find all the drivers for win 7.
1st:
ENVY 15t-j100 Select Edition
Windows 8.1 64
4th generation Intel® Core™ i5-4200M Processor
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M Graphics with 4096MB of dedicated video memory
15.6-inch diagonal Full HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
2nd:
ENVY 15t-j100 Quad Edition
Windows 8.1 64
4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M Graphics with 2048MB of dedicated video memory
15.6-inch diagonal Full HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
8GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
Edit: May attach a giveaway later... :)
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