HP - Envy Desktop - Intel Core i5 - 12GB Memory - 1TB SSD - Black

The transition from a laptop to a desktop computer has been a challenging experience. It is one that I knew would present a challenge. However, it was a change that I really felt was necessary to support my increased usage of my computer. There were many changes as I made this transition that I did not consider. You never think about all the devices like speakers, cameras and other accessories that you take for granted after many years of using a laptop.

The mini desktop works great so far. It would be nice if it had a bit more space inside to allow for two 3.5 HDD's and 2 PCIe expansion slots instead of one each. But I knew that when I bought it. I was able to install two 2TB SSD in the space where one HDD would fit. So far it's snappy and I'm getting the hang of Windows 11... gradually. I separately bought a 3.5" DVD external USB3 enclosure so I can access DVD's and BluRay disks via a USB port. Seems to work well so far also. The Nvidia 4060 is driving my three 27" monitors without issue. I'm not a gamer so I can't speak to response in that area. Love the 32GB of RAM and the quick startup from the 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD. All this coupled with the Intel i7 14 Gen CPU and the holiday sale price.. well I just couldn't pass it up !!

The HP Envy does everything I expected very well. In the future please consider lighter colors for the Envy, colors that contrast with the front ports and make them easier to see. Granted, I'm 73 years old. Black may be stylish but it's boring and hard to see. I was pleased too with the relatively short delivery time.

This is a great machine that I purchased to replace my previous machine which was about 6 years old at the time. Pros - Very small case, it can fit in even the smallest of desks. - In spite of it's small form factor, there is a surprisingly high upgradability. - 400W 80 plus gold PSU - At the time of purchase, the tech specs stated that it would come with Win 11 installed. When I received it and booted it for the first time, I was happily surprised when I was greeted with the Win 10 welcome screen! I thought I would be stuck with a new OS and it's inevitable new bugs, but was happy with this outcome. - The GTX 1660 super is perfect for 1080p gaming at med/high settings which is my preferred way of gaming. - The included wireless keyboard and mouse are decent, and helps keeps a clean look for any setup. - They also included screws for an extra hard drive and an extra M3 screw for the M.2 slot! So many prebuilt machines fail to include these little extras, so I want to give HP credit for doing something small, but makes a huge difference to the end-user. - Wifi card is preinstalled in the other M.2 slot and doesn't have cables connected to the front panel, which makes getting into the machine much easier. - TONS of USB type A ports! 4 superspeed ports on the front, 2 5 Gb and 2 10Gb, 4 USB 2.0 ports on the rear. The included SD card reader is also quite convenient. Cons - While the case was designed to allow decent air flow, it does not take advantage of it. The black bracket in the case has pre-drilled holes to allow a intake fan to be installed, however there isn't one, and the way the holes are spaced out, it's for a 70mm fan, which is a very odd, and rarely used fan size. Also there is only one chassis fan connector on the motherboard and it's a 3 pin. I would've liked to see a 4 pin that way the fan speed could be controlled instead just spinning at it's maximum all the time. - The ram my machine came with was only single rank, so the chips were only on one side. This was not stated on the tech specs for the machine and I believe it should be. I was going to upgrade the ram anyway, but it would've been nice to know for sure. - The sata cables are the rarely used left angle connectors. This was a strange choice, but for whatever reason, the way the sata ports are on the motherboard and where the hard drives are mounted, you have to use a left angle sata cable. Due to this, my right angle sata cables have the 90 degree side connected to the motherboard, and I have to twist the other end to connect it to my other hard drives. - There are only two sata power connectors, so to install more than 2 sata devices you would have to get a Y splitter cable. - There is only one PCIe x16 slot for the GPU, but the only other PCIe slot is only x1 and there are very limited cards that would be useful to install. I wish it was x4 or more. - Only one M.2 slot for NVMe SSD and it's located pretty far away from the PCIe slots and CPU which is also another odd placement choice. If they could put another slot right above the GPU that would be perfect for the main boot drive. Now most of this review would only be relevant to users that want to upgrade their machine. I imagine most people would not go as far as I have. But I think having this information out there will help others decide which machine to buy.

I know that people are having trouble in every tech industry getting parts to build their computers but that should make you even more helpful to you clients instead of causing all the headaches, not listening to or believing what we tell you about the systems that we purchased. This had to go back in a little over a two months.