[SOLVED] Do you have an opinion on this laptop? (for productivity, not for gaming)

[curiousmcgeorge]

HP - Envy 17.3" Touch-Screen Laptop

- Intel i7-8565U

- 12GB RAM DDR4 (don't know the speed)

- 512GB SSD Optane

- NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics 2GB

For productivity, not for gaming


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-env...asted-anodized-finish/6338817.p?skuId=6338817

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, I'd probably forego buying ANYTHING with an Intel chipset for now. Especially not if it's from one of the affected generations. The value and performance are likely as good or better on current Gen AMD Ryzen platforms and they lack most of the vulnerabilities we've seen from Intel over the last two or three years, and completely lack THIS one.

https://gizmodo.com/critical-flaw-in-intel-chipsets-opens-encrypted-data-to-1842142431

 

[mkaafy]

Why are you buying the older 8th gen? There are HP Envy 17.3 with 10th gen. of Intel processors available.

It's one of the best laptops for Multimedia purposes. It supports B&O audio, so you'll enjoy listening to musics and watching videos.

If you want to know more, check out the notebookcheck review.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I'm not too keen on the 12GB of RAM, but on clearance, that's not too shabby.

-Wolf sends

 

[LordVile]

Honestly, I'd probably forego buying ANYTHING with an Intel chipset for now. Especially not if it's from one of the affected generations. The value and performance are likely as good or better on current Gen AMD Ryzen platforms and they lack most of the vulnerabilities we've seen from Intel over the last two or three years, and completely lack THIS one.

https://gizmodo.com/critical-flaw-in-intel-chipsets-opens-encrypted-data-to-1842142431

You do know it needs to be accessed on boot on a local network which will be patched or the "unfixable" bit someone needs PHYSICAL access to the machine where multiple easier things requiring less skill can be done instead. On top of the fact that this will not be done as a widespread thing because things that people want are simpler like credit card details because that can be turned into cash rapidly whereas this which is harder to do and only doable under specific conditions on boot which most laptops never do unless they go flat (they're normally put to sleep when people close the lid).

Or I mean you could just get a Mac, this doesn't affect the true master race at all 😉 (if you have a newish MacBook)

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, it's not THE reason to avoid Intel right now, it's simply "another" reason", to add to the many others along with being more expensive than similarly equipped AMD based models, OTHER vulnerabilities, many of which DON'T require any physical access, and probably five other reasons that I don't particularly feel like dredging up at the moment. But sure, there are probably at least one or two reasons TO go with Intel as well.

I can't think of any right now other than technically having the edge when it comes to gaming performance, but since that's not a factor here I think we can exclude that one. As far as Mac goes, pffft. You can have it. All of it.

I have several clients with Macbooks from the last few years. There's only one semi-legitimate reason to have one, and that's if you have to do a lot of epeen measuring amongst your peer group, who are themselves in a class of people I'd never associate with on my personal time anyhow. Every one of the people I know who own them, wish they had bought something else. Every. One.

 

[curiousmcgeorge]

Why are you buying the older 8th gen? There are HP Envy 17.3 with 10th gen. of Intel processors available.

It's one of the best laptops for Multimedia purposes. It supports B&O audio, so you'll enjoy listening to musics and watching videos.

If you want to know more, check out the notebookcheck review.

It was inexpenisve on the Best Buy website, and my wife asked me.
The chip does seem old, and I told her that.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I mean, it's not really "old". It's one generation old. Depending on the price it could still be a fair choice. Coming this close to the probable release of some upcoming AMD Zen2 mobile APUs and the upcoming Intel 10th Gen CPUs, it might well be worth waiting a little while if you really want to get something that will offer up to date performance though. Or at least look at current gen AMD Ryzen 3000 series and Intel 9th Gen offerings.

Depending on what you actually DO on this unit though, it's possible that just about anything might be adequate or even exceed necessity. If it is only used to browse the internet and run light office applications, even a 6th Gen Intel processor could handle that easily. Possibly even a 4th or 5th gen model or a first gen Ryzen unit.

What, specifically, do you include when you say "productivity"? What sort of applications or uses will this be required to run and at what level?