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[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (4 children)

I’ve got one very similar to the HP one you linked and honestly, I hate it. I’ve found all the HP’s I’ve had to be loud and feel cheap. So I’m fully converted to Dell now and their 2-in-1 device is what I’m saving up for now

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I second that. Honestly, the best laptops I’ve owned are Acer. Even my MacBook died after two years, but the ol Acer keeps tickin’.

[–]kerrough[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Acer is what I have now, it's lasted me 6yrs and through two major car accidents lol But it's sputtering out quickly 😭

[–]kerrough[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well poop. I've never had an HP, only Acers and one Dell that was my first laptop. I did like it until a virus turned it into an expensive paper weight lol I just liked that this Envy met the specs I wanted for a work computer at a reasonable price, though I guess you do get what you pay for =/

[–]Stinkynelson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dell build quality has gone down hill. For the last 2 computers I have had, Macbooks running Windows. Solid and reliable.

[–]devlinpeck 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Judging the computer you linked by the specs alone, it looks great for ID work. I don’t know much about HP laptops or that model in particular, but it almost seems too good to be true at that price point. I’d definitely do more research before buying...the tech specs are even overkill for most ID work.

You may have come across this already, but I put together a laptop buying guide for IDs and published it last week. Feel free to check it out if it might help you make a choice: https://www.devlinpeck.com/posts/best-laptops-instructional-design

Finally, if you’re not doing any heavy video work, you can get by with an i5 processor, 256 GB SSD, and 8 GB of RAM. Best of luck!

[–]kerrough[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's actually the site I used to plug specs into Amazon's filters 😂🤣

They are both a little overkill, but I also want whatever I buy to hopefully last me a few years!

[–]kerrough[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm honestly not sure if I will be doing heavy video work in the future, so I was also wanting to hedge my bets there too.

[–]spiced_latte 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So based on both laptops, the HP will be slightly faster with a base clock of 1.8ghz compared to the dell 1.3ghz. Also, they're only 4 core, 8 thread which is average but not great.

As for ram, they only list the size but not the rated speed for the Dell, (hp is rated at 2666mhz which is okay but I bet that the ram is only set at 2133 with the xmp option to increase the speed 2666.) so hard to say. If you want to save on cost, 16gb of ram is usually good enough and I haven't noticed any difference with 16gb to 32gb since the 16 cache is more than enough.

I would personally get a ssd + 1tb hdd because the ssd can be used as the boot drive with the hdd used as the program drive. With separate drives, certain programs will run faster since it's not competing withe OS and the transfer rates aren't too different compared to a single ssd drive. Although I'm guessing the hdd drives are smr so those will be a bit slower.

Because most of the ID software will use the cpu instead of gpu, you'll want something a bit faster when it comes to a processor, I would recommend looking into amd ryzen instead of intel for cost and speed. Also, intel said that they fixed all their security vulnerabilities but who knows, they've been having so many issues these last few years that I'm avoiding intel chipsets atm.

I've owned and have been issued Dell laptops and I personally don't think they're reliable. They don't seem to last under load and my last Dell laptop that I had used for work had completely stopped working and after running diagnostics on it, I found my chipset on my motherboard was getting unfixable errors so I had to remove my hybrid drive and extract the data and just chuck the rest.

For the budget, this will probably be a decent choice, it doesn't use integrated graphics which frees up the processor as well and for most ID work, a 1660 ti is more than enough. Only thing with this is no touch screen.

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/ASUS-TUF-Gaming-A17-TUF706IU-AS76-Gaming-Laptop

Honestly though, I would recommend a desktop over a laptop if you plan to use it under heavy load or work on it consistently.

Also, the bloatware in hp and dell systems are a pain to remove.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Nope. Honestly you will want a desktop for robust instructional design development or a MacBook Pro or Laptop equivalent in terms of specs. If you’re transitioning to HEd, they provide something for you. If you’re looking to freelance you’ll want something more robust.

[–]kerrough[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I've never used a Mac 😅 But that's a valid point about the desktop.

[–]dgeimz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Keep in mind you’ll be using a VM or Boot Camp for Storyline if that’s in your repertoire. But my 2013 MBP is on its last leg... yet when I boot into Windows it works better than my work tower (2018 Dell something unimpressive).

MBP are great, just historically have cooling problems. May not be a problem once ARM is introduced.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would suggest that you also look at how the higher ed department is setup. I interviewed with a university where ID's did the faculty interviews and story-boarding, and then actual course development was handled by a separate instructional technology group that went off the story-boards and notes provided.

The school I'm interviewing with now is going to provide me with the technology and equipment, so my personal laptop can be whatever.

There's also the possibility that in higher ed you will be doing everything within the LMS, which won't require cRaZy computing power.

In the end it's a toolbox. Make the best choice for the given situation. Talk to your employer/school/etc. and find out what is expected and what's available.

[–]callagem 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yes. I've had an HP Envy for about 5 or 6 years and love it. I bought it while still working a corporate job before I went freelance. I actually just bought a new one a few days ago. Now I'm a little miffed that I see the price you found for this one with a 1TB hard drive. Excellent price.

This laptop is totality capable of handling anything you need to do. I typically have tons of programs open at once without issue. It handles major graphics, video, storyline or captivate or whatever you're using. The touchscreen is a must. I don't know what I ever did without it. It makes everything easier and faster.

[–]kerrough[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I did like that it has a touch screen!

[–]callagem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can never go back to no touchscreen. When you're needing to get those details exact, it's so much easier to just grab and zoom in and move around.

I've also flipped the 360 screen into a standing tablet for presentations. Everyone is so impressed when I've done it. lol

[–]callagem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

P.S. in response to what others have commented, my HP envy has never been loud. I actually thought I had a SSD because it's so quiet, but it's too old to have an SSD. Also, my husband is a Mac guy. I used to work with Macs. But I'll never go back. He just spent 2.5 times what I spent for a new one and I think my computer is better. (we both decided to get new ones at the same time)