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I've got an HP Omen 2020 with 8c/16t zen2 4800, 64GB ram, 3TB nvme ssd, Nvidia 1660Ti and AMD Renior graphics. I could have opted for 128GB but I usually don't

by hpcjoe 5y ago

I've got an HP Omen 2020 with 8c/16t zen2 4800, 64GB ram, 3TB nvme ssd, Nvidia 1660Ti and AMD Renior graphics. I could have opted for 128GB but I usually don't run enough on the machine to tax even the 64G. Display isn't UHD, but a very crisp 1920x1280. I run it, lid closed, to drive an displayport 4k monitor connected via 1 mini DP plug. I bought it off of Amazon late last year w 64GB ram and upgraded the SSDs myself. Positively blows the doors off the similar age Dell unit with an i9 10k something sitting next to it. A huge part of that may be that I run Linux on mine, and the day job runs an ultra locked down w10. Dell only has 32GB ram and 500GB Data ssd. Has UHD 4k display, but I can't see that well. Retina displays are easier on the eyes IMO.

pdimitar 5y ago
Well, I'm also thinking of abandoning the idea of a Ryzen laptop, buy a Threadripper desktop workstation (and put Linux on it) and then also buy a MacBook Air M1 and remote into the workstation through it -- exactly because the retina screens are sadly still unbeaten. Such a plan can get very expensive though... So jury is still in recess. Thanks a lot for the product name! I'll definitely look it up. Do you have any remarks on fan noise and thermals? Additionally, is the display good enough to work on a sunny day while being in the shade? And can you choose integrated AMD graphics only?
- hpcjoe 5y ago
  Fans do wind up on heavy CPU/GPU load. The HP laptop cooler is quite a bit better than many I've had before, and the fan winds down about as quickly. I've brought this laptop to outdoor (!) karate class when we had some zoom students on. I manually adjusted the brightness, but it was fine. By default, mint installs the AMD driver, and nouveau. I wrote a simple switcher a few months ago, so I can toggle between AMD and NVidia. Next gen mint (due in a few weeks) apparently has the AMD/Nvidia optimus like switcher built in. For this laptop, one downside is that I could not get the AMD to drive the external displays as well as the laptop display. Nvidia can drive both. It looks like this is a switcher config, that xrandr can't handle (at least the versions I have on there). If this is fixed in the next version, I'll happily use AMD for most display and NVidia for my GPU work (computing).

by hpcjoe 5y ago

pdimitar 5y ago

Well, I'm also thinking of abandoning the idea of a Ryzen laptop, buy a Threadripper desktop workstation (and put Linux on it) and then also buy a MacBook Air M1 and remote into the workstation through it -- exactly because the retina screens are sadly still unbeaten. Such a plan can get very expensive though... So jury is still in recess. Thanks a lot for the product name! I'll definitely look it up. Do you have any remarks on fan noise and thermals? Additionally, is the display good enough to work on a sunny day while being in the shade? And can you choose integrated AMD graphics only?

hpcjoe 5y ago
Fans do wind up on heavy CPU/GPU load. The HP laptop cooler is quite a bit better than many I've had before, and the fan winds down about as quickly. I've brought this laptop to outdoor (!) karate class when we had some zoom students on. I manually adjusted the brightness, but it was fine. By default, mint installs the AMD driver, and nouveau. I wrote a simple switcher a few months ago, so I can toggle between AMD and NVidia. Next gen mint (due in a few weeks) apparently has the AMD/Nvidia optimus like switcher built in. For this laptop, one downside is that I could not get the AMD to drive the external displays as well as the laptop display. Nvidia can drive both. It looks like this is a switcher config, that xrandr can't handle (at least the versions I have on there). If this is fixed in the next version, I'll happily use AMD for most display and NVidia for my GPU work (computing).