Work Laptop Help Please

Steveocee · 1 Aug 2025 at 20:17

Hello,

I'm shortly going to be starting a new job, along with it I need a new work laptop.

There will be a fair amount of Microsfot suite stuff as well as some large Visio diagram work. I need it portable (read no 17" bohemouths) as I will be both in office and on site and prefer a single USB-C for dock & power.

I think I need to go with Windows (my go to was an M4 MBA and offload Visio onto a virtual machine somewhere) but I have been looking at the HP Probook 440 (i7) /445 (Ryzen7) G11 as an example for what I have seen.

Doesn't need to be much more than 512GB storage as I will stick virtually everything into the cloud.

I am trying to keep budget less than £1k (inc vat) but am really struggling to find things that fit the bill and so far the Probook 44X is about the only thing that has.

Very happy to listen to thoughts.

brendy · 1 Aug 2025 at 20:28

Probooks are hard to beat for the money though I'd suggest a 460 model as they really aren't much bigger than 440/450 overall size.

VRDoctor · 3 Aug 2025 at 22:30

Surely your new employer will provide you with a laptop?

Or are you contracting?

Steveocee · 4 Aug 2025 at 06:17

VRDoctor said:
Surely your new employer will provide you with a laptop?

Or are you contracting?

Employer is buying this, I am choosing what I want.

oweneades · 4 Aug 2025 at 11:07

Out of the 440/450/460 (Intel) and Ryzen options I would look more towards the Ryzen ones. The Intel ones are fine but they have the "U" series CPU's which only 2 P cores and 8 E cores (at least up to the 1st Gen Ultra series models anyway). The Ryzen models are still low power but will have full "P" core layouts (at least for 7xxx/8xxx models). We use both at work and generally the Ryzen options just feel that bit snappier in day to day use. All have dual So-Dimm slots and at least 1 NVME (the new chassis might have two, been a while since I opened one up for maintenance).

The Intel models IIRC will have TB4 though if that is a requirement. Both models will have USB-C with PD. DP Alt Mode and Data - i.e. they can be used with docks without issue*

*Barring the randomness you will have time to time with some docks just refusing to work properly with one laptop but will be fine with others.

Steveocee · 4 Aug 2025 at 13:44

oweneades said:
Out of the 440/450/460 (Intel) and Ryzen options I would look more towards the Ryzen ones. The Intel ones are fine but they have the "U" series CPU's which only 2 P cores and 8 E cores (at least up to the 1st Gen Ultra series models anyway). The Ryzen models are still low power but will have full "P" core layouts (at least for 7xxx/8xxx models). We use both at work and generally the Ryzen options just feel that bit snappier in day to day use. All have dual So-Dimm slots and at least 1 NVME (the new chassis might have two, been a while since I opened one up for maintenance).

The Intel models IIRC will have TB4 though if that is a requirement. Both models will have USB-C with PD. DP Alt Mode and Data - i.e. they can be used with docks without issue*

*Barring the randomness you will have time to time with some docks just refusing to work properly with one laptop but will be fine with others.

This is good to know. I had just about come to the conclusion AMD might be better suited to my workload and I’m not precious about TB4, as long as I can shove an anker 14-1 dock in I’m golden.