Choosing an elitebook 840 g5

[xiaoyun7underheaven]

Hello!
I'm thinking of buying a used hp Elitebook 840 g5 and i found 2 good offers. One has an i5-7300u with 16gb of ram for $550, and the other has an i5-8350u with 8gigs of ram for $620. I think all thhe other specs are the same. Which one do you think should i buy? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[remixislandmusic]

Go for the i5 8350u. The 7300u only is a dual core cpu with 4 threads while the 8350u has 4 cores and 8 threads. The 8gb more ram shouldnt matter much for games, web browsing, and general tasks. You will however fell the added performance from the 4 more threads of the 8350u.

 

[xiaoyun7underheaven]

The 8th gen is more futureproof? I want 16gigs of ram but I have a limited budget. What do you think? Should i just add another stick later? Is the difference between the performances of the two processors that significant?

 

[remixislandmusic]

The 8th gen is much more future proof. You likely could upgrade the 8th gem to 16gb of ram, however if you get the 7th gen one you wouldnt need to. The 7th gen processor performs much worse than the 8th gen one with half of the cores.

 

[remixislandmusic]

The 7th gen has a higher base clock than the 8th gen, so when the cpu is idle it will use more power than the 8th gen. The 7th gen also turbos up to a slower speed than the 8th gen. Conbine the less cores, slower turbo clock, higher power consumption, and higher idle heat output, the 7th gen is an overall worse cpu than the 8th gen. The 8th gen will use less battery and run very slow when not needed so the base clock is lower. This does not effect performance since the 8th gen cpu is fully utilized it runs at 3.6ghz, but it lowers heat output and power consumption.
The 8th gen is faster, more powerfull, and more power efficient.

 

[remixislandmusic]

You likely can install another 8gb ddr4 sodimm in the 8th gen laptop. I would get the 8th gen and see what speed its ram runs at before buying the ram.

 

[xiaoyun7underheaven]

Thanks for the input. Have a great day!

 

[remixislandmusic]

Ok. Dont hesitate to make another thread if you have any more ?s or concerns.