HP ENVY Desktop TE01-0150xt

(Updated 1/25/2020)

Specifications

The HP ENVY TE01-0150xt runs on an Intel Rother motherboard with a Coffee Lake H370 chipset, and has built-in gigabit ethernet, wifi, and bluetooth. I ordered mine with Windows 10 Home Edition, a 9th generation Intel Core i5-9400 2.9GHz processor, and 16GB NVMe Intel Optane Memory. I opted out of an SSD, as I was able to purchase one much cheaper than what HP charges to include one. Likewise, I purchased an extra 16GB RAM module at much lower cost. I also ordered the system without a graphics card and installed a GIGABYTE nVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 Low profile 2GB GDDR5 video card.

First Impressions

Upon first installation, I was pleased with the overall perfomance of the system, as it was easy to set up and I was online in minutes. I hadn't yet received my 16GB RAM upgrade or my SSD, so there was a bit of lag with high-end software, such as the DaVinci Resolve video editor. The addition of these two components has enhanced performance greatly, and I am very pleased with the system. Bootup is fairly quick and rebooting is even quicker (under 30 seconds).

Comparisons

Compared to my laptop, an Asus X555LAB with an Intel Core i3-5020U 2.2GHz processor, 12GB of RAM, and Intel HD 5500 video, there is a huge performance boost across all applications. Even with a low-end video card, there is little to no lag when running high-end applications such as DaVinci Resolve (which is a resource hungry beast). Prior to installing the additional RAM and SSD, there was a bit of lag in high-end applications. As expected, the HP ENVY TE01-0150xt far out-performs the system it replaced (an HP system with an AMD FX-8150 3.6 GHz processor, 16GB RAM, and a GeForce GT 530 video card).

Performance

Besides still having a little bit of lag at the high end, every application runs much smoother and faster, especially with the addition of the 16GB RAM upgrade and SSD. For instance, exporting a video project in DaVinci Resolve that had taken over an hour to complete on my old HP system takes a mere 25 seconds on the TE01-0150xt. I get similar results in Filmora 9 Pro, where a project that previously took around 30 minutes to export now exports in under a minute (Unlike DaVinci Resolve, Filmora 9 doesn't support the GeForce GT 1030 video card, so it's expected to render slower, though it's nowhere near the resource hog Resolve is and generally runs smoother.)

Benchmarking

Benchmarking through userbenchmark.com gives this setup a 23% rating for gaming, 78% for desktop use, and 54% for workstation use. Individually, the CPU is given an 85.5% gaming rating, while the graphics card only gets a 14.8% for the same.

Applications

If you are looking for a system for running desktop applications, this system is perfect, especially if you get the optional memory upgrade. All desktop applications run extremely well on this system. This system is also well-suited for use as a development system, as all of the development applications I've tested so far run quite well. I am impressed with the performance running some of the more power-hungry development applications such as Android Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio, which run much faster and are more responsive than on either of my other systems.

Gaming

Even with a low-end graphics card, I am impressed with the gaming performance of this system. I do install and run games on the SSD so I don't notice them loading chunks during gameplay. I've been so impressed with the performance of the system, that I've recently started making gameplay videos for YouTube (Tenebre Gaming). The system has enough power to not only handle the games, but also to perform the screen capture in the background. So far, I have enjoyed the following games: Project Zomboid, Mist Survival, State of Decay, The Story of Henry Bishop, and 7 Days to Die (all available on Steam). If you are a serious gamer, I would definitely recommend getting a good video card (such as a GeForce GTX 1060) and a Core i7 processor if you can afford it. Note that due to the size of the case, you need to make sure to get the right sized video card when purchasing one of your own. HP doesn't list the actual available room, but it's just about 8 inches (20.32 cm) maximum. Because of this, an ITX/ITX Mini or similar compact-sized card is required.

Likes and Dislikes

One thing I really like about the TE01-0150xt is that it is fairly quiet. As with a lot of modern desktop systems, there is a minor issue with vibrations caused by the hinges on the internal mounting framework, but this is easily solvable with a little bit of electrical tape.

One thing I don't really like about the TE01-0150xt is the fact that the CD-ROM/DVD drive is a slim model, mounted vertically. The disk must be clipped to the spindle like a laptop drive. It seems flimsy and is somewhat awkward to insert a disk. I'm sure that most of the newer HP systems come with similar drives. Luckily, I rarely use disks anymore.

The only other real gripe I could have, is the fact that the motherboard only has one PCIe x1 slot and one PCIe x16 slot. This limits the options when upgrading in the future. The mini-tower chassis also only has drive bays for 2 hard drives, but this shouldn't be much of an issue for most people, especially since you can get a SSD that plugs into the PCIe slot, if you want two HDDs and a SSD. With a total of 9 USB ports, external drives are also a reasonable option if you need more storage capacity.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I would have to say I am very satisfied with the HP ENVY TE01-0150xt system. It has outperformed my expectations in every area, especially gaming. If you are looking for an inexpensive system with good performance, I would definitely recommend the TE01-0150xt. If you think you might want to purchase one of these systems or would like to check out the specs, check them out on the HP Store.