A:AnswerYou'll be happy with either. I'm not sure where the previous guy that answered got his numbers but they are wrong. If you look at any recent benchmarks, this comes down to the games. Most games the chips are neck and neck. Others favor one or the other. I will say this, your battery probably won't last as long with the RX580 as it would with the GTX1060. That is because it doesn't operate as cool so the fans run more frequently. My last laptop had an Nvidia chip and I pretty much always had it plugged in though so no deal breaker for me there. Might not be the same case for you.
Other than that, the RX580 is the better choice in my opinion hands down. Most mobile 1060s are gutted down to 3GB (plus clocked lower) unless you shell out. This has a full 8GB of GDDR5 that you won't cap, 3GB you possibly could. Not to mention Vulcan and DX12 are the future. They will favor the RX580 meaning you will get better performance out of this long term. If you want some links I'll provide them below. I got this on sale for $900. Good luck finding a 1060 at that price with a 7700hq and 12GB of RAM.
Keep in mind these are desktop chips in laptops so I wouldn't expect performance on par with their big brothers.
Here it shows a list of 27 games running under both chips. This is a few months old. AMD drivers have improved since then.
https://www.techspot.com/review/1393-radeon-rx-580-vs-geforce-gtx-1060/
There aren't a lot of benchmarks for the laptop RX580 yet but more will pop up if you want to wait it out. If you look at notebook check, under the mobile RX580 description page it lists this version just above the 1060 mobile. You'll find this under class 1 cards listed in the center.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-RX-580-Laptop-GPU.215184.0.html
Lastly here on user benchmark, it shows the 1060 marginally ahead. Keep in mind with this site these benchmarks are utilizing different hardware across the board so they should be taken as so. If you want to spend a few hundred dollars extra for not even a 6% increase in performance you might get with a 1060 you might as well dish out more for a 1070.
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-RX-580-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/3923vs3639
So summed up this is a really good buy. When DX12 becomes more relevant you will find the RX580 to be the better choice honestly over the 1060. A 1070 isn't really a fair comparison as it's more on the higher end of the series. I have a 1070 in my desktop and I love it. With a laptop you always have to consider the future. Yes you could buy an alienware, spend way more than you need to, hope you are savvy enough to change out an MXM chip down the road, but not many people actually do that. There is a lot more to consider when changing a mobile GPU than just socket type. I'm not sure on temps yet. If I pull some I'll post them for you. I've played Rocket League so far for hours and the laptop barely gets warm. Maybe I'll try to push BF1, Overwatch, etc. and let you know. Good luck!
A:AnswerYes it comes with a USB "C" port, it worked fine with my thunderbolt drive.
It has two ram slots, 8+4 is the standard configuration, I have installed 2 x 16GB into it along with an NVME SSD...things runs great and temps stay below 80' under heavy gaming.
A:AnswerNow just to add some more details for my answer: I've made the "Steam VR test" on this laptop and not only it said that It was VR ready, but it also had steady 110 FPS on the highest settings.
A:AnswerThere are different panels in this model. HP stuck a bunch of AUO109D pane's in them, which are NOT Freesync compatible. I'm returning mine today. Apparently about 2/3 have CMN1738, and 1/3 have the 3 year old, discontinued AUO109D.
A:AnswerApparently it depends on what panel you have to have freesync. I got lucky and got the CMN1738 display panel so I got freesync, other people might get the B173HW01 v.0/AUO109D which does NOT have freesync.
A:AnswerYou'll get similar performance. Some games favor amd while some favor nvidia. The 1060 will run cooler though which is better for battery life and the overall system in general. If they are close in price I would say either. Maybe look at benchmarks for your favorite games? That should help you decide.
A:AnswerYes I have a 250GB Samsung 960 EVO in my laptop now. I had to use an external software (Acronis True Image) to assist with booting to M.2 and cleaning the HDD to prevent from re-booting to that.
A:AnswerYou can download all available drivers and software here:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/omen-by-hp-17-an000-laptop-pc/15551440/model/17106304
A:AnswerSorry, but the reviews are lying. If you have the 17 inch screen especially, you will be lucky to get two hours battery. I leave my Omen plugged in because it's too big to lug around, anyway.
