what is the best laptop available today?

[louiggy]

Hi everyone! I am new to this site and hoping for some advice from experienced designers like yourselves. I am an architecture student and I am about to purchase a new laptop. I have been told that I should get a dual processor and perhaps the nvidia quadro graphics card. Other than that, I am looking for the best laptop money can buy. Obviously a mac is out of the question. I am currently looking at Boxx (they don't have a dual processor though), hypersonic, prostar, nogware and sager. I am open to any and all suggestions. I need speed, memory, graphics and good customer service. I appreciate any advice you have to give.

[chuck]

Well this isn't the greatest as far as the numbers, but it has to be the coolest:

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

here's their workstation laptop a lot of people like:

 

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/precn_m90?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

 

Quadro cards make sense if you'll be using high end apps like Max...but personally I can't justify the prices right now. Gamer cards have been fast enough to get me through. The speed of the GPU is important...more so than the ammount of memory.

 

I'd probably go Boxx if money wasn't an issue. I've heard a lot of good stuff about them. You really should get a dual core processor...the new intels are curently the fastest...and atleast 2gb of ram. The dual core will really speed up render times.

 

If you really want to research the latest hardware, head over to THG:

http://www.tomshardware.com/

 

 

Chuck

[Brian Smith]

The Core 2 Duo launched yesterday and as it states in the article, our workstations are now obsolete. This is what I would look for until the Cell chip comes out. There should be some of these shown at SIGGRAPH.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/07/27/intel_launches_core_2_duo/

[brianzajac]

The Core 2 Duo launched yesterday and as it states in the article, our workstations are now obsolete. This is what I would look for until the Cell chip comes out. There should be some of these shown at SIGGRAPH.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/07/27/intel_launches_core_2_duo/

 

I would also like to add pricing to Brian's comment above. There are two main models out there right now: Duo 2 Core & the Duo 2 Core Extreme. "Extreme" is basically a more robust (and a lot more expensive) processor.

 

Duo 2 Core pricing:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2396&Nav=|c:22||c:1969|&Sort=3&Recs=10

 

Duo 2 Core Extreme pricing:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2399&Nav=|c:22||c:1969|&Sort=3&Recs=10

 

Personally, I wouldn't get the "Extreme" right now (based on 3ds Max power/performance - it's only a bit better & not worth the money).

[louiggy]

thank you for you help guys! I think I am going to go with boxx.

[AJLynn]

A note - Core 2 Duo isn't a laptop chip, it's a desktop chip. The laptop chip is Core Duo (it's also very fast).

 

But, define "best". I would say the Macbook Pro is a no-brainer, hands-down winner, but others would disagree.

[Ray]

"Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based notebooks will be available at the end of August."

 

Last paragraph: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=6512

[AJLynn]

Okay then, I stand corrected. I wonder what Intel's trying to do with the marketing strategy here, releasing Core Duo then a few months later calling this new chip Core 2 Duo - makes it sound like Core Duo is obsolete, but the new one isn't much more than the old one with 64-bit and higher clock speeds. The should have stuck a "Pro" or "64" on after the "Core Duo".

[Ray]

I was just about to order a core duo laptop, when I saw that they were releasing the core 2, but I don't know if I want to wait, even if it's just another month for minor performance increase (and prolly more money!)

 

AJ, do you know if the 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1800, is a good video card for gaming, or should I try and find one w/ nvidia geforce go 7900 gtx?

 

Actually it boils down to a core duo w/ the ati mobility x1800 or an athlon 64 fx-60 w/ nvidia geforce go 7900 gtx. Will be used mostly for gaming, but also to help out w/ rendering. BTW the AMD laptop is $900 more than the Intel. Which one should I get?

[AJLynn]

That's easy - get the Intel. The FX60 is a desktop chip that's completely inappropriate for mobile use - I don't know which lines of laptops you're looking at, but I'd wager the AMD weighs over 10 pounds and gets under an hour of battery. It's faster, but it's not so much faster to justify the added expense and loss of convenience. The Core Duo has made these laptops with high-end desktop chips almost obsolete.

 

As for the video card, the nVidia is probably a bit faster, but not enough to be worth it. Maybe I'm not 1337 enough but I can't tell the difference between 110 FPS and 120 FPS.

[Ray]

That's the way I was leaning--thanks for the info!

[pailhead]

As a fellow student, and a sager owner, i'd advise you to take a look at the 5760 sager.

 

I own a 5720, and it's perfect for my needs, but since dual core versions of the same chip are now available, i'd go with the 5760...

 

It's better than dell IMHO, and it's cheaper than boxx or alienware which infact use the same notebooks, minus the available colors and monitor masks. For example, the Clevo d900k is as same as the GoBoxx, sager 5980, m 7700 and so on...

 

I've done a lot of research when i was buying mine, and i came to a conclusion that although its a desktop replacement, it should be as mobile as possible, not just portable.

 

5720 pentium m (core duo now) had no overheating issues, was lighter than the fx-60/x2 counterpart, and the battery lasted longer.

The only thing i had to give up was the raid capability, but that was never really a plus, although raid-0 increased performance, it carried more risk.

 

 

If you want to game, i'd consider the WXGA+ instead of WUXGA, 1920x1200 is good for working in 3d applications or CAD, but its too demanding for gaming.