What spec for a laptop

[cerpnjak]

Hi people,

I'm considering buying a laptop to do my 3D bits on.

However am a bit useless when it comes to specifications and technical stuff, so I'm hoping someone might be able to give me a breakdown of what exactly I will need on it to be able to run max and render etc... if that's possible??

Thanks in advance

pete

[AJLynn]

A fast dual-core CPU (Core Duo, Core2 Duo, or even Turion64x2), 2GB of RAM and a fast video card (ATI or nVidia, with normal video card memory - not shared memory, "HyperMemory" or "TurboCache" - both of which sound fast, but they're actually euphemisms for slow). The more pixels on the LCD, the better. Windows XP Pro is best. A good mouse (the trackpad won't cut it).

 

I've been using a Macbook Pro with Bootcamp, 2GB and a softmod to change the ATI x1600 to a FireGL card in Windows, and am quite pleased with it, though if you're not interested in MacOS or Apple design there are better values out there. For laptops, I'd stay away from Dell - I used to like them, but while all the other companies have been making huge improvements to the build quality of their notebooks Dell's been going nowhere, and I've got some great first and second hand tech-support-horror-story material lately.