Mobile solution advice

[sdezign]

Hey guys,

 

I need some advice and ideas about a mobile workstation solution. I'm currently running an 3-4 year old HP xw4300 P4 3.0 workstation which has served me well and been a pretty decent, if underpowered machine for the most part. But recently I have been doing some work on more current machines, including a dell xps 8300 i7 machine and it really does highlight the difference in functionality, so I figured its about time to upgrade to something a bit faster. Now the problem is that I need something that will be mobile yet affordable since I am doing freelance work, and am planning on traveling to different countries and locations.

So the question arises, do I go for a laptop, or a mico ATX system?

 

If I went for a laptop, I would probably wait till the sandy bridge i7s came out and see what options are available there. I am not particularly concerned with the weight of the device nor hugely concerned with its battery efficiency since I would probably end up connecting it to an external monitor/keyboard when I am not on the move.

What does concern me is its 3D capability, and to a lower extent the noise.

Its been years since I've looked at laptops as a stand alone system, and they have certainly come a long long way. I'm sure in terms of performance most current models would easily trump my current set up, but the question remains, how much better would it be in terms of rendering, running the usual suspects (Max, ACAD, Rhino, Adobe CS stuff, mudbox, the occasional game..)?

 

The other alternative is to buy a small system like the shuttle bare bones boxes. http://www.shuttle.eu/products/mini-pc/sh67h7/overview/

The obvious advantages to that are that it would be cheaper and more upgradeable. I already have plenty of HDDs around and win7 64 OS so I don't need to buy that, just need the CPU, RAM and GPU. The downside is I can't really use it on the move, so its not totally mobile, and I am not particularly keen on building my own system again (I've already gone through that phase) as I like to convenience of prebuilt computers now.

 

 

So what do you good folk think? Any ideas to help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

Sam

Edited March 19, 2011 by sdezign