New mobile workstation

[michaelcontreras]

Well here im making this thread again (the first time was like 6 month ago and luckily i couldn't buy the machine), it seems that the last time i was not clear in what i needed or that quadro cards are now more affordable. Well in a few words what i need is a mobile machine (so it will be a notebook) for working with intense 3D programs, namely they are AutoCAD 2012-2013, 3Ds Max, Maya, Revit, Rhino 3D and grasshopper, im an student so i would like that this machines lasts some 4 years working or more if it can, so it has to be open to good upgrades many times. so from what i have read the important things for all that are the GPU, RAM and Processor (that is mainly what a system is xD) so first i had my eyes wrongly in high performances gaming notebooks like the MSI GT70 OND-492 with Geforce gtx 675MX and other gaming machines, but then i saw this page:

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=graphic&product_group=3&product_group=6&product_group=19&release=2013&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=1

 

i knew that quadros would be better for my machine but they where too expensive when i saw them for the first time, like 6 months ago, but well i read this and then with the same page and searched for the recommended hardware and founded this:

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=system&product_group=3&product_group=6&product_group=19&release=2013&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=1

 

and i started to go to the websites of those companies and founded that the price range with recommended quadro cards was at the same range that the ge force ones that the gaming notebooks that i was looking for in the past had, so i started to configure systems and now i have my tops and i really want recommendations from the people who really know and have experience in this fields, and there you ppl appear, my main doubts are with hard drive configurations and processors, because they are the ones that make the difference in my tops attached

Build Your System M4700.pdf

Build Your System M6600.pdf

lenovo thinkpad w530.pdf

 

so this are the tops, my doubts are in the field of the hard drive and RAM i noticed that they put the upgrades too expensive, so i thought in making the upgrades by myself, so they all have the less RAM possible, so i wanted to know what you ppl think about that and what RAM i should buy, i thought in a pair of 8gb 1600 mhz of Kingston's in the three cases but i dont know what model, i wonder if you could help me for the less expensive and better ones. Now in the field of the hard drive i was thinking in replacing the HDD (in the m4700 and in the lenovo case) for a m4 512 GB SSD, but they also give the chance of putting an mSATA, but im not sure about this new technology, i want to know if they are as good and fast as any SSD, in that case i was thinking also in the m4 mSATA 256Gb if they perform as good as the SSD; and in the case of the M6600 i was thinking in just putting a 256 Gb SSD as the main drive; in the three cases i choose a normal dvd optical drive thinking in change it for a Blu-ray read and write optical drive as any of this ones:

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=blu+ray+notebook+sata

 

please help me and give a lot of recommendations in this fields, i will appreciate anything i will buy this notebook really soon so i will love advice in anything, if u have any better choice of anything as the RAM, optical drive, hard drive, even notebook with better performances or better prices please tell me, thank you so much.

 

 

 

P.D: dell also offers something called Intel vPro™ Technology if any of you can explain me or telling me if it i worth i will appreciate it.

 

METTA

[Krisztian Gulyas]

Here's a really high-end laptop. (it is upgraded to intel vPro, it's included in the price, you can choose to have 32gigs of ram 1333mhz or 16gigs of 1600mhz).

You can get an nvidia or ati GPU, those are good too, you dont have to buy a quadro. Yes, it's better, but i think a really high-end NV GTX GPU will be enough.

hp and dell has some really nice laptops though, take a look at them and count 2gigs of ram for every thread (8 threads - min 16gb RAM).

[michaelcontreras]

and now, from nowhere, appears this beauty: http://www.pro-star.com/index.cfm?mainpage=serial-price&serial=GT60-0NG-294US&promoteid=90000508&screenid=13146614&cpuid=30117143&hdid=40133035&cdromid=20093003&ramid=80146219&batteryid=10148204

[Dimitris Tolios]

RAM: ram is ram. In theory all DDR3 1600 modules should work the same. Performance differences are not an issue - RAM is rarely if ever a bottleneck in our current systems. Surely the lowest the timings the better, but I would not bother much / nor pay much more than the absolute basic kits.

 

mSATA: it is not that new. It is pretty much a PCIe slot. You have no penalty using it over SATA, just as fast. Having an mSATA port is a great way to add a SSD while keeping your HDD bay for a storage drive. The "con" is that there is a far smaller drive selection available for mSATA, and demand is smaller on the consumer side so it is harder to get special offers etc for such drives.

 

SSD in general: it is cool and fast and the such, but imho it is superficial.

Laptop 5400rpm drives - esp. the smaller capacities - are pretty slow, but single platter 7.2K drivers are pretty fast, and the hybrid Momentus XTs can be quite faster ontop of that (I have the 500GB XT, but I would get the 750GB XT if I wanted one today).

WD has anounced single platter 1GB hybrid Caviar blacks, with 24GB NAND (Mom XT 500 has 4GB, and 750 XT has 8GB) which should be pretty fast, but I doubt we will see them before late spring widely available.

 

The configs you've posted are ok. I don't know how much better those mobile Quadros will be over mid-high end mobile GTXs.

I just want to warn you that I had more than a few instances where the drivers supplied by the manufacturer (it was IBM/Lenovo tho) was not recognized by Autodesk software, so the whole "driver optimization" hype went down the drain.

Many of those "workstation" cards are custom made for those models, so the factory nVidia driver doesn't work.

Support and updates are left on the manufacturer to implement in their version, and guess what: it happens very slow, if ever, after the initial release. Check the manufacturer's driver download page for the model in question to see how often they do follow up on their drivers (compare driver version with nVidia's direct download page) and ofc check their forum's for complains.

 

I would stick with 3rd gen i7 (look for a 3xxx in the product name). Slightly faster, and more power efficient = less heat and better battery life.

 

If you opt for 3y extended plans buying a stripped down model and then decking it out yourself, make sure your won't void the warranty. HDDs and RAM are usually easy to swap (if you keep the old parts) but make sure they won't make your life hard.

 

Getting something above the 2K margin is not wise imho. Accidents happen that are ofc not covered by warranties, plus there is no doubt that in a couple of years $1.5K will buy a machine that will blow your "precious" out of the water. It is not "green" to treat your machines as "disposable", but in reality that's what they are - just like cars: drive something that you can afford to trash.

 

If you want to spend serious money going after max performance, you can always opt for something far more customizable and user upgradable - think Clevo etc. Ofc just like with Dell, getting factory upgrades to the absolute top of the line CPU/GPU etc is ridiculously expensive, and the benefits from 100Hz here and there are usually untraceable in real life.

High-end gaming laptops will always have better value = i.e. price/performance. It is a matter of volume sold.