Wich Laptop?..

[Guest coupe333]

toshiba satellite 1900-703

 

Pentium 4 2.2GHz, 512MB of RAM, 32Mb nVIDIA GeForce 4 Go 440 graphics, 40GB hard disk, 16in display 1,280 x 1,024, combo DVD-ROM / CD-RW, Windows XP, 4.39kg.keyboard, as by flicking two catches on either side it can be completely removed from the notebook.

 

or

 

Toshiba satellite 5100-603

 

Pentium 4 1,9GHz, 512MB of RAM, 64Mb nVIDIA GeForce 4 Go 440 graphics 1600x1200, 60GB hard disk, 15in display , combo DVD-ROM / CD-RW, Windows XP,

 

 

I am ready to buy the first one (1900-703), but i am not so sure about the g.card 32 ram..the second one has 64..,i have seen also that it seams that there is an issue about overheating problems with some older toshiba laptops that have desktop pentium processors, i realy dont know if this happens to the new ones..

 

I am also thinking about the dell portable workstations but i am not sure about the multimedia capabilities due to the quadro g.card.

 

I really need your help guys!

 

Thanks in advance!

[Greg Hess]

I like the top one better.

[Guest coupe333]

And how about the 32Mb of the G.card ?

[Greg Hess]

And how about the 32Mb of the G.card ?

 

The other components of the system make up for the less ram on the video card. Faster processor, bigger screen. I'll take that anyday over 32 megs of video ram.

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by Greg Hess:

And how about the 32Mb of the G.card ?

The other components of the system make up for the less ram on the video card. Faster processor, bigger screen. I'll take that anyday over 32 megs of video ram.

 

I disagree. I bought my laptop about a year and a half ago, just before the mobile Athons and the mobile GeForce chips were available, so the best I could do was an ATI Rage with 16MB. The computer was plenty fast, but the performance difference to my desktop is night and day with a big model in OpenGL once the model, textures or window size passes the graphics memory limit. But before that, the laptop really holds its own. So if you plan to do 3D work on it, your day-to-day productivity would be higher with a slower CPU and more system and especially graphics memory. You really get attached to realtime display abd when you go back to slow, unresponsive work you feel it...more than a few ticks on the CPU.

 

I am glad to see that screens are getting bigger. My Dell is a 15.4" diag., but I notice now Dell only sells 15" I like the 16" you showed. But what's with the top resolution being 1280 x 1024 (I think that was what it said)--my laptop goes to 1600x1200x32, which is how I have my main computer so its nice to have the laptop match.

 

Ernest Burden III

[Guest coupe333]

I already have two computers at the office, one is a dual amd 1800mp, and I need the laptop to work when I am out…

 

Full specs of the 1900-703

 

Equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 Processor4 2.20GHz, 16" SXGA Toshiba Personal Theatre active matrix display (1280 x 1040), 512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go™ graphics controller w/32MB DDR external VRAM video memory, DVD/CD-RW multifunction drive, 40GB1 Hard drive, 10/100 ethernet, V.90/56K modem, Wireless Detachable Keyboard and Mouse, Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition and Windows XP Home Edition.

 

What it means with external VRAM video memory?

[Greg Hess]

" the best I could do was an ATI Rage with 16MB. "

 

Your issue there wasn't video memory, it was the quality of the integrated video. Ati cards are notorious for having problems and issues with max related products. The issue were looking at here involves the same geforce 4 mx card, just with 32 or 64 megs of ram.

 

In max, the fundamental restrictor in video performance isn't the ram amount, its the ram bandwidth. More memory doesn't help at all if it isn't fast enough to deal with the onslaught of data. This is one of the reasons that geforce 2 GTS's have an enormous slowdown at 1600x1200, while the geforce 2 ultra's don't. Its 333 megahertz ram vs 450 megahertz. Overclock the Geforce 2 GTS's ram to 450, and you no longer get the bandwidth slowdown.

 

It is pretty crappy about the display only supporting 1280x1024. Thats my fav res though so I don't think I'd mind, but somepeople really want that 1600x1200.

 

One more note....Because the P4's strong point is OpenGl, and because most of nvidia's architecture scales past 3.0 Gigahertz...the 2.2 P4 system's opengl would be noticably faster then the system running at 1.9 with 64 megs of ram.

 

Greg Hess

 

[ September 16, 2002, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

[3danim8d]

Has anyone tried the Toshiba 1955-S802 ?

 

I am thinking of ordering one.

 

ESUP: $2,479.00

Equipped with an Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor4 2.20GHz, 16" SXGA Toshiba Personal Theatre

active matrix display (1280 x 1040), 512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce4 440

Go™ graphics controller w/32MB DDR external VRAM video memory, DVD/CD-RW multifunction

drive, 40GB1 Hard drive, 10/100 ethernet, V.90/56K modem, Wireless Detachable

Keyboard and Mouse, Lotus® SmartSuite Millennium Edition and Windows XP Professional.

 

I like this one becuase it comes with XP Pro. Most other laptops I have looked at have XP Home Edition.

 

Also it is about 1/2 the price of the Dell laptop I was looking at and the Dell only had a 2.0 GHz chip and the ATI Rage Mobility video setup.

[Ken Walton]

Dude, go with the Dell. We recently needed 3 new screaming workstations and also needed some mobility. We were under the impression that a laptop wouldn't be able to push most of the max scenes we were developing, so although the mobility would have been nice, we thought it impossible. UNTIL - we checked out the Dell M50 "Portable Workstation." Make no mistake about it - this is not your typical "laptop". This one's a 2GHz P4 with half a gig of ram, a 60GB HD, DVD/CDRW Combo Drive (that copies/burns a full CD in about 6 minutes - unbelievable), and just about all the other shit you'd find on the back of a workstation. Graphics wise, I'm still impressed - the NVIDIA Quadro4 500 GoGL (64MB)just plain screams. I've had no problem at all with my max scenes or Archicad projects. (It also runs Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon better than our older desktops). It's definitely bigger/bulkier than your typical laptop - but the convenience of having quality components that aren't all "integrated" is worth it. I know all of this is just my opinion, but if you need a second one - ask anyone at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) - they're the same "mobile workstations" those guys use. Price: When we picked ours up it was around $4000-4500 (US) but I just saw it in one of their mailouts and the price has dropped significantly - check it out.

 

Hope this helps -

Ken Walton

[Greg Hess]

If you do choose the dell or toshiba....have someone techno savy wipe the whole system and set it back up from scratch. I'm on the 3rd inspiron series here at the university and let me tell you, the default os installs are utter CRAP. You can either spend 2 hours fixing everything they did wrong, or just boot the win2k cd and wipe everything out and start over.

 

You won't believe how much faster they get after they've been setup right.