Jeff Mottle Posted October 21, 2002 Share Posted October 21, 2002 Hey CGA'ers I'm looking at buying a laptop but have not yet decided it I want light weight or horesepower. I think 80% of it will be used so that I can update the site from the road (ie lots of airports and tradeshows) and for my digital pics while I travel. On the odd occasion I may need to run MAX or Lighstcape for presentations etc or testing stuff. I have not yet decided if the extra weight and $$$ for a machine with a Geforce 440 and associated HP is worth the extra weight. Can anybody make a reccomendation as to what they have used, are using, or know what is good in both of these categories. I've been looking at the Toshiba 5100, Dells, Compaqs and Sony (although I doubt I would get Sony anythnig as they have a bad history of failing...at least for me) Thanks for any info. BTW my budget is about 3-4K CDN [ October 21, 2002, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Mottle ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted October 21, 2002 Share Posted October 21, 2002 Take a look at Dell's Workstation laptop, it's got a a mobile Quadro 4 graphics card, can store tons of RAM, etc., etc. Really pretty nice for a laptop. It's not cheap, but it's the only one on the market that can really compete with desktops. There's refurbished ones that are fairly affordable (don't know about buying a refurbished laptop, but the refurbished Workstation I got was flawless with a 3yrs parts/onsite labor, really pretty sweet). So I am a confessed Dell lover!! Post which one you get, I am sure there are other people that are debating the same thing (as I was a few months ago, but decided against getting one). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plastic Posted October 21, 2002 Share Posted October 21, 2002 i played around with a sony grx notebook recently. i was pretty impressed with its performance. mobile p4 1600, 512mb ram, 1600x1200 display, radeon 7500 3d-chip. i couldn't test max on it, but maya, and it was very smooth. (it didn't like massive wireframes though, but pretty fast shading) the only thing significantly slower than on a desktop system was the harddrive. but maybe i'm too much used to very fast drives in a raid array... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 To smack them all down. www.alienware.com I found out early this week that these laptops use DESKTOP CPU's. How's a 2.8 Desktop P4 sound? In your martian red laptop. With a Radeon 9000, or other high speed video accelerator. Sound like ownage? Ya it totally annilates all the other laptops. Also costs alot, and its heavy. But its truely a portable desktop. Direct url... http://www.alienware.com/main/system_pages/area51-m.asp It comes in any of the alienware colors. [ October 22, 2002, 07:55 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest coupe333 Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 Hi Jeff!, Take a serious look at this Beast!.. Toshiba Satellite 1900-704 http://computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/selected_product_option.jsp?z=56&PRODUCT_ID=20737&DISC_MODEL=0 P4 2,5 Ghz ram 512 up to 1G 16 inch monitor 60 G HD G.card 64Mb ram DVD-R etc... I've order it and i think this week i'll get it!.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted October 25, 2002 Author Share Posted October 25, 2002 Ok, well in typical fashion I have narrow down my decision to two laptops that are probably overkill for what I need, but two options none the less until I debate over this some more. They are the Toshiba Satellite 5200 and the Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 Here are the rough specs: 5200 - $3500 CDN P4 2Ghz 512 RAM 40GB HD NVidia GF4 460 Go 7.7lbs 2-3 hours/battery 6100 - $3200CDN P4 1.7Ghz 256RAM 30GB HD Nvidia GF4 420 Go 6.8lbs 1:45 battery life/battery The only real differnce is that the 5200 needs a seperate Wireless LAN card and XP PRO which adds another $250 Can anyone tell me which they think is the better deal and which they would choose or if their is another Toshiba I should consider. I am definetyl going to go with Toshiba. I have about 300 pages of specs sheets all round me and I think I am driving my self to disctraction trying to decide. I swear I bought a house and car in less time. What I really want is a machine that can do some 3d if I need it, good battery life, decent price (although I've already gone over my bugdet with these) and lightweight as possible including all accesories. Help! [ October 25, 2002, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Mottle ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted October 27, 2002 Share Posted October 27, 2002 It looks obvious to me. The 5200 wins in every category (CPU, RAM, HDD, VID and Battery). The only small thing it falls short is weight .BTW, what about screen size? If you go with the 5200 I wouldn't mind sending you a 3com network adapter which I have left from my laptop days. I would prefer getting a laptom with a built in adapter though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted October 27, 2002 Share Posted October 27, 2002 Originally posted by Jeff Mottle: I have narrow down my decision to two laptops that are probably overkill for what I need-Help!What is the memory on the graphics chip? I got my dell just before the mobile Athlons and GF2Go, but I needed the machine so I bought it. It's a 700Mhz P3. The graphics is ATI with only 16MB of RAM (the best available then) and you can really feel the difference in Lightscape. The screen goes to 1600x1200 at 15.4" which is GREAT. Check those stats carefully. When considering weight look at the laptop plus a case plus an extra battery (doing graphics uses more current, so batteries run shorter than spec) plus and external mouse (you cannot do graphics work with your finger on a 35mm slide) plus an external CD burner if your internal drive isn't a burner (mine isn't) plus a ZIP or floppy drive to swap in (don't leave the office without a ZIP drive) plus...yes, one more...the power supply. You cannot just live on batteries, and you will need to recharge them anyway, and most of these computers 'speedstep' down on battery, or else run through the battery in record time. On the other hand, divide all that weight by the freedom to work almost anywhere (and watch DVDs in bed). The animation I did last winter I only got because I had taken my laptop to a clients office with a preliminary model in Lightscape to review view angles when they said "hey, could we do this as an animation?". Sure I said, and in less than half an hour had a camera pass showing them several minutes of real-time OpenGL animation. That sold it right there. The extra money I made from doing an animation instead of static renderings more than pays for the laptop that made it possible. Just remember: whichever one you get will be miles better than mine. And if I buy a new one in six months it will kick your laptop's ass, and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted October 27, 2002 Share Posted October 27, 2002 "And if I buy a new one in six months it will kick your laptop's ass, and so on." [Fade to a dark room] [spotlight Flickers on] ..a dark and musty chamber is revealed, within it a distorted boxing ring, its ropes replaced with electrical wiring, encased in a giant chicken wire fence. a harsh voice speaks... (Cough) Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! For your entertainment this evening we have the ultimate grunge match!... [sparks suddenly go off, and the spotlight flickers, once again baking the room in an erie light] [A new brighter spotlight flickers on] An AMD Athlon Processor! [Cheers] Verses the defending champion! [The entire room is blasted in what could only be considered an absolutely rediculous amount of spotlights, had radiosity been used, the entire assembly of people would have had to wait weeks for the calculation to complete] 20 Pentium Pro 200's!!!!!!! [Wooping and hollering] LETS GET READY TO RENDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (The Pentium Pro's power on and begin their assualt) (The Athlon turns on) [A superheated wave of energy flys out from the core of the Athlon...unable to be contained without a heatsink, the heatwave vaporizes the pentium pro's in mere nanoseconds, spreads to the ring, the wires, the announcer, the crowd, the room, and the computer of the individual trying to forget about watching the ring by typing up some sort of meaningless post to hopefully waste just a bit more of the internet.] Thank you and good night . [ October 27, 2002, 09:05 PM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted October 28, 2002 Author Share Posted October 28, 2002 If you go with the 5200 I wouldn't mind sending you a 3com network adapter which I have left from my laptop days. I would prefer getting a laptom with a built in adapter though.Thanks BigK! I'll let you know. I think I'll now end up going with the 5100 rather than the 5200 for two reasons 1) I now have to buy a 120GB USB2 drive (see my oter post) and becuase the 5200 is so new that I can't seem to locate any spare batteries for it. Not to mention that that are nearly double the price of the ones that are available for the 5100. Between $300-400CDN each!! Besides the 5200 is probabyl overkill for what I need it for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted October 28, 2002 Share Posted October 28, 2002 lol Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted October 28, 2002 Share Posted October 28, 2002 I'm glad somebody laughed after I typed that thing up. I thought it was pretty funny. Must be the geek in me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarly Cranium Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 OMG!!! I'm just glad I wasn't drinking something, Greg, it'd be all over my keyboard!! :ngelaugh: (and yes, this thread is VERY darn old-- I was bored and running a search on Alienware) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 Alienware has some new box designs coming out soon. Check it out! http://mirror.ati.com/shopati/promotions/images/sipromo/alien_system.jpg Pretty spiffy looking. I'd still go boxxtech over alienware though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarly Cranium Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 Ah! The case they had for the Predator! I've been looking around for pics of that thing since the article Array posted on CGtalk disappeared. It's so shiny... :angecool: I want to get something in Chameleon! Right now I'm just trying to figure out why the MJ-12 DDR is so much more expensive than the Aurora DDR though the Aurora has a lot more good options... Boxx is too expensive for me, frankly, and I don't know enough about hardware to pick a good system from that range of options... And BTW, hi Greg! I've been struggling to follow and decipher your posts for quite some time in the hardware forum on CGtalk, that huge AMD vs Pentium debate was VERY interesting even if I only understood half of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 " Pentium debate was VERY interesting even if I only understood half of it... " I try to put things in laymans terms as much as possible. But when debates start, you gotta start uppin the technical level to try and prove your point . Boxx is usually cheaper then alienware... What I suggest doing (even if you don't go boxx) is get quotes from both companies and try to get them to fight over the sale. Both are semi negotiable and may cut you some deals on your purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cesar R Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 ok dont laugh at me for this one.. but is there a dual processor laptop anywhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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