Help Laptop For School

[arter2]

Hello Beyond3D can you tech heads help me find a good laptop for school. I’ve been looking for month and I have been having a lot of trouble. See I’m going to art school [The school of visual arts to be exact] and my major is computer graphics. I know I need a high-powered laptop for the essential programs I will be using. Programs like Maya, Photoshop, After Effects and many others. So here are the two options I’ve been looking for:

1. A regular high powered gaming notebook with a high-powered graphics card and main processor. I’d prefer And AMD 64 chip whether it be duel or regular and an ATI graphics card [whatever is the best at the time the best seems to be the x800] though I am open to other choice I just am confused what will be the best for my money. Also I’m looking for the highest quality screen too 17†wide screen.


2. The second option is a little more ambitious but I believe it will be perfect for my major. I am looking for the closest thing to the above a leading edge high-powered computer that is a tablet pc. See a tablet could be great for the drawing and modeling that I will be doing. The problem is all the tablets on the market that I could find is that they are way under powered.

I know I am asking for a lot guys but I’ve been looking for months and there is nothing out their that really meets these specs some companies have one thing and not the other and I’m just wondering what company has the best for the money that I will be paying which I know is a lot. I’ve looked at Dell, Alienware, Falcon, and some random others.
So guys can you help???

 

[jvd]

I wouldn't really do this for what you want . A laptop is not ideal.

What my sister did last year was to buy a normal 1k laptop and then she made a rendering system for her self . She spent the same as if she just bought 1 really high powered not book and is better for it as the tower she built is extremely power full ( dual opterions with 2 gigs of ram and a x800pro modded to x800xt pe )

and the laptop is a nice moble athlon 64 with a 9200 graphics chip in it and 512 megs of ram

 

[arter2]

I'm going to school in NYC and I dont think I have the money nor the room to do that but its a very good idea.

 

[jvd]

it would most likely end up costing the same as getting a notebook to do what u want .

Otherwise just look at dell

 

[Zaphod]

The Clevo D900T is a popular choce for the uses you describe. It's sold under about seven gazilion different names, among them Sager 9880. Many people with this kind of notebook do, however, wish that they'd split the money between a desktop and a cheaper, more portable laptop as they are heavy, loud, and hot with absymal battery life. No doubt powerful, though, and not too expensive.

Another 17inch choice that's popular is the Dell Inspiron 9300. Somewhat more suitable for real portable use than the Clevo, good range of options and there's always a cupon to be found that can make a reasonable configuration a real bargain.

Don't know if there are any worthwhile Athlon 64 notebooks with a 17" screen at all. Lots of 15" models around, but none with the kind of graphics performance you're looking for (MRX700 at best).

 

[gokickrocks]

i have a laptop with an a64 3700 with a 9700 mobility and it gets insanely hot with a max usage of 2 hours on the battery (currently used for music production with not much of an intention on using it for gaming)...my advice would be to get a decent laptop and a performance oriented desktop

 

[arter2]

I work for dell and the insperon 9300 is okay but the xps is still better yet they both seemed to be underpowered. Like I said I dont have the space for the standalone pc and decent laptop nor do I believe I have the money either. it really dosnt have to be 17" but it is prefered because it is more workspace to sitiate menus and window while working. Is thier any word on a decently powerful tablet cuase that would be the ideal.

 

[Zaphod]

I work for dell and the insperon 9300 is okay but the xps is still better yet they both seemed to be underpowered.

Underpowered in what way? The only notebook available that can be considered faster is the one I linked above.

Is thier any word on a decently powerful tablet cuase that would be the ideal.

AFAIK, the most powerful Tablet PC available when it comes to graphics is the Toshiba Tecra M4: 14.1" (SXGA+) and a Go 6600.

 

[arter2]

how is the go 6800

does any one have a link to mobile graphic card benchmarks.

 

[Frank]

I think a Pentium-M, with as much memory as you can get, a fast harddisk and a decent GPU (9600 or better) might be the best choice. Those are actually laptops, and not luggable computers that need more cooling than they have and a powersocket to operate anyway.

Especially for artwork, the GPU is much less important than much memory and a fast harddisk. And a Pentium-M is about as fast as a Pentium 4 clocked twice as fast, or an Athlon with the same rating as the Pentium 4.

You might even want to consider an Athlon64 with lots of RAM, if you can get one. But an Pentium 4 with a very fast GPU is not a good choice for a laptop in any case. They are very bulky and heavy, drain the battery very fast, and get really hot, which requires you to buy a new battery every five or six months as well. And you do have to carry it, and might want to use it on the bus, for example.

A separate tablet is very likely much more convenient than a tablet laptop, as you can use the keyboard. And you can always rotate the screen and use it as a book if you feel like it. That's what I do.

 

[arter2]

See but I need the raw horse power im going to be a computer animation major so I dunno. Does anyone have mobile video card and chip bench marks at all.

 

[Frank]

See but I need the raw horse power im going to be a computer animation major so I dunno.

Do you want to make games for the masses? In that case, don't forget support for DX 8 as well. And it might not be such a good idea if your game only runs on very high-end computers.

But then again, you might be thinking that it will take you at least five years before your first game is ready.

 

[Zaphod]

The Go 6800 Ultra is very fast for graphics intensive tasks coupled with a P-M. Reference spec for the 'vanilla' Go 6800 is 33% slower, but actual speeds on these may vary by manufacturer and OEM. This very site has a preview of the Mobility Radeon X800. They don't esplicitly say it, but my guess is that the test platform is in fact a Clevo D900T, allthough the current MRX800 that's on sale in these computers may not be the identical to the sample Dave tested. For professional apps several OEMs offer the D900T with an option for the Quadro FX Go1400.

The only areas where a P-4 or an A64 would be noticably better is for pure number crunching tasks like video editing, encoding, software rendering and similar. You can check out some P-M desktop benchmarks for comparison. The possibility of RAID might also make the bigger P4 notebook seem tempting for such tasks, but personally I wouldn't trade away portability for such menial gains. We are talking about a notebook here, yes? So you are going to bring it around at school? If not, then a Shuttle and a couple of 17" LCDs should be both dorm-friendly in size and cheaper.

 

[Pete]

What's your budget? I'm with those who say buy a cheap Cel-M (pref. P-M if battery life is key) laptop (as low as $500 + tax after rebates these days from CUSA and the like) for notes and office work, and then build an easily upgradable workstation for animation and rendering. Laptops aren't the best ergonomic beasts, anyway, so you may prefer the separate keyboard and adjustable display of a "desktop" PC.

I'd look into an Antec Aria, S939 90nm A64 3000+, and a GF 6800 for a small system with decent power and relatively lower power draw/heat output. Then buy the nicest display you can find, a decent (small, if deskspace is tight--I like my Ortek MCK-88) keyboard, and a Wacom tablet if you need one.

Laptop benchmarks? I don't recall if B3D did an article on a mobile 6800, but Anandtech did several.

Look, that Tecra M4 tablet PC is $2k with a 6200 and a 14" touch screen. Alternatively, you could get a $500-700 laptop and have $1300-1500 to build a much faster SFF (small form-factor) PC with a much bigger screen (Dell's 20" widescreen 2005FPW dips down to $400 on occasion). As a bonus, such a screen would probably be big enough to serve as a TV. Slap a TV tuner into the Aria with Windows Media Center, and you're all set for entertainment, as well.

It seems to me a laptop with a 17" screen will be just too bulky to use as, well, a laptop--a portable PC. IMO, you're better off with a smaller laptop for mundane tasks and a sweet desktop for rendering/animation chores.

But, if you're willing to spend the money, I can see how it might be more convenient to be able to carry your workshop around with you wherever you go. I just doubt it'd be that comfortable.

 

[RussSchultz]

Until it gets stolen, of course.

 

[digitalwanderer]

IMO, you're better off with a smaller laptop for mundane tasks and a sweet desktop for rendering/animation chores.

Yup. It'd also be nice for back-ups, I hear them are useful at colleges now.

 

[arter2]

See but I need the raw horse power im going to be a computer animation major so I dunno.

Do you want to make games for the masses? In that case, don't forget support for DX 8 as well. And it might not be such a good idea if your game only runs on very high-end computers.

But then again, you might be thinking that it will take you at least five years before your first game is ready.

uhh im going to be making computer animated movies??? 0_o

 

[suryad]

Get a phat desktop like jvd's sister did...end of story...the laptops are not worth all the hassle...heat, battery issues...so on...and lets not forget the insane amount of noise they make running at full crank...

 

[Pete]

Heh, Russ. The desktop would be equally fair game, IMO, particularly if he has a roommate, doesn't enjoy locking his door, and buys a SFF with LCD (lot smaller and lighter than ye olde schoole tower plus CRT). So, yeah, keep an eye on everything, and lock it all up.

 

[jvd]

Heh, Russ. The desktop would be equally fair game, IMO, particularly if he has a roommate, doesn't enjoy locking his door, and buys a SFF with LCD (lot smaller and lighter than ye olde schoole tower plus CRT). So, yeah, keep an eye on everything, and lock it all up.

Just get a filing cabinit (one of the two draw ones with locks ) put it in your dorm room , put bricks in the bottom one and put your stuff in the top draw . No one will go through the hassle of stealing it .


My other little sister goes to ithaca and I made her do this after her loft mate bf stole 2k worth of electronics .

So she puts her laptop in there