What are the Laptop recommendations for 3d & rendering?

[Anonymous]

I have been using Autocad in the work environment for about 7 years, and ADT for 2 years. I have never owned a computer, but I want to purchase a laptop system to use at home. I have read many of the questions (and answers to them) in this forum, and I am a little fuzzy as to what my system should consist of. My main use for it will be Autocad ADT (2005, soon to be 2006), and Autocad Viz Render. Regeneration speed (i.e. panning, orbiting, switching between orthographic and isometric views) is important to me, and what I gleam from the forum is that the hard drive needs to have 1GB or more of RAM. In addition, a good graphics card would be recommended for a good workflow of the drawing. What are the recommended card sizes (128Mb) and manufacturers (Quadro, Radeon, GeForce) of the open GL cards for a laptop?

I would appreciate any input. I currently do not have a single laptop manufacture in mind, which I realize opens me up to allot of opinions in this forum (so bring them on). I am budgeting approximately $2,000 to this venture, which could change to be more depending on the response. So thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

The first question is why a Laptop?
That's a huge load to put on a system usually designed to check e-mail.
There is a new class of Laptop out there called mobile workstations that you may be able to cram enough ram into that rendering might not be horrible.But I am not aware of any dual processor systems.
Be prepared to pay through the nose for a Laptop that "might" fill your needs.

John Postlewait
IS Department
George Butler Associates, Inc.

[low man on totem poll]

I was looking at a similar laptop just recently and after looking at what I would need, 1gig ram min. p4 3.0 or amd 3.0 64 min, ideally amd fx55 chip. ati x800 card or gforce 6800ultra, since i couldn't find a pro. rendering card for a laptop.

Given what you want I would configure a laptop as much memory as you can get in there, as fast as a processor as you can get in there, and a top end non. pro graphics card. The reasons being that the card will handle everything very well but won't handle one thing excellent. and please correct me if I am wrong.

one thing though, if you are going to be doing CADD on a laptop get a min. 19" monitor that you can hook it up to and a mouse otherwise it becomes 10 times harder to work with.

After pricing and looking at a few systems that had the requirements to do CADD and renderings I was so turned off by the size, they are huge!, and the weight usually around 10 pounds plus, that I decided that for the price of one "3d" laptop I could buy a nice little ultra portable one for presentations and e-mail and work on the go that is very small and light and also upgrade my desktop to do renderings and CADD work.

some companies to check out.

Dell>small business> precision computers> mobile workstations
Voodoo computers very nice very custom very high end ergo very pricey
Boxx computer systems has mobile workstations also
Alienware


Hope that helps

[Anonymous]

I was at a Discreet Max6 launch last year (2004), the guys there (from Discreet!) were all using Dell M60's with 2gig RAM - all supplied by the company. That seemed like a pretty good recomendation to me! The Dell M60 and (newer) M70 are all tested by Discreet and meet their standards. Yes, a desktop box is cheaper etc.etc. - but at home a laptop is a more convenient size. I run ADT on a (mid range) laptop albeit not blindingly fast and it wouldn't win first prize in a race but it does the job - just about. I'm hoping to upgrade to an M70 soon. Take a look at the Max forums at support.discreet.com , several people there are using Toshiba and Dell laptops. The whole thing is a minefield of conflicting opinions though - seems to be a case of hold your breath and jump in!! Robert "JBAC" wrote in message news:18778980.1111969387961.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... >I have been using Autocad in the work environment for about 7 years, and >ADT for 2 years. I have never owned a computer, but I want to purchase a >laptop system to use at home. I have read many of the questions (and >answers to them) in this forum, and I am a little fuzzy as to what my >system should consist of. My main use for it will be Autocad ADT (2005, >soon to be 2006), and Autocad Viz Render. Regeneration speed (i.e. >panning, orbiting, switching between orthographic and isometric views) is >important to me, and what I gleam from the forum is that the hard drive >needs to have 1GB or more of RAM. In addition, a good graphics card would >be recommended for a good workflow of the drawing. What are the >recommended card sizes (128Mb) and manufacturers (Quadro, Radeon, GeForce) >of the open GL cards for a laptop? > > I would appreciate any input. I currently do not have a single laptop > manufacture in mind, which I realize opens me up to allot of opinions in > this forum (so bring them on). I am budgeting approximately $2,000 to > this venture, which could change to be more depending on the response. So > thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

the one thing about dell is that their M60 and M70 does come with an Nvidia Quadro card.... I don't know why, but no one else seems to care about us. Jack Talsky

[Anonymous]

The new Alienware Mobil Workstation comes with an nVidia Quadro card also. A real heavy weight for a laptop, but a very nice machine for 3D work. I like the graphics on it better than my Dell UltraSharp. http://tinyurl.com/3khol JMT ANG wrote: > the one thing about dell is that their M60 and M70 does come with an Nvidia > Quadro card.... I don't know why, but no one else seems to care about us. > > Jack Talsky > > -- Hal Gwin Mechanical Designer Xenogen R9 Pro SP2 XP Pro SP2 Dell Precision 650 Dual 2.66 GHz Xeon 3 GB DDR Quadro4 900 XGL nVidia 6.14.10.6722 w/registry update Dell UltraSharp 19" LCD

[Anonymous]

Only problem with the Alienware is it uses a desktop P4 chip not a mobile, resulting in about an hours battery life, my M70 is giving me about 3 hours. But the Alienware also has a full keyboard, wich I miss on my M70.

[Anonymous]

I saw a nice number pad that can plug in at Best Buy. I don't want a 17", nor a 12 pounder either. Other than that, the price is almost the same as the Dell M70 before they discount it. But it looks like a very good laptop too. Just not for me. Jack "Paul Houlker" wrote in message news:424ae154_2@newsprd01... > Only problem with the Alienware is it uses a desktop P4 chip not a mobile, > resulting in about an hours battery life, my M70 is giving me about 3 > hours. > But the Alienware also has a full keyboard, wich I miss on my M70. >