ecastillor

I ve been lookin to buy a new laptop...not gonna be my main computer but it will be used for some 3d work and Photopshop mostly....

Saw some VAIO and Toshiba....the specs are enough for my needs.

P4 3.33
1 GB Ram
100 GB HD
128 MB Video (shared)??

And like I said...have the main machines at the office, so this will not be a main modelling or rendering machine so the specs are enough for the price...

The only thing that stands out is the Video memory...how will it affect the fact that its "Shared"??? Its slower than a normal videocard?
Wich brand do you recommend for 3d work between the two??

Thanx in advance

AJLynn

Those are both good brands but I'd stay away from shared memory - a normal video card has its own memory controller and its own memory, but shared memory cards access system memory instead. This has two effects - the 128mb is subtracted from your available memory in Windows, and the video card's access to the memory is slower, which degrades performance. Even without going to something like a Precision with a Quadro or FGL, you can get a consumer laptop with a pretty good video card, Geforce series or Radeon 9000 or x600 series for example, with dedicated 64 or 128mb memory.

Michael-k

And go for at mobile processor.

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ecastillor

ok....so I can also get a dell machine, about the same price, but with an independent video card 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 and a 17" inch screen, and since ill be doing graphic work i dont mind to carry a bigger machine.

The rest its pretty much the same as the toshiba, except the processor...

The toshiba is a pentium 4 Ht 3.33 ghz and the dell is a Pentium M 760 2 ghz...so i dont know the difference between them...which is better.....does the fact that the pentium is 3.33 ghz make it faster? or its a different technology....

please help, i need to think this investment through

AJLynn

The Dell's graphics will beat the heck out of anything with shared memory. The processor queestion is a bit tricky.

The Pentium M does outperform a P4 Mobile of the same clock speed, it's actually a really fast chip - see http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/2005...ntium4-10.html and click through to more pages for an interesting comparison based on using an adapter to put PM chips on desktop motherboards then benchmarking them against desktop Intel and AMD chips - a PM 770 2.13GHz got the same score on 3DSMax encoding as an Athlon64 3500 and outperformed a P4 3.4GHz! And did it using a lot less power. (The PM chips giving the ridicuously high performance are overclocked, which you won't be doing in a laptop.) Where the P4 with hyperthreading is going to outperform the PM is when you're running 2 things at once - it's more efficient at multithreading, as the name implies.

Given the choice between the machines you're talking about, I think the Dell is the clear winner - the CPUs will have similar performance but the Dell's will use less power, and the Dell video card wins hands down over anything using shared memory. Caveat is, Dells seem to be a bit more troublesome than some other brands. (Find me somebody with an Inspiron 8200 DVD/CDRW drive that didn't break...) So make sure you have a decent warranty.

One other thing to consider - would a Dell Precision M70 fit in your budget? That one comes with a Quadro FX 1400 256MB standard, for 3DSMax use it just mops the floor with the competition.

DennisHolland

For what the Dell option matters...

the only thing that is cool, is the 17" screen on the M series. For the rest it's a 'not so trustworthy' machine compared to the Dell Inspiron Multimedia advanced laptop series with a 15.4" screen but with P4 dual HT, a 3.4 > 3.6 Ghz processor and a max of 2 Gb ram. Together with a 256 vid card it's a super workhorse when you're on the road (speaking as an owner of one of them).

I also suggest to go to the alienware.com website because they are offering the 'fastest and most reliable' laptop ever build this week. Maybe check that one out as well?

Take care,
Dennis

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ecastillor

Wow dennis! thanx a lot for the info....that sure gonna help me make my choice....

You wouldnt belive it if i told you I seemed to know more about computers than the guy at the toshiba telemarketing....thats why I came her for help...

thanx again!

DennisHolland

Yeah Eduardo...

Those guys out there are not exactely Einsteins but hey...they need a job just like we all do

I'd say go for the Aliens. build by gamers for gamers. I'm not a gamer at all (never played one in my life to be honest, execpt for that smashing penguin on this side a couple of months ago) but what i know is that us viz-guys use the same tools

Enjoy your shopping...
Dennis

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3D Visualisaties & Presentaties
Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Tim Nelson

And then you have Sager. http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.html

I hear there are a lot of similarities between Sager, Alienware, and Boxx, but I think Sager will give you the best deal.

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Tim Nelson
timnelson3d.com

AJLynn

Not exactly the same, and I don't think the Alienware is the right machine in this case. Alienware appears to have 2 lines now - Centrino machines with "Intel Extreme Graphics" (which is an amost entirely useless video card with shared memory, and makes this line useless for 3D modeling) and a line of laptops with higher end hardware and the desktop versions of the P4 processors, which consumes so much power and is so large and heavy that it's very impractical as a portable.

Here's a good comparison between Alienware, BOXX and Dell "workstation" laptops, the gist of it is Alienware and BOXX outperform Dell in most areas, but the Dell is smaller and lighter with much better battery life.

http://www.cgnetworks.com/story_cust..._id=2932&page=

You might not be looking at the Precision line, but it's still useful for comparison - the other Dells that have Pentium M CPUs and Geforce video will perform similarly but with less performance in the 3DSMax user interface, similar rendering performace and similar battery life.

Since you said you're not looking for a main render box but rather for something portable, go with the best Pentium M machine that fits your budget.