3d laptops and me / you / us

swampbug

Basically I'm pondering a laptop for working on 3d stuff.

What do you guys recommend?
How do you like laptops over Desktops?
What are the major/minor drawbacks?
Does anyone model/PS out in public?

Its been quite some time since anyone has seen any 3d from me. I want to change that. Basically, I dont do any Digital art outside of work ya see. And I've been crusing on my pentium 3 550mhz for 7 and a half years. I stopped using it to do 3d work just a little after I got out of college.

My current setup is very antisocial. That beast of a machine I just mentioned is at my apartment, my cold lonely apartment (seriouly I dont use my heat). Working alone sucks.. and working at work is ok, but everyone is jaded natually because we all do 3d all day. So modeling my own stuff at work is no fun.


I want to turn my habits around, and I think a laptop is the way to go. It seams a more social machine, Take it to coffee shops to 3d model or speedpaint the chick sitting across the room. I really like to think I would actually start painting and modeling more if I do it out in public with the slight chance someone might be watching me...

I want to be a 3d 2d exhibitionist I think... Or just be the only fella in the coffee shop playing battlefield 2 while everyone is putzing on myspace or writing a term paper.

Let me know if any of you made the leap from a desk top to laptop and how its changed you if at all.
thanks

-Tommy

James Edwards

I'm holding out for a tablet pc...waiting on better actual tablet functionality and more modern cpu options... hopefully in the new, upcoming generation. I'd love to be able to use zbrush/mudbox and photoshop/sketchbook not just out in public but also at home on a tablet pc - so if it's alright with you swampbug I wouldn't mind if people posted any tablet pc experiences they have had as well seeing as how they are fairly related.

LoTekK

I have a 1.5-gen TPC (HP TC4200), and I'm fairly happy with it overall, aside from the complete ass of a GPU (intel). ZB gets pretty chuggy, though, past, say, half a million quads. Been pretty happy working in Silo, though, on the machine, and the various 2D apps (PS, ArtRage, Painter, Sketchbook Pro) work great.

Sketching and sculpting at the coffee shops is definitely fun, and definitely turns heads. I don't do it as often these days though, because I gotta get a new battery/refurbish my current one (I only get about an hour of heavy use out of it, down from 3-4).

Sa74n

im pretty happy with my toshiba satellite a100 laptop. it runs source engine games smoothly in highest res, mudbox smoothly up to 2 million quads and no problems with maya either. only thing that sucks is the glaring screen (a no-no if you want to go outside to sketch) and the battery life. it does 1.5 - 2 hours at max power. but you could possibly get a stronger battery at the toshiba shop.

flaagan

I picked up an HP dv9000 not too long ago, and over the past few months have set up more than a few HP laptops for family and friends. The prices are great, as are the options. Overall, I can get a few hours of heavy usage out of the system without having it plugged in, but that's with settings toned down. Plugged in it rocks, and if you're going to do work (3d/2d) on it, it's worth getting a laptop backpack and tossing your mouse and powerstrip in it to carry around with you.

notman

I still like my zd8000 from HP, but it's only fitting for the right type of person. It's heavy and has a crappy battery life, so it's basically a mobile computer, which is what I really needed. It allows me to work on school work and gaming projects from both home and work.

I know Hawken has a different view on this model. Also the customer service sucks for HP, so keep that in mind also. It is the worse of the offshore support system. Fortunately I don't really need them, but for the one time I did, they were NOT helpful and it never got resolved. Fortunately it's just my bluetooth driver support, which isn't a very big issue.

Poop recently bought a newer HP, you may want to check with him and how it's been holding up for him.

rawkstar

technically if a laptop can play games it'll be good for 3d, all you really need is a decent cpu, some ram and a good gpu. if you want to drag it around with you i'd recommend getting a 15" one, i used to have a 17" laptop, it had good specs and an awesome screen but it was heavy as hell, kind of a pain to lug that thing around. Most 15" laptops now have core2 cpus so all that will really make a difference for you is the gpu and the screen, most 15" laptops have pretty awful screens here's the ones i found when i was looking for one:

alienware 5500, its pretty good, but gets REALLY HOT, but aparently has a good screen a decent gpu and looks neat.

asus a8js, pretty basic looking but its the smallest and lightest of the bunch but its got awesome specs good video card, the screen is kind of crappy though.

asus g1, it looks awesome and has better specs than alienware and aparently doesn't get nearly as hot, only thing is it has green glowly strips on the side which glow green whenever the computer runs games or 3d apps or whatever, i'm sure there's a way to disable that.

compal hgl30 and hal80 these would probably be the cheapest ones, they both have pretty good specs, but i guess nothing special, maybe would be a bit heavier.

all of these have core2 cpus and 7600/7700 nvidia cards, which is the best you can get in a 15" laptop, the G1 has a 512mb 7700, which seemed really appealing to me since having alot of video memory will really help out if you are going to do any complex models/textures.

oh yeah i guess there's also poop's HP, which i'm not really sure which one that is, i think it has some sort of a quadro card in it, i think its faster than the 6600 cards that used to be around when he got it, but not sure how it compares to the new 7600/7700 ones

hope this helps

poopinmymouth

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/321957-64295-89315-321838-f1-1839859.html

This one, really no other choice. 17" screen, but only 7 lbs, and 1.3" thick. It has a Quadro 1500m which is the same chip as the geforce 7900 gt (step below gtx).

This is my current pc, and has been for about five months. I love it, and can't recomend it enough. The keyboard has a great feel (and a full numpad), and the screen is gorgeous, nice and bright, good contrast and full on colors.

notman

How's the battery life on that one poop?

TomDunne

I have two laptops, an Alienware m7700 and a 17" MacBook Pro.

The Alienware is a beast of a machine, not that 'portable', but is equal to most current desktops. AMD X2, 2gb ram, Nvidia's high-end 7 series mobile card, convenient media readers, nice 19" screen. Downside is it's massive size, it gets hot enough to reheat my coffee and the ridiculous Alienware case. You can get similar gear in a less embarassing package, but it all costs and arm and a leg.

The MacBook (which I'm using now) is a great machine, though a little less powerful. The 17" come with the higher end dual core, 2gb and an ATI 1600. If you're into hardcore realtime 3D, it's going to strain a bit, but I took it out for a LAN party the other night and it rocked UT2K4 as well as anyone's desktop. Upisdes are fantastic hardware design, both Mac and WinXP installs and exceptional portability. Downsides are dealing with Apple and the somewhat high price relative to the hardware.

If I could only keep one of my two current laptops, I'd keep the Mac.

flaagan

Oh yah, just a side note, but if you're going to get a laptop, you may as well limit your searching to widescreen (usually the 17-inchers) since they come with a full keyboard. It may sound like a silly thing, but having switched from a 'normal' laptop to a widescreen one, the difference is definitely noticeable, even if you rarely use the num-pad.

JKMakowka

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asus a8js, pretty basic looking but its the smallest and lightest of the bunch but its got awesome specs good video card, the screen is kind of crappy though.


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I have that one and can recommend it. It has a 1440x900 16:10 14" screen, which isn't all that bad (but really not awesome either). Portability is really good though, and the 2 GB of ram help too

I really doubt that you will go and use a laptop all that much in public though. Proper input (mouse/pen) is just to difficult to do on a small table, and it really just is a nice idea, but not something you will do regulary (at least I wouldn't).
Get a nice traditional paper sketch-book, which will propably be more popular with the chicks anyways; no nerd factor

I do like the social aspect of quick LAN parties with my buddys though, which is a lot easier to do with a laptop (and somehow is a lot more fun than playing over the internet with them).

rawkstar

yeah i agree with jkm, it seems like a good idea but i rarely actually did that when i had a laptop, sketchbook = better and you'd be surprized that chicks are pretty easilly impressed with even the worst art possible, but yeah laptops are cool if you're going over to a friends place to do some art or play games.

Justin Meisse

I've got a zd8000, it's pretty good but it can't run Unreal Engine 3 games :-(