MEGA LAPTOP DESTROYER
polycounter lvl 17
Hey guys, I just need some advice about girls.... just foolin'. I wish to sell my tower and laptop and get a mega laptop workstation. I want to crush all the art goods like max zbro and photoshop and my audio soft like ableton live. I was thinking of a powerhouse gaming laptop or the Dell Precision M6500 Mobile Workstation. Do any of you guys run this kind of setup? I can max out at 3k.
p.s. I am also going to be laying in bed playing world of warcraft eating pop tarts with my gaming pan. RAID NIGHT!
p.s. I am also going to be laying in bed playing world of warcraft eating pop tarts with my gaming pan. RAID NIGHT!
Replies
I need to check more reviews but Toshiba's site was down, but this looks pretty nice.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosmio-X505-Q880-TruBrite-18-4-Inch/dp/B00305HS7K[/ame]
Of course you could plug in an external display, but then surely you may as well just use a desktop?
I worked with just one laptop for about 2 years and the only benefit really was having all my files in one place. However, with the likes of DropBox, other folder syncing software and USB3.0, moving files between computers is so quick and easy now that this is irrelevant.
Zac is right, the cost ratio isn't really gonna make it worth it. You pay more for higher spec'd laptops and unless you literally NEED that portability, it's just not usually worth it.
If the only game you play is WoW, then you don't really need an ultra spec laptop, I run a MacBook Pro 13 laptop which runs WoW fine, and handles all 3D apps completely acceptably under Win7 via BootCamp. The MacBook Pro is a pretty low average spec too, and unless I'm throwing around multi-million poly sculpts/scenes then it never seems to struggle.
I built myself a high-specc'd PC and kept my MacBook Pro and it's like the perfect setup. I get ultra performance for work and current-gen gaming on my desktop, and then the option to do work on the go or play some WoW (and use OS X which is an added bonus) on my MacBook... and I got all that for less than $3k (granted, I got an edu discount on the MacBook and already had a decent display for the desktop).
Just my two cents!
now i'm
and i could be this
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See what I mean? Those workstation laptops are huge... and you'd never get any decent work done on those displays, even though there are 2.
You can't beat the ability for cooling in a desktop. Cooling on a laptop for running these types of applications, especially multiples at one time as well as intense operations, you are running a serious risk of damaging the cpu and other components. It might cool fine now, but give it time, you will see some hardcore problems down the road. You can't upgrade a laptop as easy as you can a desktop (graphics, memory). Well, you can, but not as easily, and if you get something that can be upgraded, you'll be paying a pretty penny for it.
I worked on only a laptop for about 5 or 6 years, and built a new desktop earlier this year, and I will NEVER go back. The ability to take anything anywhere is the ONLY benefit of a laptop, but you will be hard pressed to get the performance and stability of a desktop without dropping some serious coin. And if you're looking at a tablet, fuck that. I'd rather be strapped to my desk with my intuous. Let's not even get into software/hardware compatibility issues.
Build a desktop yourself.
I recently picked up a EEEpc netbook just for email/web when traveling.
It's extremely heavy, over-the-top flashy (pimp my ride style) and barely fits in a regular size backpack. It's also got THE WORST TRACKPAD EVER. Seriously, I hate using it, so unresponsive. I would never want to sit in bed with it.
That being said it's very fast, runs UDK great, renders decently, boots fast, etc...
But.... my 1.5 year old desktop, that probably only cost half is still faster...
Totally off topic, but to stop your sound stuttering, make sure you installed the update for your laptop that was a firmware upgrade for the HDD that is installed on your laptop. I know it sounds totally unrelated and stupid, but I had to do it at work on a bunch of our Dell E6400 and E4300 laptops and it fixed the stuttering/broken sound issue.
(Oh and Rhino: It's a Dell dude)
With less than 1000 dollars i can build a better desktop than a 3k laptop. If you are going to travel, well that's another thing, but to have it in a room... ugghh
Bad Idea
I picked up at alienware m7700 with a quadro card and all the bells and whistles.
Ive gone through 3 video cards on it. Battery last less then an hour new and now I cant even run anything with out it being plugged in. It was like a mini heater in my room. Don't even think about setting on your lap, gets way to hot and you end up blocking one of the 4 fans on the bottom. Save yourself some cash and heartache head over to new egg and build a DESKTOP system like I finally did this year.