Maya Laptop - WINXP or OSX?

[XenaTrek]

Try and do a search. There are at least two threads in the last couple of weeks about running Maya on PC vs Mac and Desktops vs Laptops.

XenaTrek.

[kex]

get the dell 9100 or alienware alternative.
the one with the radeon 9800 as its upgradable and i guesse the fastest laptop graphic card available.

you may want to hack some fire gl graphics drivers in thier as well :)

allso check the diffrence between nz and uk prices for the best deal

[iC4]

Performance is more important than portability.

then the only choice is winxp.

the dell 9100 has the 9800..but I wouldn't bet that you can upgrade the graphics card in the future....

[kex]

may be your right but its be advertised as upgrade-able

[Mantat]

Do you want a desktop replacement or a real laptop? This is a very important question. Apple's laptop are portable while most other brands are desktop replacement (better video card and CPU but MUCH heavier and shorter battery).

I work on maya with my PB without too much problem, its not fast enough for my liking but its totaly workable until I go super hi rez. And with a 15' you have a much better video card.

Now for composing, you have to be aware that the mac wins by far and large againts any pc because of the softwares which are all exclusive to OSX. Shows and movies are not made using a single powerbook, I think it says it all.

So you have to ask yourself if composing is going to be a big part of your workflow or not and how much you are willing to sacrifice your 3D performance for it. And in any case, long rendering should be done on a desktop, no laptop powersupply can handle hours after hours of constant rendering without being affected somehow.

I am not talking about all the other advantages of a mac laptop, just do a search and you will find numerous posts about them. Do your homework.

[mstieber]

Hello,

The real question is what platform do you feel comfortable with the most? Both, the Mac and PC, have their ups and downs. However, still do your homework on the important parts like Processor, Ram, Graphic Cards etc. This is coming from someone who uses both platforms at work.

:)

[kyrt]

allow my stipud, how is ur budget anyway.

i feel that we are just gossiping.

[mrl3d]

My budget is in the region of £3000 - £3500 ($5000-$6000) so I am at the high end of the laptop market.

Any suggestions on configurations are appreciated.

[iC4]

then I would either suggest the HP Compaq NW8000 (with a pentium-m 2ghz, 1gb ram, firegl-t2...), or the Dell M60 or the IBM ThinkPad T42 (with a P-M 2ghz, firegl-t2...)

all are around 3500$, you can't get anything better at the moment.

[peanuckle]

Got the IBM thinpad T42p. I love it. It is very portible and a very sturdy machine. I think that it looks nice also. I would load it up with as much RAM as you can. But, put it in yourself you save a crap load of money.


pea~

[mark_wilkins]

Have been looking at a 3.4Ghz, 2Gb ram, ATI 9700 with twin 60gb 7200rpm hard drives. It has a 17" screen but is a bit of a monster in size and weight compared to the power book.

Performance is more important than portability.
I have run Maya quite a bit on the Mac and Windows, and here are my thoughts:

The strength of Apple's offering in this area comes down to five things

* high quality software development tools in the box
* availability of Final Cut Pro and cheap Shake licenses
* Portability of Apple's laptop form factors
* The 17" display of the high end model is very nice (though some PC laptops can match it.)
* UNIX-derived OS can be nice IF you are already familiar with such operating systems.


Now, here are the weaknesses of Apple's laptops:

* Raw CPU throughput lags most PC laptops and is far behind that of PC laptops that are huge and use desktop CPUs.
* Can't match the dual hard drive feature.


You've indicated that raw performance is far more important than portability, which is a huge strike against Apple's laptops, because they've engineered to exactly the opposite end of that tradeoff.

If the Final Cut Pro / Shake issue isn't important to you, you aren't a huge UNIX/Linux fan, and you aren't planning to do serious plug-in development, then Apple's other strengths don't matter and the PC will be your best bet.

If you are considering doing plug-in development, with Maya 6 and the development tools that ship with the Mac it's much easier to get started than on Windows. However, this will only be a factor for a small number of Maya users. (For example, I am able to write plug-ins and I just don't do it very much.)

I think the Mac desktop line are a very viable platform for Maya performance-wise, but it's harder to make a case for a Mac laptop when that's a priority.

-- Mark

[Elliotjnewman]

when do u need it? The problem at the moment with the powerbook is that it still uses the g4 chip, not the g5. I would still buy the powerbook over any pc laptop for the main reason that I prefere OSX. Although, I am waiting for the g5 powerbook, as I would like that chip, in conjuntion with Tiger. However there have been no announcements about it so far, and nobody seems to know when it will be available...

[Pendrin2020]

Try looking at at Cyberpowerinc.com


The deals there are incredible!
Dell just overcharges average components until you wonder why your not getting the latest and greatest for two grand

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