Opinions on laptops

[DevilHacker]

I know that HP makes some wonderful high end laptops for a very nice price, Sony also does, but they are usually too expensive for what you get...

Alienware I like the most, mainly because you can upgrade the Graphics card later down the line!

[panosik]

yeh I checked out HP and Sony but I was woundering if I should go with M processor or p4?
I was looking at 3.4GHz p4 or 2GHz M processor, which do you think is better/faster.....
The thing that sucks about Alienware is that if I order now it will be shipped on 1/27/05:eek:

[stephen2002]

The "M" line (not P4-M) is the best for laptop chips. Preformance is often comprable and the M line generates less heat and uses less power.

[DevilHacker]

The "M" line (not P4-M) is the best for laptop chips. Preformance is often comprable and the M line generates less heat and uses less power.
But... P4 processor's are faster... Therefore faster renders...

[CiaránMurphy]

The Pentium M is faster per clock than a Pentium 4. A 1.7Ghz Pentium M is about as fast as a P4 2.5Ghz and a 2Ghz is about as fast as a 3Ghz P4. The Pentium M is in fact closer to a Pentium 3 (just a larger cache) than a Pentium 4. Intel explained clearly at the time the P4 was slower per clock than the P3, they just couldn't ramp up the 3s clock speed as fast as they could with the 4. So yes if you can get a laptop with a desktop P4 3.2Ghz+ then it'll be faster... but it will eat batteries!

Getting back to laptops and Dell, the Precision M60 is great, well it's terminally dull (corporate) looking! But it's the only laptop that I know of that has a quadro fx card in it so it's quite fast for viewport display and gives you a choice of high res screens. It's got Pentium Ms up to around 2Ghz so it should be as fast at rendering as most desktops... I've got one and it's not too far behind my desktop 3Ghz Xeon.

[panosik]

Thanks for the info!!!
I think i might just wait it out ang go with alienware Roswell with 3.4GHz p4 and quadro FX card.

Ohh whats the difference between 3.2 GHz extreme and 3.4GHz P4? Alienware chrages $800 more for the extreme.

[leas5040]

The Pentium 4 Extreme Edition packs on another 2mb of L3 cache. Without going into the logistics of how cache speeds up the system, suffice to say that it's not worth the extra $800 dollars. Go with the 3.4Ghz, unless you really have the money to spend.

[panosik]

Thank you for your help everyone but I have one more question before I place the order.
Do you think I should get a 3.2 extreme with 2gig's of memory and NVidia quadroFX from Alienware or Go with an Aviator system that runs AMD 64 3700+ 2gig ram and Radion mobile 9700? I will be saving about 1K if I go with the AMD system however would the performance be that much worst? and will I be able to upgrade to a AMD fx-55 or the dual core processors later on?

Thanks again

Ilya

[leas5040]

If you have the money to spend, go with the pricier system. I don't think you will see a huge difference in speed until you go to work on fairly large scenes. That said, you can always upgrade the ram in the AMD system later on to give you an extra boost. For your other question, I think the answer is no. The 3700+ is a Socket 754 processor, while the newer processors and the dual cores are more likely going to be Socket 939 or 940.

Edit: Personally, I would go with the AMD system. Save the cash for a future upgrade ;)

[krazeyhorse]

The Pentium M is faster per clock than a Pentium 4. A 1.7Ghz Pentium M is about as fast as a P4 2.5Ghz and a 2Ghz is about as fast as a 3Ghz P4. The Pentium M is in fact closer to a Pentium 3 (just a larger cache) than a Pentium 4. Intel explained clearly at the time the P4 was slower per clock than the P3, they just couldn't ramp up the 3s clock speed as fast as they could with the 4. So yes if you can get a laptop with a desktop P4 3.2Ghz+ then it'll be faster... but it will eat batteries!

Getting back to laptops and Dell, the Precision M60 is great, well it's terminally dull (corporate) looking! But it's the only laptop that I know of that has a quadro fx card in it so it's quite fast for viewport display and gives you a choice of high res screens. It's got Pentium Ms up to around 2Ghz so it should be as fast at rendering as most desktops... I've got one and it's not too far behind my desktop 3Ghz Xeon.
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[-Donnell-]

Pentium M all the way.

As a suggestion, I'd opt for a Dell (XP) machine over the pricy Aliens....

[SheepFactory]

pentium M ,

and no need for exoensive m-60's and alienware. Do a search this topic comes up once a week

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