Thinking of purchasing a laptop....

[lots]

There are better choices out there than Alienware. Take a look at Notebookforums.com or notebookreviews.com to get a better picture of the "lay of the land" in terms of laptops. But basically, you can get more for your money if you dont buy alienware. Plus you will probably get better support to boot.

[tecton3d]

I'm in my second semester now and am considering taking out a student loan to purchase a top of the line Alienware laptop. For years I've been doing both visual and audio art while practically chained to a desk in a usually cluttered area of wherever I happen to be living. I want to get a laptop so I can take my work with me, catching ideas when they happen.

Is this a good idea? A bad one? Would there be a better way of going about it? What do you all think?

. . . soulds like throwing an anvil at a butterfly to me

in my experience with my own 13lb laptop... a top of the line laptop, regardless of brand, will weigh enough to make you feel like you're carrying the desk with you!!! Expect just under 13lbs for the laptop alone plus the AC converter for it to weigh another couple of pounds and before you know it you have a 15+ lb package to tank along with you to try to catch your ideas...

get a dozen of these: (sketch 9x14cm... that's what I use)
http://www.mojolondon.co.uk/product.php?sku=02125

and take the 5k you're going to spend on a laptop and put into an ass-kicking desktop w/ a sexy 23" display!

[tecton3d]

Dual Opteron 285 workstation: #1

Processors (x2) opteron 285 (2.6ghz/core)- $1000ea. 2000
Motherboard tyan K8we s2895 414
RAM (4x 1gb) 4gb reg ecc Corsair ram 440
Video Card Geforce 7800gtx 445
OS HD raid 0 (x2) 74 gb Western digital Raptor HD’s 306
Storage HD (x2)Western Digital Caviar 400gb 400
Processor HSF’s (x2) Thermalright XP-120’s 2x60 120
Case Lian Li V2000B 265
Power supplyPC Power & Cooling Turbo-cool 850 448
Total: $4838

... hard to work the 23" display into that one : )

or #2 - 285's with:
Video Card Geforce 7800gt 280
Storage HD some 250gb piece 100
total: $4373 and E-Bay the display

or: #3
Processors (x2) opteron 265 (1.8ghz/core)- $309ea. 618
Motherboard tyan K8we s2895 414
RAM (2x 1gb) 4gb reg ecc Corsair ram 220
Video Card Geforce 7800gt 280
OS HD raid 0 (x2) 74 gb Western digital Raptor HD’s 306
Storage HD some 250gb piece 100
Processor HSF’s (x2) Thermalright XP-120’s 2x60 120
Case Lian Li V2000B 265
Power supply OCZ Powerstream EPS12v 520w 140
Total: $2463 ... and build 3 athlon X2 rendernodes @ $670 each = $4473

EDIT:
. . . or you could forget about the rendernodes + workstation 3 and go with a lapptop + workstation 3 . . .

a lower end AthlonX2 based lappy with 1gb ram, Geforce Go 6800, 40gb hd, dual-layer dvd, and be slightly over 5k

[amfantasy]

I would get a cheaper lab top so that you can do modeling and stuff, then get a good desktop and use that when your scenes get to big.

overall lap top's are not suppose to be super powerful computers, I suggest cleaning your room, that may help a little.....lol :thumbsup:

[tecton3d]

I would get a cheaper lab top so that you can do modeling and stuff, then get a good desktop and use that when your scenes get to big.

overall lap top's are not suppose to be super powerful computers, I suggest cleaning your room, that may help a little.....lol :thumbsup:

a good suggestion...

I have a dell 700m which is virtually the same thing as the A-ware Sentia™ m3200 and actually works fine for "quick and dirty" stuff... plus the damn thing is tiny and light. A piece like that combined with a solid workstation would make for a nice pair. Just keep in mind that a smaller laptop has limits that are much more restrictive than the desktop replacement... but that's the tradeoff for the REAL mobility of a thin and light laptop.

I may have been a little overzealous in my earlier post : )
. . . still, playing with a 5k budget is fun!

[amfantasy]

as far as what to get I'm not sure, this is something that I'm thinking of doing but I haven't put much thought into it.

[maX_Andrews]

well for 2D graphics and audio, the Mac platform is the industry choice. For 3D, the PC has he advantage.

The new macbook pro from apple is a fanatstic machine, and is actually on par with comparable PC laptops. http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
It's also one of the thinnest, lightest, and most portable computers you can get.

For the academic price of $1799, you get:
intel core duo 1.83Ghz processor
15.4" high brightness 1400x900 widescreen display
512MB RAM (an extra gig will cost $115: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/5300DDR2S1GB/ )
80GB SATA HD
Built in wifi and bluetooth
DVD burner/CD burner slot-loading combo drive
ATI radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB graphics memory
Backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor (intensity adjustable)
magsafe magnetic power connector (won't tug the computer off the table if you or someone else tips over the cord)
built in iSight webcam
aluminum enclosure
1-inch thickness
5.6 pounds
four hour battery life without power saving features enabled (actual from real tests)
it also comes with a wireless remote control that launches apple's front row media experience
and, optical audio in/out, a great feature if you do a lot of high end audio editing

My roommate just got this, I can't say enough good things about it. I'd get one myself but I have no need for a laptop and no money to spend on it.

Alienware is geared for gamers, not artists. Other high end laptops are desktop replacements, meaning they will charge you more for the same performance of a desktop and will weigh about ten pounds. The mac hits the sweet spots for artists who need excellent portability but features and power to allow them to work creatively and freely. And that really shows here at the Tisch school of the arts, where I go to school. I'd say more than 90% of the people here take out loans and buy mac laptops or mac desktops. Only one person I know has a PC here at school.

But again: 2D and audio=Mac
3D=PC

Here's a review of the macbook pro from notebookreview.com http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2725&review=Apple+MacBook+Pro+%281%2E83+GHz+Intel+Core+Duo%29

Keep in mind, this article has not been updated to show the price changes of the line. The 1.83Ghz model is $1999 (1799 acadmic), and the 2.0Ghz model is $2499 (2299 academic). THis article shows the 1.83Ghz model as being $2499, which is no longer correct.

Here's an out-of-the-box review from ars technica: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macbookpro.ars

[motoxpress]

It's just too early to consider the intel-based macs for serious production as there is hardly any of the staples available in UB. I am thinking that it will be at least October before you see Photoshop in a native form and without it, life is limited.

OTOH, You can buy a dual-core Dell right now with a MUCH better video card and Photoshop runs wonderfully well on it.

-gl

[maX_Andrews]

Photoshop is still very usable under rosetta ATM, it's just not up to its full potential, which is a bummer, but you're not going to see macbook pro changes anytime soon, so when the photoshop UB comes out you're stuck with a non-standard dell in an art school where all the labs are mac labs and nearly everything and everyone is mac based. I'd say functioning, albeit slower photoshop on a macbook would be easier to endure for a few months than a thick, non-standard dell that you'd have to endure for the next 2-3 years. But it depends...if you MUST have the fastest possible photoshop machine right now then the macbook is not going to be the best choice. But if you need to use photoshop, just not for 1GB files and complex filters, it will work fine for now IMO as a photographer in art school. The majority of photoshop documents are not very processor or memory intensive. Most files I work with on my G5 I could easily work with on my old-as-nails 1999 powerbook G3 400Mhz with 512MB of RAM. It's when I start working with 5000 pixel files and running 30-pixel median filters that the G5 has a clear advantage. But in general, I wouldn't want to work with huge files on anything less than a 20" screen and with 4GB of RAM anyways, but as far as processing power is concerned, you're not going to notice any speed difference in photoshop when adjusting levels on an image with a few layers, as these kinds of adjustments are rather instantaneous on anything running over 500mhz. It's usually only the size of images where faster CPU performance and oodles of RAM become an advantage. If you really want the best photoshop performance, get a high performance hard drive.

[lots]

How is using a windows based laptop in a mac based environment .. bad? You make it sound like some sort of evil :P And you cant claim superior tech either :P :P

But really, aside from the memory limitation of Yonah (which is also present in the macbook pro...) What does a Macbook Pro offer that any other yonah based PC (of similar spec) doesnt?

I suppose though, that on the upside, now that both Windows and Mac live on the same platform, we can see just how well OSX stacks up in performance to Windows. Which is really what the difference will come down to. Well that and price.

[motoxpress]

Unfortunately, no one is able to reliably to both install and run Windows on any of the new macs yet without some serious work-arounds. Being a cross-platform kinda guy it is a very appealing concept for me but, it's not confirmed that it will ever work.

As far as Photoshop under rosetta, it is just not feasible for anything but minor work. As a designer, I would be severly hampered to be running at such limiting speeds. Even Apple (who tends to pour sunshine on everything) has stated that this is not a solution for a professional. The mactel platform is just not ready for production work yet. Apple is ahead of schedule and it is catching the big software developers off guard.

My view is if you want a mac to do production work, get a G5. If you want a portable for production work, you either wait for the MBP to become useable this fall or get a PC with the same architecture.

-gl

[lots]

The Macbook Pro uses EFI, which is replacing BIOS. Currently the only version of windows that supports EFI is XP 64bit (and probably the server varient). That means if the macbook pro had a 64bit chip, you would be able to load XP x64. That being said, the CPUs intel has coming later this year will be 64bit capable, which makes me think someone will attempt to drop in Merom into a yonah based notebook (according to IDF they are socket and TDP compatable) and install XP 64bit.

Otherwise you'll have to wait for Vista to come out before Windows supports EFI across the board.

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