What's your Laptop like?

[Kanga]

Hi Titojr

You will get better info here (hardware section)
http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=23

I use a hp dv laptop. Its a dual core thingy and handles pretty much any app I throw at it. One thing I did notice is that my 3d progs don't like xp home and do love xp pro sp2. Other than that software is so good these days most will run fairly well even on a crappy computer. Not sure what you mean by limiting your learning and I am not familiar with your laptop model but lower poly counts or slower rendering speeds will only limit your product range (read complexity) not your learning possibilities as a single model will show off your quality just as much as a full length feature film :).

Cheerio Chris

[gamedeveloper]

I use a pretty old TC1100 tablet pc, a 1GHz Pentium M with 2GB RAM, 80GB 7200RPM HD, and 32Mb dedicated GPU. Pretty sluggish by today's standards, but it runs Max 8 and Maya 7 (if you're working with low-medium polys only). However, I use it primarily as a 2D machine (photoshop/flash/illustrator/artrage).

I have several more powerful systems at my house, so I don't expect my laptop to be a true workhorse... Is your laptop your only system?

[riverbook]

My laptop is what I have availible at home. On campus I have a much beefier machine. I was looking in the market for something that I can also use at home. In a laptop

[gamedeveloper]

So, if you have a $1000 budget, get an "open box" or refurb system (more bang for the buck). Make sure you have at least a 1 year warranty on the refurb (open box should have original warranty).

Get a core2duo CPU with a dedicated 128MB+ graphics card. Specifically stay away from Pentium and Celeron and stay away from Intel graphics solutions (although I hear the newest ones are passable).

Be sure the laptop can be upgraded to 4GB memory.

Try to get widescreen display. 1440x900 res will probably be a lower-end model, while 1650x1050 is more midrange and should be your target rez.

I don't really follow regular laptops anymore, just tablets (slates/hybrids/convertibles). So I can't really recommend a good brand in your price range, but a cursory examination of buy.com shows two products that look promising:

http://www.buy.com/prod/toshiba-satellite-p205d-s7438-notebook-amd-athlon-64-x2-dual-core-tk/q/loc/101/205632248.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-pavilion-laptop-computer-dv9220us-intel-core-2-duo-t5200-1-6ghz/q/loc/101/204069820.html

The Toshiba has a great price, but also has a 'shared memory' GPU which is not optimal, and is 7.2lbs... The HP has a good dedicated GPU and is 5.4lbs, but it also appears to max out at 2GB RAM. Both have 5400RPM HDs which you might want to replace with 7200RPM if you'll be working 'plugged in' most of the time. Finally, both are NEW!

[JazzyAnimator]

This is what I got for christmas

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?seg=HHO&poid=394292&coid=-34758&src=MAXG&cm_mmc=google_sem-_-direct-_-satellite_p205d-s7479-_-toshiba_p205d-s7479&gclid=COy_mqDXy5ACFTkjFQodLHaBWw

It's pretty nice, the only downside to it is its a 4200RPM hard drive. That is an easy enough upgrade though. I'm gonna probably gonna drop in two 160gig 7200RPM drives to speed it up.

Even with the hard drive (and Vista) it's still faster then my desktop in raw performance mode. I'm contemplating dual booting XP, I'll see if others have had luck hunting down all the necessary drivers.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.