Who Works On A Laptop / Recommendations?

[Gavin]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies...some good info here for me to think on. It seems that a lot of people go with Dell machines and are more or less happy with them. for some reason i never considered them before but between here and Polycount, they seem to be the more popular choice.

Thanks again!
Gav

[sarge mat]

Dell are good because you can pick and mix your set up. Everything from RAM to the CPU.

[UnsteadyTeddy]

Dell are good for that reason ( customisation ). They also are well priced.
They are also bad for the fact i went through the whole procedure of customising a computer and putting the order through, only for them not to deliver it and when I rang up asking why they discontinued the model months before.
Needless to say, I went elsewhere.

[latinmessiah]

I don't recommend working on a laptop for long periods of time due to the bad posture.

[thanoz]

Buy a laptop if -
-you want to watch DVD movies and other light entertainment while traveling by plane or train (but not car).
-Or buy it if you travel all the time, like a different state/country every week/month.
-Or buy a laptop if you need it to present materials to clients at diverse meeting places at least once a week.

Do not buy a laptop if -

-you want to do work while traveling or on vacation (won't happen)
-you want to do work without the unit plugged into the wall
-or you want a Do-It-All machine (laptops are portable toy computers)

First off, nearly every laptop you look at right now has a wide screen. Also, nearly all the new widescreens (even my girlfriend's nice $1200 macbook) have horrible vertical viewing angles. No matter how you sit, there's a gradient from top to bottom on most laptop monitors right now, it moves based on your viewing angle. For best viewing find the correct angle and walk back 20 feet - work from that distance..... Good luck painting when you can't even identify what areas are flat colors or what those colors are!

Secondly, a premium desktop costs about $500-600, just go to your local computer shop and have them custom build you one with all name brand parts, you could even pick out the case! For a premium laptop add a 1 or a 2 to that value, so $1500-2600+ for a good laptop.

3rd, money won't make this work until it's ridiculous...and even then might still not work. My friend has a $2000 HP with a 17" (maybe larger??) widescreen, pretty new, 7600 geforce for laptops card, all the accessories, 2 remote controls...ridiculous stuff. I load up Warcraft 3 to play with him in his apartment, the frame rate is garbage, and gets really bad during multi-model battles, the machine chugs during action. On top of that, no matter where I sit or how I angle the monitor on his coffee table there's always a part of the screen that is dim!

If you already have a great desktop and you just want this thing as a toy because you have $2-5k you want to blow on something 'neat', then go all out, buy the best Dell or Alienware you can, otherwise go to a small shop and get a real computer built up for you for a reasonable price.

[andrei313]

I'm also interested in this topic... and my idea of a laptop is the one described by thanoz
My girlfriends laptop is about 4 times more powerfully then my computer (I know... I'll get a new one soon) so if I want to render something or check out a normal map I do it on the laptop but after I render it or make a print screen I send it to my computer to watch it on my monitor I just can't figure out where to sit in front of the laptop to see the image at the right brightness/contrast. If I move just a little it changes the entire lighting Maybe it's just this laptop... I don't know... I'd be interested in finding out if more people have this problem.

PS: If I need to work more on something and I need the laptop I just plug my monitor in it Works great

Sorry for hijacking the thread with my little problems