which is best for gaming/3d rendering (laptops)

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

ok i have to choose from several laptops as my school will not suport
ALL laptops.
i have browsed through many of them BUT cant seem to get a strait
answer as to which is best.
here are my choices.
money is no issue BUT under 4k would be nice

MAC: any powerbook or ibook
DELL: Latitude or Inspiron
Gateway: Solos
IBM: Thinkpad
Toshiba: Satellite or Portege

this thing needs to be ruged as i will be bringing it to school
(college) every day. It needs to be reliable, i will be getting an
extra battery or two so that is not an issue. Proformance however is .
.. .

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Never mind performance, make sure you get a good spell checker!

"burton" <tootainted@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:54f5d100.0404220906.b3d5eef@posting.google.com...
> ok i have to choose from several laptops as my school will not suport
> ALL laptops.
> i have browsed through many of them BUT cant seem to get a strait
> answer as to which is best.
> here are my choices.
> money is no issue BUT under 4k would be nice
>
> MAC: any powerbook or ibook
> DELL: Latitude or Inspiron
> Gateway: Solos
> IBM: Thinkpad
> Toshiba: Satellite or Portege
>
> this thing needs to be ruged as i will be bringing it to school
> (college) every day. It needs to be reliable, i will be getting an
> extra battery or two so that is not an issue. Proformance however is .
> . .

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

To be more detailed, practically none of
the mainstream laptops have the graphics/
video power required for decent gaming and
3D rendering (note that I said "decent", not
tops). Only the very high end of the Fujitsu,
Dell and IBM lines approach the performance
of a midrange gaming setup -- and they cost
an arm and a leg.



dk



"Dan Koren" <dankoren@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:40882ebb$1@news.meer.net...
>
> None.
>
>
> "burton" <tootainted@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:54f5d100.0404220906.b3d5eef@posting.google.com...
> > ok i have to choose from several laptops as my school will not suport
> > ALL laptops.
> > i have browsed through many of them BUT cant seem to get a strait
> > answer as to which is best.
> > here are my choices.
> > money is no issue BUT under 4k would be nice
> >
> > MAC: any powerbook or ibook
> > DELL: Latitude or Inspiron
> > Gateway: Solos
> > IBM: Thinkpad
> > Toshiba: Satellite or Portege
> >
> > this thing needs to be ruged as i will be bringing it to school
> > (college) every day. It needs to be reliable, i will be getting an
> > extra battery or two so that is not an issue. Proformance however is .
> > . .
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

For rendering I uses Acer Aspire 1700 series (3G cpu, 1G ram, 17 inches
hi-res screen). It is slower from 2xAthlon 2.6G only 30%. Nice machine.

Regards,

K.Polak

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I have been looking at the Dell vs Apple.

Dell Inspiron XPS can be equiped with a 3.4 Ghz processor BUT for
windows that means cut it in half to get actual speed (yes i am a PC
user).
No where does it say on the dell page under specs the battery life
(which is always over exagerated) so i am assuming with this much
power, 1 hour tops
15" screen.
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9700 AGP 8X Graphics comes standard
(as to be expected)
second battery comes standard (told you it was 1 hour)
with a student discount i can get all this for 5000.00 (that included
2 gigs of ram. From what i heard these can break easy.

APPLE
powerbook 17" screen.
2 gigs, and 128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9700 AGP 8X Graphics.
1.5 G4
80 gig 5700 HD
Keyboard : Full size, illuminated with ambient light sensor
Bluetooth and Airport Extreme (standard)
weighs 3 lbs less, average batter life 3 hours (as suggested by many
reviews)
quake 3 gets 100 fps (minimal) online play (big plus)
Never gets really hot and has a solid construction.

All i plan on useing the rendering for is Engineering software, 3ds
max (which i run on a 2 gig 1700amd(1.4ghz), FX 5600 256 at home just
fine, and maybe some games i like. (already checked game list and mac
supports the ones i like)

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

eMachines M6809 is one fast, killer gaming machine at a resonable price.

Yes, Alienware, etc. might have even faster, but at thousand+ more.

http://emachines.com/products/prod [...] ines_M6809

(The fastest laptop PC Magazine has ever tested thus far in one of their
recent March/April issue - M6807 model:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1537028,00.asp)

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

finaly someone that actually read the post in detail TY.

"Krystian Polak" <kuzda@wp.pl> wrote in message
> 1. I dont know how quick is Max on Apple, maybe slower, maybe faster, thinkg
> to check.
>

maybe i will have to switch to maya for my laptop and keep using 3ds
max 6 on my pc. I tried to find some review for proformance on a mac
BUT couldnt.


> 2. 17'', but resolution? Now, there are popular wide 17'', which is about
> 1200x900. It is too low to work with Max.

the 17-inch PowerBook supports a resolution of 1440 by 900 pixels. I
too run my pc (apaturegrill) monitor at 1280 1024. why wont 900 work
with max? (just curious i thought it could work in any resolution)

>
> 3. 15'' screen in my opinion is tooo small as well. My Acer has 17'' with
> 1280x1024 and it is not bad, however a touch bigger res could be good.
>

I am stuck to using one of these (listed at original post) becuase my
school will not support other laptops.


> 4. Regarding to graphic card, on my desktop I have got some good Vidia (dont
> remember now what model exactly). I compared open gl, direct x and software
> support for vieport. I prefer work in software mode. However for computer
> games you need an accelerator (mind that with Apple you can have some
> proboem with games and other applications)
>

from what i have been reading about the games i am interested in most
all problems have been resloved. And apple even has an accelerator.
they have also reworke there OS to utilize the processor better. This
tells me something VERY important, that as the mac is used differently
Apple is right there for its customers to utilize the hardware the
best . . .


> 6. For Max you dont need 2G Ram. It is usefull, of course, especially if you
> want at the same time use other applicatuion, but cost of two slips 1G is
> huge. I chose just 2 x 0.5G. It is enough.
>

tell me about it 1K BUT even with all the upgrades on the PB 17" it
still is just 3500 (with student discount) throw in a extra batery,
airextreme hub, protection plan and a kool carrying case/book bag and
you get 4200 take one 1 gig dim and you get 3500 again . . . I just
figured the extra ram would REALLY help any games i played on the mac
(whats your opinion on this)


> 7. Regarding to Dell, I have heard bad things about their support and their
> components, not only here. I avoid this company, even if they have goot good
> prices for computers.


i have heard the same things, i have been reading reviews non stop on
all these laptops i have to choose from, and the mac by far looks to
be the winner in my book . . . but we will see.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

>
> the 17-inch PowerBook supports a resolution of 1440 by 900 pixels. I
> too run my pc (apaturegrill) monitor at 1280 1024. why wont 900 work
> with max? (just curious i thought it could work in any resolution)

As I said, now on my 17'' I have got height 1024px and there could be more
space for vieports, modifier rollouts etc. But still not bad. However 100 px
less could make it inacteptable. It is only my opinion. Make test. Minimize
your Max window to this resolution and try to work. If you think it is fine,
so ok.

> I am stuck to using one of these (listed at original post) becuase my
> school will not support other laptops.

Ok, so you can always consider using external, bigger screen, if you
notebook can suport it (these days most of them do)

> Apple is right there for its customers to utilize the hardware the
> best . . .

I believe you. I have never try to use Mac fo gaming.

> tell me about it 1K BUT even with all the upgrades on the PB 17" it
> still is just 3500 (with student discount) throw in a extra batery,
> airextreme hub, protection plan and a kool carrying case/book bag and
> you get 4200 take one 1 gig dim and you get 3500 again . . . I just
> figured the extra ram would REALLY help any games i played on the mac
> (whats your opinion on this)

For gaming I dont think so. Finaly, for gaming, especially 3D, more
important is more memory on graphic card and it is better investment then
buying extra 1G Ram. On my desktop I have 2G only because I often use Max,
Photoshop and some other application in the same time with big projects. On
my notebook I have got 1G still using the same application, but not so
intensively and it is just fine.

> i have heard the same things, i have been reading reviews non stop on
> all these laptops i have to choose from, and the mac by far looks to
> be the winner in my book . . . but we will see.

Good luck :-)

K.Polak