Need advice on laptop

[tazbaby]

We use the DELL Inspiron.. It runs OK with no glitches.

 

[Dstempel]

Hey
I recently got a new laptop. I am an engineering student at florida tech, and purchased proE for my private use...so i needed a computer to run it. The new Sony Vaio laptop (VGN-AX570G) is amazing. The processor is only a pentium M (which i cringed at when i decided to get this computer) but the RAM (2GB) and video card (ATI Radeon X700-256MB) more than make up for the processor. The processor speed is at 1.86GHz. You wont even notice a difference between that and 2.2GHz. In my opinion, pentium 4's put out way too much heat, which will ultimately slow your system anyway. Because of this, many pentium 4 laptops are unstable.---too much heat, too little space.
I run proE, 5 or 6 drawings at a time, with at least 4 OTHER programs running, and this computer handles it like a champ. No lagging, freezing, crashing. The machine is superb. Plus, it has two 80GB hard drives for a total of 160GB...which is unheard of in laptops. Also, has a removable DVD/CD bay that can be replaced with the included Video Capture card, or another hard drive.
I build custom computers, and this is one of the best off the shelf laptops ive seen.

Thats my two cents
-Dan


Edited by: Dstempel

 

[dojo]

Hello


I was in your shoes a couple of months ago and went for the Alieware rig MJ12-7700 mobile workstation.


SPecs :


MJ-12M 7700
AREA-51M 7700 D900T GREY 17" WSXGA+ W/ CAM
INTEL PENTIUM 4 550 3.4 1MB L2 CACHE 800MHZ FSB LGA775
SAMSUNG 2 GB DDR2 4200 SO-DIMM LEAD FREE
HITACHI NOTEBOOK 60GB 7200RPM HD
MJ-12 M NVIDIA QUADRO FX GO 1400 FOR 7700 WITH 256MB MODULE
W-NWEB 802.11ABG INTERNAL MINI PCI WIRELESS ADAPTER
AREA-51M 7700 8X DVD+/-RW NEC
USB FLOPPY DRIVE 7700
INTEL MOBILE INTEGRATED HIGH-DEFINITION AUDIO
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL OEM


I made the decission based on the 17" screen with seperate numeric keypad, and the nvidia FX go 1400. I had serious issues in the beginning as there was a glitch in the Bios (sended the laptop back twice) without resolving the issue, but when the bios update came out it worked fine (fans failed to start). The performance is very good and is defo faster then the dell M70 (limited to 1gig, alienware 2 gig, the glossy 17" on alienware and the 15" on Dell, dell no sep keypad, and a 5700 rev harddisk compared to the 7700rpm Alienware, true pentiums in the alienware, mobile ones in the dell). The biggest downpoint with alienware is the support, they dont offer on site support and sending the rig back with DHL is not very appealing.


The system runs hot (pentium) It has four coolers (2 cpu/power supply, 1 for the ram and one for the video card) so its not one of the more silent laptops on the market, and after 4 months 1 of them is already worn out ....


If your designing with surfacing / ISDX, do alot of photorendering, work with large assemblies and want a 17" dont compromise with lower memory, slower drives and not the FX go 1400. If you model on part level like for example sheetmetal etc you will get around with different laptops with "gaming" video cards.


At your disposal if you need more info


Greets


Nick



Edited by: dojo

 

[coolntn1]

Anyone have any input on the AMD dual core systems yet ? I think they are newly on the market....they sound pretty sweet ?

 

[Natewebb]

I think the Pentium M is better than the 4 for laptops. Look at any recent benchmark. They have a larger on die cache (2MB) and use less batteries.

 

[dojo]

just saying what i experienced at work here comparing the alienware to the M70. (believe me im not an alienware freak)


I dont think battery life is a concern as your not going to model in a car or anything of that kind. Besides the M70 battery also only lasts for an hour while working with pro/E





Nick

 

[rmckinley]

I have been very satisfied with my HP zd800 laptop. I have been using it to run Wildfire and Mechanica FEA. It has the following:


Pentium 4 - 630 processor (3.0GHz with 2MB L2 and 800MHz FSB and EM64T)


2GB RAM


ATI Radeo X600 with 256MB RAM


17 inch monitor


full number pad


Yes, it gets hot and it is noisy with its three cooling fans. It also weighs about nine pounds. And it sucks the battery dry in about 90 minutes. But I am able to constantly work with as many as five or six models and five or six drawings simultaneously. The models that I work with are about five totwenty MB in size and they have as many as 1000 features. Wile I work in Pro/E, Ialso usually have Word, Excel,Access, and Adobe Acrobatopen at the same time -- each with several documents open (while itunes or media centerplays in the background). The video card is not the fastest one I have used but it works quite well for Pro/E (and provides mediocre performance for Doom3). The analyses that I do run in about 20% more time than they do on my 3.0GHz Xeon desktop with 2GB of RAM. Everything else is as fast asor faster than the desktop.


I ultimately chose this laptop over Alienware and Sonybecause of price. I could get more for the money with HP. I passed on Dell because they did not offer any systems that will be 64bit compatible. The 600 series intel processors with EM64Tare 64bit capable (more or less). This makesthe systemless likely to become obsolete very soon. Also, I have had very positive experiences with HP tech support in the past.


If your most important reason for buying a laptop is that you need it to be highly portable -- to run on batteries for many hours at a time -- then I'm not sure that I would recommend the zd8000. You will likely wanta system with anM processor (Centrino). If you want much performance for less money -- and don't mind being connected to a power outlet --then this desktop processor based laptop is definitely one you may want to consider.


And be careful when looking at processor specs because MHz is not the only thing to consider. Also look at L2 cache size andbus speed. A 2GHz system on an 800MHz bus will likely outperform a 2GHz system on a 500MHz bus. This is why intel gives processors number designations like 630, 547, etc.


I suggest you check out forums and reviews like the oneson CNET.com to get lots of information to help you decide.


Hope this helps

 

[mstols]

If you want to go for a laptop that you know will work, go for the m70. That is what most of the technical people at ptc use and it is certified as well. Its got a good graphics card in that does not give any problems. If the software doesn't work on these laptops, they will make it work. they won't let their technical people walk around with software on laptops that is unstable.

 

[dojo]

Also check www.notebookforums.com


Just saw your last post. We have one at work as I said, but its only used for presentations at customers. No one is working on it fulltime due to a)small screen b) memory limitations (we design plastics for eg tracotrs and having a full cab in session eats all the memory and slows everything down). When you just have the skeleton of the interior open with 1500 features and create style features, you really get it on its knees and it becomes painfully slow.


You might want to check Acer, we had a external guy in for a while and it delivered very good performance, with almost the same specs as the Alienware without the FX GO 1400, for a far lesser price then a Alienware


Nick
Edited by: dojo

 

[tazbaby]

Not sure if it's still available..but ive got an Acer Aspire 1710.


Pentium 4


NVidia GE Force 128Mb


17" screen.


Runs really well with Proe WF2

 

[willowyok]

Dell Inspiron 14" is Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200 or T4300 or Intel Core 2 Duo
T6500, T6600, T4400, P7350, P7450, P8600 or P8700, Intel Core i3-330M,
or Intel Core i5-430m. RAM is 2 GB, 3 GB or 4 GB of shared dual channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz or 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz.