Old post, but as a note to those looking for 3D graphics laptops, a few reminders:
The graphics are the most important spec to consider, because you're stuck with them. You can do things the hard way, or just buy Nvidia (Quadro2Go if at all possible). As I've documented elsewhere, the GeForce 6800 Ultra and greater "gaming" graphics chipsets are working very well with Maya, better than previous GeForce in both rendering quality and stability, especially under Linux, and you can expect to save a significant amount of money this way.
The Pentium M (Centrino chipset) is a great mobile processor. Unless you're looking for a full-on luggable with <2 hours battery life, this CPU is really the best choice. Alienware luggables with desktop processor are pretty nice these days, but don't expect to stray too far from an outlet.
Finding something with both those quals narrows the field quite a bit, and what you're left with will be quality candidates. Get the biggest and best screen. The Dell XPS (Gen 1) had a ridiculous 1920x1200 resolution crammed into a 15" screen. However the XPS 2 really improved all-around and struck a good balance between portability and having it all.
QUOTE(knecht @ 07/15/05, 03:17 AM)
i have some experiences with a tyan AMD64 Opteron board, running a AMD64 Debian Sarge on it. The problem is that maya like all the render software is running on 32bit, the software can be run in a 32bit chroot environment, or you can install a debian 32bit on the AMD64 laptop, then everything is like you know it from 32bit, you just don't use the 64bit benefits then. All in all i have no problems with 64bit Debian, 32bit environment installed and running maya on this
AMD64 all in all is a good choice, its the only CPU that is able to run 64Bit and 32Bit software native on it !!
I think both will work well, with AMD64 you maybe buy some features you cannot use until now, because the software is written 32bit . . .
With a centrino 32bit you maybe have some little problems less, but for funture no 64bit stuff . . .
What is not working is a inter IA64 CPU, because on this only 64bit compiled software will run, and maya has no 64 bit version until now
greetings
knecht
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