Recomend Me A Computer (notebook) Plz

[mrxtothen]

well im working with maya 8 on an emachines desktop right now (im not quite sure of all the specs -- not great im sure) and this certainly is not ideal for the type of stuff im doing. i need a notebook that can handle all that i can throw at it in terms of comp. animation. I was checking out the dell xps models and was wondering what anybody thought about those. I really wanna be able to do some high end stuff and have my graphics card be able to handle it smoothly. i wont have an incredible ammount of money to spend on this so help me out plz guys. thanks -b0x

[joojaa]

Theres no such thing.

Ok ffirst a word of advice, i know its not what you want to hear but before you waste your money think about it seriously. Its not a joke.

A notebook is fine whan you work sporadicaly with word or something like taht, you may want to use it on a airplane or maybe the train. In all honesty doing work on the trip is greatly over rated. The amount of distarctiosn taht come along is too much, so actualy its rare to se people manage to do any real work while commuting or moving to the customer. Usualy what they manage is to type.

Secondly, a high powered notebook is not realy mobile. The dualcores will suck the juices out of the battery in no time trust me, and the high powered graphicscard will do this equaly fast especialy when runniong a 3d app (alternatively your computer goes to crawl speeds). This means your kindof tied to the powercord, wich limits your options. Now this si fine for a lowpowered computer since it does not generate heat nor use batterylife, even when they do you can keep them in your lap wich is nce if you want to sit on the couch or bed. Howver a HIGH power computer must reside on the table or it will overheat, it can even give you burns on your unexposed skin if it air inteakes are stopped by something like bed covers. Not to mention damage the computer.

Now then its faar better to furnisha good ergonomic workspace for a workstation than a laptop. Even if a laptop could gat the same thing ists just going to sit there as a over reated over expensive fascimile for a workstation.

Diskspace, a 3d artists can fill diskspace up like gasses fill vacum, and you certaily will need a extrnal fdrive or 2 if you have notebook. A workstation can easily have 3 times the disksapce of a notebook for the same price.

Pheripherials, having a big wacom tablet/scanner attached to alaptop makes little sense. you cant manage them anyway. Not to mention Screen eastate

You get much more for your money.

Now i can see only a very small precentage of users that would acttualy warrant the highpowered laptop. over the workstation even themn i do suggest getting a cheaop laptop and a good workstation. Only maybe 1% of thet small minority ever actualy benefits the highpower laptop, but hey they have 3-6 worstations sitting by anyway.

[mrxtothen]

oookay then -- reccomend me a desktop then

[gmask]

QUOTE(boxter822 @ 10/31/06, 06:07 AM) [snapback]251174[/snapback]
oookay then -- reccomend me a desktop then

How much can you spend?

[mrxtothen]

well im thinkin at most somewhere around 1500. not too sure where that will put me in terms of quality... prolly somewhere somewhat good when dealing with desktops. thanks for the quick replys by the way. -b0x

for dell desktops im still looking at the xps'

256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache would this be a suitable graphics card? this comes on the xps model im looking at.

[joojaa]

Thats a awfully little for a decent 3d machine in fact you relay cant get a a throw anything at it with that kind of money. Ok so that means no quadro gfx card for this system. (in general i spec above 3000 € for just the computer not counting peripherals and monitor)

Does the 1500 include a monitor

[mrxtothen]

lol, well i still think that anything like what im in the price range for would traumph the 500 buck emachines desktop im doing all my stuff on now. im a freakin senior in high school. Where am i supposed to get this money from? rrrrrgh.

[joojaa]

Well thing is, then you should ideally defer your purchase to when you really can afford to not afford to spend the money on your computer. Problem is that 1500 buys you awfully little stuff, unfortunately. (rember 1500 is less that a months salary over here for a construction worker about what they get after taxes without overtime, and taxes here are 3rd highest in world)

See thing is monitor costs you about 300$ at minimum (id invest atleast 3 times as much, your eyes are your most valuable asset, so don't destroy them by being cheap ass now), your gfx card will deplete your cash reserves another 300 (get the best nvidia your money can buy), wich leaves you 900 for the mobo, proc, deck, mem and case.

A decent case costs 100-150$ tough in pinch you could get one for 50$ when you go cheap ass calculate that the power actually gives your mobo + gfx card enough juice (otherwise you will have nothing to work on). this leaves us 850 for rest.

Mobo, the motherboard is the spine of your computer you should reserve money for it and not buy the cheapest possible, check reviews of current boards since here you can get good mobos cheap and bad ones for expensive. invest 200-300 that leaves you with maximum of 650.

memory 2Gb will deplete your funds for about 250 now you've got 350 this leaves you about 250$ for the processor because you will need at least 150$ for optical drive + deck .

But word of warning this can tackle about half at what you can throw at it. No computer can eat all.

[gabbagabbahey]

my brother-in-law is a systems administrator, and i was fortunate enough to hook him up with a job at a good animation company, which further maxed out his skill level and applicable knowledge.

so my point here is that: he is a "collector" of computer parts and knows how to build one from scratch, and for the money you have, you need either to learn this knowledge, or you need to get an internship at a local production company where you can find people to learn from as i've done. I cannot build a computer, but i learned how to ask the right questions by learning how to follow directions from people who do.

a good place to buy stuff from is http://outpost.com/ which is Fryes in LA, CA, USA. they have a lot of good sales. also a good site to check prices at is pricewatch.com and general stuff you can goto froogle.com

also consider that you might use a cheaper computer for building your project, the basic stuff, and then when you save the money while building the project and getting info on a better computer than you have, buy a better one for rendering and compositing the project.

the other option is to get a lean, basic computer with a great motherboard, decent enough graphics card, an external harddrive for backup, a smaller wacom [9 x 12 is very doable] and you can buy an old fashioned monitor even at a salvation army store for $25 nowadays, 21". Do ONLY the basics, what you absolutely need for hardware and software, and then save any money to soup up your system with a better graphics card and sound card when you're ready to do the heavier lifting. Just getting a project planned and started properly takes a long enough time so that this is a doable plan.

and get that internship at a local production company or TV/media station, local university, etc.