Laptops

[booty]

In need to get a laptop for my daughters college work Multi Media. Any advice which one is the best one for the job

The program she needs to run is

Lightwave spec

Hardware
Intel® Core™ 2 or AMD Athlon™ II (or better)
64-bit System RAM: 4GB minimum
32-bit System RAM: 2GB minimum
Available USB Port
Operating System
64-bit Windows Vista® or Windows 7 64-bit Edition
32-bit Windows Vista or Windows 7 Edition
Graphics Card
Minimum: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400 series or ATI X1600

The two laptops we are looking at is

HP dv6-6001sa
Processor Quad-core AMD Phenom™ II X4 P960
Cache memory 2 MB
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64
RAM 4GB DDR3 RAM
Graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6470M512 MB DDR3 Dedicated

Dell New Inspiron 15R
Processor - 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor 2.10 GHz
Operating System - Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Display - 15.6in High Definition (1366X768) WLED with True-Life
Memory - 14GB1 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz
Hard Drive - 500GB2 SATA hard drive (7200RPM)
Video Card - Intel HD Graphics 3000


Thanks

Booty

[dave.m]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 and it is very good.
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15-n5030/pd

dave

[thescruff]

Check out these guys they have some amazing prices.

Just got a desktop from them,

http://www.aria.co.uk/

[kellys_eye]

Lightwave[/u] is a seriously demanding program and not one I'd spec a laptop for - the cost of a laptop to get even 'basic' performance from that program far, far exceeds that of a desktop. Lugging a laptop that is 'Lightwave' friendly will be a task in itself - it's going to be a HEAVY device.
My son (at Uni) considered a similar situation and went for a good desktop WITH a lower-powered laptop for studies. The desktop stayed at Uni (under locak and key of course) but was easily packaged and mailed (for around a tenner) every time he wanted to spend time at home.

[Megaross]

Ironic we're on a handyman forum, because now I'm gonna say "It's gonna cost yer mate"

Neither of those laptops are really specced to run lightwave brilliantly, although it depends what she's going to be doing with it. The HP is the better of those two and should be ok for some less demanding work, I mean on the outskirts of what lightwave is capable of.

What I would do if I were you, I'm assuming you're on a pretty strict budget and aren't looking to spend thousands, I'd have a look through dell outlet for one of the higher specced "studio" laptops. They are known to mess people about on there (having been seriously messed about and not recieved 2 orders from them) but the savings are worth it.
Or if there is nothing on the outlet, look for places which do student discount, Dell I know do, and some highstreet stores. Which she should be eligable for being in full time education.

Also what you might want to consider is getting an external monitor, you need the screen space for that kind of application really. I know I'd never get nearly half as much work done in solidworks without an external 24" monitor, 17" isn't enough space. And with any design/ graphical application it holds true.
I don't have a problem lugging a 17" laptop personally but I am 6'6" and do a lot of heavy lifting, some people find them too heavy and cumbersome.

[root]

I hate to say it but............ you may be better off with a macbook pro (shudder)
http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MC7 ... jEyOTY4MjM

[thescruff]

I have a MacBook Pro. nice machine.

How about one of these, should be up for the job.

Biggest problem I see would be not getting it nicked.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Laptops/ ... ctId=45736

[nick200]

Ironic we're on a handyman forum, because now I'm gonna say "It's gonna cost yer mate"

Neither of those laptops are really specced to run lightwave brilliantly, although it depends what she's going to be doing with it. The HP is the better of those two and should be ok for some less demanding work, I mean on the outskirts of what lightwave is capable of.

What I would do if I were you, I'm assuming you're on a pretty strict budget and aren't looking to spend thousands, I'd have a look through dell outlet for one of the higher specced "studio" laptops. They are known to mess people about on there (having been seriously messed about and not recieved 2 orders from them) but the savings are worth it.
Or if there is nothing on the outlet, look for places which do student discount, Dell I know do, and some highstreet stores. Which she should be eligable for being in full time education.

Also what you might want to consider is getting an external monitor, you need the screen space for that kind of application really. I know I'd never get nearly half as much work done in solidworks without an external 24" monitor, 17" isn't enough space. And with any design/ graphical application it holds true.
I don't have a problem lugging a 17" laptop personally but I am 6'6" and do a lot of heavy lifting, some people find them too heavy and cumbersome.

I agree, I have an HP Elitebook 8740w for which I run SolidWorks/AutoCAD etc and I still require a larger screen plus have a docking station. The weight of just the charger alone is a pain in the.....shoulders and neck mainly! (see attached phot of standard HP charger and my HP charger!). The cost is not cheap either but this is what I need to use to get my work done.

I would say that it may be easier to get a desktop and transport around as KE mentioned.

[Megaross]

I'd love to have a workhorse desktop if I didn't travel around so bloody much, worst thing for me though is I use my laptop for recording as well, else I'd probably have gone for a desktop yonks ago. Although I'd probably miss looking like a t*at with a 17" laptop over one shoulder, a 16 channel mixing desk over the other and pulling a hardware case full of mics and crap.
One of my housemates doing engineering has an absolute powerhouse of an i7 machine, 16gb ram, 2 nvidia fx4500 and dual 24" screens. You open up solidworks or radan on that thing, mmm. Unsurprisingly his dads minted though, bloody rich kids

Rock direct do some really high end laptops if money is no object, not as overpriced as somewhere like alienware. But if I had the dough to spend on a high end laptop Rock would be my first port of call.