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    • C Offline
      chango70
      last edited by

      I just did the same test against my friend's 2x Xeon Quad Mac Pro found out this rig is about 25% faster. Considering his cost around Β£2200 and mine around Β£1500. I'd say I had a deal.

      Gaieus, yes i heard about the Pentium 4 multi threading. I heard for some reason they axed it on the Duo Core processors. Maybe it was too good value for money?

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      • GaieusG Offline
        Gaieus
        last edited by

        I don't know. I'm just feeling lucky now

        Gai...

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        • AnssiA Offline
          Anssi
          last edited by

          The new i7 processor has hyperthreading again. If I understand right, it can also split a demanding task among multiple cores doing something like hyperthreading in reverse...

          Anssi

          securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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          • C Offline
            caddict
            last edited by

            For the record, I have just had to retire my 600MHz Toshiba laptop from active service.

            With its 128MB memory and 11GB harddrive running Windows 2000 and with an on-board video chip, it bravely powered SU6 through many a client presentation. (Granted, the model would often break up into wireframe if view changes were too rapid)

            Now that I have shifted to SU7, and SU6 cannot open models made in version 6, when I tried to install SU7 on the old girl, I was met with the fatal message "Operating System not Supported".

            So there you go. Progress. Still, she had to go sometime.

            Although I am thinking that I could easily revert back to SU6 without really noticing, seeing that version 7 was hardly a quantum leap.

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            • plot-parisP Offline
              plot-paris
              last edited by

              well, at least now you have an excuse to buy a monster! (may I suggest something like the 18.1" screen
              Acer Aspire 8920, that weighs 4.8 kg and hardly deserves the title of 'laptop'?) πŸ˜„

              acer-aspire-8920.jpg

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              • C Offline
                caddict
                last edited by

                I've started saving already

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                • T Offline
                  tomasz
                  last edited by

                  @plot-paris said:

                  well, at least now you have an excuse to buy a monster! (may I suggest something like the 18.1" screen
                  Acer Aspire 8920, that weighs 4.8 kg and hardly deserves the title of 'laptop'?) πŸ˜„

                  [attachment=0:3anrpjzn]<!-- ia0 -->acer-aspire-8920.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:3anrpjzn]

                  I am also looking for a laptop suitable for SU. You can buy cheaper and not so heavy Acer with same or probably better graphics card. It won't be 18" screen, but who wants to carry a 5kg and/or kill a flying-by bird with a swing of a screen.

                  Author of [Thea Render for SketchUp](http://www.thearender.com/sketchup)

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                  • plot-parisP Offline
                    plot-paris
                    last edited by

                    I do! I do!!! and as a matter of fact, I am writing this with the bespoken beast on my lap, listening to 'Air' by Johann Sebastian Bach from it's in-built 5.1 Cinematic Surround Sound speaker system (with subwoofer - in a laptop!).

                    (and, admittedly, my shoulders are still sore from carying it during my travel from London to the south of Germany two days ago πŸ˜‰ )

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                    • AnssiA Offline
                      Anssi
                      last edited by

                      Jakob,

                      Does it make much noise? I have an older 17" Acer Aspire, and i am otherwise quite fond of it, but it churns away like a bulldozer (not quite but...). I envy my daughter's IMac-it has no fans at all!

                      Anssi

                      securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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                      • plot-parisP Offline
                        plot-paris
                        last edited by

                        it definitely has a fan running, especially when running renders of course. but I think it is not too loud - and for it's monstrous size appropriate πŸ˜‰

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                        • EddyNLE Offline
                          EddyNL
                          last edited by

                          Guys,

                          I've got this museum piece:

                          AMD Sempron 2400+
                          1,75 Ghz, 512 MB
                          ASUS Radeon 9600 128MB

                          I'm looking to buy a new desktop because I can't run any large SU models.
                          What's the most important issue for 3d performance like SketchUp and Kerky?

                          • Dual core? RAM? Or the videocard?
                          • Any suggestions?

                          Thanks, Ward

                          viewtopic.php?f=271&t=11903 Modelling my city for Google Earth!

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                          • R Offline
                            remus
                            last edited by

                            For sketchup you want a fast clock speed (number of cores doesnt effect SU performance.) Good processors to look at are the intel core 2 duo and if your feeling up to a bit of overclocking, the intel core 2 quad. Youll also need a graphics card with decent openGL support, the quadro cards are generally pretty good for this, although a bit pricey.

                            For kerky you want lots of RAM and a processor with lots of cores, although youll need a 64 bit OS if you want to have more than 4GB of ram.

                            On balance, id say go with a core 2 quad processor and 4gb of ram. A pretty standard combination thats also pretty powerful.

                            http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                            • EddyNLE Offline
                              EddyNL
                              last edited by

                              Thanks for the quick reply Remus!

                              Would this be any good?

                              Intel E5200 Core 2 Duo
                              Geforce 9300 512mb
                              4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
                              500GB 7200rpm

                              AMD Phenom X3 8650+
                              Geforce 8300 HDMI, DVI
                              4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
                              750GB 7200rpm

                              viewtopic.php?f=271&t=11903 Modelling my city for Google Earth!

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                              • R Offline
                                remus
                                last edited by

                                The top setup looks good πŸ‘ Dont know enough about AMD to tell you whether the other choice of processor is a good one, though.

                                With regards to the 8300 graphics card, it seems there have been a couple of minor issues with it and SU: http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp/web/graphics-card-feedback?hl=en Probably worth investigating, just in case.

                                http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                                • C Offline
                                  chango70
                                  last edited by

                                  If you can wait, I'd get the i7 Core mobile CPU laptops coming out later half of this year. The multi-threading almost halves your rendering times. Worth the wait I'd say.

                                  If not I recommend http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk you can build one with 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT graphics card for under Β£1000 pounds. I have one and the diffault setting makes sketchup lines look super SMOOTH! without anti-aliasing turned on! Incredable for presentations n walkthroughs.

                                  I'd be honest with you PCSpecialist are not really the best quality as mine broke under a year (arguably not their fault as my GPU, the 8600M GT died and if you read internet forums this card is dying at a dispropotionate rate on all manufacturers laptops including Apple) but their service is incredable. They didn't ask any questions had it sent back and upgraded my chasis (Old Chasis had a 8600M GT which died) with new GPU all for free! Sent back to me in a week. So basically I got a free upgrade from them.

                                  The 9600M GT gives amazing default display quality.


                                  SU.jpg

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                                  • C Offline
                                    chango70
                                    last edited by

                                    @eduardonl said:

                                    Thanks for the quick reply Remus!

                                    Would this be any good?

                                    Intel E5200 Core 2 Duo
                                    Geforce 9300 512mb
                                    4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
                                    500GB 7200rpm

                                    AMD Phenom X3 8650+
                                    Geforce 8300 HDMI, DVI
                                    4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
                                    750GB 7200rpm

                                    Whats your budget?

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                                    • R Offline
                                      remus
                                      last edited by

                                      Not a core i7 budget going by those specs πŸ˜›

                                      http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                                      • C Offline
                                        chango70
                                        last edited by

                                        No but getting a smaller Hardrive like 250GB and a better Graphics Card would be a good trade off. I only use 160HD on my laptop. Just dump all your work on a external HD. They are dirt cheap anyway.

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                                        • P Offline
                                          peweuk
                                          last edited by

                                          @plot-paris said:

                                          I do! I do!!! and as a matter of fact, I am writing this with the bespoken beast on my lap, listening to 'Air' by Johann Sebastian Bach from it's in-built 5.1 Cinematic Surround Sound speaker system (with subwoofer - in a laptop!).

                                          (and, admittedly, my shoulders are still sore from carying it during my travel from London to the south of Germany two days ago πŸ˜‰ )

                                          Which spec was this (ie processor and video card? - and how do you find it for performance with SU?

                                          @unknownuser said:

                                          If not I recommend http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk you can build one with 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT graphics card for under Β£1000 pounds.

                                          I couldn't see any option for choice of graphics on their laptops!!!

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                                          • C Offline
                                            chango70
                                            last edited by

                                            As a reference, my latest Unibody Mac managed 15.8 fps on the cube test. So yeah yours sounds like a beast.

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