Portable Workstations for Sketchup
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Thanks folks - some good suggestions there.
I really like the look of the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 Series: http://www.dell.com/nz/p/inspiron-14-7447-laptop/pd?oc=x510772nz#AnchorZone3
The Lenovos look OK but dont seem to have the same firepower as that Dell.
Moving to Mac is too much of a hassle for us even though its arguably a better platform (but lets not start a 10 page discussion on that).
Small laptops are preferable for travelling. Easy to plug them in to projectors at meetings to give presentations. You can easily get them out on the plane to make tweaks and at home they simply plug in to a couple of 21" or 24" LED monitors so you have plenty of screen real estate most of the time.
I used to have a 17" Acer that was great at home and ok if you were going away to a place that had another desk but a bit of a hassle on planes and a total pain to pull out when sitting on someone's couch. It still goes though and serves as a handy home computer - when it finally dies I'll bolt legs on it and make it into a coffee table.
Keep the recommendations coming for machines under 14 inches!
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i recently noticed that SysMark/MobileMark has integrated Sketchup. http://bapco.com/products/sysmark-2014#details-applications
So you could look for some results. -
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@mike lucey said:
I still miss my old 17" MacBook Pro. Having the extra screen real estate of the 17" over the current 15.4" MBP was great, even the retina resolution does not fully compensate. However, my problems will be solved when I get my hands on some very portable Packed Pixel screens!
[attachment=0:10s8udcl]<!-- ia0 -->PackedPixels-Uses-Office.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:10s8udcl]
If anyone is not familiar with Packed Pixels, you can check it out here, http://www.packedpixels.com/#home
Great idea but I am afraid they will wind up pricing themselves out of business. In one of the clips they say they estimate they will be about $500. That is a darn expensive screen (IMHO).
Are they actually available anywhere?
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A bit pricey but seem pretty power packed and portable plus no bloatware
Mike
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I have been using laptops pretty much exclusively for the past 8 years for modeling and rendering. I work on great big honking models. almost all of them over 70gb full of 3d plants and trees etc.
I used a dell precision m6400 for the past 5 years and it was an absolute work horse. Big durable and capable. It is now my back up and still works good.
My current machine is a Dell alienware 17x. Lightning fast.
I found out the hard way that over 16gb ram is not utilized unless you run windows pro.
I run 32gb ramI am not listing all the specifics, because you will basically want to get the fastest, baddest, components your budget will allow.
The bigger the screen the better in my opinion, but I am kinda old and my eyes are not what the once were.
good luck
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All great advice - and I agree, its more cost effective to go for a bigger machine, you get more horsepower per dollar. However, 14 inch is what is needed in this instance. I was tempted to buy a 6400 when they came out but went with something a little cheaper at the time.
I liked alienware's recent concept of leaving heavy GPU in a module on your desktop (its rare to need full power on the plain or out and about on battery. It sounds like there could be some improvement in Alienware's pioneering idea and I look forward to seeing where it leads. The other bonus is that it uses desktop GPUs so you dont have the heat and price problems of mobile GPUs.
Thanks for your input everyone
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@ashscott - what did you end up buying?
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I'm also looking at options at the moment.
Have another look at the alienware 13, consider it with the graphics amplifier. From what I understand it becomes the primary graphics when plugged in and restarted.
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the brand new HP Omen 15 might be interesting too even if slightly to big but with a lots of horsepower (and being thin & light).
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I bought my 17" i7 Sager notebook in 2010. I have had no problem since. For two years it was my full time work machine for AutoCAD, Sketchup, etc., working 12hrs a day pushing a 24" monitor. It now is my home machine but I still use it for projects. The only negative was that the battery lasted 45 min. However, I always kept it plugged in. New Sagers are capable of pushing dual 30" monitors. You can get the same machines with 15" screens.
Edit: Oops, missed the under 14". Sager current has only 1 14" and 1 13" model.
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The Omen looks cool, I especially like the option for a bumped up GPU.
The smaller Sagers look nice too, my concern is their support in New Zealand...
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Anybody running SU on an Asus Zenbook UX301LA with the 2.8Ghz i7?
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I'm currently on the Asus TaiChi 21 with the i7 CPU.
officialsite
asus official site
(www.asus.com)
For smaller things it seems to work just fine.
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@Ashscott, any other laptops you're considering? I'm in the same boat so I'm following this thread with much interest.
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Nothing other than what is above - purchase has been delayed a little but will let ya'll know once a decision is made
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On a side note: I noticed there are only two aspect ratios available for laptop screens nowadays:
16 : 9 (for instance 1920x1080) and 16 : 10 (for instance 1920x1200). 16:10 almost resembles the golden ratio and gives you more height and less vertical scrolling. Pity it's only used by Apple.
Everybody else has gone for the cheaper 16:9. The argument 'its better for watching movies' is imho not really valid for people who are looking for a (business) laptop. How many people buy laptops for watching movies as the main purpose anyway... -
the new Dell Alienware 15 with nVidia GTX 980m avail and being 20% slimmer as well as a little bit lighter...
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Its nice, but still a bit bulky regarding the original requirements of this post. The latest XPS 13 appears to fit the bill well.
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Dell XPS 13 Looks like a fantastic laptop!
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