Portable Workstations for Sketchup
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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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@ashscott said:
The latest XPS 13...
... is sexy but shared intel Graphics HD 5500 only... i.e. switching of the SU hardware acceleration (= OpenGL) might be required.... which may work with a fast CPU and low-poly count models.
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You may wish to bookmark http://www.notebookcheck.net as it allows extensive comparisons and benchmarks. Here is the info on the 'debacle' graphics chipset: http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-FirePro-M4100.104958.0.html
Good Luck
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Also interesting is the gfx card list - it gives an idea how the card performs in comparison to other cards. The AMD FirePro M4100 there is currently at place 145 (1 is the best), which is worse than the gt740M so maybe that's why heavy models didn't work for you.
See http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
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and the PassMark benches here: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
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