[jfrancis]

Must run M~R and other 3d apps. I want this to be my workstation on the go.

Assuming I'll buy, not build, can you recommend a laptop?

Dell? Alienware? M-tech?

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and if i DO build it, can you point me in the right direction on how to go about that?

[seco7]

I have a Alienware that has treated me very well, but it is a model before Dell bought Alien. We have about a dozen Dell laps at work, and that is probably the last we'll ever buy. All of them have had some problems within the first 6 months and several have had serious problems. There customer service has been much less then steller which makes bad problems even worse.

Just my personal experiences of course.

[jfrancis]

bummer. I was leaning toward Dell. And is Dell dragging Alienware down now?

[jfrancis]

What do you think of these guys?

http://www.mtechlaptops.com/

[ricardo]

Sager buys the same taiwan stuff as alienware (used to at least) : Clevo http://www.clevo.com.tw/.

I have a 4 years old 17" laptop which is a work horse, still using with rhino and even some maxwell. Heavy, hot (wasted a couple of HDs) & drains bateries in no time, but it is a workstation on laptop's skin.

Ricardo

[b-kandor]

I've had a dell M70 (fx1400 graphics, 2 gb of ram etc.) for almost 2 years and I've had not a single problem with it. It's actually one of the stablest systems I own. So, now I've possibly negated at least a portion of the previous dell review

[macray]

I have a Dell M90 (core duo... see signature) for a year now and no problem with it.... using it with Cinema and Maxwell (up to 1.1) and this one is really nice. Not the most lightweight but very nice to use. 17"screen 1920x1200 resolution and I wouldn't like to give it away for anything.

So I cannot share the dell review as well.

[Stephen]

It is going to be expensive, but you can't go wrong with these guys.
http://falcon-nw.com/

[codygo]

Have you looked into Thinkpad T60p laptops? Practically any laptop has Intel Core 2 duos, but they come with Firegl video cards which should be better than most gaming cards for 3d programs. Maybe not the better than some of the mobile quadros, but having used a Dell m90, i don't know that i would want such a large beast of a laptop anyways.

I used to believe that a laptop was merely a mobile workstation and didn't care about weight, but i soon changed my mind after trying to lug that thing in and out of airports, on trains, etc. A really important factor would be the screen quality, the dell M90 had a VERY UNUSABLE screen. It was like trying to color manage a kaleidoscope! I ended up dreading to use it despite my initial enthusiasm.

[macray]

don't know what you are speaking of. Did you damage your screen that it showed rainbows?

It''s not light considering weight but a real workhorse and the quadro gfx card is fine. The core duo does what it should do and it's fine. That it is big hasa advantages and disadvantages, but I think the threadstarter was looking for something like this, or?

[ajlynn]

Macbook Pro, no question. If you're looking at laptops in the price range these guys are talking about, check out the 17" model. If you run Bootcamp, look here for information on hacking it up to a FireGL v5200 in Windows.

[andrebaros]

We've had great success with Dell workstations so when we wanted a mobile workstation (mobile in the office for meetings and such, not REALLY mobile) we got one of the big Dell's and it's been very disappointing. It was noisy, hot, and slow so I can understand where Dell got it's bad rap from... but I've heard from others that they've really improved the performance.

Performance aside, Dell still has lousy laptops... if all you care about is performance than they're a great deal, but lot's of little things about them just don't measure up. For example, I use a Thinkpad, but needed to fix some things on a college's Dell this week, after just a few minutes with the track pad and track point on it, my hands hurt... a problem I've never had with a Thinkpad.

Personally, I need portability out of a laptop so I can't can't comment on high end laptop performance, but I love the usability and power to weight ratio of the Thinkpads.

[jfrancis]

Thanks everyone!

[jfrancis]

Rock Direct?

http://www.rockdirect.com/

[acquiesse]

Rock Direct?

x2

i also have a Dell...