High performance laptop workstation

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Luka Bergaretxe on August 9, 2016 at 8:22am

Hi.

I had a similar doubt when deciding on which laptop to buy a year ago. Needed to use a bunch of resource-consuming programs while maintaining an easy-to-transport computer.

I'm currently using a Mountain Graphite 40. Since I'm no expert I cannot give you a lot of tech details, but I compare them to MSI gaming/high end laptops, in that they are built with high performance in mind. Mine uses an i7 processor (Using Xeon may even double the proce of the whole computer right? Never used one but I've been told they are usually used in Servers etc. Don't really know if you'll need one or you can do with i7 or even i5). Anyway, i7 would be my choice if you want to buy something sturdy but without going overboard with the price.

Bear in mind, though, that it's usually advisable to use a desktop instead of a laptop, as this tends to overheat easier and it might give problems while doing very demanding tasks, especially if they extend for a long time. Also, you'll nearly always get a better computer for the same price if you chose a desktop over a laptop, but that depends on your mobility requirements etc.

As far as I know, Mountain are big, sturdy, heavy laptops but really behave well, at least based on my own experience. They have very good quality/price ratios (mine was second hand and barely used so I got an even better discount, I was lucky) and the tech support are really attentive.

MSI, never tried it but as I told you I was doing some research and they seemed to do the job quite well also.

Alienware, always related to gaming systems but I guess they can also do the job as workstations, maybe you could ask them directly.

Lenovo and Dell, I remember they also had some interesting computers but I don't remember specific models so take it with a grain of salt.

Hope it helps!

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on June 8, 2017 at 12:44pm

This discussion wont go away anytime soon since there will always be someone updating. So here is my take.

Its obvious you cant build your own laptop, hence you have to pick a name brand. Costco Customer can test drive a Laptop, being a Costco customer has its advantages, since the customer is able to return any electronic purchase within 90 days.

I returned a name brand 17" laptop a year ago. Mainly because of excessive noise and heat issues the product exhibited, through heavy use of the graphics card engine applied to the GUP during a graphics rendering process. Hence I got a desktop.

Again if your a Costco customer you can buy a name brand desktop, with the same return policy.

I decided not to go name brand. I picked all of my components from the NICX website: including: case, power supply, fans, mb, memory, cpu, gtx video card, ssd, hdd's, they built the system for me for a nominal charge. I supplied my own win7.1 OS on DVD.

Permalink Reply by Martin Siegrist on August 10, 2016 at 2:22pm

Thanks for the answers so far.

I've been using a DELL desktop workstation until recently the graphic card started to make problems.

Looking at workstations, I see a lot of NVIDIA Quadro graphic cards.

Why do most people suggest GTX?

Only because of more CUDA cores?

Permalink Reply by Nik Willmore on August 11, 2016 at 4:20am

The ZBrush forum members are quite thrilled will the latest Microsoft Surface Pro 4 that affords Wacom touch screen interaction also usable with Rhino:

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?175538-Microsoft-Surfac...

Permalink Reply by AJ on June 8, 2017 at 1:37am

nik 

would the surface pro 4 would be compatible with gh? thnx

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on June 8, 2017 at 2:49am

If it runs Windows then yes.

Permalink Reply by Mateusz Zwierzycki on June 8, 2017 at 2:55am

Windows RT

Windows 10

Windows 10 S

Permalink Reply by Mateusz Zwierzycki on June 8, 2017 at 3:18am

Long story short, I don't understand MS logic. They totally ruined Nokia and now they cannot learn from THEIR OWN experience with Win RT... It looks as if MS was owned by Apple and it's only purpose is to hide the Apple monopoly...