$1900 for CAD,3dsmax,Photoshop laptop

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A

acole1

Golden Member
Sep 28, 2005
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The fiance' is an interior design major and uses CAD, 3dsmax, and Photoshop quite regularly. Her current Sony laptop that is 3-4 years old, is practically dead, and from doing an online offer, she has recieved $1,900 in amex gift cards to spend on a new laptop.

What would be the best laptop for the money for these applications?

So far I have only spec'ed out a Dell XPS M1530 for ~$1,800.
T9500 - 2.6Ghz (the fastest they offer)
Vista Premium SP1
"High Resulution glossy widescreen" 15.4" LED LCD 1440x900
4GB RAM
500GB SATA 5400RPM (other options are 128GB and 256GB SSD)
256MB 8600M GT
6-cell battery
Wireless-N
 
Hacp

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
8600gt is not a card you want to get. Get something like a 9600.
 
A

acole1

Golden Member
Sep 28, 2005
1,543
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@ IlllI: She said there isn't much limitation on it. I'll check into it more tonight.

@ Hacp: The 8600GT is the only option available for that laptop.
 
L

LikeLinus

Lifer
Jul 25, 2001
11,518
670
126
Dell XPS are nice. I got the 13.3" last year as a mothers day gift to my mom. I think you can get more laptop for the money though.

I'd also recommend:

Sager NP8662
15.4" WUXGA LCD with Matte Finish Surface (1920X1200)
Intel® Core? 2 Quad Processor Q9000 / 6MB L2 Cache, 2.0GHz, 1066MHz FSB
Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M Graphics with 512MB DDR3 Video Memory
Vista Premium
4GB Ram
250GB 7200 Drive
8x DVD writer
$2184.00

Or you can drop down to the 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M for $1919.

The reason why I like the Sager is the quad core chip and Quadro. CAD and Photoshop are going to eat that up. Also you get an 1920x1200 screen!


Alienware Area-51 m16x ($2,099.00 or $1799 - Depends on GPU)
15.4 WXGA (1440x900)
512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M or 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT
T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Vista Premium
4GB Ram
250GB 7200 Harddrive


 
I

IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
4,929
11
81
i know women say size doesnt matter... but this monster is impressive AW230J :D

edit: about that referral thing.. its not me, it looks like its a 'forum feature' they are testing out Text
 
A

acole1

Golden Member
Sep 28, 2005
1,543
0
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Well, I talked to her last night and she said she wants about a 12.1" tablet style laptop. We found a Toshiba M750 and an HP TouchSmart tx2z online.

I would think the Toshiba would be better because it makes use of faster processors, but I think she is leaning toward the HP, which is about $800 less.

Does anyone have a Toshiba? Do they work well?
 
Modelworks

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
76
3dsmax and CAD on a 12" screen ? I hope she can afford the cost of glasses and contacts from the eye strain.
Seriously anything below 17" with those applications would be painful. I use 22 and 24" displays and still don't have enough room.
For video card you need at least 256MB ram on the card. Less and you can forget the advanced display options that the newer programs provide.


The one wwswimming linked to is what I would consider.
 
herm0016

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
8,523
1,132
126
like others have said, using those programs with a 12 in. screen is nearly impossible. i have a hp elite book 17' with the highest quadro card, core 2 duo, etc. . and i still run out of room when i have menus and settings windows open w/ modeling or my company software. I can not imagine using a screen any smaller and actually being able to get things done. even if you use an external monitor you will not find many notebooks in that size range with enough graphics power to use the larger screen effectively. You should check out the dell studio xps 16, it has one of, if not the best lcd of any laptop out there. better color and contrast than most desktop displays.
 
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IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
4,929
11
81
plus if she wants to show off stuff to others, imagine 3 or 4 people crunched together around a 12in screen

 
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