A Portable workstation...

[bakbek]

Hi all…

I’m in the process of choosing a portable workstation and the options so far r as follows:

Dell Precision™ Mobile Workstation M60
----------------------------------------------------------
Pentium® M Processor 1.70GHz 15.4 WUXGA Display
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
1GB, DDR SDRAM Memory
60GB ATA-100 IDE (7200 rpm)
Internal 8-24-24-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
NVIDIA® Quadro FX Go700™ 4XAGP graphics w/128MB DDR Video Mem

Compaq Evo Mobile Workstation N800w
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Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 2.50GHz-M
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
15" UXGA WVA display
50GB Hard Drive
1024MB, 2 DDR SDRAM Module
24x/10x/24x/8x DVD-CD-RW combo
ATI Mobility FireGL 9000 Graphics with 64MB dedicated DDR video memory

Both go around the same price give or take…
The thing I don’t know much about is the Centrino technology in the Dell system. What’s more I don’t know if Hyper Threading is implemented in these or can be or eve needed ???

A noticeable difference is the Video card Nvidia Vs ATI I can’t tell the difference and going throw their specs just make me even dizzier.

The system is destined to do 2D + 3D Design, Rendering and presentation in various forms and will be on the move.

So what r u thinling ??? ( I’m not hooked just on this 2 but didn’t check others yet )

Regards,
Bakbek.

[plastic_]

i played around with a dell M60 last week. i was amazed by its 3d performance with max and the maxtreme drivers. it's incredibly fast.

i will get my own M60 in 2 weeks (hopefully), i can do further tests then.

[jsr]

I too tested M60 a while ago and now I am a very happy owner. It has almost everything you can think for a laptop (dvd+rw, wlan, 7200 rpm HD, max. 2Gb mem, bluetooth, ...). And Quadro FX Go with maxtreme rocks in max especially when I can use the laptop 1920x1200 LCD with the external 1600x1200 LCD in dual monitor mode.

Here is some max performance indexes while network rendering with VRay and Dreamscape (clouds, reflections and GI, no swapping to HD):
3.06GHz P4 HT, 1.00
Dual 2GHz Xeon, 0.78
M60 1.7GHz P-M, 0.66
1.7GHz P4, 0.40

I can highly recommend M60 to anyone. Send me some test scenes so I can tell you some comparative render times.

BTW, we have had bad experiences on Compaq Evo with Ati graphics. OGL crashes quite often because of bad drivers. This may be fixed now but make sure you test the system carefully.

[J_Bug]

If you want, refurbished Dells can be purchased here:

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfo/misc/segmenter_dfo.htm

--Jon

[egz]

I've also played around with an M60 that a friend just got, and was amazed by the performance. The screen is also very good.

[J_Bug]

When I was growing up (sorry to digress)....
there was a firecracker named the M-60. It was the desire of every young male I knew to get there hands on one of these babies to blow up something... anything. Basically a small stick of dynamite yet sold as a harmless firecracker.

Looks like Dell has found a link to the subconscious

--Jon

*Nothing was destroyed in this brief flashback*

[bakbek]

Thanks for the response u all...

Looks like Dell's M60 has many fans. I must say that after some more research I’m leaning towards this system.

Any Compaq users out there to make more comments on the product ???

Thanks again…

Bakbek

[Psy]

M60 makes me think of the heavy duty machine gun we used in the Vietnam war, mmmm, what a gun!

[mike_kennedy]

I would personally avoid Compaq.....

[Brim]

I would personally avoid Compaq.....

I 2nd that....stay away from compaqs.

[asango]

and 3rd.

[bakbek]

Hi...

Well M60 it is !!!

and just a seconed before i buy it... i'm thinking about taking a desktop warkstaiotn as well... ( didn't think we need one... but now i do )

so i'll open up a new thread... please comment about it too as u did here

it helps alot

thanks very much

Bakbek.