Laptop for casual 3D design (Maya)

Will it differ much if I get a notebook that is desktop extension (not replacement) for Maya that has either:

a) 1GB vs 2GB of ram?
b) Go 7400 256mb vs Go 7600 256mb?
c) Turion x2 vs Core duo vs Core 2 duo?

And if I cannot afford all of the best, what of this is absolutely necessary and what is less important?

 

What about filling out the FAQ, then we can talk what options you have.

 

General Questions

1) What is your budget?

1200 Euros max

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

c. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen


3) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?

Several, but Maya is most demanding


4) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?

Not heavy travel, but I don´t want a bulky laptop


5) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?

No but I need a dedicated graphics card for Maya anyway.


6) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

Fujitsu-Simens seem to offer best prices in France and Germany but the answer to both questions is; no.


7) How many hours of battery life do you need?

2 hours ca


8) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?

Doesn´t matter. I live in Montpellier, France.


9) Please select your country's flag as a post icon and tell us what country are you buying this in?

France. Don´t know how to post the flag.


Screen Specifics

10) Would you prefer standard or widescreen?
Don´t care.


11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?

SXGA or WXGA


12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
Don´t care.


Build Quality and Design

13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
No.


14) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?
2 years.


Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 160GB?

100GB

16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD-ROM, DVD-CD/RW or DVD-RW drive?
No.

 

First to answer your question:

In short: The rendering speed depends mainly on the CPU/RAM/HDD (in this order) while the smoothness of 3d object manupilations is handled by the GPU.

So, you should decide what you want. Otherwise, the Core 2 Duo would give you the best peformance (up to 12% faster in terms of rendering speed compared to Core Duo), I would skip the Turion.

And check for the HP nc8430 in your country
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/fr/f...283591-283591-12434542-12397458-78006639.html


>> a mod to move this thread

 

I'd say ram, cpu and video card in that order.

Ram because if you are out of ram, you are pretty much cooked.

CPU definitely affects render times, but, eventually the job will finish. Obviously, a faster CPU will help since you will perform a lot of test renders on regions.

The video card is important too, but you can do things like hide parts of the model while you are working on it to help deal with larger models should it come to that.

The laptop in my sig is doing a good job in Cinema 4d and Studio Max.

 

I'd say a 2 gig Core 2 duo with a 7400 or 7600 will be your best bet... Maybe a 7400...

 

Yup, a T7xxx CPU with the 4MB L2 cache and a midrange nVidia GPU (better OpenGL support) would definitely be on my list. I'd also recommend at least a WXGA+ (1440x900) or SXGA (1280x1024) display... last time I checked, Maya is gonna feel awful cramped on anything smaller.

 

I'm working with maya as well on my lappy so from experience i can reccomend a few things.

1. RAM, Get as much RAM as possible (If you're working with larger scenes and are using many Rendering features like Final Gather, Raytracing, Large Textures etc)
RAM is pretty much the most important thing. 2GB or more is a must.

2. GPU, Using maya and having big scenes with many polygons/triangles it will ease things up navigating the 3d space in a good framerate even when handling big scenes. There are ways to make this faster by not displaying shaded mode etc, and hiding stuff in display layers.

3. CPU. Better CPU, means faster Rendering. My 'LG S1 Express Dual' with 2.0 Ghz Core Duo is rendering stuff about 2 times faster than my Office Desktop with a Normal P4 3.4 Ghz.
*** Not always though. My desktop has 3Gb ram and the laptop has 1Gb. And rendering larger or more complex scenes they are about equally fast. And my conclusion is that is memory is the only factor.

Fast rendering is nice but not that important. Good planning and a good workflow is far more timesaving than any CPU speed. Having a cheap secondary PC ONLY for rendering while working is a good investment. Rendering is usually very time consuming and resource hungry so if you can do that on another machine while working that's the way to go.

From what i know there are specialized workstation laptops with GPU's better suited for CAD/3D but often a bit more pricy. Go with a normal if you plan on using your Laptop for some gaming too.

EXTRAS.
Size & Weight does matter a lot if you carry it around a much. Even my 15.4 inch feels heavy at times cuz i carry it around daily.

Screen Resolution. Higher=Better. Unfortunatly my laptop has only 1280x800 screen resolution on a 15.4 inch screen and it defenetly feels too low at times. Id wish for 1680x1050 (widescreen) or more, when working with maya. The interface uses a lot of space and the viewports can seem small and not comfortable working on lower resolutions.

If you're usually stationary at the same place when working, an external keyboard and monitor is reccommended. Only for higher resolutions and/or using dual screens.

Last But not least.
HDD, speed doesnt matter that much in my opinion but a lot of storage space is good. Renderings and files often use a LOT of your space. a 500 frame sequence uncompressed can take aroud 1GB. That's 1% of a hard drive with 100GB. Unless you regulary make backup DVD of you project and the renderings when you're done you'll easily use up all the space quite quickly.

 

Also consider that you can always add more RAM easily but 1GB is absoutely minimum, otherwise as much as you can get of cource.

The processor is primary determining factor for rendering speed if that is important to you and also upgarding the CPU would be expensive.

The GPU effects the refresh rate of the active viewport, it is important in my opinion and also it is not upgradable at all.

A faster HDD (i.e. 7200 rmp) would be nice, it can open and save files faster but a 5400 rmp is fine either. So probably that's not so important in your case. Of course, a bigger HDD is better but it'll never be enough so I would get a 80 GB HDD either.

Yes. There are 15.4" mobile workstations such as: Dell Precision M65 (NIDIA Quadro FX 350M), HP Compaq nw8440 (FireGL V5200), The ThinkPad Z61p (Fire GL V5200), ThinkPad T60p (FireGL V5250). You can check them out but all of them would be out of your budget in my opinion. Otherwise, modern prof. GPUs can be used for gaming too.

Of course, what you need depends on what exactly you will be doing with Maya (such a ridiculous name)...
I personally would get a Core 2 Duo with either the Go 7600 or the X1600 and 1GB RAM then I would add more RAM. Usually, it's better to buy a preconfigured notebook with less RAM and then to find a good deal for extra RAM.

So, take a look at the HP nc8430 (the link above) which is an excellent business-class notebook and can be had for around 1300 Euro. Otherwise, if you have other options you can list them here. I just don't know what exactly is available in your country.