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    Is the Toshiba Tecra W50-ABT1500 Mobile Workstation worth purchasing?

    Discussion in 'Toshiba' started by Biomorphic, Feb 18, 2014.

  1. Biomorphic

    Biomorphic Notebook Geek

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    I’m a Graphic Designer, and Visual Effects Artist. So, I need a laptop that can handle graphics-heavy applications. I’d like to know, if the Toshiba Tecra W50-ABT1500 Mobile Workstation worth purchasing or not?


    Here is a list of software I’ll be running.

    01) 3d Modelling: Autodesk 3ds Max, Pixologic ZBrush.

    02) Animation: Adobe After Effects, e-on Vue xStream, HitFilm 2 Ultimate.

    03) Rendering: Luxion KeyShot Pro, VRay.

    04) Computer Programgmin: Microsoft Visual Studio.

    05) Graphic Design: Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, CorelDRAW Technical Suite, onOne Perfect Photo Suite.

    06) Video Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Studio, Corel VideoStudio Ultimate, Sony Vegas Pro.


    Thanks, In Advanced.
     
    Biomorphic, Feb 18, 2014
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  2. Maru

    Maru Notebook Consultant

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    As you probably know, NoteBookCheck gave a Tecra W50-A-104 (with German keyboard) a positive review (good construction, good pre-calibrated Toshiba matte IPS screen, good touchpad, no throttling on long computations, not too noisy), currently #4 among the mobile workstations they've reviewed in the last year.

    NBC did not test your particular applications. They did test a rendering benchmark, LuxMark. LuxMark runs using OpenCL on the GPU. (In general, AMD GPUs currently may be faster than NVidia for OpenCL; NVidia prefers their proprietary CUDA for programming instead, so it hasn't optimized OpenCL so well). However, it looks like your rendering applications [Keyshot, V-ray] are currently CPU based so that may not matter yet.

    NBC also noted the default 1-yr warranty was less than competitors, though upgrading to three year was inexpensive, only $100. On the US Toshiba site they also offer on-site (come to you) service plans, though only for locations within 75 miles of a major metro area, and it may come with additional costs. The on-site service seems to be through AIG ServiceNet which also services consumer electronics.

    [Ah, I see this other thread has discussed your questions more fully.]
     
    Maru, Feb 22, 2014
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