topic Re: More about Laptops in Installation & update

More about Laptops

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Apr 2004 19:57:22 GMT

Am trying to reduce my footprint again - moving to a smaller place and needing to get down to a laptop and my big Samsung 23.1" LCD. Currently have a nice Sony 16.1" screen GRT-170- P4 2.8 and all and saw one of the newer IBM fast Centrino units at ACU West. Since there seems to be a dearth of info about Centrinos using AC, can anyone comment on the differences??

Dell has a workstation laptop that seems quite good ----BUT VERY expensive for my budget. It is a Centrino with a 7200 RPM hard drive. Amazing..Will be needing the info fairly soon.

Lew Bishop Architect
Soon to slow down

Re: More about Laptops

David Pacifico — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 02:44:38 GMT

Hello Lew
I'm looking also. It seems the
"Work Station" M60 has a 1.7 Ghz Pentium M
"Inspiron XPS" has 3.4 Ghz P4 Extreme Edition
"Inspiron 9100 has 3.2 Ghz P4 HT (hyper theard)
I'm Leaning to the 9100 for value.
Intel is trying to help:
http://www.intel.com/performance/index.htm

Re: More about Laptops

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 03:55:48 GMT

Thanks for chiming in Dave: My thing is to find one that is a little lighter - I've been lugging one of the heavies at near 9# and just would like some speed and some lightness... I've tried to find out the weight of the M60 and expect that it would be up there. Looking at IBM today, there are several Centrino units in the R and T series that appear to be under 6# but the price is astronomical - even more than MACs.

I guess that a little less speed and a lot more lightness wouldn't be too bad.

My main concern is the relative speed of the Centrino vs P4

Lew (dreaming again) Bishop

Re: More about Laptops

David Pacifico — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:48:24 GMT

It looks like the M60 starts at 7 Lbs
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/precn_m60?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=viewstab#tabtop
The Inspiron XPS starts at 9 Lbs

Dell seems to think a 1.6 Ghz Pentium M (which seems to be built with Centrino technology) equals the performance of a 2.4 Pentium 4-M (but with better battery life)

I'm leaning now to the XPS with 3.4 Ghz P4-M HT. The case looks better than the 9100 and you don't have to pay the premium for the Extreme (although there does seem to be a good performance pop, but it's $1,140 more, ouch). I don't mind the wieght.

Re: More about Laptops

aahatimo — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:00:24 GMT

dell 9100 review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.aspx?newsID=1841

Re: More about Laptops

David Pacifico — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:34:53 GMT

Thanks Tim
I discovered HP makes a nice model zd7000.
You can get the 3.2 Ghz HT Extreme for less, a 17" or 15" sceen and you can get a single 1 gig Memory module leaving room for more later. All for less, although every day dells price seems to change.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cto/computer_customize_start.do
Still heavy though, Lew.

Can anybody point to a laptop model with the new AMD 64 bit processor? or a performance comparison to Intels 32 bit line up.

Re: More about Laptops

aahatimo — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:11:59 GMT

David wrote:
Can anybody point to a laptop model with the new AMD 64 bit processor? or a performance comparison to Intels 32 bit line up.

david this is the main review i have seen: http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040318/index.html
it sounded like the test unit was not optimized.
should be a great mobile workstation when they get it together! so far not many notebook builders have gone over to the amd side. intel still seems to have that market.
btw, have you checked out the sager units?

Re: More about Laptops

David Pacifico — Sat, 01 May 2004 03:10:20 GMT

aahatimo wrote:
Tim wrote:
btw, have you checked out the sager units?

Tim
Yes Sager is in the running http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.html
They seem to have not as much customization on the web site, becuase they tend to include most of the good stuff as standard equipment.

Re: More about Laptops

Jefferson — Mon, 03 May 2004 03:45:44 GMT

Couldn't help but toss in my 2 cents. I bought an HP ZD7000 about 2 months ago and i am really enjoying it. The big screen is a real bonus with the ArchiCAD palettes. The high end video card enables dual screen use when at home, along with the 3.2 CPU + 1 G ram, expandable to 2G, smokes the less than 3 year old desktop. I would definitely buy this one again, for what that's worth.

I did my home work beforehand, (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3121_7-5109594.html?tag=prmo1). It is heavy, around 9 lb, but only bad when standing talking to the client trying to get out the door, but that's always bad............

Re: More about Laptops

Anonymous — Wed, 05 May 2004 06:41:03 GMT

Jefferson wrote:
Couldn't help but toss in my 2 cents. I bought an HP ZD7000 about 2 months ago and i am really enjoying it. The big screen is a real bonus with the ArchiCAD palettes. The high end video card enables dual screen use when at home, along with the 3.2 CPU + 1 G ram, expandable to 2G, smokes the less than 3 year old desktop. I would definitely buy this one again, for what that's worth.

Bought the HP/CompacZD7040 17" about six months ago...its really heavy(in an airport delay) but a beautiful workstation. It runs hot, but IMHO, I would buy this one again...

or the Sager...hmmm...

Good Luck!

Re: More about Laptops

Anonymous — Wed, 05 May 2004 14:33:16 GMT

Just a warning. . .if you REALLY want to get the most out of archiCAD on a portable, make sure that the video card on your laptop DOES NOT have shared memory.

Re: More about Laptops

Link — Thu, 06 May 2004 19:39:48 GMT

or the Sager...hmmm...

Still can't look past the latest Sager. These machines are simply awesome:

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=18065

Look at those specs!

A little heavy, but now that your wallet will be lighter, you'll hardly notice the difference!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: More about Laptops

aahatimo — Mon, 10 May 2004 22:55:26 GMT

there is a new eurocom unit, PYTHON D470K, that uses the amd athlon 64 bit processor. eurocom, a canadian company, uses units similar to sager and alienware, probably all built in the same plant. they will have a 17-inch mega-size WXGA Widescreen Active Matrix display (WSXGA+ 1680x1050 - May'04; WUXGA 1920x1200 - August'04). most likely sager has this setup coming also.
http://www.eurocom.com/newsroom/press/show_press.cfm?id=136
http://www.eurocom.com/indexus.htm

Re: More about Laptops

David Pacifico — Fri, 14 May 2004 02:05:31 GMT

Well I just got the HPzd7000 delivered, and I like it. 17" is a wide body, but the keyboard is full size with a number pad. The screen is bright and at 1600x1050 pixels is a nice porpotion for using ArchiCAD. The 3.2Ghz HT runs ArchiCAD noticably quicker than my 2Ghz Desktop Workstation.

Re: More about Laptops

Jefferson — Fri, 14 May 2004 02:25:18 GMT

David,

Was that a typo, 1600 x 1050, my ZD7000 is 1440 x 900? They're pretty sweet machines though aren't they?

Not being a wise ass, just curious if something has changed...............

Re: More about Laptops

Anonymous — Fri, 14 May 2004 02:35:22 GMT

Jefferson,

I just checked the HP web site. They now have a 17" WSXGA at 1680x1050. Wow.

Re: More about Laptops

David Pacifico — Fri, 14 May 2004 02:57:53 GMT

Jefferson
Yes, 1680x1050. It looks glossy like one of those digital TV screens. It's brighter that my 19" CRT screen and makes my old laptop screen look like the sreen is burnt out. One should not look back at these things. I just noticed they now have an option for a 3.4Ghz HT for $100 more, now which wasn't offered a week ago.

Re: More about Laptops

Jefferson — Fri, 14 May 2004 04:16:56 GMT

WOW! What a difference 2 months can make, bought mine in March.

David you must feel like you are "living large". Congrats! That is some kind of real estate for a laptop. I recently had to send mine in for a 2 day rehab and quickly realized how much I liked the 16:9 screen ratio for ArchiCAD, and everything else for that matter. You'll struggle with square-ish if you ever have to go back..............

Re: More about Laptops

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 14 May 2004 09:21:29 GMT

I am also planning to purchase a 17" laptop.
Isn't 1680x1050 has texts in ArchiCAD too small (compared to 1440x900)?
Do you need to make some modifications in XP to increase text sizes or something of the sort?
Or is it just fine?
I mean, the greater resolution would be great, I just have this one concern.
Laszlo

Re: More about Laptops

Jefferson — Fri, 14 May 2004 13:06:40 GMT

Lazlo,

Just checked in the control panel>settings>appearance and it looks as though you can change the size of the fonts globally in XP PRO anyway.

hope that helps ........... I can relate all to well, I'm looking at drugstore glasses here for the first time:shock:...........