Running Chief on a laptop

[Kreme_04]

Hi all

 

Can someone please enlighten me on what would be the ultimate (or perhaps the minimum) specs for a laptop to run Chief on?

There is so much conflicting information out there that I thought it best to ask those who really know.

I need to replace my desktop and thought a laptop might be the way to go (as long as I can run at least two screens off it!)

 

Thanks for that

Baz

[DRAWZILLA]

Search here for laptops, there is a lot of discussion about this.

[Joe_Carrick]

My advice:

 

Get an 17" ASUS G74X Series with 12 GB Ram, NVidea Graphics Card with 3GB Ram and a minimum 2.4 GHZ  quad core processor.  You should be able to find one (new) for about $1200.00

 

It's big and fairly heavy but it's a Gaming Machine with adequate cooling and it'll run Chief just about as well as a Desktop machine of the same price.  You can hook up a couple of extra monitors (VGA, HDMI & ????)

[lbuttery]

Nvidia gaming card with a minimum of 1 GB of video ram

 

an i7 or equivalent CPU

 

a minimum of 8 GB of ram

 

17" screen minimum

 

brand - roll the dice take a choice - any name brand

 

look at reviews on Amazon and any with 100+ reviews

and 4 - 5 stars

 

they all have negative reviews

if you go by that you won't be able to buy anything

 

Lew

[tommy1]

I just purchased this from HP's website. I did get a custom build. I also saved some money (30%) by getting a coupon discount which is added in the check out. I'm pretty happy with it so far. This laptop also runs a lot cooler than my previous one. See my specs below and compare it with others.

[MarkMc]

I only use laptops. Since I travel with it extensively (and I'm a runt) I prefer 15's to 17's. I think that it is a little less overhead on the video card? at least there are fewer options out there with bigger vid cards for 15's. In the studio I run one or two extra monitors- a Dell IPS24, a Samsung 18, and a Toshiba 14 displaylink (usb connected) that I take to meetings. Hope to replace the 14 with a 15 soon.

 

Both listed in my signature work fine- the Sager is much faster than the Dell.

 

Sagers are the same chassis as Joe's beloved Asus. The Sager was 2k.

 

Since I just do interiors that may matter-but I do a fair amount of new construction and often drawing the entire house- though don't mess with much with the roof and no terrain.

My files run between 7 and 14 MB and top out at 20-25. I'm indiscriminate about what is running, usually have at least two plans, a layout, 3 elevations, 2 perspectives- minimum and several other programs running.

The most I'm likely to run is  4 plans, layout, 6 elevations, 3 perspectives; Turbocad, 2020, Bluebeam(4 tabs), Firefox (8 tabs), open office, intellect, a photo program (usually XnView) Directory Opus, and an explorer window or two- with one external monitor off the V card and one off the USB. I might shut something down if doing much in 2020-it's badly behaved.

 

I looked recently looked into replacing the Dell for my other designer, went over to XoticPC. They carry a number of brands of the gaming machines (MSI, Asus, Alienware,Sager ..), Many with good customization.  After checking them all it still looked like a Sager for my needs- bottom end for me was about $1500. Since I've come to believe in buying as much machine as I can afford I'm likely wait until I could go 2k again. Unless we get desperate AND I find something adequate for a grand.

 

I've not needed support but understand that Sager is not really great and that Xotic is actually better for support. The comparable Asus machines were pricier, had fewer ports that I need and use the same chassis and case. I know nothing about the support from Asus though.

[Kreme_04]

THanks guys - Here in New Zealand, we don't have some of the brands mentioned but most of the other are here so I'll do a bit of comparing