Need Help With Laptop Computer Reqts.


mikes616
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Hi Guys,

 

I want to buy a new pc laptop, which would be in addition to my current desktop so I will have flexibility to use Chief out of the office.  I am currently using X6, soon to be X7.  I am looking at buying either a Dell or an HP laptop.  I would get at least a 1TB hard drive and at least 8GB ram.  I would also get an i7 Intel processor.  I would also get a 15.6 or a 17.3 display.  I have been told that I should NOT use an integrated video display but rather get a Nividia video card with 2GB on it.  Also, I have been told that I should make sure that the processor is a Quad core rather than a Dual core as it is much much faster.  I have found that the i7 processors can be either dual or quad core depending on exactly which processor you get- although I see that the quad core processors are much more expensive.  It seems that there are many laptops with an i7 dual core and they are not too pricey- usually $1,000 or less- but I'm not sure that the speed would be adequate to run chief acceptably.  Do you think the 8GB of ram would be ok or would I need 12 or 16?  It looks like everything has Windows 8.1 OS. 

 

Any comments or help would be greatly appreciated.  I feel that my brain is fried at the moment.

 

Mark

 

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Hello Mark,

 

The system you have described meets or exceeds our recommended (as opposed to minimum) system requirements.  What you have been told in terms of a graphics card rather than integrated graphics is correct.  Having a quad core rather than dual core will give you better raytrace speeds but would not necessarily boost everyday performance, so I would consider the quad core more carefully if you are raytracing frequently.  In general, having more RAM is good, but going above 8GB of RAM may not be necessary if you are not running several different programs at the same time.

 

I hope this helps.  You may get more feedback from users here with their own personal experience.

 

Derek

Chief Architect Sales

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Hello Mark,

 

The system you have described meets or exceeds our recommended (as opposed to minimum) system requirements.  What you have been told in terms of a graphics card rather than integrated graphics is correct.  Having a quad core rather than dual core will give you better raytrace speeds but would not necessarily boost everyday performance, so I would consider the quad core more carefully if you are raytracing frequently.  In general, having more RAM is good, but going above 8GB of RAM may not be necessary if you are not running several different programs at the same time.

 

I hope this helps.  You may get more feedback from users here with their own personal experience.

 

Derek

Chief Architect Sales

Thank you, Derek.  That was very helpful.

 

Regards,

Mark

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The dual graphics card option is actually pretty good as it allows you to draw less power when running on a battery. I have that option in my Dell M3800. Both the Intel and NVIDIA graphics work well but the NVIDIA is faster, although not as much faster as you might expect.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Guys,

 

I want to buy a new pc laptop, which would be in addition to my current desktop so I will have flexibility to use Chief out of the office.  I am currently using X6, soon to be X7.  I am looking at buying either a Dell or an HP laptop.  I would get at least a 1TB hard drive and at least 8GB ram.  I would also get an i7 Intel processor.  I would also get a 15.6 or a 17.3 display.  I have been told that I should NOT use an integrated video display but rather get a Nividia video card with 2GB on it.  Also, I have been told that I should make sure that the processor is a Quad core rather than a Dual core as it is much much faster.  I have found that the i7 processors can be either dual or quad core depending on exactly which processor you get- although I see that the quad core processors are much more expensive.  It seems that there are many laptops with an i7 dual core and they are not too pricey- usually $1,000 or less- but I'm not sure that the speed would be adequate to run chief acceptably.  Do you think the 8GB of ram would be ok or would I need 12 or 16?  It looks like everything has Windows 8.1 OS. 

 

Any comments or help would be greatly appreciated.  I feel that my brain is fried at the moment.

 

Mark

Mark, you can see my specs below. I've had this laptop for about a year now and am not having any problems at all running X6. It does have dual graphics with the option of using the NVidia card only. Chief does better when I let it decide which graphics to use. The NVidia card did give me some problems with vector views being sent to layout. No problems though with the onboard video though. I'm working on a file now that has a file size of about 49 MB. and I'm not having any problems. I do have only one complaint about this laptop but not about performance using Chief. 

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