timbo2 Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I'm looking for a new laptop to run CA. Either a mac or a pc. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcaffee Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 What's your budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 do a search on laptop in this forum or the Chatroom , been lots of posts this year on this.... M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtright3 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I'm using laptop with a second monitor. Works great for me because I go back in forth from home to the office and my vacation home. I have an extra monitor set up at each place so all I have to do is have my laptop with me. Extra monitors are cheap but make sure you get a good laptop. My laptop is listed here in my post signature. Works well for me but its about 2 years old now so you may want to get yours with more updated equipment. Important to have a good video card. A solid state hard drive is nice especially for a laptop. At least 16 megabits of ram. Make sure you have a good cooling system. You what to make sure it will handle at least one additional monitor. Next time I upgrade I want to be able to have two added monitors. With me I find that the bigger the monitors aren't always better. Your eyes have to travel back and forth and up and down a lot on the bigger monitors so I like the smaller ones better. My laptop is a 17" and my added monitor is 20". I have one at the office that is 24" and I actually like using the 20" better. "Acer" makes a nice inexpensive monitor. I paid 89.00 for my 20" on sale. I like my Dell computer because I like the support that comes with it and its been a great computer. I think if you don't know much about fixing computers you really need to have good support that get you up and running fast. I can't afford for my computer to be down for more than a day so I have a few open options to get the help I need immediately. That's my 2 cents. I hope something was useful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernie Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 depends on your budget. if you want fast, thin, light, aesthetically pleasing, reliable, good warranty, a v good screen, then after testing other high spec ibm based systems and being disappointed, I can wholeheartedly recommend a 2015 mac pro 15inch running windows 8.1 tweaked to operate like win7. mac has 9hr battery life, a beautiful screen, super fast ssd (pci-e), runs external UHD monitors, runs nice and cool no noise from the fan like some others. the dedicated graphics seems to do the job. most current new intel-based notebooks have 3ish hr battery life, average screens, slower pci ssd (not pci-e like mac), something that is more than an inch thick (ie a brick) heavy, large power supply to lug around, and run hot due to thermal limit. yes I still use a desktop 6core processor with gtx graphics for raytracing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumbleChief Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 i can wholeheartedly recommend a 2015 mac pro 15inch running windows 8.1 (yuck - win 7 better) trialled many high end intel i7 notebooks that just dont cut it for me. mac has 2.5x the battery life, way better screen both internal and drives external no sweat, the ssd is pci-e (fast). runs nice and cool no noise from a fan. pretty decent graphics seems to work as fast as my desktop. most current new intel notebooks have 2-3hr battery life, average screen, slower ssd, something that is a brick and runs hot. sure mac are twice the price BUT they hold their value. ibm pc are worth nothing as soon as you bought em. yes I still use a desktop 6core processor the mac is only slightly slower. It doesn't take much research to learn that there's a lot of information in this post that just isn't accurate and if you're searching for a good laptop that's the first thing you should do - research and learn the facts about today's laptops, both Mac and Windows. If you want a Mac then find one with the best video and CPU performance you can afford and the same goes if you want a Windows Laptop. If you want to argue which one is better then there are posters here, apparently, who will do so. I will not. The best windows laptops for running Chief tend to be the best gaming laptops because Chief response best with gaming video cards. Fast video and fast CPU's with an SSD (they really don't come in a 'slow' variety reserved only for Windows laptops) should get you surprisingly good performance with battery life much longer than 2 - 3 hours (curious why someone would type that misinformation?) Again buy the fastest of everything you can afford. I have a friend who bought a fast Asus gaming Laptop a couple years ago and was very impressed with how well it ran Chief and the screen was good too. Here's the highest rated Laptops on NewEgg (not notebooks which is an entirely different category) http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100025325%204115%204814%204809&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=90 If you want a long battery life try these, or better yet try and find a laptop with only 2 - 3 hour battery life. http://blog.laptopmag.com/all-day-strong-longest-lasting-notebooks As always a good, fast laptop, either Mac or a Windows based will be more expensive than an equivalent desk top but you can't replace the portability and with a second (or third) monitor as Joey suggests you should be good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommy1 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I'm quite satisfied with mine once I got the settings right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkMc Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Besides budget what is the intended use- primary machine/desktop replacement or occasional trips to job site or client? And what else are you running, how demanding are you on resources? I can't get away without a dedicated GPU- primary machine and use lots of stuff. My assistant manages with the Dell listed in signature but is less demanding and still learning the program. (FWIW that appears to run on a par with his Mac Book Pro 13") More and bigger monitors, higher resolution use up video resources as do lots of views, tabs etc ..means dedicated GPU. GPU and CPU both use power cost battery life and create heat. My Sager is 2-1/2 y.o. I've been looking around for the near future- will pass this one down and was hoping to save weight since I travel a lot. I"d seen a number of newer "thin/light" gaming machines out there but have read that they get hot and the heat causes them to throttle the resources back. Now those comments are from gamers so I'm not sure if that will happen with what I use the machine for but I don't really want to find out. I know that I keep my fans set to max cooling and they go off quite a bit. I also know I have no problems with loading the C$^$&^@ out of this thing. Apparently Intels Broadwell processors are beginning to make it into the mainstream (they are in some Macs, and some gaming machines) Supposedly a little better with heat and battery (but I keep setting to about 2 mpg) I'm personally waiting for some more of those to surface before I move on a new machine- likely take into then end of the year. A good place to compare a lot of gaming machines is xoticpc.com. No macs but most of what is out there is listed- you have to decide if your a Chevy or a Ford or whatever. Joey-You can run two extra monitors now. I do, a 24"Dell, and a 15" Asus Displaylink monitor same as the laptop -plugs into usb port and uses the CPU instead of the GPU. Once in a while there is a quirk like a shortuct key doesn't work and have to sling it to another monitor, but overall no sweat- been using a smaller Toshiba one for several years now and just upgraded. When the US Open was on I hooked that up too so was running 4 screens total:) I do a lot of meetings at clients and they are a joy -light simple and work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtright3 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Just to be clear because I don't want to miss inform anyone. I'm not a computer expert. I just gave the information of what I have and how well it is working for me. I just shared the facts. And one thing I know for sure is after installing the solid state hard drive on my lap top the performance is an estimated 10 times faster with opening any of my programs. I don't know that it really helped that much with the operations of Chief Architect once the program is opened. But opening and closing programs, multi-tasking and windows startup is almost instantaneous with the solid state hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtright3 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Besides budget what is the intended use- primary machine/desktop replacement or occasional trips to job site or client? And what else are you running, how demanding are you on resources? I can't get away without a dedicated GPU- primary machine and use lots of stuff. My assistant manages with the Dell listed in signature but is less demanding and still learning the program. (FWIW that appears to run on a par with his Mac Book Pro 13") More and bigger monitors, higher resolution use up video resources as do lots of views, tabs etc ..means dedicated GPU. GPU and CPU both use power cost battery life and create heat. My Sager is 2-1/2 y.o. I've been looking around for the near future- will pass this one down and was hoping to save weight since I travel a lot. I"d seen a number of newer "thin/light" gaming machines out there but have read that they get hot and the heat causes them to throttle the resources back. Now those comments are from gamers so I'm not sure if that will happen with what I use the machine for but I don't really want to find out. I know that I keep my fans set to max cooling and they go off quite a bit. I also know I have no problems with loading the C$^$&^@ out of this thing. Apparently Intels Broadwell processors are beginning to make it into the mainstream (they are in some Macs, and some gaming machines) Supposedly a little better with heat and battery (but I keep setting to about 2 mpg) I'm personally waiting for some more of those to surface before I move on a new machine- likely take into then end of the year. A good place to compare a lot of gaming machines is xoticpc.com. No macs but most of what is out there is listed- you have to decide if your a Chevy or a Ford or whatever. Joey-You can run two extra monitors now. I do, a 24"Dell, and a 15" Asus Displaylink monitor same as the laptop -plugs into usb port and uses the CPU instead of the GPU. Once in a while there is a quirk like a shortuct key doesn't work and have to sling it to another monitor, but overall no sweat- been using a smaller Toshiba one for several years now and just upgraded. When the US Open was on I hooked that up too so was running 4 screens total:) I do a lot of meetings at clients and they are a joy -light simple and work. Thank you, that's good advice. I will look into that. Right now I really only wanted to duplicate one monitor for the customers can see. At my office I have a 40" on the wall and my laptop with the second monitor. I would like to just duplicate the second monitor with the 40" on the wall so the customers can see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtright3 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Where is the original person that posted? Does any of this matter? Does anybody care? Does anybody know what time it is? Time to take a break with the little guy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkMc Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Joey- Display link makes adapters that allow standard monitors to use a USB port. I have never used one of these so can't say how good or not they are. If it works as well as the monitors that gives you your third. I think there is a wireless one out there but whichever it was didn't appear that good. I just picked up an HDMI WiDi adapter for wireless mirroring but I haven't tried yet. For managing multiple montiors I use UltraMon-which makes mirroring only one monitor easy. There are two other programs like it and from what I can tell all are pretty similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Thank you, that's good advice. I will look into that. Right now I really only wanted to duplicate one monitor for the customers can see. At my office I have a 40" on the wall and my laptop with the second monitor. I would like to just duplicate the second monitor with the 40" on the wall so the customers can see it. I think you have hdmi and mini display port on that laptop Joey , so you should be able to run two monitors with the right adaptors/cables/inputs on the TV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtright3 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I think you have hdmi and mini display port on that laptop Joey , so you should be able to run two monitors with the right adaptors/cables/inputs on the TV Is this the mini display plug? And if so why do they call it a mini display? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 I couldn't find your manual online anymore Joe , just a short specs list , but it looks like it ,but best you check your Docs. There is Full size display port (DP) too , which is why this one is called a mini-DP.... my monitors have DP so to hook my Surface 3 I use a mini DP to DP convertor cable or to TV I can use mini-DP to HDMI converter but you have HDMI on board on that one , so don't need that. http://www.ncix.com/detail/startech-10ft-mini-displayport-to-81-58691.htm or http://www.ncix.com/detail/startech-3-in-1-mini-displayport-to-6c-108398.htm M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electromen Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 i can wholeheartedly recommend a 2015 mac pro 15inch running windows 8.1 (yuck - win 7 better) Why not just run the Mac version of CA on it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernie Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 because theres things I do in windows os (file manager), some software, and keyboard setup that I need to find the equivalent in mac -land to fully transition... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electromen Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 because theres things I do in windows os (file manager), some software, and keyboard setup that I need to find the equivalent in mac -land to fully transition... Fair enough. I agree that a Mac makes an excellent Windows machine. I have a Mac Pro desktop and run CA on the Apple side. I have Windows 7 installed on one of the internal hard drives using BootCamp. I use professional video editing software on it (Vegas Pro) and it runs extremely well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbo2 Posted July 8, 2015 Author Share Posted July 8, 2015 Thanks for all the response. Sorry, for my delay in responding to your responses. First my budget for this laptop hovers around the 2k mark. I like the idea of a MacBook Pro and the ease of syncing with my phone and I pad. Mac products have always seemed a little more intuitive and a little less "buggy" to me. This will be my primary computer and I would like to use it with multiple monitors. I would like to play a few games but this will be mainly for home design and maybe a little music editing. I've also been considering a Razer and a Sager on the PC side. I guess my biggest hold up on getting a Mac is the software not working as well as on a PC. I do not want to be constantly doing "work arounds" to make the software work. Any more advice would be great. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbo2 Posted July 8, 2015 Author Share Posted July 8, 2015 MacBook im considering is model MGXC2LL/A. Specs: 15.4" retina, i7 2.5GHz, 16GB, 512flash storage, dual graphics Intel iris and nvidia gt 750m. Is the mid 2014 release Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbo2 Posted July 8, 2015 Author Share Posted July 8, 2015 Could I get by with a 13" Mac and monitors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkMc Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Guy that is working for me sometimes runs on a 13" Mac- I'll ask him tomorrow to see what he says. In the studio he is using the Dell I have listed with a second monitor at home he uses the Mac but solo. He's just learning so I'm not sure he is as hard on it all as I am. I find the Dell slow in comparison to my Sager I think due to the video card. To your other choices- I looked into the Razers- got the impression that throttling from heat can be an issue. I don't know if CA can cause that or just games? Biggest attraction for me was the little power supply, found more bang for the buck elsewhere. Retina display- not sure but someone had a 5k Mac and was having issues because of the demands of the resolution. Realize that if you add monitors onto the video card they take resources. Passmark also linked on the Chief site gives relative ratings for cards. And I need to correct what I said about the Broadwell chips- recently read that there had been delays in delivering those. It appears more likely that the newer generation after them will be what is showing up in gaming machines- after some big gaming hooddoo this summer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkMc Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Asked my associate- he has a 2 or 3 yo 13" MAC book pro, didn't know specs but likely lower than new stuff. Says it's pretty comparable in performance to the Dell he uses here (listed in my sig) He runs it with a second monitor but usually just has a spreadsheet or web browser on that (with 2-3 tabs open) He's pretty conservative with how many views he keeps open in CA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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