mobile workstations

DJW11

Hi all,

shopping for a mobile workstation at the moment, anyone here done this recently? will be used for cad programs and number crunching mostly. Has anyone here any up to date knowledge on cpu's and gpu's?

DJW11

got quoted this from pcspecialist:

Chassis & Display Omega: 17.3" Gloss 90% Gamut Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 240GB INTEL® 335 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Firewire 1 X 1394b FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Omega Supreme Series 78.44WH Lithium Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 300W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2010 Professional Edition
Anti-Virus BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year
Labour)
Insurance 1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price Ex VAT £1494.17
Price £1793.00
Quantity 1
Total Order Price EX VAT £1494.17
Total VAT Amount £298.83
Total Order Price £1793.00

any comments on this? my only query is the gpu for handling cad?

srsly78

That's about as good as laptops get. Pcspecialist also have the best prices and options.

Does that actually say 2 graphics cards above? Waste of money imo, just get 1. In my experience the second one provides little benefit and only introduces lots of hardware and software problems.

If you need something better you are stuck with desktop.

DJW11

yeah 2 gpus.. I dont know much about a 2nd gpu to be honest, i had a pc with a fireprov8800, was a beast but needed to sell cause i need the mobility, most confused about the gpu though. i know geforce cards are gaming cards but some people say they are fine, they have nvidia quadro k3000m but out of stock at the moment

DJW11

also in the link: the radeon blows the nvidia out of the water for cad applications yet the sales guy on the phone told they are terrible....
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-GeForce-GTX-680M-vs-Radeon-HD-7970M.77110.0.html

srsly78

Don't listen to any kind of sales person

A gaming card will probably be fine for you. In the past the likes of nvidia used to do sneaky things like disable line AA on gaming cards (this would gimp them for cad) but this doesn't happen any more.

I think modern quadro cards are optimised for drawing lots of lines (not important for games). Just buy a mid-range gaming card and you will be fine tbh. One thing is for sure, the quadro cards are awful for gaming performance (not that this may matter to you).

Just get a normal mid/high-end gaming card and you will be fine. nVidia vs amd doesn't really matter, price does,