Laptops and RealView

no problem, Mr. Doyle! (can't help but think of the french connection

are you sure about the dells, though? bob z.'s VAR was in here a couple weeks ago and he had swx2004 loaded up on a dell m60 with the quadro video and he had realview turned on. very impressive to say the least.

-- bob z.

"people with less brain power than you are doing more difficult things everyday"©

I use a M50 and the RealView graphics works great. The new M60 is even better! both support the RealView graphics. Before I ordered my M50 I had talked to a development guy from SWX about his computer first.

From the SolidWorks Video Card section System Card OS Driver Date SolidWorks Notes RealView yes Precision M50 nVidia Quadro4 700 GoGL Win2K 6.14.01.4201 07/28/2003 2004 WinXP 6.14.01.4201 07/28/2003 2004

Precision M60 nVidia Quadro FX Go700 RealView yes WinXP 6.14.10.4424 07/26/2003 2004 Win2K 6.14.10.4424 07/26/2003 2004

The Dell Precision M60's 128MB NVIDIA Quadro FX Go700 graphics accelerator delivers richly detailed images to the 15.4-inch UltraSharpTM wide-aspect display, which allows users room for large designs & assemblies, multiple windows or expansive tool palettes. Graphics performance is a strong suit of the M60, with workstation-class OpenGL hardware acceleration and certifications on the leading computer-aided design including SWX2004.

Designers who manipulate large, complex models will appreciate the M60's support of up to 2 GB of DDR-SDRAM and available 7200 RPM hard drives, as well as an integrated gigabit1 (10/100/1000) Ethernet controller for ultra-fast file transfers over a network. At the M60's core is the Intel® PentiumTM M mobile processor, which supports CentrinoTM wireless technology and has been shown to improve performance over its predecessor, the M50.

Thanks Bill, I found them ($$$).

Richard

Thanks bob, I found the M60's under workstations. Completely stripped down, nearly three grand. Mrs. Doyle ain't never gonna go for that!

Richard

Hey, Mr. Doyle...

Have a look at the Toshiba Satellite 5600. I just got one and was able to SoftQuadro the card to appear to be an FX Go 700. However - I can't comment on RealView as I do not have the luxury of 2004...

Check out Dell's refurb'd workstation laptops. I have a new Inspiron 8200 in the office that I bought last year and softquadro'd and a refurb'd M50 that I bought about 6mo's later. THey both run the same but if if you can get an M50/60 for the same money as an Inspiron, why not? I'm thinking you'll easily drop a grand or more off the price by going refurb. And they come with virtually the same warranty as new. Fear not...

BTW, Realview will be an option on any system running a Quadro 700 or above, including the laptop "Go" Quadro's. (700 or above is the magic factor)

- Eddy

Eddy, No fear when it comes to refurb, but they don't seem to have any in M50's in stock right now. I've got some close friends with inside connections so we'll see over the next few days.

I've seen plenty of dicussion on the "softquadro" here but never paid much attention. Can you give me the specific cards in the Inspiron line that can be hacked? Has the Inspiron been a good deal for you? (I'm running 2004 on an old CPi 500Mhz right now, so any performance increase will be a plus).

Thanks for your reply.

Richard

I can't tell you every single Quadro"Go" chip that Softquadro will work on but I know for sure, it will work on Gefore2"Go" and Geforce4-440Go. Also, I read a post within the past few days of someone having success patching a GeforceFX"Go" laptop. Look around - it was within the last couple days.

Yes, the Inspiron 8200 I have is an awesome unit. With respect to Solidworks it runs every but as fast as my M50 (GF4-440Go Softquadro vs real Quadro 500 Go). The units are practically identical but for some reason I prefer to use the Inspiron. I guess it's just prettier because of the two-tone wrist rests :)

BTW, I just checked Dell's outlet and they have a 2Ghz M50 with Quadro4-700 for $1671. Go get it.

- Eddy