Portable Workstations (laptops on steroids)

Buy DR laptop ("desktop replacer" notebook) with desktop processor (not mobile) f.e. AMD 64 and 17" LCD WXGA

Best Regards, J.J.

What in the heck could they be doing with this - 10 HP - that's bigger than most snow blower engines - Does the thing double as a mini-bike or something.

Have you looked at the nano computers or are they just neat looking toys? They look really small like 2" tall by 7 square - that plus a flat screen, keyboard & mouse might be small enough to fit the bill. I wonder. It's amazing how miniature things have gotten and the computers are still so honking large. The chips for memory are about

1mm square and we have to go and build all this monstrous (in comparison) stuff around it to make it usable (alas).

Is air-travel a criteria?

My mom is tying to pan her lap top off on me - for free - at that - I though well, probably watered down LT junk - apparently its a Pentium with some horsepower - might be worth a try.

Later,

Sean

Matt,

Look into the Shuttle boxes that TigerDirect sells. Get the AMD FX55 version, stick a midrange Nvidia Quadro in it as well as 2Gb RAM and you will have something quite portable and capable of displacing most towers as well. I have seen these things do the portability game and they do it quite well. Pick up an LCD monitor and you are in business. Find a nice tote bag that will hold that and a multimedia projector and your show is on the road IIRC.

Since you are a designer, for extra credit design a spiffy laser cut bracket for the LCD that fits on the Shuttle case and perhaps holds a couple small but better than laptop speakers.

A Portable Workstation that is to be used with 3D CAD will have one of only two available Graphics chipset lines available. It will have either the NVIDIA Quadro FX Go series or the ATI Mobility FireGL series of chipsets. Anything less is meant for games and will not provide the quality and performance that you will want. Dell is the only provider with the NVIDIA option, while IBM and HP offer products with the ATI option. In the past, NVIDIA always seemed to be better for CAD and that's why most prefer the Dell M60/M70 laptops.

"TOP" wrote in news:1116115774.358778.134970 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

Very interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Might be a little clumsy for toting around, but still a very cool idea. This would be great for someone with a small apartment. You can even buy a barebones system and put it together yourself.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Matt

"ken" wrote in news:d6645l$8je$ snipped-for-privacy@news.netins.net:

The Boxx and Eurocom also have nVidia Quadro4 FX Go1400 w/ 256 Mb option, same as the Dell. I think Eurocom is just Boxx being sold under a different name. They completely blow anything else away except the MaxVision. Dells are less expensive with a better warrantee. My experience with the Dell is that they need the warrantee cuz the parts go south pretty fast. I've replaced both hard drives and should have replaced the monitor and keyboard on mine.

"Sean-Michael Adams" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

Ok, well, maybe the motor was for that hyperbolic effect. Just to say that the thing looks big and heavy. It really does have 3 fold-out 19" monitors, though. no exaggeration. The site says it weighs 60 lbs.

Well, they're small enough for sure

but it looks like their meant for data collection or something.

Yeah, I think about that every time I try to put 2 usb connectors into the back of my computer. The connectors are too big (or the sockets on the computer are too close together).

Only if I can't avoid it. The old 2000 Pontiac has 140,000 miles on it because I don't like to fly. I still wind up flying about once a year just to remind myself why I don't like airports (I love flying, it's airports I don't like).

Matt

Put the whole thing in a small carryon bag with wheels and you can take your whole office with you including a thermos of coffee.

The best you can do in a Dell M60/M70 is a 2.0GHz Pentium. In the Shuttle you can put a 64 bit AMD and be twice as fast. The Dell laptops have a 15" screen. A 17" LCD is luggable. The Dell laptops have a maximum of 80 Mb. The Shuttle can be setup with much larger hard drives and can have RAID 0 or 1. 2 Gig of Ram in the laptop will cost $800+, while in the Shuttle about $400.

Unfortunately, there are those of us that work for institutions that will only buy from large suppliers like Dell, HP, or IBM. The small companies such as Boxx or Alienware are not an option.

I don't work for an "institution" in the normal sense at least, but I buy from Dell for the same reason I buy Apple PowerBooks...a 3 year warranty.

As good as Apple & Dell are, I have maybe 1 out of 2 laptops needs something fixed under warranty and in a couple cases with Dell and a couple with Apple, they were LCD screen, graphics card, cabling issues that would be prohibitively expensive to repair without the $300 warranty.

I basically figure on selling my laptops at 2 years while there's still a warranty on them, and trading up.

I too wish there were a better solution in the offing, and I do hear Dell is going to offer a 17" screen (copying Apple's size which I happen to love for working on text, images, and spreadsheets all at once.)

I can live with the laptop slowdowns when they ocurr in my work, in return for portability without being obnoxious. But then again, I don't design steam traction engines on my laptop either.

Bo

ken wrote:

companies

I am still running a used Sager I picked up a few years ago. The only problem I have had is cat fur in the fan or CFIF. It has been to three SWW and been through lots of evening school sessions as well as a lot of work in the office. Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

IMHO OEMs buy cheap to sell cheap. They then offer good warranties to keep the goodwill factor high enough that people will buy.

I would look into nw8000 at HP, I'm running one now, with 1,5Gig of memory... Ati's FireGL T2 GPU keeps SW going, even RealView is supported. Pentium M processor is Really awesome with SW, large L2 cache seems to be what it needs...

I'v used mine for about 1,5 years now, and still this machine keeps on impressing me / coworkers, who have high-end CAD Desktops....

Hi Matt,

What I was meaning to say was the Mini ITX or Nano ITX chassis.

This was that thing that was talked about a month or so ago.

Google Nano ITX or Mini ITX.

I found a Via Technologies among others that have good pentiums (work station quality) available. It looks like a tree & graphics card might be needed, but I looks possible wihtout a lot of strange compromises. My guess is that it about a $2500-3000? solution once you get a flat screen, itx computer & video card.

Worth a look -

Please buy me one too - they are small, but not before you get a new car (geo metro still cranks for me).

:)

Later,

Sean

laptops

$800+,

Careful comparing chips based on clock speed. The processor in an M60 is NOT a Pentium 2Ghz. Intel stopped playing the Ghz game a while ago and switched to new nomenclature.It's a Pentium M 760. Benchmarks seem to show it as about equivalent to a Pentium 4 3Ghz.

My experience with a Dell M60 with the 2Ghz Pentium M has been excellent for Solidworks. The display is top notch resolution (1920x1200 Native). If your eyes are good you don't even need an external monitor!

-Mike

Just to clarify a bit on Dell's M60 (& now M70) resolution. I use the

1900 pixel option, but there are 2 other lower resolution screens available for less money or if you have trouble with the hi-res screen.

I would much rather get a specific pair of screen glasses, if needed to work on the 1900 pixel screen as opposed to going to lower resolution, though.

Bo

My company just picked up and HP 8240 mobile workstation and it seems to be running great. I upgraded the RAM to 1.5 GB and solidworks

2005SP03 runs great on it. The firegl graphics works very well.

The unit physically is very light as well.

Yeah, I checked out all the conventional stuff, and it all looked, well, conventional. I needed something portable that was more "workstation" than "laptop". Without going to a quirky lunchbox computer or with a piece-parts micro, the Boxx seems to be the $h!t.

hp = 15.4" screen boxx = 17" widescreen

hp = Pentium M processor boxx = P4 workstation processor

hp = 533 MHz fsb boxx = 800 MHz fsb

hp = ATI Fire GL V5000 w/ 128 Mb boxx = nVidia Quadro FX Go1400 w/ 256 Mb

hp = max 2 Gb RAM boxx = max 4 Gb RAM (dual channel)

hp = 90 watt adapter boxx = 180 watt adapter

hp = 5.8 + lbs box = 11 + lbs(!?!)

Clevo makes the chassis for Alienware, Boxx, Sager, Hypersonic etc..

I'd buy from the one with the best price / service combination

I am building a portable AMD workstation based on this

Athlon 64 3500+ CPU for now and a dual core AMD upgrade in a fe

months when they are available. It is confirmed that the SN25P ca accept the dual core Athlons

I just received the Quadro FX 1400 PCI-E that will be going in it