Laptop opinions?

[Nichod]

My current system is a:
A HP desktop:
2000+ AMD, 1024 MD DDR, 128 MB 9200 SE, 60 GB HD (not sure of RPM),
CDR/RW, and DVD ROM

The replacement I am looking at is:
A Compaq laptop:
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2, AMD Turion(TM) 64
ML-40 (2.2GHz/1MB L2 Cache), 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!,
15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!, 1280MB DDR SDRAM, 54g(TM)
802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM), 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM) (dedicated), DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support for just a little over $800

Just curious how well you all think it will run with Carrara, etc. as
I have little to no experience with laptops. I do wonder if the RAM
can upgrade to above the 2GB the website states. I read somewhere that
the 64 bit chipsets tend to allow more RAM usually 4GB, but in order
to utilize it, the computer needs to have a 64 bit OS.

Brian

[AWBenson]

I don't think you'll have a problem with the laptop. Most of my work is done through my laptop and it is no-where near as powerful as this one.

My laptop:
2.4 Celeron + 786 mb Ram & the video shares from this pool (has 256 mb built in and I expanded with a 512 chip).

The only noticable characteristic is that the laptop doesn't have a numeric keypad and this affects how you would use Hexagon.

[Grendel]

My laptop is a Compac with the Athlon 64 processor( 3200+), 1gb of ram and 64mb video, XP Home, DVD burner. I have great results with mine pretty much everything I do is on my laptop. Is the Turion their mobile version though, like the celeron? I personally think Celeron and other "Mobile" processors(Pentium M) are crap, a coworker has Hexagon installed on his and it hangs up alot while mine continues to run along no problem. Mine has a 17.4 widescreen and is a full size laptop though, not one of the lighter machines you usually see the "mobile" type of processors in.

[Nichod]

No, the Turion isn't anything like a Celeron. Its basically the same as a normal Athlon 64 processor only with a better power (uses less power) and heat management system. The Mobile Sempron is the equivalent to the Celeron. The actual speed of the Turion doesn't change unless you let the powernow adjust it, I'll just set it for desktop so it won't fluctuate.

Good point on the keypad. Though I think I'll be fine. Just change the shortcut keys. I always found it a hassle to use the keypad anyway.

[AWBenson]

My computer uses the old fashion celeron, it's not even the Celeron M. It has handled everything that I've thrown at it extremely well. Sometimes I can see some slow-down in 3D games, but that's about it.

Render times are of course affected negatively but that isn't a working issue. In Carrara, I can do just about anything and not even worry about it. Once I used replica to generate 5,000 (which are not instances) and it worked fine for rendering. A little too much geometry for on screen display, so I had to hide them and alternately use the box display settings.

In Hexagon, I can only have one background-plane image without affecting performance. Two is usable but slower. Three is realistically unusable and un-reponsive.

However, I've been really happy for this laptop which was "cheap" when I got it 2+ years ago for $500, new.

[Nichod]

After doing some research and having a friend test the speed comparision for rendering. Render time should be cut in half for me! Which makes me happy. And I'm sure the performance will be improved for physics calcs, etc. When I purchase this laptop I'll do a little mini-review on how well it handles Carrara.

I found a neat little tidbit. The laptop comes with 128 mb of dedicated video memory, but an addition 128 of shared video memory can be set in the bios. Not sure if I'd need it, but a nice advantage I think.

Should I go XP professional? I've been getting comments on other lists stating that choose professional over home is something that I should do.

[Nichod]

Ok. I bought my laptop. I'll post up a review on how well it performs when I get it.