3D animation and design laptop 8k-10k

[squirrel]

Hi guys

A friend is looking at laptops to use for 3d animation and design. His budget is 8k between 10k. I know it might be a stretch to find everything he is looking for. Anything you guys can recommend?

-i7 processor
-minimum 1gb graphics card, preferably 2GB. I've been recommended to go with NVidia
-minimum 8gb ram, preferably more
-15" screen or higher

Thanks

[shogun]

Dell XPS?

The one with the 2GB card may be a bit more.

[Keeper]

I would personally not use a laptop for 3D animation...

If he really wants to go for Animation, rather get a R4000-R5000 PC (lots ram, good CPU) and use the rest to buy a low-end 3D workstation card.

[squirrel]

I told him a desktop PC would be better suited, but he already has a beast one So he's looking for something to compliment it on the move.

[Ancalagon]

Not for that budget. You would need to spend R15k to get anything worthwhile for that sort of work. Tell him not to waste his money.

[Keeper]

I told him a desktop PC would be better suited, but he already has a beast one So he's looking for something to compliment it on the move.

Well then I would get this card for his Desktop and then spend the other R5000 on a Laptop, since he insists on a laptop.


But to be honest though I would rather just get this for his "beast of a PC":
http://www.pc-direct.co.za/pSC-PQ400...lications.aspx

Seriously that card with his already nice PC will enable him to do anything he wants with Zbrush + Maya/3ds max.
I'm telling you man, he is gonna regret spending 10k on a laptop when he is chugging along at low FPS on proper 3D projects.


A laptop is cool and all, but if he wants to do 3D, get a proper gfx card... not a laptop.

[Pada]

Have a look at the following Samsung NP200A5B-S01ZA: http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/laptop...p?laptop=59329 for R9877

Samsung NP200 Series NP200A5B-S01ZA/3OS Black Notebook, Intel Mobile HM65 Express chipset, Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge Quad Core i7-2760QM 2.4Ghz 6MB L3 Cache Processor, 6144MB DDR3-1333 SO-Dimm Memory (1x4096,1x2048), Supports 8GB Max Mem, 750GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive, DVD Super Multi Writer optical drive, 15.6" WXGA HD (1366 x 768 resolution) Non Gloss Type LED Backlit Display, nVidia NVS 4200M with 1GB dedicated graphics, 802.11b/g/n Wireless Lan, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth, 1.3MP Webcam, 6 Cell Battery, Full Size Keyboard with Numpad, HDMI output, 2.5 kg, Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64bit, 3 Year On-site warranty , ©2012 Laptop Direct C.C.

For under R10k, you'll really struggle to get better specs + warranty than that in South Africa! The only thing that I have against the above laptop is its resolution and screen size.

[NAG - Wesley]

Your friend is really stifling performance, but...

Toshiba Tecra S11-14M @ R10,119
(Quadro 2100M 512MB card)
Samsung NP200A5B @ R9877

The Samsung has the better specs while the Tecra has better build quality and better screen. Neither are going to do spectacular things, but the Tecra uses DDR5 RAM with its Quadro while the NP200 uses DDR3 - performance wise they will pretty much draw up, but for larger projects the Samsung is the better choice, despite the poorly sized screen. Personally, I'd rather go for the combination below:

Samsung NP200A5B-S01ZA @ R8543
Patriot Pyro SE 120GB @ R1473

And your friend can use the bundled internal drive in an external chassis for backups and other media.

[Rickster]

What kind of 3D animation software is your friend interested in using?

[NAG - Wesley]

Any preferences to screen resolution? Take it he really wants a Full HD display?...

What kind of 3D animation software is your friend interested in using?

What on earth are you two doing in here, resurrecting a thread after a bot's posted in it?

[Rickster]

What on earth are you two doing in here, resurrecting a thread after a bot's posted in it?

nathanzgm started it....I didnt really pay much attention to the date of the last post.

Admins should lock threads if 1.The problem has been solved 2.The poster asks for his thread to be locked 3.The thread is old....very old.

[NAG - Wesley]

Admins should lock threads if 1.The problem has been solved 2.The poster asks for his thread to be locked 3.The thread is old....very old.

Yeah I do that on the NAG forums. Anything older than a year on the tech section gets closed and all threads can be re-opened on request. Bots normally target year-old threads so I figure it works well enough.