Laptop specs for 3d animation (Maya etc. )

[oyevinod]

I plan to buy the Vortex III. my specs are

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte 95% Gamut LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2760QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card

1. Should I go for 16gb 1333mhz or 8gb 1600mhz?
2. I read somewhere on the web that gtx 680m is upto 35% faster than gtx 675m. Should I wait for this as this is rumored to be announced this summer ?
3. The, announced but delayed, Clevo p270wm has the option of a six core processor. My budget is a max of 1900. Is it possible to get this beast with the i7-3930k and a single gpu within this budget as I want the machine to last 3-4 yrs.
4. Is a six-core processor useful for content creation applications like maya, after affects or can I get by using the i7 2760qm?

I plan to use the laptop for 3d content creation and also heavy gaming. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PCS]

Welcome to our forums

1. 8GB of RAM is normally more than enough however memory prices are pretty cheap at the moment therefore you may wish to take advantage of this and get the maximum amount of memory possible.

2. You are looking at September before the GTX 680M is available, according to rumours. But then if you wait until next year something even better will be launched, and after that something even better than that will be launched. My opinion is buy when you need to and get the best for your money at that time.

3. For the P270WM, please see here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...evo-P270WM)-SLI-GTX-675M-DELAYED-INDEFINITELY

4. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with maya. Assuming maya is a graphically intensive program the processing is likely to be done on the GPU rather than the CPU and therefore a six core CPU might not make a huge difference in terms of performance.

 

[marvir]

Maya actually hardly uses the GPU, just probably for some real time high quality rendering, but most of the calculations are done with the CPU. RAM is also used a lot, but I don't actually know anything about RAM sadly.. I'd like to know as well if 16gb of 1333mhz would be better (in a general way (?)) than the Kingston HyperX 8gb 1600mhz. Any info would be great.

 

[oyevinod]

Thanks for the reply PCS. really sad the P270wm has been delayed. i need to get a job based on my content creation demo. hence need a powerful laptop for quick turnaround. will wait till the end of the month for any info on the clevo. fingers crossed.

 

[PCS]

Maya actually hardly uses the GPU, just probably for some real time high quality rendering, but most of the calculations are done with the CPU. RAM is also used a lot, but I don't actually know anything about RAM sadly.. I'd like to know as well if 16gb of 1333mhz would be better (in a general way (?)) than the Kingston HyperX 8gb 1600mhz. Any info would be great.

16GB 1333MHz is better than 8GB 1600MHz. The actual performance increase on 1600MHz over 1333MHz is barely noticeable.

 

[MGJ]

Hey oyevinod
If you're going to use Maya (or any other 3D package), I'd suggest you buy as much ram as you can afford. If you decide to get into fluid, nCloth or rigid body dynamics, you'll need all that ram for calculating the simulations.

 

[oyevinod]

Thanks for reply. 16GB it is

 

[Daymos]

Im in the same boat and had the same query regarding the 16gb or the 8gb memory but i will also go for 16gb as I do video editing in addition to 3d rendering..

Plus with more ram.. its possible to do other things whilst my scene is rendering like create another scene saving me time in the process..

My curent machine is unusable when rendering scenes lol

I use mainly 3Ds Max and im hoping to order a Vortex3 with similar spec to yours but a few extra bits and bobs here and there.

I mag go for 2 HD's with one being a small SSd and the 2nd one being 1tb or ill have a hybrid 750mb..

im still deciding.

A good GPU is perfect for viewing your scene in real time almost looking rendered.. wheres my current GPU cant display my image unless its in wireframe or basic polygon planes.

Ive got a big freelance job coming through which would in theory allow me to buy 5 vortex 3's however I failed the finance credit so will pay cash at the end of this / next month

I originally wanted the 18inch machine in sli but im more than happy with the Vortex 3 and will change the CPU in a couple of years with the new Ivy Bridge processors and if the graphics card can also be changed then this machine will be perfect for me and its life can stretch a good 5 years plus.

Heres a tester video i made and I cant wait to produce work better than this via the vortex 3
TO view any changes I made I had to render for 20 minuts then check and if it was wrong then id have to render for another 20 minutes whereas i will be able to work in real time..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_uqXudpBjI

Sorry for going on guys.. im just excited lol