Sketching and 3d modelling.

[MolochHD]

Firstly, I never had an apple laptop or desktop. I always used windows. I am wondering about possibly obtaining a macbook pro for sketching and 3d modelling in like autodesk maya or one of the adobe programs. My prace range is well preferably no more than £1500. I would like a 15" display. Which Macbook would you recommend for this type of work. Any more questions just ask.

 

[okcnaline]

Oh...
Well, it works well. So, i guess, ymmv. I don't like to use SolidWorks on my ThinkPad Yoga.

 

[MolochHD]

Why don't you? So would you recommend me getting like a dell precision or the thinkpad P50 and additionally buy a wacom intuos pro.

 

[okcnaline]

Well, if you depend on the dedicated Wacom chip, then by all means, go with the P40. I don't use SW with touchscreen because... Frankly, SolidWorks don't work well with touchscreens. But that's SolidWorks, so it's different with sketching stuff.

 

[MolochHD]

Can't you use the trackpad or the mouse rather than the touch screen if you don't like it.

 

[okcnaline]

Exactly, I do that. So if portability and touch is more important than just pure horsepower, the P40 makes more sense. If you're okay with touchpad, P50.

 

[MolochHD]

Would the P40 work well with rendering though? How good is the screen on it? Or a dell would be a better option?

 

[okcnaline]

Decent, though the M1000M has way more horsepower. The screen is quite accurate for my taste. Like I said, depends on what you're willing to sacrifice.

 

[MolochHD]

If I want to use it for the next two years then something with more power is a better option. Which of the Dells would you recommend if I dont want to spend more than £1400 or which P50 configuration.

 

[Eximo]

Same Dell Precision 7000 series, just customize it to your needs. SSD, 4K screen, Quadro graphics, even the processor were all customized to get that build I first listed. Starts at £1050.

One trick is to get the machine with a standard hard drive, then replace the SSD yourself, usually about half the price they provide the service for.

Actually the P50 doesn't look half bad. (No idea why I can't get to those machines through searching here, really bugging me, usually no trouble through the UK portals)

 

[MolochHD]

After having more of a look the Msi WS60 doesnt look half bad but i heard it has a bad battery life s that true.

If I dont want to go over £1400 which configuratio would you recommend for the dell 5510/7510 and the thinkpad P50?

 

[Eximo]

I think you are down to personal choices here, pick out the features you desire the most.

I don't think anyone is going to have a wide grasp on all the new available laptop LCD panels, chassis, batteries unless they own a repair shop. But these aren't the kind of machines that typically end up in direct consumer hands. Large companies are only going to pick a few chassis and are often warranty/contract supported so even the onsite technicians don't get to work on them.

Battery life on a high end mobile platform shouldn't be much of a factor. When you use it for heavy work, it should be plugged in. It won't perform nearly as well on battery anyway (and if you set it up to do so, then your battery life can be measured in minutes) If you need extended battery life, I would look into an extended battery, which is going to be quite expensive.

I recommend Dells and Lenovos because I have personal experience with some of their recent models. Never did get my hands on HPs version of a mobile workstation, but that is a whole other story. I don't think ASUS or MSI were considered due to a lack of enterprise level agreements, but I would have liked to see what they offered. I have seen a few vendors come in with ASUS hardware.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Because it's so late. The best thing to do would be to invest in a laptop with USBTC/TB3, because of the external GPU solutions. You rather want to put in a full size Quadro/FirePro than rely on mobile solutions.

http/www.amazon.com/ASUS-Zenbook-UX501VW-DS71T-Touch-Laptop/dp/B018AX3OHO

http/www.amazon.com/ROG-G501VW-i7-6700HQ-Windows-Notebook/dp/B01DIZF2I8/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1462202822&sr=1-1&keywords=Asus+G501VW

Two cheapest options on the market right now.

I think this is more worth it in the long run, considering the Skylake i7 even in mobile form, are very powerful and going to last for a very long time.

 

[MolochHD]

The asus laptops seem to have a problem with the screen colour, they all are a bit too blue which for art drawing and like photoshop, even like rendering I want the colours the be pretty accurate. So I think Ill stick the the lenovo's or Dell's I don't have the money to buy like the full size high quadro/Firepro.

I see what you mean Eximo, as I am not a professional person just a student I dont think I need like a very expensive machine just as of yet. It is important for me that it is quality for the money. So for now the options for me are the Dell XPS 15, Precision 5510 or the Lenovo P50. However, I heard from some people that the quadro cards are over rated and just to get like a gtx 970m so like an Alienware 15 r2.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Forget color accuracy when it comes to laptops. As soon as the color temperature is changing around you, whatever calibration you did to the display is pointless, because what you see will no longer be accurate. If you buy a pre-calibrated laptop as Apple likes to call it, that's also pointless, because they don't tell you what temperature it was calibrated in. If you don't match that, the colors you see won't be accurate either.

 

[MolochHD]

I actually didn't know that. I mean that the Asus screens have a blue tint to them. About the Quadros and GTX what do u think to the question above?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

If the load is CPU intensive, the get a Quadro, if not. FirePro is the better price/performance 99% of the times.

Misread that. Above is still true however.

The GTX cards are fantastic value everywhere outside of viewport performance.

For "consumer" workstation applications, always go gaming cards, that's because they are coding for the biggest market.

 

[okcnaline]

Nah, go Quadro if you're going to work in 3D modeling and video editing all the time. Quadros and FirePros often get as fast as normal gaming card because of acceleration.