I have been interested in buying a laptop soon…obviously, I want to be able to run Houdini and other graphics apps on it.

Any recommendations? Also what kind of specs would I need for a notebook to run Houdini? The Alienware computers are way too expensive, and want to know if I can close the deal for around $2,000 or under…

I was looking at Toshiba Satellites (nice specs), but they all have integrated ATI cards. ATI cards have been known to have issues with Houdini, unless someone has experienced otherwise.

Any thought or inputs is appreciated.

I don,t have a very high knowledge about hardware but maybe you could just buy laptop with a good processor speed and loads of ram.
Then you could customise your openGl card.
Only a suggestion.Get somr professional help before you happen to commit

Cheers
Lanchka

HP ZD7000 series. 3+ GHz P4, NVidia GeForce FX Go graphics, DVD burner, 17 inch widescreen, wireless networking, etc. Plus a decent price for everything you get.

Bad for battery life, but a great portable workstation in my opinion if you don't mind plugging it in most of the time and the heavy weight and large size. Mine is my main Houdini PC right now as it is faster than my old 2.4 GHz PC and I take it with me whereever I go…

-Craig

Ya…I was checking the HPs. Unfortunately, the new models are comming out and for some reason both Toshiba and HP notebooks have switched to ATI cards from Nvidia. I have a feeling ATIs will be problems with Houdini. I guess I will have to save up for an Alienware or something….unless I find a deal on a refurbished notebook with Nvidia.

ZD7000 series- has GeForceFX Go5200 or Go5700. Check out:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/generic_category.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@2038805118.1104511964@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladddhhljellcfngcfkmdflldfjk.0&catLevel=1&storeName=computer_store&landing=notebooks&category=hp_pavilion&aoid=1426 [shopping.hp.com]


Also the NX9500:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF04a/321957-64295-89315-321838-f1.html [h10010.www1.hp.com]

Also, a lot of the new Tablet PCs have NVidia cards. They are pretty neat, especially if you are a traditional artist and want to draw and paint.

-Craig

That HP Compaq NX9500 seems to have the right specs….I'll see if the local Best Buy carries it. Thanks for the link! 8)

Have a look at DELL M60 http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/ws_m60?c=us&l=en&s=dfh&~tab=specstab#tabtop [www1.us.dell.com]

Peter

I recommend Sager, manufactured by Clevo. After hearing about them, I'm surprised that few others have heard of them. They are either sold by Sager themselves, by another Sager reseller, or they get a new name slapped onto them altogether and sold that way (e.g. Alienware).

From what I can tell these offer by far the best upgrade options and are a much better deal without the price hike from major manufacturers.

Just so everyone knows, I'm not affiliated with these guys in any way at all…I still don't own one but a friend does.

For Sager brand (usually the best deal):

www.sagernotebook.com
www.pctorque.com
www.discountlaptops.com

For some different names, but same machines, nVidia has a list of Geforce Go 6800 launch partners on their site, many of which are configurable with an the ATI X800 as well:

http://www.nvidia.com/page/go6800_partners.html [nvidia.com]

In the UK:

www.rockdirect.com

Anyway my only motive here is that these lappies are marketed mostly towards gamers but would be great for CG folks. The more CG people that buy them, the more CG features they'll be configurable with (i.e WUXGA screen, Quadro cards, etc.)

Yes, looks great and prices are very tempting, but they are based on radeon, and houdini doesn't like radeon at all. I own a 9700 and I can tell you that the performance is good, but there are so many artifacts, glitches and system hangups that I can barely work on it.
Maybe the newer models of radeon are better.
Also from what I heard the 17" are too big too heavy and not so comfortable when it comes to travelling, yet the quality of LCD is another thing to discuss.
Check the resolutions of sager and dell.
I have never work with sager though so I can't speak for myself.
I've been doing some notebook research lately and that is what I've found.


Peter

ps. I don't have any business in advertising dell, but I've heard only great things about the M60 (eg from XSI list)…apart from the price which is horrible.

peliosis
Yes, looks great and prices are very tempting, but they are based on radeon, and houdini doesn't like radeon at all. I own a 9700 and I can tell you that the performance is good, but there are so many artifacts, glitches and system hangups that I can barely work on it.
Maybe the newer models of radeon are better.
Also from what I heard the 17" are too big too heavy and not so comfortable when it comes to travelling, yet the quality of LCD is another thing to discuss.

Hey Peter,

just to let you know, if you are talking about the Sager 9860 it is configurable with both the latest ATI or the latest nVidia (which is why it's on nVidia's launch site). They were switching over from a DDR2 based card to a DDR3 based one, so for that period of time only the ATI was available. Some sites have not updated this yet but both are available from most manufacturers.

Second, if you look at the first three Sager resellers, you can get many different laptops, in many sizes and configs.

Hey Guys,


Thanks for the info. I might have to do a notebook within a couple of months that does XSI and Houdini. Is there any chance you can get linux on these notebooks instead of Microsoft?

Cheers,
Nate Nesler

Hey Nate,

They don't force you to use any OS. You can buy them configured with Win but you can get them empty as well. They won't install Linux for you, but at least you aren't forced to use anything you don't want to.

after long research…best bets are either Boxx or Alienware notebooks. They have the surefire specs to run Houdini…at a hefty price. So start saving up. :roll:

Hey Talos, just curious…what made you decide on those two? As far as I can tell if you are getting either the BOXX or Alienware, you might as well get Sager, as it's EXACTLY the same laptop. Literally the same box, yet much cheaper, from most resllers. Some do not sell it with the Quadro, but www.hypersonic-pc.com does, and a few others, and with the money you save you could prolly buy the quadro and put it in, as they are all PCI-E.

Im thinking of getting a DELL XPS Gen2 laptop and running SUSE 9.2linux on it …
the graphics card is a
256MB NVIDA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra
Does any one know this will work for houdini?

peliosis
Have a look at DELL M60 http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/ws_m60?c=us&l=en&s=dfh&~tab=specstab#tabtop [www1.us.dell.com]

Peter

I got a M60 last year for doing Houdini work (and halflife) on the train….
I got all the extras except for the RAM….I got the least amount of RAM as possible then bought 2 gigs from Mushkin. Saved a ton.

That said…..the M60….is 110% pure awesome.

EXCEPT…..If you really want to run Linux- it will be a tad tricky as the power management stuff in the M60 isn't too friendly with Linux. :cry: