Expert: Bobbert - 2/11/2011

Question
QUESTION: I am looking for a laptop and my budget is about $650. I was looking at some Toshibas. I was informed that tnis was a good brand. I was looking at a few models and was wondering which one would fit me best. I need something that can run AutoCAD, Photoshop and Rhino 3d as well as music production programs without any issues. I was looking at the following models.

L655-S5159
L675-S7108
A665-S5170

Which model would be best? Or maybe you could suggest a model.

ANSWER: Nothing within your budget will satisfy your application demands, quite simply put. For a mobile workstation you want to look at Dell and HP, shopping from their small/medium-business lines (such as the Dell Mobile Precision) - you'll be looking at $3500 to $7000 for an acceptable mobile workstation. For a desktop, which will save you some money and give you better performance, with sacrificed mobility, again I would suggest Dell or HP, but you can also consider Boxx or similar boutique manufacturers - expecting pricing in the $2500 to $25,000 range depending on exactly what you need (the higher end of that scale would be for a multi-monitor multi-GPU system capable of very high performance, but would not be suggested for a student or hobbyist, only a working professional who will benefit from the speed).

For the myriad DCC applications you're looking at, a laptop will be ineffective, as it will not offer the hardware capabilities for music production (in terms of audio inputs and outputs), however if you're doing software based work it may be suitable. for the 3D solutions, you should look at a professional level graphics adapter, ideally nVidia Quadro FX, but AMD FirePro can make a viable alternative depending upon your budget. The lowest end models are not generally suggested, as their performance is generally marginal, so look to the middle and upper end parts. nVidia also offers an outboard solution (this is getting into the much higher end hardware), Quadro Plex, which may also be considered. From the audio side, you'll want to look at what applications you use and what hardware they support before committing  to a purchase, as some platforms have hardware preferences or requirements.

I would absolutely suggest at minimum a quad-core, if not an octo-core (dual processor) configuration, with a minimum of 6GB (and let's say an upper end maximum of 24GB) of memory, as well as sufficient disk space (say 1000GB to be safe, at minimum).

As far as "with no performance issues", you will very quickly run into performance walls even with a $10,000 workstation, depending on the complexity of your work. This wall can be overcome by increased hardware capacity, which brings dramatically increased costs (you can very easily get into the six figure range for a machine suited to all of your listed tasks).

-bob


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: AutoCAD and Rhino don't have extremely high system requirements and I won't be doing hardcore 3d graphics. I use FL Studio and Cubase for music production on a Dell Latitude D820 already and it handles it okay.

Answer
Your existing Dell is going to be equivalent or faster than any of the Toshiba systems you've mentioned (The first model features a passable processor, and wholly inadequate integrated graphics. The second model actually reduces overall performance to switch to Intel branded parts, while costing more. The third model looks functionally identical to the first model in terms of hardware capabilities, so I cannot suggest either of these), and itself is designed as a mobile workstation in-line with the Dell and HP units I suggested initially. Almost all available configurations of the D820 feature Quadro graphics, as well as more than enough memory and storage space for your needs. The equipment you're looking at in the $650 range will not increase performance or capabilities over your D820. If you are looking for increased performance, I would suggest looking at the Dell M4500. Something like this Mobile Precision offers substantially better hardware, warranty support, and so on for the money:
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m4500/pd

That said, AutoCAD and Rhino can have exceptional system requirements depending upon the complexity of the work you're doing - which you didn't specify. The application itself will install on a variety of platforms, but high performance rendering requires substantial hardware support, this is the reality of DCC/ProGL applications. Depending on how complicated your work is, you may very well not need top of the line support (especially if you're a student or hobbyist, as time is likely not as much of a factor (in other words, you don't have an explicit deadline after which point you aren't being compensated)). Additionally, Autodesk primarily certifies Quadro FX hardware for AutoCAD, you can look here for a searchable list of certified hardware: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/hc?siteID=123112&id=6711853&linkID=9240618, and here for more information about the application: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6711774&linkID=92406.

Additionally, you can see a comparison between a non-ProGL type accelerator, and its professional level counterpart, here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/quadro-fx-4800,2258-10.html

You'll notice that despite being "identical", the Quadro FX part is sometimes upwards of ten-fold faster than the GeForce in professional style application loads. Rhino is one such application which will benefit from this kind of hardware.

Now, this does not mean that many off the shelf machines can install and run these applications, but you explicitly said "with no issues" - which means certified hardware and appropriate compute power to handle the application demands, which is not cheap.

Regarding the audio, yes that is all "internal" (in that everything is done in software, instead of capturing from external devices, like guitars) - so you are perfectly fine to run those on "average" hardware, but do keep in mind that more complicated pieces will tax your "average" system; you have to remember that complexity is what drives the more powerful hardware, and nothing else (this is why very large-scale productions, like Hollywood movies or combat flight simulators, use racks or even rooms full of equipment to render single scenes - the scenes themselves are very complex and require a large amount of hardware to complete in a reasonable amount of time, but doing simple manipulation of a room layout or short sound clip is entirely within the abilities of some consumer hardware).

-bob