I am thinking of getting a compaq laptop. I dont need one that will render really quickly or allow me to do huge models, but I want to be able to play around on it when im bored in school etc.
Specs: athlon xp 2000+
256 ddr ram (not sure of the speed, probably 133)
hard disk blah blah
…
this is the bit im not sure about:
ATI IGP (integrated boo!) 320/330/340 not sure which.
Has anyone experienced any problems with this ATI card? As I say, its not for high end stuff, just to be able to run it.
ATI cards tend to be flakey at best with their OpenGL implementation.
Compaq laptops tend to be not so great overall. My dad has one and within a few weeks the door to the DVD tray falls right off if you are not carful. A friend of a friend has one that is NOT overclocked and it overheats and shuts down after about an hour of a 3D game such as Half-Life.
My Dell has survived a lot of processing; probably 1 year (or more) of full CPU in it’s 2.5 year life plus some being carried around, etc. My old Sony superslim laptop is still ticking after being carried through High School (and been dropped a few times, all of the bouncing on the bus, etc.) and one year of College now.
Blender will RUN on just about anything, it’s just a matter of how fast. OpenGL can run all of it’s operations in software so you really don’t even need a 3D accelerator for Blender; I didn’t have one starting out.
Sure sounds better than my computer. It should be fine. I ran Blender without a video card a while back, just using the integrated one. I’d think that pretty much any other card would be some sort of improvment.
I myself have riva TNT2 based card, 256 megs of mem, intel celeron runnein in 500 Mhz and winxp. Blender runs fine in this setup, so it should run gratly in the lap you descriped.
Tough I would condiser, because it i a Compaq. I wold not touch them with a ten feet pole.
In find (and a large number of reviews find) that Dell provies the most “bang for the buck”. Sony systems are nice, but they also use ATI graphics primarily and overall they are overpriced. I have issues with Compaq, I personally wouldn’t buy one of their systems.
compaq’s fine, my dad has one and it runs pretty good if you ask me…
if you like pieces of crap with little room for upgrades and absolutely no support (also includes their HP brothers). you look for a driver and they tell you to buy the newest version of windows cause it will be on that disc hahaha worthless. always gotta dig around the net when i work on those POS systems.
no laptops have room for upgrades, nobody’s support is very good (extended warranty? thanks, that’ll be $$$). I don’t own a system that I couldn’t more easily support myself right now, that is part of why I don’t have a laptop. (My newest compaq is a pentium something motherboard and hd within arms reach of my computer. Did I mention they aren’t working nor in a case?)
Computers are not selling well now, there is no new software that really needs a new computer. The computer places (for lack of a better term) dell, hp, gateway, (emachines) are suffering, and don’t really have incentive for good support unless you pay for it considering the competion with systems that can be bought places most people go (walmart sells hp machines, probably little or no support).
my suggestion (if you NEED a laptop): get a sturdy laptop which has good driver support NOW, and doesn’t have really odd hardware (unless you can FOR SURE find drivers for it). If I were to by a laptop right now it would be a thinkpad or a powerbook.
actually i work on computers all the time and will be getting into a computer/security related job for one of the biggest alluminum manufacturers in the united states. support is not only limited to talking to some idiot who knows less about computers than you do on the phone. most dell and gateway products can be brought back to life with nothing more than an internet connection. they have all the drivers and what not right there together and easily downloadable which is more than i can say about the other brands. also the crap boxes you find at walmart also dont come with restore discs so the first time you crash i hope you have an extra pair of underwear nearby. have fun buying windows, office, antivirus, etc… that came with it and more than that the drivers.
looks like stephen2002 knows what im talking about here.
Here is one thing to consider, tough I don’t know in what things you are going to use your lap.
If I would be buing a graphics laptop right now, I would heavily consider of buying Apples powerbook or Ibook, mainly because apple uses Geforce graphics processor.
And for one thing Apples modern computers are mainly ment for graphics or video editing. In minus side they do cost a mint.
If you going to be using Blender mostly on the laptop stick with the PC based one, look for the Geforce Go graphics.
I dig Apples but they are still not ready for the 3D worls (Atleast with Blender or Lightwave) I’m a major Powermac Head (user name once was Powermacg4) I recently went PC for 3D work. But for video editing and Photoshop work or Cinema 3D can be safe with a Powerbook. Aviod iBooks. I guess get what you want it comes down to cost.
I run Blender on a old Dell 400mhz AMD K6, ATI Rage video Laptop at work.
I want a laptop mainly for school and website design, but I would like to be able to run blender on it.
I have found most laptops cost a mint, as (because I live in England) most things do.
I am looking to spend not much more than £800 (to translate to american $, probably about the same as $1000 would get you)
I have found that the laptops with proper graphics cards are all over £1000 or the rest of the specs are terrible. Dell make great laptops but they cost a lot. The compaq I found (athlon 2000+ xp, 256ddr, 40gB, cd-r/w dvd combo, ati igp ddr) was under £800.
Also, if you comment, please remember that I am 15 and do the odd website here & there to get money.
This is very much not true. I have a Dell 8100 as my primary mashine. It has upgradable RAM, graphics card (you have to take it apart for that one but I’ve done it), Hard Drive, and CD-ROM. It can even have two hard drives, yes that’s two hard drives in a laptop. I would say that leaves a LOT of room for upgrade. The only thing I can’t really upgrade is the CPU and even in the average desktop you can’t do that without replacing the motherboard.
However your brands like Compaq and HP are more consumer oriented (they stell their products through retail outlets) and the average consumer dosn’t care if they can upgrade their computer so for the most part you have to completely dismatle a Compaq to get and the HD for upgrade.
While Macs are pretty, they are very expensive and the software support is weak at best.