hello,
im looking for a laptop computer for my school work (im an architecture student) which i would be using for rendering images using Cad and 3D modeling programs. Im also planning on using the computer for gaming not necessarily top of the line but i have been known to play COD and other FPS, RTS and RPGMMOS when i got time.
so i narrowed my choices to 2 MSI (i dont know much about them but they seem to offer the most bag for the back) laptops and a sony. Now my dilemma is: what is most important core speed or system bus speed or cache size in this case.
MSI:
1. AMD Turion? 64 X2 (Dual-Core (core speed 2.1GH, system bus speed 1.600GH this Laptop also cost 150$ less which is a big deal for me), 1mb L2 Cache),ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600, 512 mb dedicated.
2. AMD Athlon? X2 Dual-Core (core speed 2.0, 3.6, 1mb L2 Cache), NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512 dedicated.
Sony
3. Intel Core 2 Duo P8400(2.26GHz),1066MHz,3MB), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 Series (M86-LP) $200 more then MSI #1.
sony has most cache and clock but lowest fsb and most expensive.
MSI #1 has higher clock then MSI #2 and cheapest of all three. I also hear that Turion processors have longer battery life time( a + but not a deal breaker for me)
MSI #2 has highest system bus (more then two times as fast)but cheaper then the sony.
according to notebookcheck.net the two MSI have comparable GPUs but MSI #2 is slightly better. the sony GPU is not in notebookcheck.net but is a later model from ATI so im assuming is better still. and looking online it seems that intel is making better processors in general.
they all have 4 gig of ddr2 ram could find the speed of the ram sry.
now to twist it up a little, at this time i have a desktop PC (Dell dimension E310, 2.8Gh P4 single core, 2g ram, nVidia geForce FX 5500 128 mb dedicated) that i got for free at an event. I can do a good amount of work on it but it is lagy when im working on some 3d programs and the computers at school get havy use by the rest of the students and i had cases that i wasted hours waiting for a computer and ended up not having as good a project as i could have had. NOw this dell has Zero upgradability, i have max ram and the GPU that im running on it should not be running as it sais it requires 250w but my power source only gives out 230w. i knw the computers at school have a 512 MB dedicated video cards and i looked online for 512 PCI cards and they all require more power much more over 300 for the most basic ones that i was interested in. which would mean i have to tear apart my computer and replace the power supply which im not confident in my skills to do so and dont think its worth toiling over this old machine. Also, i as hoping to go abroad next year so i would need a laptop for that, but this also means that i might as well wait and see if something else comes around this summer.
Sorry for the long post its 2am right now and i have been researching laptops for a long time now. i am really starting to get interested in computers as a result, i would appreciate any input.I feel like i can learn a lot from the members here.
thank you for your time
