LAPTOP for Rhino, Revit and render

Hi everyone,

I’m so torn between these 2 laptops. I use Rhino and Revit most of my time, also Maxwell render, PS, ID, AI…

M3800
Intel® Core™ i7-4712HQ Processor (Quad Core 2.30GHz, 3.3GHz Turbo, 6MB 37W, w/HD Graphics 4600)
15.6 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and QHD+ resolution (3200 x 1800)
16GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3L
256GB Solid State Drive Full Mini Card+Additional 500GB Hybrid 2.5inch, 6Gb/s SATA with 8GB Flash Drive
1.88kg

M4800
Intel® Core™ i7-4910MQ Processor (Quad Core 2.90GHz, 3.90GHz Turbo, 8MB 47W, w/HD Graphics 4600)
15.6" UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit
16GB (4x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3L
1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Drive
2.88kg

I’m not very familiar with hardware. Please bear with me if I’m asking stupid questions.

How does the 1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Drive compare with the 256GB Solid State Drive Full Mini Card + Additional 500GB Hybrid 2.5inch, 6Gb/s SATA with 8GB Flash Drive? I am used to save my model/drawings frequently, and I do a lot of last minute render (sadly). Dose the 256 GB SSD compensate the downside of the M3800 CPU for what I do?

I know M4800 obviously has better CPU and GPU, but not sure how much better it is going to perform than the M3800. If there’s not much ‘noticeable’ performance difference for my daily tasks, I would tend to get the lighter M3800.

Thanks!

For render CPU is crutial(both laptop rams are 16GB)
4910MQ has 9763 points M4800 wins.
4712HQ has 7414 Points

For Display only Resolution QHD and Anti-glare are big plus Draw!!!

for graphics, M4800 wins;

M4800 has three alternatives
2 GB GDDR5 AMD FirePro M5100 Mobility Pro
2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA Quadro K1100M
2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA Quadro K2100M

M3800 has 2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA Quadro K1100M

Aesthetics, definitely M3800

mobility, M3800 wins;
M3800 is 4,15 lb; 1,88 kg
M4800 is 6,35 lb; 2,88 kg

HDD,
you can get a SSD (min 240 GB) and a HDD case. replace Hybrid 1TB with SSD, and put it to HDD case problem solved

hope this helped.

so do you think it’s worthy to give up the higher performance of M4800 for mobility and better display?
I know 4800 has better hardware but I have no idea how much better it is. I can cope with say if 3800 renders 30s slower than 4800, but if it takes 30mins more for M3800, then I’d rather bear with carrying the brick with me everyday.

I just got the Dell M3800 and its gorgeous, powerful, and lightweight. It fits in any briefcase or backpack and you don’t even notice its there. The screen is 15 in, but the resolution is 3200 x 1800, which can make some apps on the ‘small side.’ I just ordered a 27 in 4K monitor from Dell, so that’s going to make a big difference when it arrives.

Also, I did exactly what @Blastered recommended. I left the 2nd drive bay empty and ordered a 1 TB mSATA drive to install myself. Nerd out.

what software do you use? Any idea on how m3800 is doing in 3d modelling and rendering (compare to 4800)? Thanks

For 3D, I use Rhino + V-ray + Bongo + T-Splines. Otherwise, I have the entire Adobe CC installed and usually run Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and Premiere. Everything runs great. Renders take longer than on my tower workstation, but that’s to be expected. But, my workflow is excellent since the M3800 has a quad core i7 with 16 GB of RAM and SSD storage.

Its the looks and mobility that put this over the top. I like to take a ‘break’ and work at home or a coffee shop for a change of scenery. It’s so thin and light, I can take it anywhere. That was NOT true about my prior laptop, the Dell M6500. That beast had a 17 in screen, but was close to 10 lbs and the battery only lasted 90 minutes…

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Have you guys had a look at www.Eurocom.com?

I’ve just bought a laptop from those guys after a poor experience with Dell. The upside of Eurocom is it’s fully upgradable, you can swap and change if you need to. So many options!

I’m running bootcamp om my Mac so don’t have the screenshots of the spec, when i swap over again I’ll post the set up.

3.0ghz chip
8GB GTX 980m (yes I know I fear I might regret this - I don’t even play games)
2x 120GB SSD and 1x 1TB set up RAID 0
120mhz screen which is suitable for 3D
16GB RAM upgradable to 32GB

If you wanted a brick you could run Xeon chips in some of their machines

Edit: I’m using a MacBookPro Ealy 2011 at the moment and looking to upgrade to PC so I have more plugin options and use of t-splines. I can’t quite bring myself to buy a desktop again… It’s not mobile as such but enables me to work from different places with power. The macbook is lovely but limited.

Take a look @ Cyberpowerpc.com & their lightweight 15" Fang notebook. Quad core Intel 4870, Nvidia 970M, ultra high res screen or HD and a plethora of SSD and HD choices. Somewhat goofy looking top to enclosure but otherwise quite well specced…cheers, Roob

@Robb Have you seen the http://www.alienware.co.uk website? Looks suspiciously similar - Alienware by Dell… I wonder if there is a link?

If you needed beefy graphics cards take a look at the Graphics Amplifier for the 13" laptops. I suspect Dell will bring out the same slot/cable for the 17 and 18 models next year.

It’s a great concept: Hotdesk or work mobile and then come back at the end of the day with your renders etc queued up, plug it in and away you go. Or the more sensible option would be network rendering at a lower cost : )

Edit: I notice windows isn’t checking my spelling as it does working on the Mac… Hmmm

haven’t yet pulled the trigger on a new laptop. Still moping around
with a three year old HP Envy. Quad Core and separate graphics card with
ssd. Good enough for now and waiting on the next Intel step up from
Haswell. At 5.5 lbs. it’s a bit heavy compared to the latest 4.4 lb.
trend. Primary system is now 2 years old: Intel 3930 overclocked to 4.25 ghz on
water, two Samsung 840 Pro 256 in raid 0 with daily back up to two separate 1 TB
HD, 32 GB ram, and AMD Firepro W7000 which I got at a criminally low price that
I have not seen since all wrapped up in a Cosmos II case that has withstood an
earthquake… The hardware is nearly as much fun to play with as the software. I
design yachts in Rhino and render in Flamingo. I’m about to purchase Bongo
as some that sort of thing makes a great presentation. Attached is a
rendering (for fun only) of a 64’ sailboat that is now either in Antigua or on
her way to same. I’m unfortunately here is sleeting weather. Cheers,

Nice! I’d be celebrating if I ownded a vessel like that too:)

The last time I built my own machine I’d just bought an 8MB Matrox graphics card… Which was cutting edge(ish) as the time. AMD was the one to watch.

Fast forward to today and I’m a Mac jocky - if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m almost melting my laptop with Keyshot and stuggling with some simplish booleans i’d be happy.

Just trying to make sure I don’t choose a dud graphics chip. I figure that if i’m happy with my Mac and it’s response times with a 512mb card then I can’t be worse off with a 8GB 980m gaming card surely??

My first performance purchase for a PC was a Matrox card to run

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I’ve read on various McNeel threads that the built in Intel graphics are to
be avoided…though the newer 5000 series is reportedly a great

Hi Andy,

Have been looking at Eurocom, just wondered if you cared to share any thoughts on your experience?

Oh, that brings back good memories, I got one of these babies back in 96:

That was just after I had started using Rhino, and first I bought a NEC PowerVR add on card, but Rhino didn’t support it, bummer, but the Millennium was a rock solid workhorse! I spent way to much money on that, a Pentium 90, 16 MB ram, 1 GB HDD and a 17" Trinitron screen… that was awesome!

Never quite gotten the same buzz from buying another machine… :smile:

I guess its’ time for me to upgrade my AMD FirePro for something new but need a new commission to afford the frivolity. I don’t believe the FirePro is slowing things down in Rhino or Flamingo as those work mostly with the CPU of which I have six in my I7 3930 overclocked to 4.25 gh. When rendering, all six cores are almost always at 100% and wow, how it beats my older QX6700; the king of the new quad core era when it first came out. I built my system from parts on line as a gift for surviving leukemia. Then two years later I got and also beat Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. But, a new job will have to pay my way this time!

I truly like Holomark II but don’t seem to get very good numbers compared to many others I see on your site. But, in the real world my system works pretty well for now and is not much of an impediment unless I’m rendering 300 frames or more for a video presentation. And, I don’t game much except solitaire on my android phone! My old computer would crash, but with two radiators and a large reservoir and strong but quiet pump, things stay cool 24 hours and more. I attached a screen capture during a rendering with core temp up to show a typical session though at relatively low res.

Merry Christmas and see you on the web, cheers, Rob

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Nice! You are really getting the most out of Flamingo, inspiring!
And both sad and great to hear about your battles with health, and maybe it adds to your quality as a leisure boat designer, one that really appreciates the good things in life and infuses that into the concepts, because I would love to spend time on the lake with that baby, it sends my imagination on a dream vacation.

About Holomark II, it needs to evolve into Holomark III soon with further focus on real life scenarios, and then I’ll add a way to collect the scores, I never have time to gather the scores :expressionless:

And Marry Christas to you too Robb, see you around!

Thanks, Holo, good to “hear” from you and let’s both have a most fortuitous New Year! Cheers, Rob

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Hi David,

I wasn’t impressed with the service or their honesty. I bought a top end
machine which, although performed fairly well it was running at over 90
degrees when I was working with Keyshot. It was 6 core so I guess that
didn’t help. This was in a room which was pretty cold and in the winter
months… The chip was running at a lower clock rate that specified in
their pitch which was really annoying. I didn’t like the keyboard much and
the build quality, while OK didn’t make me feel that great when I’d spent
well over £2k.

The worst part was the fact that they had sent me an invoice which stated
the laptop was only worth a couple of hundred dollars and sold to me for
’parts’. This greatly annoyed me as I’d paid them 20% VAT so they could
organise DAP delivery which obviously meant they kept the difference and
paid a lower amount of import duty.

I paid for extended warranty etc but realised, as and when things started
to get a little complicated that it was return to base which meant I’d be
really shafted. After days and days of emails with Eurocom the main boss
said that he would ‘very much like to meet me face to face when he was next
in London’. It wasn’t a pleasant experience at all, I was communicating
with the boss and another sales assistant who, strangely enough seemed to
email in sync with the boss even late at night when their offices were
closed.

Do a quick Goolge, you’ll find a couple of articles about similar stuff and
very large lawsuits.

In the end I went for an 8 core Intel desktop from Scan Computers who have
been great. My advice would be to stick to Dell or another big name to
ensure you’ve got good customer service.

Hope that helps?

Thanks for the feedback Andy, really appreciate it - and sorry to hear about the bad experience!

I emailed Eurocom for a quote a little while ago, and it didn’t feel very professional somehow, so that confirms my gut feeling.

Glad to hear about Scan, have been looking at them also when considering a desktop machine. I think for a laptop though, I will stick to Dell etc…

Cheers,