Hi, all
Planning to get a laptop and want to run Houdini Apprentice on it. Should I choose an ATI card (e.g. 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400) or a Nvidia card (256MB GeForce™Go 7300)? I would like to try Apprentice under both Windows and Linux(Ubuntu or Suse most probably).

Thanks in advance.

I'd go with the nvidia every time. I think a lot of people will say the same thing.

Yup, it's a no-brainer. ATI *can* work on Linux, but it's a huge crapshoot. Avoid the headaches - go NVidia.

Cheers,

J.C.

Thanks a lot.

I'm on two thinkpads .. T43p (Ati FireGL V3200) and T60p (ATI FireGL V5200) …. running Linux Fedora on both .. i'll never switch to anything else… nowadays Ati drivers runs out of the box… after a “ala windows” setup… so my advice is in between…

… plus… I love Dell.. but hey .. thinkpads are real power.. on a really cheap weight and height.. which can count for someone

I always used Geforce on workstation tought… but when choosing a laptop .. I also put “sizes” on table.. and nothing beats thinkpad on that.. dual core with a FireGL on such size… now that's a portable laptop.

my 0.02.

cheers

whalerider
Hi, all
Planning to get a laptop and want to run Houdini Apprentice on it. Should I choose an ATI card (e.g. 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400) or a Nvidia card (256MB GeForce™Go 7300)? I would like to try Apprentice under both Windows and Linux(Ubuntu or Suse most probably).

Thanks in advance.

I think it's *very* important to get a laptop from a vendor that will give driver support. I've heard Dell are good for this. Alienware probaly as well, if you can afford one. Stay away from the high street brands such as Toshiba an Sony. I have a Toshiba and there is no driver support for the graphics card. They do have good audio though!

Another thing about Dell is you can probably upgrade the graphics card. A friend of mine bought one and wanted to get a better graphics card. After a lillte calling around he was able to get an upgrade that plugged straight in. I dunno if all models do that, but it's a useful consideration

But also make sure your expandability options are good too. It's nice to throw in 2GB ram and an extra hard drive.

Jerry

Not a lot of choice in Canada - only Dell seems to sell configurable laptops.
HP, Toshiba, etc sell via BesBuy, FutureShop, etc. For the money they ask for a laptop with integrated Intel video (pfu), you can get a Dell Inspiron 6400 with 256 MB nVidia card.

However, today Dell annouced that they're recalling 4.1 Million laptops because of possibility of battery fire/explosion:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/technology/14cnd-battery.html?hp&ex=1155614400&en=499692c95b993103&ei=5094&partner=homepage [nytimes.com]

Not sure what to do now. Hope that the newly assembled laptops won't have such a serious problem

I might have to go with a HP Pavillion instead.
They have a choice of Turion 64 X2 and Core Duo.
Which one is better?

whalerider,

You may wish to consider http//www.boxxtech.com/products/1400.asp

It can be configured with a mobile nVidia Quadro FX GPU and they provide
driver support.

If I were in the market for a notebook PC to use with Houdini, this would be my choice.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

graphos1

Thanks. Unfortunately they are beyond my budget.
Decided to go with HP Pavillion DV8000T - for less than $1200 USD you can get a 17-inch screen laptop and 256MB nVidia 7600 card.

It's also worth checking out Dell outlet. They do a bunch of ex-lease equipment for cheap. Might be some bargains there, but sometimes the choie is limited.

As for the exploding batteries, I think it was due to a bad batch made by Sony. If you bought no I'm sure it'd be a good un.

I decided not to take chances with a Dell laptop. Had one last year and liked it, but you never know. Plus, HP had better deals than Dell for the configuration I wanted.