Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Good desktop replacement for frequent traveling?

Mar 18, 2017 2:41PM PDT

Let's just start by not having a war about Macs and PC's please. Thank you.

Right now I work off of an 27inch iMac.
I use it for 3D animation and modeling, video editing, graphics, and creating video games. I'm running applications like Zbrush,C4D, Maya, Realflow, Unity, and the entire Adobe suite.

I recently got a job that travels 3/4th of the time. Obviously taking my desktop with me on an airplane isn't an option but not having a decent computer with me is driving me crazy. I need something portable and small like a laptop, but powerful enough to run some of these programs.

The options I've come up with are either a high end laptop like a MacBook Pro or a portable desktop thing like a Mac mini (and just hook it up onto the hotel's TV screen as I travel).

I am willing to go Mac or Pc. The Mac is just my personal preference but the PCs are cheaper. I know whatever I get is going to be higher end so obviously more expensive, so just give me your thoughts and ideas. I'd appreciate anything.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Then thing is
Mar 18, 2017 2:55PM PDT

Not all those apps might be on a PC or may incur license fees. For a Windows PC the office uses machines like the Asus ROG units that go for just above 1K with current gen i7, 16GB DDR4 and GPU.

If you were to go with a MacBook, if it's for demo only, maybe just the Air?

- Collapse -
Apps
Mar 18, 2017 3:23PM PDT

Most of my apps are from student licenses. I pretty sure all of them run on both systems.

I thought the MacBook Air had the worst CPU, processing power, and memory of the Mac laptops.
I'm willing to pay a good sum if it's powerful enough.

- Collapse -
When I travel
Mar 18, 2017 3:28PM PDT

I usually don't need the full power of my Death Star laptop. I may even check out a lightweight Chrombook out of the office pool if all I'm doing is some PowerPoint (via Google Docs.)

Since I updated last year I have last years model of this one.
https://www.amazon.com/GL553VD-Gaming-i7-7700HQ-7200RPM-Keyboard/dp/B01MRW12RC?th=1

Mine is the one with the 960 GPU and 512GB Samsung SSD M2 (we install our own most of the time.)

- Collapse -
Gamer?
Mar 18, 2017 3:57PM PDT

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Asus was used more for gaming? It's specs look pretty good so I'll have to check it out

- Collapse -
There are folk that want "Pro" models
Mar 18, 2017 4:11PM PDT

But at the office we're cheap so we shop the gamer models to get the performance at a good price.