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General discussion

powerful laptops

Jan 26, 2005 7:30AM PST

hi, i'm looking for an extremely powerful laptop on which i can run 3D architectural programs such as "3d max", "maya", "rhino" ... without having it stall.
i am considering the acer ferrari 3400...
can anyone help?

Discussion is locked

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Did you read my recent post?
Jan 26, 2005 7:32AM PST

The new Sonoma is turning in times like a 3.6GHz P4.

Maybe you should look into those?

And, in closing, no matter what CPU you have, it will stall.

Bob

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Is that the Dell 700m
Jan 26, 2005 8:36AM PST

Is that the Dell 700m that your talking about when you say Sonoma??

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Or Ken's post...
Jan 26, 2005 11:02AM PST
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Make certain you get Sonoma or Ferrari will be parked
Jan 26, 2005 12:54PM PST

Ryan mentioned here recently that a new Acer Ferrari notebook was going to have either a low voltage Athlon 64 processor. Or, an Acer Ferrari notebook update will likely have the Pentium M Sonoma upgrade as well.

But this is very new (January 19th) and only the Dell 6000 and a handful of others are out so far so don't jump the gun until you see all the models coming out with Sonoma in January-March of this year.

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Look for Ferrari 3200 . . .
Jan 26, 2005 1:03PM PST

Currently you can get the next-gen Ferrari with the low-voltage A64 from www.newegg.com. It's european spec, and it costs a pretty penny.

But we haven't seen the best of either Sonoma or Mobile Athlon 64. As far as AMD goes, they have two new cores coming out for the MA64: Both at a 90nm process but one low-voltage and one not low voltage. Currently the high voltage MA64 is manufactured on a 120nm process. So these new cores promise more speed and longer battery life. Then there's the mid-range Turion 64-bit platform that may prove to be even longer on usability and will give Sonoma a serious run for its money performance and battery-wise.

But those are yet to come between now and April. The Dell 6000 IS the hottest Sonoma in town right now. But it has integrated Video. I think HP/Compaq's Sonoma offering may be better. However, given Dell's propensity for extensibility, I think the 6000 will grow (perhaps into the 6200) and will become an excellent choice again, with dedicated video. Again, waiting is the key.

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HPZT4000 coming but no Sonoma yet at hpshopping
Jan 27, 2005 4:06AM PST

HP/Compaq pulled my HPZT3000/Compaq X1000 model immediately on the new Sonoma launch 1/19 and they have not introduced any new Sonoma models yet.

I saw a list, however, posted here on the forums that indicated a HPZT4000 model and likely a Compaq counterpart is coming.

Give cudos to Dell for having a mainstream Sonoma notebook available at launch (and a completely new model not to confuse people) even though the dedicated video options are not out yet.

Also, the new integrated video is supposed to be superior to the old with faster transfer rates so more people in fact may not need dedicated video versus the past.

Of course, you still must decide upfront to get dedicated video or not or you effectively seal your fate on notebooks for now....

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Planet
Jan 26, 2005 7:58AM PST

check out planetcomputers.com