Portable Workstations (laptops on steroids)

I'm looking for a new machine, and it has to be portable. I work at home
usually, but once or twice a week I go work on site somewhere. I'm hoping
for 2Gb RAM and real workstation graphics. I'd also like an immense hard
drive or 2. So this has to be a "real" CAD box. I've googled the group
and there's not much mention of portables with serious power, mostly
laptops with a video card and a gig of RAM.

Toshibas seem to have some video issues, which seems like bad news for a
CAD box.

There has been some mention of Alienware, but it looks like a game box to
me, unless I'm missing something. XP Home edition, choice of GeForce or
Radeon...they even have a "Star Wars Edition"!

Tristar used to be a big CAD box house, having slipped in quality it seems.
Their laptop doesn't look CAD level to me. Truthfully, it looks like an
HP.

The HP nc8000 seems limited to 1 Gb ram and that at a cost of $650 ugrade
from 512 Mb. Plus, I couldn't find where it mentioned the video card or
allowed you to choose one.

There's a Eurocom machine (D900T Phantom) that looks to be identical to the
Boxx (listed below), but they give you more options on the configuration
site. It seems I can't configure one of these for less than $4k.

And then there's the formidable MaxVision, which starts at about $5.7k and
runs to about $17k (with no less than 3 fold-out 19" flat screens). Pretty
serious stuff, too military for what I need. It's barely portable, being
built into a fat aluminum briefcase (wheels and 10 hp motor optional )

Everybody who's doing it seems to be talking about the Dell M70. The M70
seems to have all the requisites for a real portable workstation. I've
used an M50 for 3 years now with no complaints, but now that I'm seeing
what else is out there, it really is time to move on...

Then someone here posted about Boxx Technologies. I've been bitten by the
bug, and think this is what I need to have. This company seems to cater to
primarily the movie/video production industry, but along the way seems to
make some pretty dern nice CAD boxes.

-full size keyboard
-real number pad
-17" wsxga+ (1680x1050) (M70 15.4")
-built in video confrencing equipment
-Pentium4 processor 800 MHz fsb (M70 has "M" processor with 533 MHz fsb)
-180W power adapter (most laptops use 70W, the M70 uses 90W)
-11+ lbs (M70 <7lbs)
-upgradable to 4 Gb RAM (looks like M70 "only" goes to 2 Gb)

The Dell looks like granny's old email machine in comparison. Of course,
you're gonna pay about $4k for the Box, and $3-3.5 for the Dell. That's a
lotta beer money.

matt

 

built into a fat aluminum briefcase (wheels and 10 hp motor optional
)

What in the heck could they be doing with this - 10 HP - that's bigger
than most snow blower engines - Does the thing double as a mini-bike or
something.

Have you looked at the nano computers or are they just neat looking
toys? They look really small like 2" tall by 7 square - that plus a
flat screen, keyboard & mouse might be small enough to fit the bill. I
wonder. It's amazing how miniature things have gotten and the
computers are still so honking large. The chips for memory are about
1mm square and we have to go and build all this monstrous (in
comparison) stuff around it to make it usable (alas).

Is air-travel a criteria?

My mom is tying to pan her lap top off on me - for free - at that - I
though well, probably watered down LT junk - apparently its a Pentium
with some horsepower - might be worth a try.

Later,

Sean

 

Matt,

Look into the Shuttle boxes that TigerDirect sells. Get the AMD FX55
version, stick a midrange Nvidia Quadro in it as well as 2Gb RAM and
you will have something quite portable and capable of displacing most
towers as well. I have seen these things do the portability game and
they do it quite well. Pick up an LCD monitor and you are in business.
Find a nice tote bag that will hold that and a multimedia projector
and your show is on the road IIRC.

Since you are a designer, for extra credit design a spiffy laser cut
bracket for the LCD that fits on the Shuttle case and perhaps holds a
couple small but better than laptop speakers.

 

A Portable Workstation that is to be used with 3D CAD will have one of only
two available Graphics chipset lines available. It will have either the
NVIDIA Quadro FX Go series or the ATI Mobility FireGL series of chipsets.
Anything less is meant for games and will not provide the quality and
performance that you will want. Dell is the only provider with the NVIDIA
option, while IBM and HP offer products with the ATI option. In the past,
NVIDIA always seemed to be better for CAD and that's why most prefer the
Dell M60/M70 laptops.

Ken

 

Very interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Might be a little clumsy for
toting around, but still a very cool idea. This would be great for
someone with a small apartment. You can even buy a barebones system and
put it together yourself.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Matt

 

The Boxx and Eurocom also have nVidia Quadro4 FX Go1400 w/ 256 Mb option,
same as the Dell. I think Eurocom is just Boxx being sold under a
different name. They completely blow anything else away except the
MaxVision. Dells are less expensive with a better warrantee. My
experience with the Dell is that they need the warrantee cuz the parts go
south pretty fast. I've replaced both hard drives and should have replaced
the monitor and keyboard on mine.

 

Ok, well, maybe the motor was for that hyperbolic effect. Just to say that
the thing looks big and heavy. It really does have 3 fold-out 19"
monitors, though. no exaggeration. The site says it weighs 60 lbs.
http://www.maxvision.com/ruggedcomputers/maxpac8220xra1.cfm

Well, they're small enough for sure (http://www.nano-system.com/), but it
looks like their meant for data collection or something.

Yeah, I think about that every time I try to put 2 usb connectors into the
back of my computer. The connectors are too big (or the sockets on the
computer are too close together).

Only if I can't avoid it. The old 2000 Pontiac has 140,000 miles on it
because I don't like to fly. I still wind up flying about once a year just
to remind myself why I don't like airports (I love flying, it's airports I
don't like).


Matt

 

Put the whole thing in a small carryon bag with wheels and you can take
your whole office with you including a thermos of coffee.

 

The best you can do in a Dell M60/M70 is a 2.0GHz Pentium. In the
Shuttle you can put a 64 bit AMD and be twice as fast. The Dell laptops
have a 15" screen. A 17" LCD is luggable. The Dell laptops have a
maximum of 80 Mb. The Shuttle can be setup with much larger hard drives
and can have RAID 0 or 1. 2 Gig of Ram in the laptop will cost $800+,
while in the Shuttle about $400.

 

Unfortunately, there are those of us that work for institutions that will
only buy from large suppliers like Dell, HP, or IBM. The small companies
such as Boxx or Alienware are not an option.

Ken

 

I don't work for an "institution" in the normal sense at least, but I
buy from Dell for the same reason I buy Apple PowerBooks...a 3 year
warranty.

As good as Apple & Dell are, I have maybe 1 out of 2 laptops needs
something fixed under warranty and in a couple cases with Dell and a
couple with Apple, they were LCD screen, graphics card, cabling issues
that would be prohibitively expensive to repair without the $300
warranty.

I basically figure on selling my laptops at 2 years while there's still
a warranty on them, and trading up.

I too wish there were a better solution in the offing, and I do hear
Dell is going to offer a 17" screen (copying Apple's size which I
happen to love for working on text, images, and spreadsheets all at
once.)

I can live with the laptop slowdowns when they ocurr in my work, in
return for portability without being obnoxious. But then again, I
don't design steam traction engines on my laptop either.

Bo

 

I am still running a used Sager I picked up a few years ago. The only
problem I have had is cat fur in the fan or CFIF. It has been to three
SWW and been through lots of evening school sessions as well as a lot
of work in the office. Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

IMHO OEMs buy cheap to sell cheap. They then offer good warranties to
keep the goodwill factor high enough that people will buy.

 

Hi Matt,

What I was meaning to say was the Mini ITX or Nano ITX chassis.

This was that thing that was talked about a month or so ago.

Google Nano ITX or Mini ITX.

I found a Via Technologies among others that have good pentiums (work
station quality) available. It looks like a tree & graphics card might
be needed, but I looks possible wihtout a lot of strange compromises.
My guess is that it about a $2500-3000? solution once you get a flat
screen, itx computer & video card.

Worth a look -

Please buy me one too - they are small, but not before you get a new
car (geo metro still cranks for me).



Later,

Sean

 

Careful comparing chips based on clock speed. The processor in an M60
is NOT a Pentium 2Ghz. Intel stopped playing the Ghz game a while ago
and switched to new nomenclature.It's a Pentium M 760. Benchmarks seem
to show it as about equivalent to a Pentium 4 3Ghz.

My experience with a Dell M60 with the 2Ghz Pentium M has been
excellent for Solidworks. The display is top notch resolution
(1920x1200 Native). If your eyes are good you don't even need an
external monitor!

-Mike

 

Just to clarify a bit on Dell's M60 (& now M70) resolution. I use the
1900 pixel option, but there are 2 other lower resolution screens
available for less money or if you have trouble with the hi-res screen.

I would much rather get a specific pair of screen glasses, if needed to
work on the 1900 pixel screen as opposed to going to lower resolution,
though.

Bo

 

My company just picked up and HP 8240 mobile workstation and it seems
to be running great. I upgraded the RAM to 1.5 GB and solidworks
2005SP03 runs great on it. The firegl graphics works very well.

The unit physically is very light as well.

 

Yeah, I checked out all the conventional stuff, and it all looked, well,
conventional. I needed something portable that was more "workstation"
than "laptop". Without going to a quirky lunchbox computer or with a
piece-parts micro, the Boxx seems to be the $h!t.


hp = 15.4" screen
boxx = 17" widescreen

hp = Pentium M processor
boxx = P4 workstation processor

hp = 533 MHz fsb
boxx = 800 MHz fsb

hp = ATI Fire GL V5000 w/ 128 Mb
boxx = nVidia Quadro FX Go1400 w/ 256 Mb

hp = max 2 Gb RAM
boxx = max 4 Gb RAM (dual channel)

hp = 90 watt adapter
boxx = 180 watt adapter

hp = 5.8 + lbs
box = 11 + lbs(!?!)

 

I looked at the Alienware, and as a company they looked highly gamer
oriented, enough to scare me away when buying something for CAD. I went
with Boxx because they are pretty much focussed on 3D modeling, and
understand what you're talking about. In fact, someone else pointed out
that Boxx uses SolidWorks to design Boxxes. The Alienware stuff reminds
me of Batman body armor. Their tech support is called "AlienAutopsy".
Gives me the jitters.

Hypersonic also seems to be a game box company. For $450 Hypersonic
will give your laptop a cute paint job, and even paint your mouse to
match ;o) Hell, I could probably get the picture of the busty broad
with the polar bear that's on the side of my 1978 conversion van painted
on my laptop! Hypersonic was also the only one to allow you to order
without a preinstalled OS. I asked the folks at Boxx and they gave me
the standard party line. Plus you can get an additional Gb of PC4200
ddr2-533 RAM for only $187. Pretty good deal.

Sager and Eurocom allow you to select a processor with 2Mb L2 cache, the
others only 1 Mb. Boxx, Hypersonic and Eurocom allow you to select up
to 4 Gb RAM, the others only 2.

All configured the same, built from the same Clevo chassis, here's how
the pricing works out (after rebates):

Eurocom $4224
Boxx $3949
Sager $3395 (after $500 rebate)
Alienware $3376 (after $600 rebate)
Hypersonic $3241 (no rebate or paint job)

Two weeks ago when I placed the order, the rebates weren't there...
Anyway. Knowing what I know now, I would likely go with the Sager with
the bigger L2 cache. One sure way to find a sale is to actually put
your money down on something.

 

I really don't understand this phenomenon. Who gives a rip what your
computer looks like. I needed a fan to cool the memory in one of my
machines and borrowed one from my son. I was embarrassed because the
fan was illuminated with blue LEDs. My son just spent the better part
of a day sanding the paint off his case so he could paint it something
"cool". He is learning a little about computers too, but the emphasis
is on looks, not performance. At school he had to take Informatics
which appeared to be a course in using MicroSoft Office without really
learning anything substantive.

Lets start an Engimatics school. You get a white shirt, tie, pocket
protector, .5mm mechanical pencil, a Starret 6" rule, "Being a Nerd for
Dummies" and an official looking diploma for $29.95.

 

At meetings, all must wear dark pants, preferably brown polyester with a
plain long sleve shirt, sleeves buttoned down. And a wide tie at least
20 years old.

$450 for a paintjob on a laptop seems, well, pointless to me. But then
so do those mufflers that make little Hondas sound like a bad lawnmower.
I guess I'm just too old to understand.