64 bit laptop

Discuss stuff not about Indigo.
pxl666
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Post by pxl666 » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:32 am

anyway - good laptop beats desktop cos its mobile...relatively powerful desktop is just waaaay cheaper these days...but i prefer to spend more money and have things that last longer. its a shame that vista is sooo crappy...we just need more xp64 support!! (drivers)

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zsouthboy
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Post by zsouthboy » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:46 am

pxl666 wrote:anyway - good laptop beats desktop cos its mobile...relatively powerful desktop is just waaaay cheaper these days...but i prefer to spend more money and have things that last longer. its a shame that vista is sooo crappy...we just need more xp64 support!! (drivers)
Agreed.

Dell, of course, pretend XP 64 doesn't exist on their consumer line.

So for both XP 64 laptops (I have a 1501, as well), I ended up finding out what bluetooth/wireless card/ etc etc, and going to dell's Professional line (Precision) driver downloads, to get XP64 drivers.

Ubuntu, of course, is LESS of a problem to find 64-bit drivers for, because... you can just recompile them.

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cookieofdoom
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Post by cookieofdoom » Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:06 am

My understanding is that 64 bit is really only worth it inn Windows if you have over 3GB of RAM, and in Linux if you have over 4GB of RAM (you can compile a 32 bit kernel to run with 4GB in Linux, but that's the limit). I've seen performance (not in indigo) drop on computers with 2GB RAM trying to run 64 bit operating systems.

If you want to render, Thinkpads are really good. I have a 2ghz Core2Duo and my CPU rarely gets up over 60C, that's amazing for a laptop... and it's got a 12 inch screen. Something with a larger screen would tend to run cooler since they have more room. If you want to model on the laptop, get something with an Nvidia or ATI card. Preferably with dedicated RAM. I don't do any modeling on my laptop so the intel onboard were just fine (enough for compiz fusion, lol). Thinkpads also have great Linux support.

BbB
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Post by BbB » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:43 pm

Now I'm confused. It seems indeed that NO (and I mean NO) laptop comes loaded with a 64-bit OS (Vista or otherwise), even those with 4gigs of RAM.

Yet the T8000 or T9000 are 64-bit processors, aren't they? (real question here, not rhetorical, even it sounds silly).

So if yes, why only pre-install 32-bit on these high-end laptops?
And how hard would it be to install a 64-bit Vista on a T900/4Gig laptop and try to find all the drivers for everything, ranging from wireless card to built-in webcam? And failing that, would it be possible to install the 64-bit OS alongside the pre-installed 32-bit OS on such a machine?

Sorry, so many stupid questions but I really am a tech-idiot.

pxl666
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Post by pxl666 » Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:27 am

BbB wrote:Now I'm confused. It seems indeed that NO (and I mean NO) laptop comes loaded with a 64-bit OS (Vista or otherwise), even those with 4gigs of RAM.

Yet the T8000 or T9000 are 64-bit processors, aren't they? (real question here, not rhetorical, even it sounds silly).

So if yes, why only pre-install 32-bit on these high-end laptops?
And how hard would it be to install a 64-bit Vista on a T900/4Gig laptop and try to find all the drivers for everything, ranging from wireless card to built-in webcam? And failing that, would it be possible to install the 64-bit OS alongside the pre-installed 32-bit OS on such a machine?

Sorry, so many stupid questions but I really am a tech-idiot.
afaik m$hit is pushing his buggy vista as much as possible and there is no much support regarding xp64 . why manufacturers prefer to squeeze 32bit os into 64bit machines ? probably because of problems with drivers. its hard or even impossible to find many drivers for many hardware (even graphic cards) that work with xp64 - i found myself a modded (somewhat cracked) version of nvidia graphic driver and this was the only way to get this card to work (geforce 7900GS - no third party bullshit here) so - apart of m$ bullshitting there is serious lack of support from nvidia side. u can also try to install xp64 over factory install of vista or xp32 but u'll be lucky to find all those wifi network , chipset or webcam hardware drivers...
cheers

oh - and pcmicroworks Black-Hawk XR5 17" Super Notebook has xp64 for choice of OS - along with vista 64 ultimate (and it goes with quad , three HDDs two GF8800 and 8GBs of memory!!!!!)- so no problem here my friend BbB!!!

Components:
**NEW** Intel® XEON QUAD X3360 (2.83GHz/45nm/1333MHz/12MB)
**NEW** 8192MB High Speed DDR2 Extreme Performance Memory
600GB @ 21,600RPM SATA300 Storage RAID 0 (3 x 200GB 7200RPM)
No External Storage
**SALE** 50GB HD Blu-Ray-RW / DVD-RW / CD-RW DL Next Gen. Burner
SLI Dual nVIDIA Geforce 8800M GTX 1GB DDR3 X-TREME GPU
17" HD WUXGA+ 1920x1200 Ultra Resolution Matte Non-Gloss Wide Screen Cinema Display
8 Channel Advanced SRS WOW Surround Sound System
High Speed 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Networking Adapter
Internal High Speed V90k Dial Up Modem
Built In 802.11ABG 54mbps High Speed Wireless Adapter
Integrated Advanced Bluetooth v2.0 Wireless Adapter
No EVDO (Evolution Data Only) High Speed Internet Connection
Included USB GPS Location Technology Adapter
No TV Tuner
No Floppy Drive
No Extra Mouse
Included USB Biometric FingerPrint Scanner
Slim Profile Media Center PC Remote
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No Notebook Security
No Laptop Cooler
No Extra AC Adapter
No Extra Battery
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No Burning or DVD Software
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Standard Limited 1 Year Warranty Coverage
No Office Productivity Package
Standard Anodized Charcoal Brushed Aluminum Top

Total Price: $6810




one more thing - even core 2 duo (T7400) is a 64bit processor

BbB
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Post by BbB » Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:55 am

But how come finding 64-bit drivers is so difficult?

I mean I'm running Vista 64bit on my desktop and I have yet to find a single 32-bit app that doesn't work on it...

pxl666
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Post by pxl666 » Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:07 am

BbB wrote:But how come finding 64-bit drivers is so difficult?

I mean I'm running Vista 64bit on my desktop and I have yet to find a single 32-bit app that doesn't work on it...
i had many problems with laptop hardware and im sure ull find some on the desktop platform, not many maybe and it depends on ur hardware - but ull find some for sure

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Heavily Tessellated
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Post by Heavily Tessellated » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:18 am

64-bit. All the recent processors from Intel have been 64-bit... from Prescott on... for mobiles it's been from Celeron M. Today's machines will be Meron or Penryn Core 2 Duos. Definitely 64-bit.

As to why they don't ship them with 64-bit OS installed, how many people are buying PCs just to edit their myspace page, google classmates, and pirate some porn? They don't know nor care about the techy crap. They want to sell stability, not ability. And the 32-bit drivers are a lot more solid and widely available for more hardware. Some of the biggest problems moving to 64-bit systems is that there's always one piece, usually critical to what you want to do, that there's no 64-bit driver for yet. Like any recordist using MOTU or M-Audio cards. Both are now shipping stable or beta drivers for most of their products, it was just an example of one of MY roadblocks to 64-bit XP in '06.

But as cookieofdoom mentions, the most important specification for your Indigo (and therefore, modelling) laptop hasn't been stressed enough:

BE SURE TO GET A DEDICATED GRAPHICS CARD. This is paramount.

If you land a high-end Santa Rosa based Merom or Penryn lappy (or E/Q series desktop dual/quad cores in Clevo suitcase radiators calling themselves "laptops") chances are you'll also land an nVidia or ATI chip with it's own dedicated DDR3+ RAM. But if you're looking in the sub-$2000usd, be very careful - shared memory graphics solutions are orders of magnitude slower than dedicated.

Case in point: On my G2S Santa Rosa T7800 PM965 ICH8 1920x1200 17" AU Optronics dual backlight, 8ms, 650:1, 440 cd/m² panel (like zsouthboy, can't LIVE without it - it puts 99% of laptops to shame and most desktops, gorgeous calibrated bright color, on the go!) I can get 50k+ verts on-screen and still manipulate the scene quite well. and it's just a lowly 256M GeForce 8600 GTm. But it's a dedicated 256M.

Yet , on my six-month-older T5500 GM945 ICH7 1280x800 15.4" Seiko panel with a shared x16 PCIe Intel GMA950, Blender barely runs. 1000 verts is impossible, 2 seconds of lag for a screen update! It does some DirectX stuff quite well, and as a office or productivity machine it screams along, even benchmarks well for it's category... but OpenGL is painfully, pitifully slow.

Makes a great network render slave. And that's sad.

pxl666
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Post by pxl666 » Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:46 am

honestly? - i can say that one needs 64bit os (at those days - regarding 64 apps development and 64 drivers support) ONLY, and ONLY if one has more than 3 GB of ram...and has app that WILL use it...so not too many ppl wants these fireworks of 64...

BbB
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Post by BbB » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:45 pm

OK, I've finally made up my mind. This beast here...

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B001CC6ZT0

... arrived home yesterday, financed by some freelance work I did over the summer. 2x2.6Ghz, 4G of RAM. The GPU allows me to move 2m polys in Blender in textured view with things barely slowing down. ZBrush runs smoothly with an 8m-poly mesh. and the best is, the machine comes with Vista 64 bits. So I'm going to go 64bit-only now with Indigo, since both my modelling and rendering machines now support it.

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