Little help please!!!

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#1

I am new here. In fact this is my first post. To tell the truth, I know almost nothing about CG, I just fell in love with it.

I’m getting started in CG and writing. I’m having a little trouble finding a laptop that I can work on my CG, and my writing. Any ideas? It needs to be small enough to fit in my back pack and have a very long battery life. I have asked other people and they always recomended the huge laptops.

I found this really cool tablet computer, but everyone that had one, hated them :confused: Help please!!!

#2

Hi Livingmylegacy! Welcome to the forum! :smiley: You’ve definitely come to the right place if you’re a CG enthusiast!(= I’ve loved animation all my life so it lead me to study animation, so I can give you my two cents on a laptop to suite your needs. I’m not too tech saavy and I don’t own a laptop, but I could suggest a MacBook. Many of my friends use MacBook/Pros and so far I haven’t heard many bad things about it. I realise that Macs are pricey, and I do admit they are sometimes overrated, but I work on an iMac G5 and I love it! Possibly because it runs faster than my PC, but I think my multimedia applications run more smoothly on it too. I also appreciate how the workspace makes it easy to multi task several projects at once. I haven’t got my hands on a system parallels program yet, but you can also run windows on it once you get the software.

Another advantage I think, is that there aren’t as many virus’ (so far) that are applicable to Macs than there are to PC, which makes me feel less insecure when I surf the web. However, the problem that I fear is because Macs are becoming more popular, I’m sure there are evil people out there trying to form new virus’s to attack macs!

On the other hand, I would say that PC’s are much easier and I think slightly cheaper to upgrade, and with the rapid upgrade of technology, it’s hard to say when you’ll want/need to upgrade next!

Welp, that’s just my two cents but I hope it was helpful! Best of luck with your laptop hunting!(=

#3

Thank you soooooooo much! My mom is sorta a designer. She designs menus and invites and things like that and she doesn’t have a clue what I need.

Any thoughts on tablet computers?

#4

Macs. Pshhhh. :smiley:

What sorta programs are you talking about using? Photoshop work or are you using 3D modeling stuff? A current decent spec would be an Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, and any dedicated Nvidia video card. If you’re doing 3d then bump the ram to 4GB, and a top line Nvidia video card.

I’m partial to Dell laptops, myself. Always been happy with their laptops, and if you go Apple then (though I’m sure you’re aware) you’re paying almost twice what Dell can do.

There’s many people who like tablet it just takes some getting used to and the right software. Why not go to a store and try one out?

#5

Thanks. I don’t know what I have right now, my mom bought a CG program for me. So I don’t know what the heck I’m doing!

#6

I definitely agree with what Fett101 said. You should go to a store to try out the computers for yourself, a sort-of “try before you buy” aspect. I know that at an Apple store, they have tons of computers out for you to tap into. (Not to mention laptops.) That’s the only sure-fire way to find one that works for you.

I, myself, would recommend a MacBook Pro for intensive graphic design and animation. I wouldn’t suggest buying RAM from Apple, though. My suggestion is to buy a standard MacBook Pro, if you can afford it, and then upgrading the memory yourself by getting it from a 3rd party site. I recommend www.ramjet.com . Cheap memory. However, a MacBook would work just as well if that’s all you can afford right now.

I’m not such a big PC user, so I can’t recommend a good PC to try out. Like I said before, you should go to a computer store and try out the laptops for yourself. Start at an Apple store and work your way over to a… “PC” store like BestBuy. They almost always have some sitting out for you to try, and if you speak with a salesmen about exactly what you want, he/she should be able to help out.

Again, I’m not certain what you’re planning to do with a computer. I mean, if all else fails, I would recommend a gaming PC (laptop). You’d be able to play games and take advantage of the extra memory for CG animation and design. I would tell you to look at Alienware, but their setups are pretty expensive.

I’m a Mac user, so I’ll naturally want to go with a Mac. But I realize they can be expense. For a baseline, I’d say the lowest MacBook you can get will probably get you where you need to go… just a little slower.

By the way, can I ask what your budget is for something like this? Is your mom only wanting to spend like $1,500? This would help me in giving you a more accurate response, but again, I’m not a professional. Like I said before, just go in an Apple store/PC store and talk to a salesmen if I’m not helping you out at all. :wink:

I hope at least some of this giant text wall helped you out. :smiley:

#7

My moms not buying it, I am. I have saved $1000. Not alot, but I worked for it. I’m going to get a job and get more so that I can get a really good computer.