Do it all Laptop?

[Harry182]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times but I can't find any recent threads...

I seem to take work home with me at the moment and I'm looking at getting a laptop so I'm not confined to the computer room at home...

So what's out there? My main worry is that I want one that will keep up with me... I press a lot of buttons quickly and am in and out of multiple programmes running all at the same time. I mainly use Corel draw.

As this will be coming out of my own pocket, It would be nice if I could maybe play a couple games on it like GTA, watch movies online and be able to connect another screen to it or a TV.

Would a gaming laptop be any good for Corel draw or not?

Are the touch screens realistacly worth looking at or is it a bit of a fad?

Thanks for all your help in advance

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times but I can't find any recent threads...

I seem to take work home with me at the moment and I'm looking at getting a laptop so I'm not confined to the computer room at home...

So what's out there? My main worry is that I want one that will keep up with me... I press a lot of buttons quickly and am in and out of multiple programmes running all at the same time. I mainly use Corel draw.

As this will be coming out of my own pocket, It would be nice if I could maybe play a couple games on it like GTA, watch movies online and be able to connect another screen to it or a TV.

Would a gaming laptop be any good for Corel draw or not?

Are the touch screens realistacly worth looking at or is it a bit of a fad?

Thanks for all your help in advance

I had a gaming laptop and used it for sign design for a while. I quit using it and went to a smaller IBM Thinkpad because I needed portability. It had an 18" screen which I loved for design, was blazing fast. The only issue was it wasn't very portable! I mainly was confined to a table. As far as can a gaming laptop do it and do it well, YES! But you may sacrifice portability with some larger models.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Would a gaming laptop be any good for Corel draw or not?

Technically a gaming rig is fine. Just load it up with as much resources as you can afford.

The thing is CAD programs and gaming require different needs from their video cards, their ram, processors etc that they are at opposing ends for efficiency. It will work, but it's best to just "brute force" it by loading it up with all that you can afford.

My main design station has a xeon processor and ECC ram. Good for CAD work (everything from vector work (Ai), animations, to embroidery digitizing). Not exactly the best for gaming. And I do on occasion like my ME games. It'll work, don't get me wrong, but but there more efficient rigs for gaming that can get away with less resources, just geared more to gaming.

When you are trying to do a one size fits all, some compromises are made. It can be done, just not going to be the pinnacle for any one application.

Are the touch screens realistacly worth looking at or is it a bit of a fad?

I like them, I prefer my stylus when doing work, but it has it's uses for general computing. Depending on the game, it can come in handy as well, if it's optimized for touch screen.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I had a gaming laptop and used it for sign design for a while. I quit using it and went to a smaller IBM Thinkpad because I needed portability. It had an 18" screen which I loved for design, was blazing fast. The only issue was it wasn't very portable! I mainly was confined to a table. As far as can a gaming laptop do it and do it well, YES! But you may sacrifice portability with some larger models.

I had a Toshiba Quismio (sp?) that was 18". Had to use a backpack when I was on the road. Had a 12WX monitor for all my design work. Had great screen real estate, but it was a hoss to lug around.

My Cintiq Companion is better for portability, but it's only 13", so it took some getting used to.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I had a Toshiba Quismio (sp?) that was 18". Had to use a backpack when I was on the road. Had a 12WX monitor for all my design work. Had great screen real estate, but it was a hoss to lug around.

My Cintiq Companion is better for portability, but it's only 13", so it took some getting used to.

Haha, I had the Toshiab Quismio too! Was embarrassed to say that because it was a ... Toshiba! But yes the thing weighed a TON, had a power supply that was as big as a brick, and the fans could heat up a whole room. Screen size was great though. Had an i7, Blu-Ray drive, really good speakers too but it was just too much of a beast!

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Haha, I had the Toshiab Quismio too! Was embarrassed to say that because it was a ... Toshiba!

Don't knock Toshiba now. I've got a Sat. Pro that has Win 95 on it and will still run. We got it new.