It's a blog, about something I felt some readers would find interesting. If you're thinking about getting a new DTR, wouldn't you like to know that Core i7 models are shipping in a month or so? I would.
bhigh is absolutely right, that this is a purchased ad. Nothing more. Just like that coworker of yours pumping Quad Socket AMD on propriatary DDR3 platform against Dual Socket Nehalem.
It is a fluff. There is no technical intelligence putting a 130W TDP i7 and dual GTX280s into a laptop, unless you enjoy having 300W of heat on your lap, slowing burning your balls dry. Last bunch of DTR from Clevo all didn't last that long in terms of life expectancy. And that was only 95W TDP Core 2 Quads.
Even then, Eurocom tried to purchase some fame here claiming that they got the fastest laptop. That's not true. It is simply a Clevo barebone kit. All they do is pop in an Intel chip that they shouldn't have considered in a laptop in the first place.
Seriously, being an anandtech reader since the beginning, WTH is Anand Lai Shimpi doing these days allowing incompetent idiots writing crap on the website, totally destroying the anandtech brand name.
I sure would love to see all the money I got paid for posting this. I don't expect every person to find every article I/we write interesting, but I can assure that I didn't receive one cent from Eurocom for writing this. I got the press announcement, and I felt it was interesting enough that I as the laptop editor decided to post a blog on it. There are five paragraphs written by me, in which I clearly state that this is a Clevo unit; it just happens to be the first anyone has told me about the upcoming laptop.
Considering I am working on wrapping up a Toshiba X305-725 review in which I conclude that the performance offered for the price isn't enough to make me recommend it over a Clevo D901C, and that Clevo is now releasing the D900F, anyone interested in a large DTR would likely find this piece of information helpful. (I'm sure you'll hate the X305 as well, which is fine.) As I state in the very first sentence, the number of people that are really interested in that sort of system is going to be extremely small - I'd bet less than 1% of laptop owners would ever consider such a design. But 1% of millions of laptops means there are still tens of thousands of potential customers.
Would I recommend such a laptop in general? Nope, absolutely not. But if you want the fastest portable system around, this is currently as "good" as it gets. Hooray for 240W laptops!
Err, so what if it's one of the 3? Regulars would like to see what's new without wading around every section, and it'll get bumped when the next article comes along.
I figure people might miss it if it's hanging out below, so I "promoted" it for a couple days - pending posting of a different article. Some people just want to read something new, whether it be a full review or not. I did demote it yesterday after two days up there. Again, whether or not you're interested in such a laptop, I think it's interesting enough news for the target market that it's worth posting. A Core i7 "mobile workstation" would definitely interest certain users. In fact, I know some people that would deal with a 15+ pound notebook (plus power brick) if they could get a top-end GPU in there, like the GTX 280 stuff (no, not the 280M).
How often would you need to hook up more than that on the go? And when using it at your desk it is more convenient to have all your USB accessories plugged into a hub and only one cable to plug into the computer, instead of several.
For my next power laptop for games I'd be happy with the following:
64 bit OS
Intel's 32nm Mobile Nehalem (quad core)
4 GB RAM
Fastest Nvidia Mobile graphics card at the time (forget SLI in laptops at the moment, makes them too bulky)
2 x fast Raid 0/1 SSD drives (Even <160GB would be fine. If I want more, I'll hook it up to an external drive at slower speed.)
17" screen with maybe DVI & HDMI external outputs, for playing TV & movies on PC
Good audio chip on mainboard
12 cell battery
Slim and as light as you can get it with a nice keyboard as well.
holy craptastic... four fans or not, could you imagine trying to use that on your lap? forget your legs, can you imagine using this on most surfaces? platic, wood, it looks like it may well burn, bubble or peel anything but a metal desk surface. But hey, if you live in a hella cold environment you have a space heater and a notebook built into a single device...
You might want to look at the results of our [l=D901C testing]http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=339...[l]. I didn't record temperatures, but the D901C was noticeably cooler than the other gaming notebooks. Why? It's simply so large that it's more like a micro-ATX than a laptop. Those four heatsinks for the CPU, chipset, and GPUs are about twice the size of cooling solutions on other gaming notebooks, and they really do get the job done.
Now, I'm *NOT* saying you want to run with this thing sitting on your lap; like any high-end notebook, that can get very warm. However, given the choice between putting the Alienware m15x and the D901C on my lap, if we're just talking about temperatures while running games (or other 3D apps), I'd take the D901C. The D900F should be roughly the same, as it sits in the same thermal/power envelope as the previous model.
this is an idiotic machine, and for those of you who think that eurocom is a european company, it is not. it's actually canadian, so don't hold this idiocy against us... blame canada.
as for why it is idiotic:
- core i7: many laptops will have this in a few months
- 64-bit and multiple operating system support: pretty much every computer sold in the last couple of years has this.
- GTX280M: a rebranded G92, not a G200 derivative.
- bluray burner: can already get this now
- gigabit onboard LAN: why is this even mentioned?? of course it's gigabit (like most PCs these days) and evidently it's onboard...
- I/O ports: looks like a pretty standard selection to me
- "excellent" wireless is really the same as everyone else's wireless
- "Internal battery allows uninterrupted operation in case of power failure": ah so THAT is what that battery in my toshiba is for! i never knew! thank you for clearing that up!
i'm gonna go browse the arima/compal sites now to see if i can find the OEM chassis this thing is surely built into.
Alright then, numbnuts. Why exactly is it idiotic? Your little list of what other laptops also offer doesnt cut it because that is true for any fucking laptop/notebook out there. Any real arguments?
I stopped taking you seriously after the "blame canada" part. For someone who think he's so smart WTH are you spending precious time trying to justify why this is idiotic anyway??
The mobile market will likely get Nehalem based mobile chips from Intel within the year, even on 32nm manufacturing lines. So the TDP of the chips will likely be within 35W unlike the 130W TDP of the i7 or 60,80,95W of the Xeons.
This isn't a gaming platform. Stuffing 2x GPUs on the go is freaking stupid. I do see the Clavo D900F as the engineering platform for those of you who can't wait for Intel's 32nm Mobile Nehalem derivatives. Even then, there is only one CPU from Intel's Nehalem line that makes sense, the Xeon L5520 at 60W TDP. This is the sweetest chip from Intel's current lineup and I do expect the chip to be in very short supply.
Wait till christmas this year, you will likely get dual channel DDR3-1333 based mobile Nehalem for 35W TDPs.
Go to Ava Direct if you want the chassis,I'm sure they have it. However, as for the four fans and the GPU you'll probably have to work that out solo. I imagine the I7 MB and laptop capable CPU would be the hardest part to get. Of course it does look like there doing a desktop direct adaptation. The thing that would worry me would be the cooling of it all. Rofl and as for the memory my Gateway FX 7811 supports it, of course I may have to crack the bios to get it to run at full speed. Of course that's not really a major task these days. I don't really see the use in having this much in a laptop when there are less pricey units that can do it. Heck if I upped my CPU and installed the max supportable ram and flipped the drivers on my 9800 GTS to the workstation model gpu driver mine would come close, but it is'nt dual GPU! I see this thing mostly as a waste though. Think about it grab a transportable HD throw your files onn it and go to the clients office and load it up on the engineering workstation you could most likely even port it to a bigger screen, most offices are setup for that now with a projector and a drop down screen like you saw in high school what 15 years ago. I see this as an extravagant joke mainly!
It's a Clevo D900F chassis, as mentioned in at least two places, so AVA Direct and a bunch of other places will have it as an option as well. The majority clearly think this is a waste, but with Quadro cards, dual-link DVI, 12GB RAM, and a Core i7 this would easily be the fastest mobile workstation presently in production. It may be that only .1% of computer users need something like that, but that's still potentially thousands of sales... all at a nice price because of the target market.
I also don't think anyone actually doing professional level work for their job (Pro/E, SolidWorks, etc.) is going to be interested in running hacked drivers that may or may not cause issues. I can just see some company charging millions of dollars to a client telling their IT department to "just get a cheap Gateway laptop and install the hacked Quadro drivers... it will save us over $1000!"
"grab a transportable HD throw your files on it and go to the clients office and load it up on the engineering workstation you could most likely even port it to a bigger screen..."
What happens if you happen to be visiting a client and you want to show them a demo, and they don't use the same software? Or perhaps they're not an engineering firm and they're using you for exactly that reason. "Hey, you guys got a workstation with AutoCAD on it so I can show you the schematics?" "Uh... what's AutoCAD? We hired you because we don't do this sort of thing." "Oh, well then let me see if I can just get a pirated version off the 'net...." Or they might be using version 8.1 and you're running the latest 10.0 release, so the files aren't backwards compatible. Or you load it up on their system and for some unknown reason it crashes.
Hooking up a laptop to a projector or large screen in a conference room is a ton easier than lugging a workstation in there. Moreover, if you're doing an important presentation, the last thing you want is for some unforeseen issue with the computer to cause the whole thing to blow up in your face. As someone that supported some very demanding upper management folks over the years, you do NOT take chances on that sort of thing. You test it on your own computer, make sure everything works fine, and you don't suddenly decide to use a different PC at the last minute. I had a VP screaming at me because the laptop he was going to use for a presentation went belly-up a few hours before he was scheduled to go live... and that was just a silly PowerPoint file that ran without a hitch on a different laptop. When someone earns well into the six figure range, a $5000 mobile workstation that helps them do their job better, purchased once every 2-3 years, is hardly a major expenditure.
That is why I also mentioned a portable hard drive. You can get them with 1 -1.5 TB now so you could load Auto Cad your project a shadow copy of your desktop if you want and it is much lighter and if you plug it into a USb or external sata port bam there's everything you need. If it is all preloaded it should work fine. Buying this laptop for autocad is ridiculous any way. The video cards unless there professional level cards won't run autocad or anything for design. Unless that is you upgrade the cards after purchase, which voids your warranty, or you have the building oem do it (probably 3-7 thousand dollar upgrade depending on how deep the oe wants to rip you), or use the secondary drivers. Oh and by the way you don't have to use hacked drivers, just so you know most top level gaming cards by Nvidia will run the drivers stock of Nvidia professional cards 1 generation back. The only thing you have to do is unload current and install them you can even then go update them to current drivers on many no hacking needed.
The laptop does offer Quadro cards as an option, which would satisfy the GPU requirement. A single Quadro 3700M on the older model is around $800 it looks like, so two would be $1600 (though I don't know if most professional apps would even benefit from dual GPUs).
I'm not sure what you mean by loading AutoCAD onto an external HDD, though. Normally you have to install programs in Windows to get them to work; wouldn't using various utilities to install AutoCAD onto an external drive that would then work with other PCs violate the license agreement?
As an engineer that also has to travel to manufacturing plants, this would be quite welcome.
You wouldn’t really need RAID or 1.5TB of storage, or SLI for that matter, but just being able to sit down with manufacturing engineers at the factory and loading up a complete assembly in Pro/E to discuss design issues would be great. And doing something like this with regular laptops can literally bring them to their knees …even if they do have 2 DVI ports and an HDMI connector.
True there are other beefy laptops that can manage, but I wouldn’t kick this out of the cube if IT dropped it off one afternoon.
I wouldn't want to lug this thing on my trips though. My 17" 8lb laptop is heavy enough after a long period of travel time :) All I really need to load those cad files is a good GPU, the rest are speedy and powerful enough :)
The blurb you have says "dvi ports" but there is only one in the pictures.
There is a dvi port and a legacy vga port.
Disappointing that a laptop with so much graphics power still has only one digital video output, when 2*dvi or dvi+hdmi is standard on even basic desktop PCs these days.
http://anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=6106">http://anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=6106 .... You have the latest and greatest NV mobile GPUs in SLI and you get to experience all of their powerful glory in VGA!!! WOOO! Sign me up for 3. At least it has a parallel printer port tho. That way you can print those CAD drawings you're supposedly working on with your handy portable dot matrix printer. Some of the design choices here just boggle me.
Actually, for $3K it darn well better have a parallel port. The thing about a laptop for serious use in the field is, if what you have in front of you is a printer with only a parallel port and you NEED to print, well...
USB to parallel adapters are available and cheap, if you need an old parallel port. Most printers I've used in the past 5+ years are either USB or networked.
Yeah my bad. From that angle it looked like it was a much wider port than DVI. Also the article states: "Multiple I/O Ports:...serial and parallel ports..." Guess the serial port is that giant orifice next to the DVI. Still a funky location for the DVI considering the VGA port is on the other side. Then there's the complete lack of HDMI/DisplayPort options as well. Looks like there's SVideo in and then a separate one for out in the back corner and...is that a CableTV antennae coax screw? Guess so since it says optional TV tuner. Still, plain weirdness on their I/O options in my opinion.
World's Most Expensive Boat Anchor is more like it. This is a laptop for people looking to waste some money - if you need to do CAD on a laptop, you get a W500/W700, or a Precision M.
I'd hesitate to even call it a laptop. A 1hr battery is pretty much useless. It's more like an all-in-one desktop that happens to have a folding screen. When I worked in construction, we just had a Presario R3000 in the site office so yes, this is overkill for most applications. It would be useful though in a plant setting or for journalists who need to edit a lot of uncompressed HD video on the go.
Actually at my company I purchase such laptops for our key developers.
Why?
Because they use them to demonstrate products to our vendors....as part of technology show...or just use them when on the ferry going to-from home.
Heck, one dev is a 5ft nothing, 90lb former ballerina... she LOVES her "mobile workstation". It's funny to see her walking around with it...it's about 1/2 her size...heh.
These machines are capable of running VMs effeciently, which easily justifies the cost....
For home use?...only people with money to blow.... but for business users with a need...heck yeah.
I cant even think of how much overkill this thing is. Its pretty ugly too. I'm not a pretty button kind of guy but when things like keyboard layout hinder productivity on something I paid 4k usd for. Clearly I'm just as crazy as the company making and designing the board.
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bhigh - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
This seems more like a paid ad than an actual article. What's the point of "reviewing" a system if you only regurgitate the press release?JarredWalton - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
It's a blog, about something I felt some readers would find interesting. If you're thinking about getting a new DTR, wouldn't you like to know that Core i7 models are shipping in a month or so? I would.tshen83 - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
bhigh is absolutely right, that this is a purchased ad. Nothing more. Just like that coworker of yours pumping Quad Socket AMD on propriatary DDR3 platform against Dual Socket Nehalem.It is a fluff. There is no technical intelligence putting a 130W TDP i7 and dual GTX280s into a laptop, unless you enjoy having 300W of heat on your lap, slowing burning your balls dry. Last bunch of DTR from Clevo all didn't last that long in terms of life expectancy. And that was only 95W TDP Core 2 Quads.
Even then, Eurocom tried to purchase some fame here claiming that they got the fastest laptop. That's not true. It is simply a Clevo barebone kit. All they do is pop in an Intel chip that they shouldn't have considered in a laptop in the first place.
Seriously, being an anandtech reader since the beginning, WTH is Anand Lai Shimpi doing these days allowing incompetent idiots writing crap on the website, totally destroying the anandtech brand name.
JarredWalton - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
I sure would love to see all the money I got paid for posting this. I don't expect every person to find every article I/we write interesting, but I can assure that I didn't receive one cent from Eurocom for writing this. I got the press announcement, and I felt it was interesting enough that I as the laptop editor decided to post a blog on it. There are five paragraphs written by me, in which I clearly state that this is a Clevo unit; it just happens to be the first anyone has told me about the upcoming laptop.Considering I am working on wrapping up a Toshiba X305-725 review in which I conclude that the performance offered for the price isn't enough to make me recommend it over a Clevo D901C, and that Clevo is now releasing the D900F, anyone interested in a large DTR would likely find this piece of information helpful. (I'm sure you'll hate the X305 as well, which is fine.) As I state in the very first sentence, the number of people that are really interested in that sort of system is going to be extremely small - I'd bet less than 1% of laptop owners would ever consider such a design. But 1% of millions of laptops means there are still tens of thousands of potential customers.
Would I recommend such a laptop in general? Nope, absolutely not. But if you want the fastest portable system around, this is currently as "good" as it gets. Hooray for 240W laptops!
SpaceRanger - Friday, March 6, 2009 - link
There's a difference to posting a blog about it, and making it one of the 3 main articles on the site.mindless1 - Saturday, March 7, 2009 - link
Err, so what if it's one of the 3? Regulars would like to see what's new without wading around every section, and it'll get bumped when the next article comes along.JarredWalton - Friday, March 6, 2009 - link
I figure people might miss it if it's hanging out below, so I "promoted" it for a couple days - pending posting of a different article. Some people just want to read something new, whether it be a full review or not. I did demote it yesterday after two days up there. Again, whether or not you're interested in such a laptop, I think it's interesting enough news for the target market that it's worth posting. A Core i7 "mobile workstation" would definitely interest certain users. In fact, I know some people that would deal with a 15+ pound notebook (plus power brick) if they could get a top-end GPU in there, like the GTX 280 stuff (no, not the 280M).Slyr762 - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
Only 4 USB ports? Come on, I know my PC is a desktop after all, but I have 8 standard USB ports on my mobo's IO, then 2 on my case, and 2 on my mobo.This laptop is a great paper weight.
Slyr762 - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
when I said "and 2 on my....", I meant keyboard, not mobo. I have 10 total USB ports w/o using a couple pinouts on my mobo.strikeback03 - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
How often would you need to hook up more than that on the go? And when using it at your desk it is more convenient to have all your USB accessories plugged into a hub and only one cable to plug into the computer, instead of several.Azsen - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
For my next power laptop for games I'd be happy with the following:64 bit OS
Intel's 32nm Mobile Nehalem (quad core)
4 GB RAM
Fastest Nvidia Mobile graphics card at the time (forget SLI in laptops at the moment, makes them too bulky)
2 x fast Raid 0/1 SSD drives (Even <160GB would be fine. If I want more, I'll hook it up to an external drive at slower speed.)
17" screen with maybe DVI & HDMI external outputs, for playing TV & movies on PC
Good audio chip on mainboard
12 cell battery
Slim and as light as you can get it with a nice keyboard as well.
TechDicky - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
holy craptastic... four fans or not, could you imagine trying to use that on your lap? forget your legs, can you imagine using this on most surfaces? platic, wood, it looks like it may well burn, bubble or peel anything but a metal desk surface. But hey, if you live in a hella cold environment you have a space heater and a notebook built into a single device...JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
You might want to look at the results of our [l=D901C testing]http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=339...[l]. I didn't record temperatures, but the D901C was noticeably cooler than the other gaming notebooks. Why? It's simply so large that it's more like a micro-ATX than a laptop. Those four heatsinks for the CPU, chipset, and GPUs are about twice the size of cooling solutions on other gaming notebooks, and they really do get the job done.Now, I'm *NOT* saying you want to run with this thing sitting on your lap; like any high-end notebook, that can get very warm. However, given the choice between putting the Alienware m15x and the D901C on my lap, if we're just talking about temperatures while running games (or other 3D apps), I'd take the D901C. The D900F should be roughly the same, as it sits in the same thermal/power envelope as the previous model.
Gul Westfale - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
this is an idiotic machine, and for those of you who think that eurocom is a european company, it is not. it's actually canadian, so don't hold this idiocy against us... blame canada.as for why it is idiotic:
- core i7: many laptops will have this in a few months
- 64-bit and multiple operating system support: pretty much every computer sold in the last couple of years has this.
- GTX280M: a rebranded G92, not a G200 derivative.
- bluray burner: can already get this now
- gigabit onboard LAN: why is this even mentioned?? of course it's gigabit (like most PCs these days) and evidently it's onboard...
- I/O ports: looks like a pretty standard selection to me
- "excellent" wireless is really the same as everyone else's wireless
- "Internal battery allows uninterrupted operation in case of power failure": ah so THAT is what that battery in my toshiba is for! i never knew! thank you for clearing that up!
i'm gonna go browse the arima/compal sites now to see if i can find the OEM chassis this thing is surely built into.
Griswold - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
Alright then, numbnuts. Why exactly is it idiotic? Your little list of what other laptops also offer doesnt cut it because that is true for any fucking laptop/notebook out there. Any real arguments?chrnochime - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
I stopped taking you seriously after the "blame canada" part. For someone who think he's so smart WTH are you spending precious time trying to justify why this is idiotic anyway??tshen83 - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
Very true assessment of the platform.The mobile market will likely get Nehalem based mobile chips from Intel within the year, even on 32nm manufacturing lines. So the TDP of the chips will likely be within 35W unlike the 130W TDP of the i7 or 60,80,95W of the Xeons.
This isn't a gaming platform. Stuffing 2x GPUs on the go is freaking stupid. I do see the Clavo D900F as the engineering platform for those of you who can't wait for Intel's 32nm Mobile Nehalem derivatives. Even then, there is only one CPU from Intel's Nehalem line that makes sense, the Xeon L5520 at 60W TDP. This is the sweetest chip from Intel's current lineup and I do expect the chip to be in very short supply.
Wait till christmas this year, you will likely get dual channel DDR3-1333 based mobile Nehalem for 35W TDPs.
atlmann10 - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
Go to Ava Direct if you want the chassis,I'm sure they have it. However, as for the four fans and the GPU you'll probably have to work that out solo. I imagine the I7 MB and laptop capable CPU would be the hardest part to get. Of course it does look like there doing a desktop direct adaptation. The thing that would worry me would be the cooling of it all. Rofl and as for the memory my Gateway FX 7811 supports it, of course I may have to crack the bios to get it to run at full speed. Of course that's not really a major task these days. I don't really see the use in having this much in a laptop when there are less pricey units that can do it. Heck if I upped my CPU and installed the max supportable ram and flipped the drivers on my 9800 GTS to the workstation model gpu driver mine would come close, but it is'nt dual GPU! I see this thing mostly as a waste though. Think about it grab a transportable HD throw your files onn it and go to the clients office and load it up on the engineering workstation you could most likely even port it to a bigger screen, most offices are setup for that now with a projector and a drop down screen like you saw in high school what 15 years ago. I see this as an extravagant joke mainly!JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
It's a Clevo D900F chassis, as mentioned in at least two places, so AVA Direct and a bunch of other places will have it as an option as well. The majority clearly think this is a waste, but with Quadro cards, dual-link DVI, 12GB RAM, and a Core i7 this would easily be the fastest mobile workstation presently in production. It may be that only .1% of computer users need something like that, but that's still potentially thousands of sales... all at a nice price because of the target market.I also don't think anyone actually doing professional level work for their job (Pro/E, SolidWorks, etc.) is going to be interested in running hacked drivers that may or may not cause issues. I can just see some company charging millions of dollars to a client telling their IT department to "just get a cheap Gateway laptop and install the hacked Quadro drivers... it will save us over $1000!"
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
"grab a transportable HD throw your files on it and go to the clients office and load it up on the engineering workstation you could most likely even port it to a bigger screen..."What happens if you happen to be visiting a client and you want to show them a demo, and they don't use the same software? Or perhaps they're not an engineering firm and they're using you for exactly that reason. "Hey, you guys got a workstation with AutoCAD on it so I can show you the schematics?" "Uh... what's AutoCAD? We hired you because we don't do this sort of thing." "Oh, well then let me see if I can just get a pirated version off the 'net...." Or they might be using version 8.1 and you're running the latest 10.0 release, so the files aren't backwards compatible. Or you load it up on their system and for some unknown reason it crashes.
Hooking up a laptop to a projector or large screen in a conference room is a ton easier than lugging a workstation in there. Moreover, if you're doing an important presentation, the last thing you want is for some unforeseen issue with the computer to cause the whole thing to blow up in your face. As someone that supported some very demanding upper management folks over the years, you do NOT take chances on that sort of thing. You test it on your own computer, make sure everything works fine, and you don't suddenly decide to use a different PC at the last minute. I had a VP screaming at me because the laptop he was going to use for a presentation went belly-up a few hours before he was scheduled to go live... and that was just a silly PowerPoint file that ran without a hitch on a different laptop. When someone earns well into the six figure range, a $5000 mobile workstation that helps them do their job better, purchased once every 2-3 years, is hardly a major expenditure.
atlmann10 - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
That is why I also mentioned a portable hard drive. You can get them with 1 -1.5 TB now so you could load Auto Cad your project a shadow copy of your desktop if you want and it is much lighter and if you plug it into a USb or external sata port bam there's everything you need. If it is all preloaded it should work fine. Buying this laptop for autocad is ridiculous any way. The video cards unless there professional level cards won't run autocad or anything for design. Unless that is you upgrade the cards after purchase, which voids your warranty, or you have the building oem do it (probably 3-7 thousand dollar upgrade depending on how deep the oe wants to rip you), or use the secondary drivers. Oh and by the way you don't have to use hacked drivers, just so you know most top level gaming cards by Nvidia will run the drivers stock of Nvidia professional cards 1 generation back. The only thing you have to do is unload current and install them you can even then go update them to current drivers on many no hacking needed.JarredWalton - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
The laptop does offer Quadro cards as an option, which would satisfy the GPU requirement. A single Quadro 3700M on the older model is around $800 it looks like, so two would be $1600 (though I don't know if most professional apps would even benefit from dual GPUs).I'm not sure what you mean by loading AutoCAD onto an external HDD, though. Normally you have to install programs in Windows to get them to work; wouldn't using various utilities to install AutoCAD onto an external drive that would then work with other PCs violate the license agreement?
Suntan - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
As an engineer that also has to travel to manufacturing plants, this would be quite welcome.You wouldn’t really need RAID or 1.5TB of storage, or SLI for that matter, but just being able to sit down with manufacturing engineers at the factory and loading up a complete assembly in Pro/E to discuss design issues would be great. And doing something like this with regular laptops can literally bring them to their knees …even if they do have 2 DVI ports and an HDMI connector.
True there are other beefy laptops that can manage, but I wouldn’t kick this out of the cube if IT dropped it off one afternoon.
-Suntan
The0ne - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
I wouldn't want to lug this thing on my trips though. My 17" 8lb laptop is heavy enough after a long period of travel time :) All I really need to load those cad files is a good GPU, the rest are speedy and powerful enough :)Dell Vostro 17" at 1920x1200, T7500, 4Gig
Gunbuster - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
hovercraft case mod? Just need to put the fans in reverse and fab out a skirt for it.tpurves - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
Ha!CSMR - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
The blurb you have says "dvi ports" but there is only one in the pictures.There is a dvi port and a legacy vga port.
Disappointing that a laptop with so much graphics power still has only one digital video output, when 2*dvi or dvi+hdmi is standard on even basic desktop PCs these days.
trabpukcip - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
The photos are not clear enough, too much pixellation around the area of the port.Maybe the port is actually a DMS-59 port?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMS-59">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMS-59
This would give Dual DVI via a dongle and can be found in workstation equipment.
JarredWalton - Friday, March 6, 2009 - link
If it's the same as the D901C (which is very likely), this is a dual-link DVI port.SilentSin - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
http://anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=6106">http://anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=6106 .... You have the latest and greatest NV mobile GPUs in SLI and you get to experience all of their powerful glory in VGA!!! WOOO! Sign me up for 3. At least it has a parallel printer port tho. That way you can print those CAD drawings you're supposedly working on with your handy portable dot matrix printer. Some of the design choices here just boggle me.mindless1 - Saturday, March 7, 2009 - link
Actually, for $3K it darn well better have a parallel port. The thing about a laptop for serious use in the field is, if what you have in front of you is a printer with only a parallel port and you NEED to print, well...JarredWalton - Saturday, March 7, 2009 - link
USB to parallel adapters are available and cheap, if you need an old parallel port. Most printers I've used in the past 5+ years are either USB or networked.qualme - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
thats not a parallel port, that is a DVI port.marsbound2024 - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
Neither of you are entirely accurate; there's both a VGA and DVI port.marsbound2024 - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
Oh nevermind (stupid lack of edit function); the OP is not accurate. Indeed no parallel shown. :-pSilentSin - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
Yeah my bad. From that angle it looked like it was a much wider port than DVI. Also the article states: "Multiple I/O Ports:...serial and parallel ports..." Guess the serial port is that giant orifice next to the DVI. Still a funky location for the DVI considering the VGA port is on the other side. Then there's the complete lack of HDMI/DisplayPort options as well. Looks like there's SVideo in and then a separate one for out in the back corner and...is that a CableTV antennae coax screw? Guess so since it says optional TV tuner. Still, plain weirdness on their I/O options in my opinion.rbfowler9lfc - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
A rather good workstation for engineering apps, not meant for the gamer market.Gholam - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
A workstation would have Quadro GPUs. This isn't one.Martimus - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
Actually the Quadro is an option that is listed.Gholam - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
World's Most Expensive Boat Anchor is more like it. This is a laptop for people looking to waste some money - if you need to do CAD on a laptop, you get a W500/W700, or a Precision M.mmntech - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
I'd hesitate to even call it a laptop. A 1hr battery is pretty much useless. It's more like an all-in-one desktop that happens to have a folding screen. When I worked in construction, we just had a Presario R3000 in the site office so yes, this is overkill for most applications. It would be useful though in a plant setting or for journalists who need to edit a lot of uncompressed HD video on the go.Souka - Thursday, March 5, 2009 - link
Actually at my company I purchase such laptops for our key developers.Why?
Because they use them to demonstrate products to our vendors....as part of technology show...or just use them when on the ferry going to-from home.
Heck, one dev is a 5ft nothing, 90lb former ballerina... she LOVES her "mobile workstation". It's funny to see her walking around with it...it's about 1/2 her size...heh.
These machines are capable of running VMs effeciently, which easily justifies the cost....
For home use?...only people with money to blow.... but for business users with a need...heck yeah.
LinkedKube - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - link
I cant even think of how much overkill this thing is. Its pretty ugly too. I'm not a pretty button kind of guy but when things like keyboard layout hinder productivity on something I paid 4k usd for. Clearly I'm just as crazy as the company making and designing the board.