If you were to get a solid state laptop that would be the best for 3d applications (fastest) which one would you choose?

And what graphics card would you get to go along with it?

maybe things have changed in the last 6 months...I used to work in a computer store and repair shop. SSD's were the one item that failed the most on custom built computers. People would use them as their "swap" drive for virtual memory. This is the thing that will kill an SSD within 3 to 6 months guaranteed. I don't like them because of their failure rate but that is just an opinion.

Also..SSD's dont give any warning that they are about to fail. they just fail and there is no cheap recovery of data for a failed SSD. Same thing happens to thumb drives.

Aren't all laptops "solid state", or did someone change the definition on me since the late '70's when I took an electronics course?

An SSD or Solid State Drive is a computer hard drive that has no moving parts. It's a giant hunk of RAM that stores your files. they are "supposed" to be more relaiable because of the lack of moving parts and are indeed faster at storing and retrieving data because they are RAM as apposed to a spinning disc.

I work in a PC repair shop so I would also agree with the comments from ghostship2

I have SSDs in my destop which I use for the OS and main programs, all temp files and storage are on conventional drives.  I would however, be reluctant to have laptop with only an SSD as there is nothing to point the temp files at other than the SSD. 

Even with the desktop I keep a clone of the drive just in case of a failure.  The reliabilty of the SSDs is improving but I am not convinced they are at the point where they can be the sole storage medium. 

The problem with SSD's goes down to the atomic level. Each and every write event does damage to the substrate at the atomic level; a good analogy is like shooting a 12'x12' sheet of thick paper with a BB gun...only the paper changes color every time it is hit. That's a write state. You can shoot so many holes in the sheet then its structure becomes so fragile it collapses. Atomicity is the rule for flashRAM, which is what SSD's are (ever wondered why a USB stick drive stops working when you have treated it like glass? This is why). You only have X number of write cycles to play with before you get a junction failure, and you lose one transistor in an SSD, the byte it was involved with is gone. Unless you go with a custom designed drive, the -only- way to recover data from an SSD is to open the shell, find and remove the bad flash chip, then access the remaining chips. And you can only do that if they do not have a RAID configuration internally. Which nigh onto all of them do. It's the only way to get the r/w speeds up to useable levels (and the internal configuration is almost always RAID 0, or data striping. Lots faster that way....but if any chip fails, you have lost all data in the drive).

As already mentioned, SSD's are OK for faster OS startup and swap file usage, but for main data storage, a definate no-no!

Ok, so you all are talking me out of a SSD drive, so what brand is the best regular Laptop for 3d applications? Would it be a gaming laptop? Or maybe I should ask what is best video card?

pick one with a fast CPU of your choice...i5, i7, or some AMD thing of same speed. Make sure you can plug in a bunch of RAM (8 gig would work). Don't get a netbook or tablet, they will be underpowered and wont have an optical drive. The gaming laptops will set you back way more and im not sure if the better video card will help much with anything other than 3D previews and games.

I have some SSD drives on my new system and they are very fast. If I worked in a computer store doing repairs on systems that were built by do it yourself people, I would have a low option on them as well. :-)
They are so quiet that I decided to install 1 spinner just so I could know my computer is still running. :-)
The drives I bought were Plextor 256 Gig drives. There is a 5 year warranty on them so I imagine they will last. Don't think the company would put that kind of a warranty on them if they were all going to fail.
My system has the following specs.
Windows 7 Pro Hated Windows 8
ASUS  Sabortooth 990FX Motherboard
AMD 8350 8 Core 4.0 Ghz Maxes at 4.36 Ghz
32GB ddr3 Crucial Balistix Ram
NVidia GeForce GTX 480 1.5 Gig
NVidia GeForce GTS 250 1.0 Gig
4 Samsung 27 Inch  Widescreen
4@ Plextor SSD 256 Gig
Corsair H60 Water Cooler

Tom

Make sure it has sufficient cooling..... I've got a decent laptop, but it tends to overheat since it hasn't the cooling that deal with the cpu being under constant stress. I would recommend a good gaming laptop with a fast cpu and a good amount of ram and one of these cooling fans that have a turbo or something like it.

Forgot to mention I have an exterior hard drive from SeaGate that backs up all my work as I go. Also back up my work for the day on a portable Seagate that is pocket size so when I leave the house, if it burns to the ground, I still have all my years of work to start over again. 15 years of scene files as well go with me. :-)

So my point is if you want to have the speed of SSD then for the love of Pete back up,

back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up!  :-)

Tom

Quote - Forgot to mention I have an exterior hard drive from SeaGate that backs up all my work as I go. Also back up my work for the day on a portable Seagate that is pocket size so when I leave the house, if it burns to the ground, I still have all my years of work to start over again. 15 years of scene files as well go with me. :-)

So my point is if you want to have the speed of SSD then for the love of Pete back up,

back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up!  :-)

Tom

If only people would listen to this, I see a regular stream of people in the shop who have lost all their data, and a couple who have only had it retrieved by using a specialist recovery company (at a cost which would have purchased PC with a spec that could run Poser 2012 with ease).  It doesn't matter if it is a SSD or not, you need to back up as often of possible and in more than one location.