Hi all, I am finally able to buy a laptop and start rendering again. Yea! I am looking at the HP series with the AMD 64 2.0 Ghz processor with 1 MB cache and 512MB of DDR Ram. Would this be the best processor for rendering with Carrara? Does Carrara 4 take advantage of the 64's capabliity or is there a better Laptop I could get for under a $1000? Any sugesttions are welcome. Thanks, Mark P.S. Looking forward to talking to evweryone again, it's been a year or so since I was one here.

I found the Link by Kix on getting an new computer and what's best. That was done last November, since it has been almost a year and there is now a 64 bit OS,is 64 bit any better now than 32? Has anyone heard of any info on IF Carrara plans to take advantage of the 64 bit OS? Carrara 5? I guess my basic qestion is What Laptop for under $1000 woudl be best for Carrara?

Be Warned !! The AMD64 implementation on the HP laptops, Zv6000 and the Compac equiv, the R4000 have one channel of memory disabled. In short, they do not use the dual channel memory configuration. It is not fixable and causes about a 10 to 17 percent loss of productivity. Also know that the laptop, despite what some hero's will tell you, only runs pc2700 memory reliably. It will NOT run PC3200 memory very well. There is a websit, zv6000forums.com that is devoted to the zv6000/r4000 laptop and is a very good site for information. I have a ZV6000 with the 3500+ AMD64 and am quite happy with it. This laptop, with only one memory channel still renders Carrara and Terragen almost twice as fast my P4 2.6 gig system. HP has a system now with the Turion core, I do not know if dual channel memory has been crippled on it or not.

Personally, I would stay away from the 64 bit side until much more drivers are made available. Drivers can be found, but many are not quite up to speed. I should mention that the HP ZV6000 weighs about 9 pounds and makes an excellent DTR, but at this weight it is quite a bit to be carrying around. If you are looking for a quite and cool running laptop as a desk top replacement, the ZV might do quite well for you.

Thanks BabaLouie! So you think I might be better off going with an AMD 32 based laptop and put the extra money into ram and video? Mark

Attached Link: http://zv6000forums.com

Go ahead and get the AMD64 cpu. The later cores are running much cooler. The cpu used in the zv6000 is actually a desktop cpu, not the mobile cpu.

If you go the the zv6000forums.com site, you will find plenty of folks who are using 64bit windows or linux. There are several good sites that cater to AMD64 and drivers, can't find my links for them though.

64 bit is the very near future, in my view AMD has the better product, and that is coming from someone who has used Intel chips for years.

I was only letting you know that dual channel memory had been hobbled on the HP DTR laptops. I am very satisfied with my laptop and I will be going to 64bit Windows when it is feasable.

Dollar for dollar, or perhaps Euros for Euros, the HP zv6000 and r4000 are hard to beat. Most buyers are able to get a good setup for sub US $1000.00. If you are in the U.S., check Staples, Best Buys, Circuit City and even HP. A lot of people have gotten very good bargains from HP. If you are ordering a custom zv6000, it seemed to me that HP was delivering there orders slightly quicker than one of the brick and mortar outlets.

Be certain to go the the aforementioned forum, you will find all the answers for all your questions. :)

Louis

I am no expert, but isn't 64 bit addressing only a more robust memory allocation system. I mean it allows for larger chunks of memory to be addressed also allowing for bigger allotting of ram on a given system. But the OS and the software have to be rewritten from starch to be able to take advantage of it. As far as I understand it Windows is not capable of 64 bit addressing. OS X is only partially enabled so what advantage would one get if the software simply is not there yet on having this capability. I know that Photoshop has certain areas that have been brought to take advantage when used on G5 systems, but by far not the entire application has this capability yet. I think 64 bit will come to it's own once the operating systems can handle it and once enough developers have embraced it, but know it seems premature to have a system with 64 bit addressing. Now that may change it the next 6 months to a year.

Pinklet .. good points there .. MS does actually have a 64bit version available and linux has 64 bit available. As always the key are the drivers. You must have drivers for all your hardware and software. 64 bit is more than memory allocation it is also pipeline/bandwidth and when tied into a properly running cpu it is quite a pleasant surprise.

Hardware and software drive each other. You can put two, dual core amd64 cpus' into a system but what software will take advantge of 4 cores. Little to none. Most cad programs use only a single thread. Rendering and 3d software will do a better job, but I would bet that as of now, they are not able to take advantage of 4 cores. Such as it is.

I have always been one of those that stays on the bleeding edge of technology. This laptop will one day soon be replaced by a dual optron system. This is a hardware path for me you see. For me the hardware encourages the OS and the drivers, and then the OS and drivers encourages the applications. I will venture a guess that MS will really push their 64bit os (WinXP 64) in the Christmas season and by mid 2006 Vista will be knocking on our doors for that back to school push.

I have the Compaq R4125CA it works very well for 3D apps including Carrara 3 and 4 Pro the AMD 64 made a big difference. I added another 512mb ram to mine as I also use Vue 5I (memory hog). This replaced my Intel P4 2.6ghz with 1.5g ram and 160gb sata drive. All I can say is get it, get it, get it. Happy Rendering