After a new Super laptop... Alienware?

[MadMan0]

As the title suggests, I'm looking for a new laptop. For my studies at uni it's required to be top end spec (3D CAD and computer simulation)
The Alienware 17 laptop is around the min spec i'm after, though would prefer a 15 inch screen size as the 17 is quite large and the 14 too small.

The Older Sony Vaio custom build would be good also, but they no longer do these unless on special ($$$) Order...

The laptop also needs to be v.fast for the simulation work and also reliable for years to come due to the high price tags...

Anyone have any suggestions of where to go?

Obvious question "how much are you looking to spend" - Answer "£0 - Free"
Any help would be good :worship:

 

[ChrisUK]

Overclockers.co.uk

Have a look at the MSI Laptop range. Great spec for the cash!

Check Gumtree for local bargains. I saw a £1200 3month old Alienware up for £600. Obviously someone bought it on a whim or need cash for weed lol.

 

[colin79666]

If you want something which will last then the Lenovo T or W series of Thinkpads would fit the bill. Not cheap but these are business grade machines which are usually reliable and built to last. We use Lenovo T and X series at work, proving much more reliable than the HP machines they replaced. I've had by T420 for the past couple of years and apart from the battery charge no longer being so great it hasn't skipped a beat despite 8 hours of use per day and being thrown in and out of a dock and laptop bag.

 

[dombooth]

I've second that colin, the Lenovo T's are awesome machines.

Dom

 

[MadMan0]

They looks like great machines
Looking at the T440s Ultrabook it's not quite powerful enough
The simulation stuff I do currently has to be done on a cluster of desktops at the Uni so a "Super" laptop is not an over statement and might not actually be available yet...

However, the overclocked Alienware 17 appears (on paper at least) to meet the minimum requirements... Apart from the cost

 

[ChrisUK]

It's easy just buy 8 older alienware laptops chop the screens of 7 and duct tape it all together along with a Cisco 10gb switch and you've got a "portable" cluster ;-)

 

[ChrisUK]

In all seriousness have you looked into "cloud" cluster services? If it's raw processing power you need ad hoc you could get a cheaper decent spec laptop and do all the grunt work on the cloud usually paid for by subscription.

 

[TallTom]

Or.... cheaper laptop for word processing and taking to lectures etc, and then build a very overclockable PC rig (www.tomshardware.com) for some ideas on best bits for price.... it would be much cheaper than a laptop to build the same or better spec PC!

Otherwise you will end up with a laptop in two-three years thats not all that powerful, and you could have a computer with 2-3 graphics cards in if you upgraded during your time at uni...

All personal preference, I just know when I was at uni, housemate was doing an automotive course and he had built his own PC that was hugely overclocked, 4 cores - total of 13.2GHz proccessing power and that was around 5 years ago on the old Q9650 processor.

Laptop will run pretty damn hot when run at full wack for a while! some of his simulations took 12-16 hours to run.

 

[MadMan0]

Thanks for all the comments guys
I think your right, though I hate the idea of being tied down by a desktop again :-(
How would you link multiple processors and graphic cards to one PC??
I've seen how you can link 15 SSD Drives with a certain connection type, is this the same idea or does it require a specific motherboard?

 

[TallTom]

Specific motherboards and graphics cards, e.g. ATI do "Crossfire", Nvidia do SLI (I think), you have two PCI E x 16 slots on the motherboard and a card in each.

Generally need a fairly beefy PSU though, dependant upon cards, (my one card needs 450w minimum, so two you would assume around 1000w+ PSU dependant upon what else you run)

Sorry didnt see a reply etc!