I'm in the market for a new laptop, however I'm not sure whether I should be looking at gaming types or workstations. I'm aware of the differences, but I'd like to be able to use it for gaming as well as 2- and 3-dimensional graphics programs [Photoshop, Illustrator, 3ds Max, AutoCAD, etc.]. Are gaming machines used as workstations better or worse than workstations used for gaming? How would two machines of similar price points [ideally under $1,500] compare in terms of both their intended and unintended usages? Am I screwed and actually need two separate ones?
Suggestions of specific models are also more than welcome. I was eying the [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G55VW-S1020V-Notebook.74851.0.html"]Asus G55VW-S1020V[/URL], but I'm not real great when it comes to this kind of thing. Though it seems to have good specs and low noise-emissions, which is a major selling point for me.
As far as I'm aware, gaming laptops are generally better for both purposes as the graphics cards for gaming are general purpose whereas workstation graphics cards are designed for stuff like 3d graphics. For example, if you bought a workstation laptop that contained, say, a Nvidia Quadro card, it'd be great for 3d rendering programs like 3ds max but not very good for gaming. I think the balance is much more even for gaming graphics cards like a Nvidia Geforce. On the other sections of hardware there's no specifics for workstations and gaming. If you're going to be doing quite resource intensive work, then you'll want to be looking into a quad core processor, and 8GB of RAM or more
The main difference is the available graphics card, and in some cases the build quality or styling.
A Quadro card will outperform it's gaming equivalent in Cad and rendering, but you are trading the raw power in games and other uses for the precision. The decision really comes out to whether you want to pay more for work application performance. (Which unless you are really into 3d design or employed for it a gaming card will be more than enough.)
I personally own a Sager Np9150 and I spent about $1450 in April for it. It was the best price for performance at the time and it still should be. I spent about 2 to 3 months picking through models and cooling/parts/build quality and the Sager came out on top for me.
For the price I got a 3610Qm, 570m, 8gb ram, 768gb hdd, flashy keyboard, and a 1080p 95% ntsc gamut matte screen. It is pretty much a workstation laptop without the price or hilarious 17" form factor.
One thing with Sager's is that you pretty much have to buy through a reseller for a good deal or support. I got mine [URL="http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9150-clevo-p150em-p-4341.html"]here[/URL] and they seem to be having some christmas discounts at the moment.
If you have any questions just ask. I also was going to get an Asus but my cousin had nothing but problems with graphics card overheating in his Asus laptop and support wasn't very helpful.
Alright, thanks for the input. Guess I'll be going with something aimed at gaming. I'll definitely check out that Sager.
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