Laptop

I’m trying to buy a laptop under $3000 that would be good for OpenGL. If you have any recommendations, please help me.

Originally posted by while(fork()):
I’m trying to buy a laptop under $3000 that would be good for OpenGL. If you have any recommendations, please help me.

Am I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to say here… #include <brains.h>?

Not to sound condecending buuut. If you are buying a laptop to write OpenGL code then a coupla things to keep in mind. 1) All pcs are a mater of prefence. I like to build my own pc, that way I know what components live inside. Some people swear by AMD CPUs some PENTIUM. on that note I would consider the following. Something with at least a 2gig proccessor, and at least 215 megs ram. And last but not least a display that has no trouble running graphics intense programs. Sommething with a killer graphics card. Should do you fine. With those options in mind, it should narrow your choice. Then way value versus extras. Do I need that DVD burner in it? Probably not, but since graphics are an issue might I suggest at least one extra battery.

I bot an IBM Think Pad that does great for about $800 with all the accessories, including wireless networking and a wireless router at the local used computer dealer. I do a lot of OpenGL programming on it. I suppose it’s hardware acceleration is about zilch, so I can run OpenGL programs on it knowing that I don’t have the benefit of all the neato things my PC can do (its got an FX card). It has a Celeron 450 or so, and about 64 megs ram, a DVD drive and a 6 gig hard disk.

So, you can buy a laptop that can do OpenGL programming for relatively cheap.

I would make sure it has a good 3D graphics chip, make sure it is one of the newest by ATI or Nvida since they both have good openGL driver support.

Best buy has this one just over a thousand:

Compaq Presario Notebook with Intel® Celeron® Processor 2.0GHz

15" XGA TFT display
40.0GB hard drive
ATI Mobility RADEON 4X AGP 3D graphics; 64MB shared DDR video memory; S-video TV-out
Integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet card with RJ-45 connector
V.90/V.92 high-speed modem
Weighs 7.25 lbs./about 1.6" thin for easy portability; high-capacity LiIon battery with AC adapter
Windows XP Home Edition operating system preinstalled

Originally posted by while(fork()):
I’m trying to buy a laptop under $3000 that would be good for OpenGL. If you have any recommendations, please help me.

[This message has been edited by nexusone (edited 08-05-2003).]

what about linux drivers support for mobile graphics chipsets? afaik, nvidia mobile chips run the same as they do in desktop pcs with linux, but what about ati? I guess thats a possible weakness of the readon chips?