Best laptop for Game Dev?

[SNIPERDUDE]

I've been looking into getting a new laptop for school, as my current one has far too many problems for me to comfortably survive this program (game development).

First of all my current computer is a Compaq Presario CQ60. Decent, but it has its flaws. First, the battery life is terrible. Always has been. Maybe an hour from just using Chrome (nothing else open in background). Second, I have never seen a computer that heats as bad as this one. I currently have it lying on top of a room fan on full, Chrome only open, registering 68 degrees C. Without the fan, about 85 degrees C. Just playing Minecraft without the fan (even a minute in) with nothing else open it is often seen at about 105 degrees C. Extremely hot to touch.

Anyway, with my program in school focusing on 3D design (Autodesk 3DS Max & Maya 2012, Adobe Flash & Illustrator & Photoshop CS5.5, etc) I want a laptop that will not only stay cool enough to not melt solder, but be able to withstand the work I'll put it through. My budget I'll allow is about $600, max $700 (I can't afford too much as a student, art supplies has me running low on cash too). Plus I will be getting a 27" monitor later (I use them at school, and have found the large working space valuable in programs such as 3DS Max).

Suggestions?
I have seen a forum on here in regards to the best programming computer for a student, however the needs are very different in this case.

[Tony]

Have you considered building a desktop? On a budget, you'll likely get better specs per dollar. At the very least you'll end up with a more balanced machine (budget laptops tend to cut corners somewhere). Certainly the cooling will be less of an issue.

Might be a viable option.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Hmm, considered. Still not sure what to get for hardware though - not as computer knowledgeable as most here (when it comes to hardware at least)

[crossley7]

If you are looking for a good budget laptop, I have found Dell seems to have some really good laptops at good deals (if they still have back to school deal...) and ASUS seemed pretty good as well. Unfortunately, I have no clue which ones have good graphics card and I'm guessing that will be needed

[SNIPERDUDE]

Strong graphics cards would be a strong asset.

[mirhagk]

What exactly kind of game development are you doing? Are we talking cutting edge graphic elements? Or just a taste of modern graphics?

Graphics cards that run modern games fully are expensive, to develop them would require even better graphics cards since debuggers are generally attached to them.

So basically what I'm asking is what kind of quality of games is the program going to do, give an example in the form of some mainstream game that has about the same graphics.

[Tony]

mirhagk @ Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:52 am wrote:

give an example in the form of some mainstream game that has about the same graphics.

Because clearly an individual student will be making games comparable to those of game studios with multi-million dollar budgets.

[md]

Tony @ 2011-09-15, 9:19 am wrote:

mirhagk @ Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:52 am wrote:

give an example in the form of some mainstream game that has about the same graphics.

Because clearly an individual student will be making games comparable to those of game studios with multi-million dollar budgets.

Minecraft is a mainstream game who's graphics could easily be implemented by a student

Realistically, just about any recent-ish mid-range laptop will likely work just fine. Thinkpads and MacBooks are clearly where you should be aiming though

[SNIPERDUDE]

Well, for quality we are expected by the end to be making Assassin's Creed level of detail (the most recent one). The George Brown program (I'm in) is very much a hands-on process. Perhaps building a PC would be ideal. Anyone want to point me in the right direction for that?

[ProgrammingFun]

SNIPERDUDE @ Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:50 pm wrote:

Well, for quality we are expected by the end to be making Assassin's Creed level of detail (the most recent one)

Unity Engine can actually pull that off? I didn't expect it to have that kind of quality.

Anyways, there was a very good ThinkPad that I found on newegg a few days ago (i7 with amazing price and latest GPU) but I can't seem to find it now
Will update you if I do...

[DemonWasp]

To build your own PC, figure out a store to order from. I favour NCIX.ca heavily, but there's also TigerDirect.ca , CanadaComputers.com (not .ca) and a few other major Canadian retailers.

Most of these places will build customized computers on the cheap, but the most cost-effective way is going to be assembling it yourself; money at each step is a guess for an approximate amount you should spend if your total budget is $600 + tax + shipping:

1. Start with a motherboard / CPU combination ($150-200). Make sure they have the exact same "slot". Make note of what "peripheral" cards your motherboard contains, such as graphics, sound, networking cards. You should expect, at a minimum, sound and networking cards on any motherboard.

2. Choose a graphics card ($100-150). You want to get something in the mid-range, probably either an nVidia GTX 460 or ATI Radeon HD 6850 or thereabouts. Don't get a GTX 520 or Radeon HD 7100 (for example); even though the numbers are larger, they're a lot less powerful. For further research, see tomshardware.com

3. Choose RAM (memory) ($100). You want to match the kind of memory to the motherboard and CPU (if the motherboard is DDR3, choose only DDR3 RAM). Additionally, you should aim for at least 8GB of RAM since you'll be editing large models. If you want to get specific about it, choose RAM that matches the frequency of your motherboard's Front-Side Bus (FSB) as configured with your chosen CPU; if not, any RAM will work at about the right speed.

4. Choose a case and power supply ($100). You can get a cheap case ($30-50), but don't skimp on the power supply. Your PSU must have plenty of power to handle the demands of the graphics card, hard disks, and all attached peripherals. In particular, make sure you have enough current (A for Amps) on the +12V 'rail(s)'; this shouldn't be a problem now-a-days, but historically it was a bit of an issue. Aim for around 750W.

5. Choose a hard disk ($50-100). You can go to the cheap end and get a fairly standard 500GB-1TB drive, or you could go more expensive and get either a larger drive (2TB) or a faster drive (there are some modestly-price hybrid drives out there).

6. Choose keyboard, mouse ($20-50). Choose wired devices. You may want to get these in a brick-and-mortar store rather than online, so you can check that the mouse fits in your hand and the keyboard suits you.

All of the above adds to around $600. You can figure that with taxes and shipping, that will bump the price up to around $675-700. You will note that the above does NOT include a monitor; if you need a monitor, then you will need to squeeze the other components down by the cost of the monitor (probably $150 for a crappy one or $200-300 for a decent one; a truly good monitor is out of your price range).

[Tony]

DemonWasp @ Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:29 pm wrote:

5. Choose a hard disk ($50-100). You can go to the cheap end and get a fairly standard 500GB-1TB drive, or you could go more expensive and get either a larger drive (2TB) or a faster drive (there are some modestly-price hybrid drives out there).

If something doesn't fit into memory, the hard disk becomes the performance bottleneck. You might be able to squeeze in a solid-state drive if you are willing to spend more money here _and_ sacrifice storage space. 120GB for ~$150? That really depends on your storage requirements (though it would be silly to use SSD for non-active storage. Movies/Music/archive-photos could live on a second HDD; but once again -- budget).

Most hardware components have some tradeoffs. At a fixed price, hard disks trade storage space with performance.

[DemonWasp]

Tony @ Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:14 pm wrote:

If something doesn't fit into memory, the hard disk becomes the performance bottleneck.

This is why I would suggest no less than 8GB of RAM. You speak truth in general, though.

[SNIPERDUDE]

And that's why I keep all my non-active projects on an external HDD.

[mirhagk]

SSD drives are amazing, albeit expensive. A very small SSD for programming can help out alot though, since you can put the source, and the compiled binaries on the SSD, and the compile time will be alot shorter (especially when you have lots of models on the SSD as well).

Hybrid drives are actually pretty cool, incoporating a small SSD inside a regular hard drive, I have 2 on my laptop, and they work way faster than my old hard drive, while still giving me tons of space.