SW & Dell 1

[mwall]

If anyone is using the M60 mobile WS with SW I would greatly appreciate any feedback as I’m seriously thinking of purchasing one.
thanks

 

[whippet]

I and just received my M60, and plan on using it as my primary in office and worksite system.
I've only got to load SW but it is quite a bit faster then my HP 1.4, 1/2 gig, 128meg Invida machine.
I'll keep you-all up to date as I continue migrating to the M60.
That M60 even sounds nice

have fun make money
Paul

 

[mwall]

Thanks all and Whippet...Like you I need a machine for all tasks anywhere. My concern is that a mobile WS even though its specs are similar to a WS will not perform the same so please let me/us know how you’re doing. If this can only run small assemblies and/or worse a couple of pieces parts (feature intensive), then I want nothing to do with it. I will just have to wait a few more years to go mobile, but if this does what is says and what I hope then I’m ready drop some cash. I want to be able to take this to site, model existing structure (instead of paper sketches) for baseline assy and then continue with mod (other multiple subassy) typ ending up with a folder ~50 to 500 megs depending on mod. I would never be working these large assemblies on battery, as I’d have a place to plug in. Am I way off with what mobile WS can currently offers…
Thanks again

 

[Rocko]

Here is a one issue you need to remember mobile workstations give up some things in hardware in order to be mobile. The main one is that the video card choices are limited and so are the harddrive capacity and rpm. This means that no you cannot design a car on it or a very large assembly. You can however design a small to medium assembly. The larger the assembly the more you will have to use lightweight parts in SW. Also remember the majority of laptops come with a mobile pentium chip (except Alienwares laptop it has a desktop pentium) you must run it plugged into the AC not battery power to maximize the processor and video card and screen (because of the power saving features).
Parel, do you have the 64mb or 32mb card? When you are in the bios change the performance for battery usage to maximize (i well check exact wording later tonight and post) also here is a web site that talks about overclocking the video card:

http://www.geocities.com/thebithead/I8200FAQ.htm

I have not needed to do that yet but i thought you would like the option.
I also work in the shaded mode always.
There is also the option supposedly of the 8200 inspiron being able to incorporate the m50 or m60 NVIDA video card i do not know this for a fact but in the dell community chats people have supposedly done it with no problems. I would call dell and ask about buying the video card and if it would work ect.. let me know what they tell you.

 

[maxb]

Whippet,
could you let me know if your M60 work great with Solidworks.

Thanks

Maxb

 

[Rocko]

heres the problem i have with the Dell m60 and m50 systems is that the processor lags behind there inspiron 8500 system. I called and asked them about this and the tech said it was a good question and said it was a marketing decision to keep the cost down from what he had heard. The M60 currently as of 8/13/03 can only go up to a 1.7ghz max processor yet the 8500 Inspiron can get up to a 2.6ghz processor. I really think that this is screwy since they put such a powerhouse of a video card into the M60 but a weak processor.

 

[whippet]

Rocko,
I agree that there is some lag, but so far it has not made that large an impact, It blows away my present desktop . The other day I opened and mated two large assemblies ending up with a 1300 Part assembly, not small by any means, and was able to manipulate it with ease. This included creating a drawing from that assembly while all three assemblies were open. I also am impressed with the way heat is dissipated. I’m able to use it in my lap without causing irreparable damage. So far I’m impressed with the machine but not the price.

have fun make money
Paul

 

[Rocko]

Whippet do you think the main difference between the M60 and Inspiron 8500 is the video card that affects the performance of SW. If so i am still amazed why they do not just use the 8500 base and put the card in as an add on for cad professionals.

 

[billcovert]

I received My M60 Last Wednesday and have been using it steady since. I was told that the Pentium® M Processor 1.70GHz speed compares to 2.5GHz P4. The NVIDIA® Quadro FX Go700™ 4XAGP graphics w/128MB DDR Video Memory and 2 Gig of ram sure make this faster and capable of running a lot of files concurrently. Right now I have a large assembly open with sub assemblies and parts to detail along with MS word, Excel, ACDsee, Verizon DSL, AOL and the McMaster-Carr catalog open all at the same time. It is the most expensive option that I looked at so it better be good! I am really pleased with everything and will try to load it up till it crashes when I have time. My old Inspiron 7500 just could not keep up

 

[TateJ]

whippet...
I know they call 'em laptops - but that don't mean you're supposed to put 'em there.
;-) I've heard the spinning of the disks creates a spinning magnetic field that attracts the iron in the sperm causing them too to spin violently. It's like scrambling the egg while it's still in the shell. ;-)
I suppose - if you're a girl - that's even less funny.

Seriously, what do you know about those tiny cube PCs?
The're popular with gamers for LAN parties.
Typically you take along a small flat-screen monitor too.
The whole idea sounds semi-portable to me.
Would that work for you mwall?

This will look favorable on my next review.
tatejATusfilter.com[/u]​

 

[JimSym]

The Pentium M 1.7GHz CPU will be faster than a Pentium 4-M 2.6GHz CPU under many circumstances. You can't directly compare clock speeds. The Pentium-M is built on a completely different core designed from the ground up for mobile applications.

When plugged in, the 4-M will run at full speed and be slightly faster, but when running on the battery, the 4-M "SpeedStep" technology kicks in and slows the machine considerably. The Pentium M uses much less power and can run at full or nearly full speed even when in power saving mode. The Pentium M is far superior for truly mobile users.

The Mobile Pentium 4 (on the Inspiron 5150) is yet another processor that at first glance looks ideal for workstation users with occassional need to take SolidWorks on the road. It is simply a repackaging of the last generation desktop Pentium 4 with 533MHz FSB. The system architecture is much less desirable. It uses old fashioned SDRAM - not DDR and not dual channel - and this might completely cancel out the benefit of 3.06GHz clock speed. Battery life is dismal and the machine is heavy. On the upside, it's much less expensive than comparably equipped notebooks that are optimized for mobile use.

All in all, the M60 is hard to beat. You can even order it with a 7200rpm hard drive. It's slower than top-speed desktops but faster than ANYTHING that you could by just a year ago.

 

[MadMango]

[blue]TateJ[/blue], those tiny cube PCs are made by Shuttle (

http://www.shuttle.com/index6.html).

Our VAR uses one whenever they come in-house to conduct training. I've seen the thing run SW03 and COSMOSworks and COSMOSmotion with neary a hiccup.

MadMango
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
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