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Why not get a cheap powerful desktop for heavyweight processing, and a cheap lightweight laptop for mobility? $3K is a ridiculous amount of money considering mo

Why not get a cheap powerful desktop for heavyweight processing, and a cheap lightweight laptop for mobility? $3K is a ridiculous amount of money considering modern options. Examples: Dual Xeon E5-2690 + 64GB RAM + 1TB HDD = $1250 http://www.ebay.com/itm/391654102568 http://www.ebay.com/itm/391654102568 Dual Xeon X5670 + 128GB RAM + 2TB HDD = $1600 http://www.ebay.com/itm/361745717969 http://www.ebay.com/itm/361745717969 Dual Xeon E5-2670 + 128GB RAM + 8TB HDD = $1900 http://www.ebay.com/itm/172218395641 http://www.ebay.com/itm/172218395641

dmoy 10y ago
I would agree. I would not want to do serious editing on a laptop that costs >2x, has half the ram and like a third of the CPU/GPU power. Just not worth the money and time. So much longer waiting for renders...
- skykooler 10y ago
  Half the ram? Where are you finding a macbook with 32gb of ram?
  - dmoy 10y ago
    Ah yea I suppose depending on your workload. I've never hit much more than 30-40G doing editing work, I guess some people might use more. As always, depends on usage.
72deluxe 10y ago
Great idea. I might get a cheesegrater Mac when my MBP dies and then a cheaper laptop to remote?
strictnein 10y ago
Those are some really interesting options. I recently picked up a new Asus Zenbook ux330ua (basically Macbook Air, but significantly better specs and ~$500 less) for mobile use and was going to start looking for a new desktop option. I really like building my own systems, so buying one prebuilt would be strange, but that's some serious hardware for pretty nice prices.
- olegkikin 10y ago
  You could, but you have to be really careful with the motherboard socket, because Intel went a bit crazy with LGA2011: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7773/intels-three-versions-of-socket-2011-not-compatible http://www.anandtech.com/show/7773/intels-three-versions-of-...
  - strictnein 10y ago
    Yeah, if I built my own, I would probably end up just going with an i7-6700K and something like this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GsX88K https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GsX88K
    - olegkikin 10y ago
      Meh. I'd rather get one of the dual-xeon setups I listed. For the same price you're getting a quarter of the ram, half the processing power, a quarter of the CPU cache. It will do better in single-threaded apps, so it all depends on the tasks you're facing. I do lots of 3D rendering, so I'd pick more cores, RAM and cache. The other advantages of your setup are power efficiency and NVMe. Oh, and btw, you will save yourself a ton of money if you just bid on the components on eBay. Take, for instance the CPU. You're going to pay $325 for it. Now check how much they auction for: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&LH_Auction=1&_nkw=i7-6700K&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684 http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&LH...
Graphon1 10y ago
if you're going THERE, why not get a cloud VM and a chromebook?
- sirn 10y ago
  Is there any cloud VM actually support nesting VM inside it? (I need to run Vagrant with VirtualBox as a provider due to availability of images.)
- olegkikin 10y ago
  Because 1) If you're processing huge files, you need a very fast internet, which very few people have. 2) Lots of software doesn't exist in the cloud version. 3) It's actually quite expensive to rent something with such specs.
- brians 10y ago
  Sometimes you want a GPU near a display.

dmoy 10y ago

I would agree. I would not want to do serious editing on a laptop that costs >2x, has half the ram and like a third of the CPU/GPU power. Just not worth the money and time. So much longer waiting for renders...

skykooler 10y ago
Half the ram? Where are you finding a macbook with 32gb of ram?
- dmoy 10y ago
  Ah yea I suppose depending on your workload. I've never hit much more than 30-40G doing editing work, I guess some people might use more. As always, depends on usage.

72deluxe 10y ago

Great idea. I might get a cheesegrater Mac when my MBP dies and then a cheaper laptop to remote?

strictnein 10y ago

Those are some really interesting options. I recently picked up a new Asus Zenbook ux330ua (basically Macbook Air, but significantly better specs and ~$500 less) for mobile use and was going to start looking for a new desktop option. I really like building my own systems, so buying one prebuilt would be strange, but that's some serious hardware for pretty nice prices.

olegkikin 10y ago
You could, but you have to be really careful with the motherboard socket, because Intel went a bit crazy with LGA2011: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7773/intels-three-versions-of-socket-2011-not-compatible http://www.anandtech.com/show/7773/intels-three-versions-of-...
- strictnein 10y ago
  Yeah, if I built my own, I would probably end up just going with an i7-6700K and something like this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GsX88K https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GsX88K
  - olegkikin 10y ago
    Meh. I'd rather get one of the dual-xeon setups I listed. For the same price you're getting a quarter of the ram, half the processing power, a quarter of the CPU cache. It will do better in single-threaded apps, so it all depends on the tasks you're facing. I do lots of 3D rendering, so I'd pick more cores, RAM and cache. The other advantages of your setup are power efficiency and NVMe. Oh, and btw, you will save yourself a ton of money if you just bid on the components on eBay. Take, for instance the CPU. You're going to pay $325 for it. Now check how much they auction for: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&LH_Auction=1&_nkw=i7-6700K&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684 http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&LH...

Graphon1 10y ago

if you're going THERE, why not get a cloud VM and a chromebook?

sirn 10y ago
Is there any cloud VM actually support nesting VM inside it? (I need to run Vagrant with VirtualBox as a provider due to availability of images.)
olegkikin 10y ago
Because 1) If you're processing huge files, you need a very fast internet, which very few people have. 2) Lots of software doesn't exist in the cloud version. 3) It's actually quite expensive to rent something with such specs.
brians 10y ago
Sometimes you want a GPU near a display.