Posted by David Chauvin on August 20, 2013 at 9:08 AM
My desktop PC is getting some age on it (2007) and I'm thinking of replacing it with a workstation class laptop. I ran across a great manufacturer refurbished deal (~40% off of new) for the configuration below which I'm strongly considering.
Dell Precision M4700 Mobile Workstation
Intel i7-3740QM Processor (2.7 GHz, 3.7 GHz Turbo Boost 2.0) Quad Core
Windows Professional 64Bit (Includes Reinstall DVD)
(1) 128 GB MiniCard Solid State Drive (SATA III)
(1) 1 TB SATA 5400 RPM Hard Drive
16 GB DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM (2 DIMMs) expandable to 32GB
Nvidia Quadro K1000M 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card
15.6" UltraSharp FHD 1920x1080 Anti-Glare Premium Panel
8X Slot Load DVD+/-RW Drive
Does anyone else here use a docked laptop as their primary pc? Are there any drawbacks?
If anyone has this laptop, how is the display? I would be using a dock and calibrated monitor for critical work but would also like to calibrate the laptop display.
David, this configuration looks pretty decent, but I do have a few comments...
I am not familiar with the brand of SSD (MiniCard). I would suggest upgrading to either an Intel or Samsung SSD at some point. If you plan to keep a lot of your 'working files' along with your OS and programs on the SSD, I'd suggest a larger drive. SSD's don't like to be full--most of the recommendations I have seen say to keep the amount of used space below 75%.
The read/write speed on the 5400 rpm HDD will be slower than a 7200 rpm drive, so don't expect blazing fast performance from it.
The amount of RAM and the video card will work nicely.
You'll need to make sure that the laptop has the necessary external connections ports to support your peripheral devices, especially a monitor.
Keep in mind that a laptop will run hotter than a desktop, especially under a heavy load: just something to be aware of.
Just a thought: You might want to contact Puget Systems and see what they can do for you for a brand new machine. They have just revamped their laptop line with the latest Intel CPU's (Haswell) and NVidia graphics. I have a Puget 15" laptop (earlier series) that I am very happy with.
--P
Posted by David Chauvin on August 20, 2013 at 12:59 PM
Preston,,,,thanks for the feedback. I currently have about 75GB on my desktop primary drive (OS & programs) and I'm sure I can clear even more space on a fresh install so 128GB should be enough for now. The 5400 rpm drive is slow but this will be for file storage only. LR will probably take the biggest speed hit from this drive. The hd's and RAM are easily accessible if I choose to upgrade later.
This things has just about every type of port you can think of and if I go this route I'll get a docking station to hook all of my peripherals for home use. It also has two fans which makes it a bit noisy but that's better than running hot I guess.
I have been to the Puget website to try multiple Traverse configurations and to get anywhere near the specs of this Dell I'm in the $2K+ range, which is comparable to a new Dell (not a refurb). I'm willing to step back one generation in tech if the price is worth the performance hit and a $700 difference in price is significant.
My main reason in going for a workstation is the ability to add multiple hard drives and dedicated graphics card which consumer level machines don't allow. The main advantages of Haswell seem to be power consumption and improved on board graphics. There may be others that I'm not aware of. I do wish it had an IPS panel but those seem to be non existent on 15" workstation laptops at the moment.
One more question. I would probably get a small eSATA or USB3 SSD external for the PS cache when docked. Does any body use external drive for PS cache? Any advice?
I understand you rationale completely. I think that an external SATA or USB3 SSD for a PS scratch disk would not buy you a lot. Given the amount of RAM you'll have onboard along with the i7 CPU and the SSD main drive, it will be unlikely that CS6's efficiency will drop below 95% unless you are using some heavy duty filters.
I have my SSD primary drive as my first scratch disk and a small partition on an internal SATA III HDD as my second scratch disk. There is no performance hit using my primary SSD as a scratch disk that I have noticed.
On both my systems, each running i5 Quad Core CPU's, and SSD main drives, CS6's efficiency stays at 100% even with psd files up to 2GB.
--P
Posted by David Chauvin on August 20, 2013 at 1:44 PM
Preston,,,,thanks again for the help. I don't ever look at hardware until it becomes necessary and then I'm lost.
I've read different opinions on the PS scratch disk and it seems the game has changed with SSD. There is room for another hard drive so down the road I could drop in another SSD.
Posted by Peter Cross on August 20, 2013 at 1:45 PM
Make sure it has USB 3.0.
Posted by David Chauvin on August 20, 2013 at 1:48 PM
In looking at the specs (see link below) the unit will accept 2 internal drives (2.5” bay, mSATA). If you want three internal hard drives, you'll have to forego the DVD optical drive., something I don't recommend.
Why would you want to replace the 1 TB SATA with an SSD? The 1 TB HDD is perfectly fine for archive storage. If you want a faster mSATA HDD, you could replace the 5400 rpm drive with a 7200 rpm mSATA HDD and save yourself a pile of money.
--p
Posted by David Chauvin on August 21, 2013 at 11:31 AM
Preston,,,,the laptop I'm looking at comes with the 128GB mSATA SSD (what Dell calls a Mini Card SSD) as the primary OS/program drive and a 1TB 5400 rpm drive second for storage. This drive goes in a 2.5" drive slot. If a third drive is installed it would take the place of the optical DVD drive which I don't plan on doing any time soon since this configuration would seem to suit my needs for now. From what I have read, it seems mSATA is basically an SSD without a case so it can be made smaller. The one concern I was having was the performance hit of having the PS scratch files on the primary disk.
Thanks again. I want to make sure I get this right before pulling the trigger.
David
You're correct: mSATA is a small form factor for use in mobile devices.
Adobe does recommend using a separate drive for a scratch disk. However, if you have a lot of RAM and it is allocated correctly in CS6 Preferences, you probably won't hit the scratch disk unless you're doing some real heavy lifting.
Since you have 16GB RAM in your specs, you should be fine. As I said earlier, I have 16GB RAM on my desktop and I very rarely go below 100% efficiency even when I run TK's Triple Play actions, or noise reduction filter. Now, if you are hitting the scratch disk on a regular basis and things are slowing down, the least costly course of action would be to upgrade your RAM to 32 GB.
Posted by David Chauvin on August 21, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Preston,,,,I like to buy a pc's that have the ability to be upgraded and that's why my 2007 system has lasted this long. Over the years I've added drives and RAM but now I'm maxed out. The laptop I'm considering has 16GB RAM with the ability to go to 32GB without ditching the existing sticks so it should be good for years to come. As SSD drives get cheaper with greater capacity upgrading those down the road will be possible.
I am of the same frame of mind: I buy machines that can be upgraded, at least in terms of RAM, video cards and drives. I think SSD drives are the way of the future and the prices have come down steadily, but are still not comparable in price per GB to standard drives in the near term. Once they are more affordable in large capacities, I'll certainly be looking at upgrading.
Both my machines are capable of using more RAM, and I may do that if the need arises.
That article from Adobe is pretty good, and is one that all CS6 users should study in detail in order to get the most out of the program in terms of performance.
The laptop you've spec'd looks pretty darn good, and given the savings over a 'brand new-latest' machine, it would be hard to resist. Let us know what you decide.
--P
Posted by David Chauvin on August 31, 2013 at 1:16 PM
Preston,
I have had the new (refurb) laptop for a couple of days and just about have it up to speed. Speaking of speed, this thing screams compared to the old desktop. Windows cold boots from the Samsung mSATA drive in a bit over thirty seconds and PS& LR load in a blink. So far I am very pleased.
Thanks again for the feedback on this purchase decision. I hardly look at hardware until I need to and it takes some effort to get informed on what's new. Your input was a big help.
Discussion
12 repliesDell Precision M4700 Mobile Workstation
Intel i7-3740QM Processor (2.7 GHz, 3.7 GHz Turbo Boost 2.0) Quad Core
Windows Professional 64Bit (Includes Reinstall DVD)
(1) 128 GB MiniCard Solid State Drive (SATA III)
(1) 1 TB SATA 5400 RPM Hard Drive
16 GB DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM (2 DIMMs) expandable to 32GB
Nvidia Quadro K1000M 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card
15.6" UltraSharp FHD 1920x1080 Anti-Glare Premium Panel
8X Slot Load DVD+/-RW Drive
Does anyone else here use a docked laptop as their primary pc? Are there any drawbacks?
If anyone has this laptop, how is the display? I would be using a dock and calibrated monitor for critical work but would also like to calibrate the laptop display.
Thanks,
David
I am not familiar with the brand of SSD (MiniCard). I would suggest upgrading to either an Intel or Samsung SSD at some point. If you plan to keep a lot of your 'working files' along with your OS and programs on the SSD, I'd suggest a larger drive. SSD's don't like to be full--most of the recommendations I have seen say to keep the amount of used space below 75%.
The read/write speed on the 5400 rpm HDD will be slower than a 7200 rpm drive, so don't expect blazing fast performance from it.
The amount of RAM and the video card will work nicely.
You'll need to make sure that the laptop has the necessary external connections ports to support your peripheral devices, especially a monitor.
Keep in mind that a laptop will run hotter than a desktop, especially under a heavy load: just something to be aware of.
Just a thought: You might want to contact Puget Systems and see what they can do for you for a brand new machine. They have just revamped their laptop line with the latest Intel CPU's (Haswell) and NVidia graphics. I have a Puget 15" laptop (earlier series) that I am very happy with.
--P
This things has just about every type of port you can think of and if I go this route I'll get a docking station to hook all of my peripherals for home use. It also has two fans which makes it a bit noisy but that's better than running hot I guess.
I have been to the Puget website to try multiple Traverse configurations and to get anywhere near the specs of this Dell I'm in the $2K+ range, which is comparable to a new Dell (not a refurb). I'm willing to step back one generation in tech if the price is worth the performance hit and a $700 difference in price is significant.
My main reason in going for a workstation is the ability to add multiple hard drives and dedicated graphics card which consumer level machines don't allow. The main advantages of Haswell seem to be power consumption and improved on board graphics. There may be others that I'm not aware of. I do wish it had an IPS panel but those seem to be non existent on 15" workstation laptops at the moment.
One more question. I would probably get a small eSATA or USB3 SSD external for the PS cache when docked. Does any body use external drive for PS cache? Any advice?
Thanks again,
David
I understand you rationale completely. I think that an external SATA or USB3 SSD for a PS scratch disk would not buy you a lot. Given the amount of RAM you'll have onboard along with the i7 CPU and the SSD main drive, it will be unlikely that CS6's efficiency will drop below 95% unless you are using some heavy duty filters.
I have my SSD primary drive as my first scratch disk and a small partition on an internal SATA III HDD as my second scratch disk. There is no performance hit using my primary SSD as a scratch disk that I have noticed.
On both my systems, each running i5 Quad Core CPU's, and SSD main drives, CS6's efficiency stays at 100% even with psd files up to 2GB.
--P
I've read different opinions on the PS scratch disk and it seems the game has changed with SSD. There is room for another hard drive so down the road I could drop in another SSD.
In looking at the specs (see link below) the unit will accept 2 internal drives (2.5” bay, mSATA). If you want three internal hard drives, you'll have to forego the DVD optical drive., something I don't recommend.
Full Specs from Anandtech
Why would you want to replace the 1 TB SATA with an SSD? The 1 TB HDD is perfectly fine for archive storage. If you want a faster mSATA HDD, you could replace the 5400 rpm drive with a 7200 rpm mSATA HDD and save yourself a pile of money.
--p
Thanks again. I want to make sure I get this right before pulling the trigger.
David
Adobe does recommend using a separate drive for a scratch disk. However, if you have a lot of RAM and it is allocated correctly in CS6 Preferences, you probably won't hit the scratch disk unless you're doing some real heavy lifting.
Since you have 16GB RAM in your specs, you should be fine. As I said earlier, I have 16GB RAM on my desktop and I very rarely go below 100% efficiency even when I run TK's Triple Play actions, or noise reduction filter. Now, if you are hitting the scratch disk on a regular basis and things are slowing down, the least costly course of action would be to upgrade your RAM to 32 GB.
Here's an article from Adobe about fine tuning CS6 performance. It provide a lot of good info.
--P
I'll check out the fine tuning link.
Thanks,
David
Both my machines are capable of using more RAM, and I may do that if the need arises.
That article from Adobe is pretty good, and is one that all CS6 users should study in detail in order to get the most out of the program in terms of performance.
The laptop you've spec'd looks pretty darn good, and given the savings over a 'brand new-latest' machine, it would be hard to resist. Let us know what you decide.
--P
I have had the new (refurb) laptop for a couple of days and just about have it up to speed. Speaking of speed, this thing screams compared to the old desktop. Windows cold boots from the Samsung mSATA drive in a bit over thirty seconds and PS& LR load in a blink. So far I am very pleased.
Thanks again for the feedback on this purchase decision. I hardly look at hardware until I need to and it takes some effort to get informed on what's new. Your input was a big help.
David