Consider this your pre-mature meat warning. I'm planning to be there 3/30 + my so and Possibly bringing another friend.
You know I can't go on 3/30. I will be in Brainerd for by birthday. You know this because I invited you and your +1....****ing scrub.
I had March and May mixed up. I forgot the SO is starting her internship this month which is why she wont be around. And I have been informed that my friend wouldn't make it either.
I don't mind doing this, but I have some purchases to make first I think. Dragging the PC was a bitch last time. I want to pick up a Razer Core + 1080Ti before hand if possible. If the ****ing crypto-miner asswipes would ease up on the supply a bit, I could maybe get one for a decent price
Scored a GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 and promptly ordered a Razer Core v2. Should have all the makings for a portable VR solution here pretty soon. Also, I'm going to update this thread for 4/6 MOA meet.
New laptop I just picked up has Thunderbolt 3. Doubt I will ever use it as the new laptop came with a 1060 in it and laptop is being used as a when I am traveling setup. But interested in hearing how that external setup will work. Have a 1080 in my desktop.
From all owner accounts and benchmarks I've seen, it works good, but you do see around 5-10% reduction in frame rates across the board. Basically, if the same card is installed in a desktop machine of the same spec as the laptop you're using, the desktop will churn out roughly 5-10% more FPS. My hope is to circumvent that by putting in the beefiest GPU I can get my hands on. A good buddy of mine had an "extra" EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 that he sold to me for well under the MSRP of the nVidia Founders Ed. card. So, even with the 5-10% reduction in frames, I should still be able to maintain 90FPS for the Vive without issue. The GTX 980 Ti Hybrid I'm currently using will, during heavy use, start to stutter. I am not expecting that from this card at all. Laptop: Razer Blade 14 (2016 model) with GTX 970M 6G Core i7 67ooHQ 16GB DDR4 2133 Razer Core V2 EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 11G Specs wise, I should be golden. I do want to pick up a cooling pad for the laptop though, just to keep fresh air moving into it when it gets rolling.
New laptop I just snagged to replace the ultra book I had. http://www.microcenter.com/product/487758/Inspiron_15_7577_156_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Black Ultra book was alot more refined of a laptop and heck of alot more mobile but just did not have the performance to run games that I found myself wanting to play when traveling visiting other gamer freinds. If the ultra book I had would of had Thunderbolt I would likely of kept it and tried the external card route.
That laptop looks like a pretty screamin' deal. Nice find. The Thunderbolt eGPU thing is cool, but it is another thing to lug around when travelling. I think you made a better choice getting something with a decent discrete GPU on board. In terms of portability for VR, an external GPU is way more portable than hauling an entire PC around. But it certainly isn't something you can just toss in a small backpack with your laptop and roll out. Which reminds me, I have a trip to Vegas for work in May. I will have to see about hauling it with. -Jason
Another cool thing about the Razer Core is that it has 4 USB3 ports, and an ethernet port on it. Plus, if your laptop can charge via the thunderbolt port (60W), it can charge the laptop for you while it is plugged in. Making it a pretty bitchin docking station.
Yea this is the only thing that it wont do. Due to the 1060 it has a 180w charging brick so to much power to push through USB-C. Have not spent much time with the laptop yet since I was getting my old Ultrabook setup for a friend that I sold it to. If I ever have to talk to Quickbooks tech support again...it will be to soon.
Yeah, my Razer Blade has one of those monstrous power bricks as well because of the gtx 970. And when you're knee deep in gaming, both the laptop and the brick can crank some heat
I am curious to see how the laptop does when I crank it up tonight. Supposedly the laptop stays pretty cool since it has Nvidia's MaxQ tech for the cooling.
I've been looking at a new laptop to attempt to get back into gaming a bit and that can better render cad files, but have been holding out for Gen8 processors.
There are a few laptops that are rolling out the gen8 stuff. But the version of the gen8 you are going to want will still be a bit before it hits reasonably priced laptops. The new gen8 stuff did make quite a jump.
I'm in no REAL hurry, so I can wait. My laptop is fine for the daily grind type of stuff, but rendering models for 3d printing is unbearably painful so I've been letting the printer just sit.
A decent Core i7 quadcore (not the dual core/4 thread model in some laptops) would be more than enough for your renders, I'm sure.
Which 6th gen i7? That's the point I was trying to make there. My Blade has the 6700HQ. There are major differences between the various i7 mobile processor models for the 6th gen: https://ark.intel.com/products/88192/Intel-Core-i7-6600U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz 2 cores, 4 threads, 4MB cache https://ark.intel.com/products/88967/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz 4 cores, 8 threads 6MB cache Also, having a discrete GPU helps. A mobile GPU from team green or team red will go a long way in the realm of processing 3D graphics over the intel integrated crap. My point is, you can likely get a 6th gen i7 with discrete graphics that will be more than ample for doing CAD. Waiting on the 8th gen isn't going to give you a massive bump in performance over the 6th or 7th gen. The performance gap thus far between the two is minimal, and I doubt that will change with the 8th gen.
Deff gunna want the HQ. I had the U in my ultra book and even with the little bit of stuff I have done on the new laptop its worlds different in terms of responsiveness versus the U series
Agreed. The Razer Blade can run as a nearly full desktop replacement. I have had a couple of the U series devices that didn't fare as well in terms of processing power. Plenty of laptops out there that will serve your needs for CAD work.
Oh I don't doubt that the gains will be minimal, but the 6600 in mine with the integrated graphics blows. Almost finally pulled the trigger on the MSI w/ the 1050ti the other day when Amazon had it on sale, but I did not.
Here is the differences per benchmark. http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6500U/m211019vsm36930
"6600" that's the first problem. Not to continue pimping Razer gear, but: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Razer-Blad...737657?hash=item1a494a05f9:g:KMQAAOSwM1JavDx0 That will not only do what you need it to do, but it is actually VR capable as well. Or the Dell that JOJ picked up for under a grand. That would be equal in performance, but in a larger and slightly bulkier package.
Honestly, without the laptop in front of me it might even be a 6500... eitherway, it doesn't owe me anything anymore.