Make It Habitable

Hi, I’m moving forward in making laptop habitable, if I would allowed to say so  🙂

Keyboard led lighting is so pleasing in the night time.

For even more comfortable working it lacks the most powerfull processor, which was build in from the factory. I mean my DELL M4500 initially was equipped with Core i7-920xm, but that guy, from whom I was bought it, replaced i7-920xm processor with cheap i7-720qm, that a pity. The i7-920xm itself costs as much as I payed for the whole laptop. So it’s not worth it now to grab $500 CPU to upgrade $500 laptop 😉

 

CINEBENCHed it

Has some tests on CPU & GPU of my current rig with Core 2 Duo E7300 + nVidia 8500GT vs my new addition – Dell Precision M4500 with i7 Q720 + nVidia Quadro FX1800M.

The laptop wins absolutely. It’s two times faster in terms of CPU and four times faster in terms of GPU.

 

Yes, this is old C2D rig, but this is the hardware I’m working on with After Effects and Cinema 4D. Now I’m moving with my GFX to laptop and will build brand new big rig.

Got it finally

Yesterday I finally got my DELL Precision M4500.

It was about 4 weeks long “express” delivery from USA to Russia.

Now it is home.

For the next step I’m waiting for mSATA Samsung SSD 128GB drive from HongKong, I’ll put Win7 on it, and applications too.

Now the laptop has quite poor configuration with 4GB of RAM and 160GB regular HDD in it. So upgraded is vital and necessary. As was mentioned above in this blog, I have ordered 16GB Crucial RAM and 1TB Hitachi HDD for it.

So far so good. Cheers!

Mac user’s Canopus and AVI headache

Hey there Mac equipped video- motion- designers!

If you were like me in searching for solution on how to export AVIs to PC customers or how to import-export Canopus HQ media – you found it 🙂

First, regarding Canopus. Have a look at their Utilities section here

http://www.grassvalley.com/support/downloads/products?product=general

and grab Grass Valley HQX/HQ Codecs Pack for Mac OS X 10.7 (v1.01)

After you have it installed on your Mac you can import and export Canopus HQ media (CUVC codec).

You need to register on GrassValley site to be able to see that section and download files. Simple.

Second, how to change MOV container to AVI one.

Grab free utility MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac OS X

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

Install it to your application folder and fire it up.

Drag and drop your MOV file to it’s window and go to File-Save as… choose AVI. You are done! No recompression.

Hope this helps someone. Cheers!

Upgrade is on the way

Few days ago I’ve ordered from Germany an upgrade kit to my newcoming DELL M4500.

That is RAM of Crucial brand, which I was told should be DELL-compatible. But it’s Mac-memory however, but I think it’s O’k as long as it’s DDR3 1333MHzCL9 (Crucial 16GB DDR3 SO-DIMM Kit). Hope it should be fine. 

And Hitachi Travelstar 5K1000 HTS541010A9E680 1TB for data storage disk.

As for system disk, previously I bought Samsung mSATA SSD 128GB for operating system to be placed on.

Now I’m just sitting and waiting for our post service…

EMS? Never again!

About two weeks ago I got laptop out off ebay and choose USPS Express Mail shipping costs me $100. According to USPS I should get it in 3-5 business days. But it’s still there in the air betweet export and import. One said that regular USPS Priority could be equal or even faster, though been cheeper.

The above is a screenshot of arriving parcels from http://sms-track.ru/stat/EUS-RU

eGPU is the way to boost up laptop rendering power

Recently I googled an interesting posts about how one could expand laptop graphics subsystem greatly. Yes, it’s about external GPU. One just need to plug such thing as PE4H kit in a laptop’s ExpressCard slot.

You can plug in it any desktop sized graphic card you want, plug in PSU according to the graphic card consumption and you’re done! If you want more aesthetically acceptable form jast put all that staff to the general minitower or even smaller cabinet.

So with this setup you may have portable working station but not limited in rendering abilities then you need them at home/office.

Look at how it goes with DELL Precision M4500, link http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5436&start=20

Some pictures from the link above:

Working setup with DIY-external GPU rig

GTX460-2GB with PE4H kit and 500W PSU inside a mini cabinet

Nice rig.

You can even get boxed kit from ebay, such as this one

External GPU case + PE4H kit + ExpressCard adapter

Great, how do you think? 🙂

Samsung / DELL 128GB SSD MSATA PCI-E SSD HARD DRIVE MZMPA128HMFU-00000

Today I got bought from ebay mSATA SSD Card of 128GB for my new coming DELL.

Hope it would be enough for all my software. Well, now I’ll be waiting for it to arrive via Chinese registered mail. But the seller is on vacation due to New Year Celebration in China. Huh…

Strange thing, I was planing to get SSD card in a last turn, but it turns out to be my first upgrade for laptop.

i7 720qm benchmarks

This is the CPU installed in my DELL M4500. I wonder is it worth it to replace it to i7 920xm?

i7 920XM Benchmarks

And here goes benchmarks for i7 920xm, it has 55Wt TDP. If it go to DELL M4500 will it lead to overheating problems?