As an avid hobbiest I don't have the budget you professionals do, but a nice speed bump always helps. My Athlon 3200 laptop went south and I needed to complete a project for my niece's graduation ceremony in 3 days. So I talked to some knowledgeable guys at Comp USA and settled on the $1200 Satellite Duo Core Centrino laptop.
I didn't really expect much in terms of speed, maybe faster rendering with the Duo Core, but I am very pleasantly surprised to find my previews are much smoother with about a 50% jump in frames displayed per second. And what used to take 2 and a 1/2 hours to render with the 3200 takes about an hour and a half.
I didn't really expect much in terms of speed, maybe faster rendering with the Duo Core, but I am very pleasantly surprised to find my previews are much smoother with about a 50% jump in frames displayed per second. And what used to take 2 and a 1/2 hours to render with the 3200 takes about an hour and a half.