Need Help Choosing a badass Tablet PC for painter and 3-D stuff...

**KROGER** · January 3rd, 2009, 03:14 AM

Oh My GOD!!! I need to purchase a tablet pc, pretty much as soon as possible, but its pretty hard getting specific information on this subject from the net these days. Conceptart.org pretty much kicks ass in all areas so i figured Id look close to home on this one...

Heres the deal...

1: I use a beast of a dell desktop with a cintiq 21 inch to run Painter, Maya, Alias, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. I want to get a tablet pc thats going to have maximum amounts of power and graphics card strength so that I can take Painter, Alias and Maya on the go. I want a BEAST of a machine, I'll even set it in the refrigerator and work on it so long as its powerful to bang out Painter and 3d apps on the move in Japan, Europe, Asia, etc...

2: If possible id love a screen thats bigger than 12 inches (the cintiq has spoiled me!)

3: I need the least amount of pen-lag. Ive seen that pretty much everybody (?) makes their tablet pc's with wacom digitizer components, and now in windows xp you can reduce pen lag to vista standards by turning off the "press and hold" option... but is there something more i should be watchful for on the pen-lag issue?

4: Weight is absolutely not an issue, it can weigh as much as a chunk of granite for all i care, that isnt a problem. The main thing is power and graphics reliability.

So, all the Tablet PC forums out there on the web are too dated (i get the feeling that newer products have come out) and all of the company websites dont focus on art and design users so Im flying the Concept Art flag high

and hoping that my fellow CA Brethren can drop bibles of knowledge on the kid.

For real, any advice on a particular model is crazy appreciated,
-Kroger

**rattsang** · January 3rd, 2009, 07:23 AM

most tablet pcs are very low powered and expensive for some reason i dont think ive ever seen one with a good spec but maybe youll get lucky

**KROGER** · January 3rd, 2009, 02:42 PM

rattsang: thanks man, hopefully it will all work out, I really dont want to carry around both a laptop and a cintiq...

**ikken** · January 3rd, 2009, 05:33 PM

get a 15" macbook pro with 2-4 gb ram and intuos a5
they'd be the same size, and mbp is more than enough for painter, maya and zbrush, and I doubt you can find anything better looking at tablet pc market.
I totally don't understand why would you go for a portable station if weight is no issue for you - for me it's a big trouble, I totally hate taking my 5 kg qosmio anywhere.

**KROGER** · January 4th, 2009, 01:11 AM

Hey Ikken, thanks for the suggestion. Im really looking for a Tablet PC with integrated pen-screen though ("Convertable" Tablet PC). I'll have to leave the seperate penpads, like intuos and graphire, to the jedi masters... theres no way that I, with my A.D.D., could draw over here while looking over there and stay sane. Thanks though.

The only reason that I need to get a tablet pc is that at any given week I'll find myself in Miami or Europe or Asia or wherever and i'll get a call about some freelance design or illustration work and itd be GREAT to be able to just go ahead and bang out a job on the spot rather than wait until I get back to the states (ending up rushing back to the states or missing out on the job all together). I used to actually toss my desktop and Cintiq in a suitcase and take it with me... true story. Insane.

**frog from itchy** · January 5th, 2009, 05:49 AM

I bought a Fujitsu T5010 last month, it's probably the closest thing to what you're after.

It's the most powerful Tablet PC available, in terms of processing power it's very good (Core2Duo, DDR3 RAM etc) - it's a very fast machine for Photoshop.

However it uses integrated graphics, as do the vast majority of Tablet PCs, so although it can run games and 3D programs it won't compete with a desktop. Also it doesn't support the OpenGL features of Photoshop CS4 as of yet - apparently Intel are working on new drivers (the hardware should be OK, it's a driver issue).

For Photoshop and Painter it's a fantastic machine - I can vouch for that. I haven't installed any 3D software on it so no idea how that would run.

As a drawing solution it is far better than a laptop and a separate Intuos or even a Cintiq - it's a truly portable machine with a very screen and just about the perfect compromise between decent drawing size and portability.

**KROGER** · January 7th, 2009, 03:58 AM

Hey Frog, THANKS big time. That really clears up alot of things and also reinforces what ive been feeling in the past couple days. The Fujitsu T5010 has been popping up in conversation elsewhere on the net alot but hearing it from an actual digital illustrator gives it the seal of approval.

Thanks again, I think im gonna go ahead and cop one.