Tablet PC for Sketching and 3d!

[Ashkitty]

Hello everyone.

I'm a student that's about to start at AAU in Januaury with a focus on learning how to be a 3d character modeler, amongst other things. I'm really curious about these new tablet pcs and I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to get one as a sketchbook. Thing is, I'm not sure if technology has advanced enough for me to find one to be used in the ways I'd idealistically prefer...

See, I'd really like one that is capable of handling Maya and/or 3dMax acceptably well, though I know it takes a lot to be able to do that. I won't be doing five million poly models or anything, but still.

Since I'm also quite the sketcher, I'd like to find one with minimal lag and lots of pressure sensitivity.. I hear a lot of the screens are made with wacom technology so that impresses me.

I'm not looking to replace my home system, which is an (absolutely, untransportably gigantic) higher end laptop and an intuous 2 tablet in fine condition, but I really would like to get a light tablet pc for carrying to classes and around town so I can always have my projects at my fingertips!

Does anyone think it's possible to find a good tablet pc that can handle the heavyweight of a 3d environment, or am I asking silly questions? If it truly may be realistic, can any brands be recommended? Or even a set of system specs I should shoot for?

By the way, I'd say I would prefer it to be cheap, but I know that aint happenin.

[sciboy]

Generally unless you go really high-end, tablet pc's sport a less powerful processor and memory in favor of better battery life, but i'm not entirely familiar with what's on the market right now.

[darkwolfb87]

This is the best quality tablet I have seen, but I would personally buy a nice Macbook Pro and carry the Intuos 2 in your backpack. If it's too large, buy a new 6x8 Intuos and it'll still cost less than the tablet

http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/

[Justin.]

Yeah, I was gonna say; You should probably just get some laptop and a smaller Tablet and you will save some bux.

[Ashkitty]

M-Macbook Pro? Oh it looks so shiny and happy.. but I was raised on Windows and Macs, frankly, scare the crap out of me. ._.; It would be so nice if it came with Vista or something, but...

Alright, well. So it's suggested that I buy a laptop and maybe a new tablet. Any idea of reliable brands that are small and don't weigh much like those delicious but terrifying Macs?

More importantly, I hear that 3d modeling takes up a lot of ram and cpu, but I'm not sure. Should I start with a gig and 1.5ghz, then?

Maybe I should just suck it up and find someone with a macbook I can explore with for a while.. why they gotta be so purty!

[Ashkitty]

...and then a friend showed me about the little Mac "Boot Camp" thing. Omg, windows on a mac? Where have I BEEN?! *cough*

I think my decision is nearly made.