do u mean to replace your video card on your laptop?!

if so, not possible.

I used a screen that size during school. It works OK, but more space is certainly nicer. it's a good size if you need a very portable workstation.

i was really talking about working in a 14" screen. thanks for the reply manamana. any more opinions

I've done it, and it's less than ideal. the reall problem is not so much screen real estate, but power -- hard to do nice renders on a single processor. on the other hand, if you can do your modeling on one machine and your rendering on another, that can work to your advantage.

actually this 14" is a dual centino at 2.00 with 667 bus with 1gig ram (you can take it to 4 gig) 128 dedicated nvidia card and 100 gb hard drive so it seems pretty powerfull.

after working on dual 19's at home for a few years and a 21" at work, i could never imagine scaling down to a 14" monitor. seems like if you were working on something that had any decent number of menu's (photoshop, max, etc.) you wouldn't see much of the work under them.

I can't imagine doing 3d or photoshop on a 14" screen because of the menus. Now, if you have an external monitor that is 17" then it would be fine so that the menus are on the other screen.

ive done all of the above on a 12 in screen . . . sucked . . . but produced some beautiful drawings . . .

how about hooking up your computer with a projector? =D then youd get a..what...100 inch screen?

archifreak -

actually this 14" is a dual centino at 2.00 with 667 bus with 1gig ram

there are NO dual processor laptops, you must be referring to the dual core

I am curious why you would want to waste money on a small machine? Typically, the ultracompact laptops cost a bundle more than a larger one with similar specs. The only reason I would consider something small is if I was flying several times a week. Back and forth to the studio, back in my day, we certainly lugged things much heavier than the 10lbs of the largest 17" laptop out there.

mbp...
all i have to say.
i have one.
i am now part of the steve jobs cult.

go for a 15" display, smaller ones are difficult to work on, even if they are hi res.

You might want to think a about one of those Walmart magnifying sheets of plastic to put over the screen so you can see what the heck your doing.

1400x1050 is plenty of space to play with... it's the resolution that counts, not the screen size.

If you find it cramped get yourself an external flat panel monitor for long CAD sessions.

I disagree. Screen size matters. That's pretty high for a tiny screen, which would make it just dandy for spread sheets and office doc works - exactly what that machine was made for.

Personally, I find 15.4" small to do 3D on.

I don't think I could model in CAD and render in 3DMax anything with less than a 17" .. some 2d drawings maybe but not a medium-large 3D model..
1400x1050 on a 14" - way too small.. some icons and menus must be difficult to identify

If you have trouble identifing icons and menus on a 125PPI screen, you probably need to get your eyes checked.

I think part of what might be the problem here is that the recent prevalence of widescreen monitors has distorted how people percieve 4:3 screen sizes. 14" isn't that small at 4:3, but it would be in 16:9. I think that part of the push behind widescreen is so that buyers think they're getting a bigger screen than they really are.

Now Im'e no expert even I several times invested in the top Nv graphic card for my youngest son --- but this is for a convensional screen, and flat screens are somthing compleatly different, acturly I am not sure that you will gain very much from heavy duty graphic cards with a flatscreen, they work much more digital efficient than the old screens, many of the special graphic card functions ,from my best knowleage, is much easier hardwired to a flatscreen matrix , ---- allready with build-in graphic cards the performance of a flatscreen are many times better than what is needed for a convensional screen.

now I'm positive that per is just an archinect regular fsking with us. there's no possible way anyone could actually believe what he just said.

ah, but once again he's put a smile on my face

Well i decided myself for the 15", i already work on a 15" screen so I can't go wrong, and the laptop size is not that different from the 14". Thanks to everyone for their insights on the subject