By Rieva Lesonsky
Content creation has exploded in the last few years coinciding with accessible and affordable tools for artists, designers and engineers. We know how easy it is to shoot and edit a great video from your personal computer, but we still waste time on systems that lack power to render in a speedy fashion. Since so much power is needed for those who create, record music or put together CAD drawings, giant tower computers are still in high demand. But not for long.
In fact, Dell’s latest mobile workstation is eye-poppingly compact. The M3800 is less than 0.71″ thick, weighs in at a petite 4.5 lbs. and boasts more than enough power to tackle your toughest professional software challenges. That’s the thing with all of these tools; as creators continue to push the limits of their imaginations, the software that supports those dreams gets more demanding of the hardware.
The M3800 runs on the extremely powerful and energy efficient Intel Haswell Core i7 processor. This is a fourth generation processor specifically created to enhance visual and graphic performance. But that doesn’t mean the M3800 doesn’t also have a blazing graphics card. To make sure professionals get the responsiveness of a Ferrari Testarossa, the M3800P includes a Nvidia Quadro K1100M graphics card with Optimus Technology, which automatically calculates when to deliver maximum performance. This gets you the most out of your battery, because the technology knows you don’t need to keep the pedal on the floorboard all the time.
Of course all these great graphics capabilities don’t add up to much if they don’t look good on your screen. Sure, the M3800 offers triple external display support when docked, but you won’t want to keep it there once you (literally) get your hands on the 15.6″ high resolution QHD+ (3200×1800 pixels) multi-touch display. Running Windows 8 Pro will make sure users get the most out of the multi-touch interface too. When multi-touch navigation isn’t needed or when you don’t want to get Cheetos dust on your touch monitor, a full size backlit keyboard is ready to go (you’ll still want to clean your hands before using).
The operating system isn’t the only piece of software that makes the most of this precision hardware. The M3800 is also independent software vendor (ISV)-certified, meaning everything from AutoCAD to Adobe products are guaranteed to work at optimal performance with your machine. Or putting it another way—you won’t lose any performance when you shift from working on your desktop to your new mobile workstation running ISV products.
If memory or storage are a concern, rest easy. The M3800 can be loaded with up to 16GB of memory, and multiple hybrid drive storage options are available—from a 500GB hard disk drive (HDD) with 32GB solid state memory (SSD) to 1TB (HDD) with 32GB (SSD).
In today’s world, using powerful, personal equipment, artists or engineers can literally design and fabricate their own action figures using a 3D printer and a powerful workstation. Practically its own super power, this is a feat that can be designed on Dell’s Precision M3800, a mobile workstation that’s just a few comic books thick.
This is a paid post in conjunction with IDG and Dell.
