Panther laptop blurs the lines between portable and workstation
Connecting state and local government leaders
It's no lightweight, but for workers who need portability while running 3D, CAD and other powerful apps, the Panther is built for the job.
Many agencies, and probably most individuals, buy laptops because they need portable computers for travel, telecommuting and other remote work. As such, weight is typically a primary concern, with performance secondary. But others, such as rapid engineering deployment teams, need true computing power above everything else.
For them, the new Panther 5D laptop from Eurocom is more like a workstation that just happens to be movable.
The Panther is no lightweight. Tipping the scales at 12 pounds, it's also quite large at 16.7-inches by 11.4-inches and 2.3-inches tall when folded up. In the old days, it might have been called a luggable instead of a portable. But the power it offers -- compared with most other laptops -- makes it a fairly svelte package. Those who need 3D capabilities and raw power to get the job done, won't find too many other choices outside of a desktop configuration, and nothing lighter.
Eurocom includes the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M and 770M GPUs, giving users both a high-performance and a more budget-friendly configuration to choose from. Eurocom also supports both Nvidia GeForce and Quadro as well as AMD Radeon in the Panther in single and Dual (SLI or CrossFireX) operation.
All Panther 5D's also have a 17.3-inch 3D monitor and a light-up keyboard for working in any condition, from full sunlight to darkened server rooms. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M graphics card has 1536 CUDA cores running at 823 MHz with 4 GB GDDR5 memory running at 1250 MHz. In SLI the two 780M graphics cards offer up to 8 GB DDR5 video memory, 3072 CUDA cores, 256 TMUs and 64 ROPs.
The Eurocom Panther is based on the Sandy Bridge-E X79 Express chipset and supports a complete line of Intel LGA2011 desktop processors, consisting of Intel Core i7, Intel Core i7 Extreme and Intel Xeon processors.
Prices for the Panther 5Ds start at about $3,700, depending on how the laptop is configured. Eurocom says the laptop is ideal for heavy duty 3D and 2D applications such as computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering, digital content creation, GIS, modeling, visualization and simulation. Gamificaiton development also comes to mind as a possible application.
The laptops are available for configuration and purchase immediately. Eurocom has posted a variety of benchmarks showing what the Panther 5D can do when equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M card.