The only advantage a Xeon system would give you is if you move to the Panoramic 360 renders. These use the processor exclusively and don’t use the graphics card (at least as far as my testing shows). This makes Xeon systems very attractive in terms of throughput for the Panoramics.
You need to think about the future – will Panoramic 360s become important or not? My feeling is that with everybody using smartphones and tablets that the Panoramic 360 is going to become a big selling point – particularly as the client base evolves. Currently our client base consists of a large portion of less technologically literate clients for whom a printed picture is useful but even then we have noticed that more and more clients come in with the emailed pictures on a tablet or phablet. When we have sent these people Panoramics, they have been far more enthusiastic.
However, if your Designers do their design and selling on-site (ours do not) then go for an i7 notebook (as fast an i7 as you can afford) with a dedicated NVidia or AMD graphics processor.
What you choose is really defined by the way you sell. Because our clients visit us at the showrooms, we are looking at putting in lounge areas with large screen TVs and showing them Panoramic 360s using an iPAD or Samsung tablet mirrored to the TV. We’ll bring them in, sit them down with a nice coffee and biscuits and blow their mind by letting them wander round the kitchen using the tablet for control.
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