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Laptop inquiry

I'm thinking of buying a laptop.

The laptop would be used for schooling (probably just some microsoft office suites) and of course: music.

Since I've never owned a laptop before, what should I be made aware of (soundcard advice, operating systems, optomizing).

However, I do not have as much to spend as I'd like (preferrably 1k and below). If I were looking for a new desktop, I'd think about purchasing parts off of newegg.com and having someone help me put one together -- but I dunno much about laptops. Any pointers?

Dells and fijitsu's are expensive but v slim. Asus (i think thats the name) are cumbersom but cheap. Toshiba's can be slighty large depending on the model but i find they have the best price/quality ratio.

However I find laptops tend to be a pain in the ass when it comes to problems + can be v unstable concerning the power you get out of them (not talking about crashes but the performance when running in battery mode).

Checkout ebay or buy new with a accidental damage warranty.

IBM (Lenovo) T60 are very serious laptops, but not cheap.. I've used a long string of IBM laptops over the years and each has been very reliable. the Apple MacBook Pros are also equally powerful, but still only have a single mouse button (Use xternal mouse!)

The key for any laptop is to get into the power settings and tell it that you want it to crank the CPU full bore all the time. Munges battery life, but give you stability in CPU power for music production.

As for sound, a decent firewire or USB interface is probabbly your best bet, just make sure it is bus powered.

Alternately the Echo Indigo cards are pretty cool.

Things to bear in mind:

1) A laptop to the specification of an equivilant desktop PC will cost a hell lot more money.

2) Laptops will generally always run cooler and quieter than desktop PCs.

3) Laptops are nowhere near as upgradeable as desktop PCs.

4) Soundcards arent so much an issue as most of them have firewire/usb 2.0 connectivity.

5) Alienware laptops are fast and extremely expensive but everything other than speed is a secondary consideration - they weigh a tonne, are loud and they run hot.

These days if you do most of your production at a desk or in the same room, I would recommend a mini ATX desktop PC ora small form factor PC. The Silverstone Sugo SG-01 is really popular (although a bit pricey) and its alot quieter than a full ATX desktop PC. That said, its very upgradeable, quiet and you can easily squeeze a top of the line desktop PC into a case thats half the size.

Some small form factor PCs like the Shuttle G5 chasis are even smaller (about the size of a breadbin) but Shuttle has some reliability problems and SFF PCs will always run hotter than their ATX equivilants owing to the fact that you are cramming the same components into a smaller, less well ventilated case. I had alot of teething troubles with my G5 and had to RMA 2 models. Third time lucky I guess (touchwood) but I finally got one that works as advertised and I 'm happy with it although I havent tested it extensively with audio applications yet. I'm still in the process of copying everything across to my new PC.

Perhaps a compromise? I know I am unwilling to spend the money it takes to buy a full on laptop to the specs of my SFF PC.

don`t take a celeron cpu

apples are good for production (especially the macbook pro's)...you can use boot camp to run windows XP if thats a concern of yours

quote:

Originally posted by -_1_--Ben--_1_- don`t take a celeron cpu

Ahmen on that number...

quote:

Originally posted by SPAWNmaster apples are good for production (especially the macbook pro's)...you can use boot camp to run windows XP if thats a concern of yours

I imagine they are, but I can't compromise my current software (which is not compatible on a Macintosh)

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative Things to bear in mind: 1) A laptop to the specification of an equivilant desktop PC will cost a hell lot more money. 2) Laptops will generally always run cooler and quieter than desktop PCs. 3) Laptops are nowhere near as upgradeable as desktop PCs. 4) Soundcards arent so much an issue as most of them have firewire/usb 2.0 connectivity. 5) Alienware laptops are fast and extremely expensive but everything other than speed is a secondary consideration - they weigh a tonne, are loud and they run hot. These days if you do most of your production at a desk or in the same room, I would recommend a mini ATX desktop PC ora small form factor PC. The Silverstone Sugo SG-01 is really popular (although a bit pricey) and its alot quieter than a full ATX desktop PC. That said, its very upgradeable, quiet and you can easily squeeze a top of the line desktop PC into a case thats half the size. Some small form factor PCs like the Shuttle G5 chasis are even smaller (about the size of a breadbin) but Shuttle has some reliability problems and SFF PCs will always run hotter than their ATX equivilants owing to the fact that you are cramming the same components into a smaller, less well ventilated case. I had alot of teething troubles with my G5 and had to RMA 2 models. Third time lucky I guess (touchwood) but I finally got one that works as advertised and I 'm happy with it although I havent tested it extensively with audio applications yet. I'm still in the process of copying everything across to my new PC. Perhaps a compromise? I know I am unwilling to spend the money it takes to buy a full on laptop to the specs of my SFF PC.

I see your point. This shall heavily be taken into consideration.

Indeed... it would almost seem that it would be more realistic for me to buy a better PC (if I'm so bent on making this beef up my track-laying power), and a cheapo laptop for school needs.

quote:

Originally posted by daeus Dells and fijitsu's are expensive but v slim. Asus (i think thats the name) are cumbersom but cheap. Toshiba's can be slighty large depending on the model but i find they have the best price/quality ratio.

From what i have seen/used:
Dells are cheap - Asus are expensive. Toshiba's are sturdy mofos,I like them.
Acer are cheap and i beleive you get some good value for money. If i had the money i wouldnt go acer though.
IBMs are ugly but they are well backed.
I personally dislike macs for the fact they are made to be as least customer servicable as possible but if you dont know much about computers and you just want something that will work go a mac.
Also... Macbooks are sexy beasts, even though im not a mac person i would buy one if i had the money.

quote:

I imagine they are, but I can't compromise my current software (which is not compatible on a Macintosh)

yea like i said in my above post, you can actually run windows on a Mac computer...so you wouldnt have to sacrifice for your software or whatever. very soon actually bootcamp (the app that allows you to dual boot on a mac) will be factory installed on all apple computers...just an idea heheh. but just fyi my sister's toshiba crapped out on her recently and its only a year or so old...so they may not be as reliable as people make them out to be. good luck!

The toshiba dieing is a good example of how any brand nomatter how expensive can die.
Working in IT depart we where stumped by a not even 1 year old g4 powerbook that ended up having a fked hdd and such.

Try to go for a laptop with as little extras as possible.
I got a laptop that doesnt have colour shine lcd, doesnt have composite video, doesnt have bluetooth, doesnt have a flash card reader and doesnt have a dedicated video card. All these things i didnt need. Iv spent half as much on my laptop then most my friends have and its much faster, iv had no problems with it except the matshita optical drive isnt the best for burning untill you do some tweaking.

Remember you can easily upgrade ram and hdd in nearly all laptops but the cpu you cant.

I personally would never buy a laptop to do music... For me, this comes with a whole number of reasons.

Upgrading is one part of them of course, but more importantly the processor speed and last , but DEFINATELY not least, the price (why the hell do those things have to be so expensive anyways).

Not sure how much you will get for a $/�1000 laptop to do decent music production, though I think upgrading your current desktop PC with the same money might actually give you more to work with.

Icone i agree with you %100 but laptops are pricey because of minaturization. He needs the laptop for school the same as i did. Ofcourse if there was a choice i would go for a PC because for the amount of $$ i have spent i could have got a desktop that is twice as fast and has a bigger/better lcd.

quote:

Originally posted by SPAWNmaster apples are good for production (especially the macbook pro's)...you can use boot camp to run windows XP if thats a concern of yours

Aren't computers good for producing?

On this note..

I've got a 2.2Gig Celeron with 700MB+ of RAM.

It's a reliable machine, and i take good care of it with many tweaks. Having compared it to many of my friends' laptops (many which are 2 years newer) with games and high-demand software, i find mine can usually match and even surpass theirs in many aspect, despite being a celeron.

The only problem is that it's got a USB 1 slot instead of USB 2.

If i was going to hook up a high quality soundcard, would this be a big issue?

I'd imagine it would be, but do u guys think it's worth buying the USB 2 port for it?

I ran USB audiocards off of USB1.0 all the time back in the day when I used my M-Audio Audiophile USB.

It's not a big issue.

quote:

Originally posted by DJFreaq I ran USB audiocards off of USB1.0 all the time back in the day when I used my M-Audio Audiophile USB. It's not a big issue.

are you sure that it doesn't result in drop in quality or anything?

USB 1 has a much lower transfer rate.

Buy the audio interface you want and if it doesnt work well with usb 1.0 then you can buy a firewire or usb 2.0 pcmcia card for around $15-20 USD off ebay. I baught a firewire pcmcia card from ebay for $20 AUD! and it works great except pcmcia slot doesnt have power.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ 00 Tommy Buy the audio interface you want and if it doesnt work well with usb 1.0 then you can buy a firewire or usb 2.0 pcmcia card for around $15-20 USD off ebay. I baught a firewire pcmcia card from ebay for $20 AUD! and it works great except pcmcia slot doesnt have power.

yeah...

about that....

i nuked my PCMCIA slot.

I opened my laptop up, and replaced it with a new one...

still doesn't work.

quote:

Originally posted by DJFreaq I ran USB audiocards off of USB1.0 all the time back in the day when I used my M-Audio Audiophile USB. It's not a big issue.

is that a production quality sound card?

quote:

Originally posted by Abhay is that a production quality sound card?

What defines production quality?
Do you have good studio moniters? If not then you probably wont hear much difference...

quote:

Originally posted by DJ 00 Tommy What defines production quality? Do you have good studio moniters? If not then you probably wont hear much difference...

I have Monitoring headphones. Sennheiser HD280 (I will marry these headphones one day).

I was just wondering if the level of sound card needed for software driven music production could function just as well off USB 1.

I'm aware of the deficiencies in bass accuracy that monitoring headphones have. I should be able to work around it.

Thanks heaps guys.

quote:

Originally posted by Abhay are you sure that it doesn't result in drop in quality or anything? USB 1 has a much lower transfer rate.

No. It's digital. From either direction it's just O's and 1's with plenty of buffer.

Once it goes through the USB audio device then it becomes audio. (The digital to analog converter.)

So if you have a shitty USB audio device then it's going to do a poor job converting digital audio to analog audio. Slower transfer rates simply mean bigger buffers which = more latency = don't try running more than one program at once on the same USB audio device.

HOly shit. Time for bed.

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