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Production Laptop

I don't know much about this topic, have specific questions and am sure things change with this type of thing from year to year so want to start a new thread, even though I am sure there have been many before.

I have only briefly (it had overheating issues and lasted only a short time) had a laptop chosen specifically for music production. I think that one ran much better but it has been a while and my projects were smaller back then. For most of the time I have just used whatever laptop was on a good price at Best Buy. That works for the first half of making a song, but later on it can't really run the project without skipping. With that being said, I am looking for a new production laptop.

The FL Studio (the DAW I use) site lists the CPU's to try to get and gives a chart with the performance of many possible CPU's: http://support.image-line.com/knowl...ase.php?ans=214

I am able to spend like $800 tops and it looks like the only i7 laptops in that range have cpu's that are really low on the chart (still higher than what I have I think though). I don't need a supercomputer or the gold star setup like Raphie would have. This isn't about making Porter Robinson or Madeon type music that would be really taxing on the cpu. I just need something that rarely skips running the relatively straightforward projects I make.

*Is an $800 dollar i7 (with a 3,000-4,000 benchmark score) laptop good enough for a moderate level producer like myself in terms of performance? Image line recommends 7,000 benchmark but is that really necessary?

*Could I save money buying like a $500 laptop then buying a $300 CPU separate (I don't know how you install it at this point but would figure it out), or would that not run well?

Important thing is to get a quad core if its your main production machine... that means getting a 15" laptop. An i5 quad core will do just fine.

That being said if you don't use CPU hog plugins like Diva, you could get away with using a dual core i5... You just have to bounce things from time to time and can't go crazy spamming huge VST chains.

If you can go for quad core i5.

I don't know much about Windows laptop pricing but I am sure there are $800 quad core laptops out there...

processing and laptops etc

yeah

If you see things like "ReaMOTE" and "FX teleport" plug in. THere are many of these types of things.

these things are useful for unlimited realtime power in your music processing
machines of your studio. THis is done by connecting machines by LAN cables.

Linux DAW's have a similar principle.

So, while you may have that laptop ......if it's a little underpowered you
can always hook into other Slave machines, in realtime, for extra
processing power on single music projects.

http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaMote

other DAW's also have these features.

V

Start with this :

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GP60-LEOP...ds=notebook+msi

Apparently works well for music production and with addition of external card (doesn't have to be any expensive one) will to the job for you.

Darek

quote:

Originally posted by Zak McKracken Im now procuding on a 3,6GHz i3. No need for Quac Cores imo. RAM and SSD is more important.

I am guessing you are not using CPU hog plugins like Diva, Aether, Serum, or even Massive on certain settings...

If you only are using Sylenth 1, CPU usage won't be a problem. If you are using circuit modeling / plugins with high amounts of oversampling / physical modeling a dual core wont cut it.

Thanks for the responses.

quote:

Originally posted by TranceLover007 Start with this : http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GP60-LEOP...ds=notebook+msi Apparently works well for music production and with addition of external card (doesn't have to be any expensive one) will to the job for you. Darek

So ya think that one will work well for me. I'll consider that one. Thanks, for taking the time to give me a link to a specific computer. Why do you think I need an external soundcard?

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-1...-15-7548-laptop

quote:

Originally posted by Trancelover03591 Thanks for the responses. So ya think that one will work well for me. I'll consider that one. Thanks, for taking the time to give me a link to a specific computer. Why do you think I need an external soundcard?

This is only a suggestion if you have rather heavy project and you need some hookup for a guitar or mic at the same time - convenience.

Edit: I know one producer who successful use this laptop with:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlett2i2


Cheer,

Darek

quote:

Originally posted by Raphie http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-1...-15-7548-laptop

That one has a benchmark of ~3,900. Imagine Line recommends around a 7,000 benchmark. However, I currently have about a 2,500 benchmark. It is possible that upgrading 1,400 benchmark points will be enough to make my projects run smoothly though.

You're probably right, I would go for most CPU performance for the buck

A good thing is to get a high spec (not the highest as you're getting in to diminishing returns at the top end of scale etc) but honestly, the biggest performance upgrade I've ever done is a fast SSD.

When I did it to my last year old laptop it was as if I'd gone out and bought a brand new, much higher spec laptop. YMMV, but I can;t live without SSD's anymore.

I just got this new touchscreen Laptop, Lenovo i5 with 8GB RAM which is much higher spec than my old Asus but it feels slightly slower for some tasks due to it only having a 7200 rpm HDD. I know the moment I slap that intel 520 SSD in there it will be a beast.

Best single upgrade you can do any computer now.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN A good thing is to get a high spec (not the highest as you're getting in to diminishing returns at the top end of scale etc) but honestly, the biggest performance upgrade I've ever done is a fast SSD. When I did it to my last year old laptop it was as if I'd gone out and bought a brand new, much higher spec laptop. YMMV, but I can;t live without SSD's anymore. I just got this new touchscreen Laptop, Lenovo i5 with 8GB RAM which is much higher spec than my old Asus but it feels slightly slower for some tasks due to it only having a 7200 rpm HDD. I know the moment I slap that intel 520 SSD in there it will be a beast. Best single upgrade you can do any computer now.

Hell, for me I can't go back to non PCIe SSDs... the ones in Macbooks are roughly 2x faster than the ones found in most PC's. Most Kontakt libraries load near instantly.

#firstworldproblems

quote:

Originally posted by djnitride Hell, for me I can't go back to non PCIe SSDs... the ones in Macbooks are roughly 2x faster than the ones found in most PC's. Most Kontakt libraries load near instantly. #firstworldproblems

The SSD in macbooks are just M2 SSD. Which is pretty common nowadays in laptops\motherboards.

quote:

Originally posted by junkproject The SSD in macbooks are just M2 SSD. Which is pretty common nowadays in laptops\motherboards.

Its just becoming a more common things in higher end PCs nowdays but it wasn't even till very recently that there was a decent consumer M2 SSD available. Most PC laptops are still stuck on SATA3 for SSDs.

Its been a common thing for several years on most Macs.

quote:

Originally posted by djnitride Its just becoming a more common things in higher end PCs nowdays but it wasn't even till very recently that there was a decent consumer M2 SSD available. Most PC laptops are still stuck on SATA3 for SSDs. Its been a common thing for several years on most Macs.

High end? I have a one and a half year old motherboard that has m2 slot. Any z97 motherboard has that slot. Mac didn't start using m2 drives until 2\3 years ago.

Before that Mini PCIe drives where out for pc before mac started to switch to ssd.

M2 drives in macs are nothing special."Most PC laptops are still stuck on SATA3 for SSDs." That's not true at all, alot of laptops have been using m2 drives for awhile now.

Zenbook ultra books started to use m2 drives since 2012.

quote:

Originally posted by junkproject High end? I have a one and a half year old motherboard that has m2 slot. Any z97 motherboard has that slot. Mac didn't start using m2 drives until 2\3 years ago. Before that Mini PCIe drives where out for pc before mac started to switch to ssd. M2 drives in macs are nothing special."Most PC laptops are still stuck on SATA3 for SSDs." That's not true at all, alot of laptops have been using m2 drives for awhile now. Zenbook ultra books started to use m2 drives since 2012. Where do you think mac get's it's drive from? Samsung and intel.

Well most of the ones I looked at didn't have that. Granted I must have missed it on the Zenbook somhow as I do take a look at the various laptop offerings from time to time.

My z77 motherboard on my desktop does not have an M.2 slot and I have only had it around 2 years or so.

Will z77 is almost 3 generation behind, with x99 being the latest and greatest.

Most ultra books from 2012 have m.2 drives or some form of mini pci ssd.

quote:

Originally posted by junkproject Will z77 is almost 3 generation behind, with x99 being the latest and greatest. Most ultra books from 2012 have m.2 drives or some form of mini pci ssd.

Yep, that's when Macbook Pro Retina adopted the drive as well I believe.

Yeah, the only reason to upgrade from z77 is M.2 at this point for me. We will see if Skylake offers enough of a performance boost to get me to upgrade my desktop. Sucks that Intel has really been slacking lately because they have no competition

I appreciate the discussion, but at least for my purposes the technical banter is kind of outside my understanding.

One of my two questions I haven't seen addressed: Is there a savings of buying a say decent $550 laptop and installing a higher end $200 processor yourself instead of buying an $900 laptop with a high end processor already included? (in the same way it is cheaper to change the oil in you vehicle yourself since you are saving money on convenience and labor) Is the installation of a new processor reasonable for an novice?

Almost all of the newer laptops the cpu is solder on the system board. So that's not an option.

Even if it was an option you would likely run into all kinds of thermal / power issues. Most laptops are barely designed to dissipate enough heat for the CPU they come with, much less a cranked up one.

Trancelover03591, just curious what does your typical DAW project look like? What are your most used / CPU heavy plugins? How many tracks playing at the same time is a typical project for you? All of that factors into how good of a CPU you need.

The reason people recommend quad core is because it gives you headroom allowing you to add more plugins/effects without having to constantly bounce after a certain point. Its possible to produce just fine on a dual core, it just has no headroom when you really need to crank it...

@nitride and Junkproject - you relaize that as of the end of last year, there wasn't actually a single SSD that could saturate the full available bandwidth of Sata3 (at 6gb/s), let alone m2 (10gb/s).

M2 was designed to keep up with PCIe SSD speeds but in a smaller form factor and instead of using multiple lanes like a desktop PCIe protocol can, the M2 protocol just uses 2 x PCIe 2.0 standard lanes, where full PCIe can use 3.0 protocol.

The last time I bought an SSD was at the end of last year and unless something changed in the last three months, there's really little to no advantage of using an m2 over a Sata 3, apart from form factor and the ability to future proof yourself.

Back on topic,

Buy the best laptop you can afford right now and slap in a samsung SSD [/thread].

quote:

Originally posted by djnitride Trancelover03591, just curious what does your typical DAW project look like? What are your most used / CPU heavy plugins? How many tracks playing at the same time is a typical project for you? All of that factors into how good of a CPU you need.

Here is a screenshot of my project "Spring Song"



Here is the audio to give it context:



I make simple, melodic EDM. It isn't as CPU heavy as most styles but towards the end of a project I can't play my projects to do a final mixdown without constant skipping. I'll have any combo of like 3-10 sylenth and 2-10 nexus instances. Those are probably the main things taking CPU.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN @nitride and Junkproject - you relaize that as of the end of last year, there wasn't actually a single SSD that could saturate the full available bandwidth of Sata3 (at 6gb/s), let alone m2 (10gb/s). M2 was designed to keep up with PCIe SSD speeds but in a smaller form factor and instead of using multiple lanes like a desktop PCIe protocol can, the M2 protocol just uses 2 x PCIe 2.0 standard lanes, where full PCIe can use 3.0 protocol. The last time I bought an SSD was at the end of last year and unless something changed in the last three months, there's really little to no advantage of using an m2 over a Sata 3, apart from form factor and the ability to future proof yourself. Back on topic, Buy the best laptop you can afford right now and slap in a samsung SSD [/thread].

Hence, that's why i said M.2 drives are nothing special...

Also PC's already hitting 1.2 gig speeds with ssd way before any mac has. I'm not a pc fanboy by any means. I'm on my fifth mac laptop and own a mac laptop since the power pc days.

Windows\linux PC have always been the forefront of the technology edge.

Anyways, back to the topic. The best bang for your buck laptops are probably the new Dell 13 xps.

The latest M.2 is PCIe 3.0

Yes, I know there have been PCIe drives that take 8+ lanes for quite some time but remember this thread is about laptops right

BTW, I get speeds of close to 800MB/s on my Macbook Pro M.2 SSD where as my SATA3 Samsung Pro 840 tops out at around 400MB/s.

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