Best laptop for Recording...Anyone?

Giganova said:
Over the past ten years, I've had three Toshiba laptops. They never let me down and are built very tough. You can literally drop them and they keep working. No product has surpised me more than Toshiba, they are awesome and the most "pro" laptops money can buy.

My wife has a Dell and this machine is horrible: way too heavy, and very slow, even though it cost $1400 (last year). It actually gets so hot that you can't keep it on your lap for more than 10min!! (unless you want to boil your testicales). I'd never get a Dell.

My next laptop will be either a Mac G4 (because the G5 Powerbook is unlikely to hit the market in 2005 since they are having significant engineering challenges to fit such a high-end processor in such a small box, and heating/noise/battery life is not under control), or an Alienware XP (which is more likely since they are way faster than the G4 and cost approx the same).
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I agree with your assessment of the Toshiba laptops. Dell, laptops. Well I've worked with Dell and they are better than say some other laptops. However, I think I may just go the way of alienware. I haven't had time to look at reviews for Alienware, but I liked what I saw at their website.

One question. Where did you get your Toshiba Laptop? Very few people seem to carry them.
 
I got my Toshiba laptops "factory direct" in Europe where there are built (there's one plant in Germany, others are in the US).

I'm ready to order an Alienware, too. My boss told me I can spend $2.5k in a laptop and the company will pay. How cool is that? I will use it primarily to work on my song while I'm on business trips :D
 
Giganova said:
I got my Toshiba laptops "factory direct" in Europe where there are built (there's one plant in Germany, others are in the US).

I'm ready to order an Alienware, too. My boss told me I can spend $2.5k in a laptop and the company will pay. How cool is that? I will use it primarily to work on my song while I'm on business trips :D
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Cool! You guys produce music? Seems pretty sweet, and glad you are in a field you enjoy.

Stupid question, what is making you want to go to Alienware?
 
Dracon said:
Cool! You guys produce music? Seems pretty sweet, and glad you are in a field you enjoy.

Stupid question, what is making you want to go to Alienware?
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My company doesn't produce music, but once I have a laptop I can do whatever I wanna do with my notebook.

I decided to get an Alienware based on speed and positive reviews in music magazines.
 
Dracon said:
They seem to have a pretty good deal. I've never heard of Sager. Do you own their laptop, or is this something you just found doing a search?
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A friend of mine that is really into video graphics / live video mixing says they are the best bang for the buck for super laptops. He also has a bunch of Alienware ones too....
 
Well I went to Notebookforums.com and checked out their Alienware and their Toshiba Reviews.

These two laptop forums from the BBS note problems with support.

Also looked at the Specs on the Toshiba and the best processor I could find was a 2.6Ghz (which is kinda low on what I was looking at on AlienWare).

Alienware Laptops run hot - especially the 7700 (not a good thing for hot climates or the lap). However a laptop cooler could be bought ["pacific breeze notebook cooler. (Model no. cf300-neb) from newegg for 17.99"] which in my opinion would be a good investment for a laptop that runs hot.

I have yet to look at the reviews on Sager Laptops and their support.

Support issues from manufacturers (in alphabetical order):
Alienware, Dell, and Toshiba
 
Yeah, I'm looking into laptop recording as well.

I know one person said they used it, but what about the iBooks? I've been a PC user... would it be hard to switch over to using a Mac? I've got three or four recommendations for Mac over PCs when it comes to the recording world. Any thoughts?
 
Sweetnighter said:
Yeah, I'm looking into laptop recording as well.

I know one person said they used it, but what about the iBooks? I've been a PC user... would it be hard to switch over to using a Mac? I've got three or four recommendations for Mac over PCs when it comes to the recording world. Any thoughts?
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I know that used to be true (processing power in MAC is much better) but I'm not so sure any more. There is another question posted in this very forum and some people were talking about issues with the MAC laptops.
 
Sweetnighter said:
Yeah, I'm looking into laptop recording as well.

I know one person said they used it, but what about the iBooks? I've been a PC user... would it be hard to switch over to using a Mac? I've got three or four recommendations for Mac over PCs when it comes to the recording world. Any thoughts?
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Don't believe any hype from either side of the fence, choose what you're more comfortable with, then use it. Both platforms are more than capable of doing pro audio.

BTW, I have both. I'm mainly a PC guy, and most of the time I just want to smash my G4 Titanium. :eek:
 
I've got a Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop with 1 firewire port and 4 usb2 ports.

i'm running it with a tascam fw-1884 in the studio, and the edirol fa-01 for recording practice sessions... all using sonar. it's rock solid. its just got the 1 HD in it.

it is also my development machine. so i've got websphere studio application developer, mysql, ms visual c++ 6.0, and the macromedia suite (dreamweaver, fireworks, etc...).
 
Giganova said:
I got my Toshiba laptops "factory direct" in Europe where there are built (there's one plant in Germany, others are in the US).

I'm ready to order an Alienware, too. My boss told me I can spend $2.5k in a laptop and the company will pay. How cool is that? I will use it primarily to work on my song while I'm on business trips :D
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Hey Giga - Just a quick FYI (that I learned last night) the SAGER 9860 and the Alienware 7700 laptops are made by the same manufacturer (some Japanese company - I think called Clevo) with a different shell.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know in the event you did not know.
 
Giganova said:
Draco -- I didn't know that, thanks!
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Check out notebookforum.com - Lost of reviews for just about any laptop you can think of

Acer
Dell
Toshiba
Alienware
Sager
Compaq/HP
IBM
Sony
Apple

I became a member yesterday so that I could ask a few questions.

P.S. The Alienware 7700 or the Sager 9860 (same) both run hot (need a laptop cooler) and both are powerhogs (don't expect more than 1 to 1.5 of battery life). They are beautiful, huge, powerful, very useful (just not very portable - 12Lbs).
 
I am on a Alienware Area-51 Desktop. It has a 256mb Nvidia somn or other video card(5900 maybe), 1 gig of ram, p4-3.0

I like the computer alot. Alieware makes a great product and their support is rock solid. I was inbetween this computer and a 17" powerbook, and i wish i would have gotten the powerbook. I love macs and i wish i had a laptop!!! Anyone want to trade or buy my comp??? I spent $3100 new!!! 2 80gb hard drives!!!

pm me
 
Dell 9300

I don't have this notebook. But based on what I'd want to use it for, I think that it'd be the best that Dell has to offer (I should know, lol).

http://www.withbeans.com/9300.html

A little pricy, but ya know how that goes. Just idealy what I'd choose. You should wait till we, i mean .. they have 20-30% off.. that's when you'll get the best deal on a notebook of this calibur..

Tell me your thoughts, and or questions about the Dell stuff. It's not like I work there or anything. *wink wink*. God i sound like a salesman. Lol.
 
I think the only way to go for Windows PCs are either a Toshiba or IBM, with a Pentium M.

I can't believe people are using desktop processor-equipt laptops. Are you guys trying to become infertile? :D
 
I own the Sony S360 and it rocks. It does come standard with an 80gig 4200 rpm HDD, but you can customize it thru sony, or just buy a diff. HDD later on.

What I find interesting is that the jump from 4200 rpm to 5400 buys you the same seek times, just faster sequential throughput. The jump to 7200 shaves off about 2-4 ms of seek time, but at the expense of sometimes being louder, using more battery, and getting hotter.
All that said, I still have the stock HDD in it and it works fine while streaming 8 audio tracks at 48/24. Just remember to upgrade the ram to 1 gig... it helps!

Check out the Sony though. 4 lbs, 4-6 hours of battery life, pentium M (stock speed is 1.7 GHz), ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (which kicks major ass), 80 gig HDD, 512MB RAM, Centrino chipset package. Under 2000 bucks. (more like 1600 at some places). Definitely worth it.
 
I just ordered an Alienware notebook for $3,000 and will let you know how it's like when I got it.
 
This is a deal that Dell only has prob 1 time a quarter for 1 day at a time. If you know what you want.. do it, a 1500 notebook for 750 is amazing.

Save $750 on select Inspiron™ notebook purchases of $1499 or more (before tax and shipping) Not combinable with Inspiron notebooks containing Celeron Processors, Inspiron 2200s, Deals of the Week, Outrageous Deals, dollars off, percentages off and select other promotions. Only one coupon may be applied per cart at checkout. Coupon code expires after first 10,000 uses, or when the limited quantities available through this offer are depleted, whichever is earlier. Offers subject to change in Dell Home offer begins at 8:00am CST on Wed 4/13/05
Expiration: 4/18/05
Coupon Code: J096TQ8TFFG2VX
 
Polaris20 said:
I think the only way to go for Windows PCs are either a Toshiba or IBM, with a Pentium M.

I can't believe people are using desktop processor-equipt laptops. Are you guys trying to become infertile? :D
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Pentium Ms are without question the best laptop processors available right now, though there is something to be said for portable desktop power. Though that'll all change when dual core Pentium Ms (aka Yonah) drop.
 
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