Making the move to a laptop.

EtherealEntity

EtherealEntity

Dreamer
Caution: LONG POST.

Hey guys. A bit about my current setup (bare in mind I am clueless about computers really):

It's pretty old.
Some locally built custom thing with Windows XP 32 bit.
Soundblaster soundcard with external interface which I have disconnected and do not use.
2GB Ram.
"AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+" (I took that straight from Dxdiag, processors confuse the hell out of me. I believe this is 2.2Mhz or something though).
NVIDIA Geforce 9600 GSO.
300GB HD

I'm using Sonar 8 Producer with a Presonus FireStudio Project. I am very pleased with the results (I use up to 4 inputs at once). However my system is not powerful enough to really do what I want after recording. I need 4/6 GB of RAM to work comfortably with virtual instruments, and I guess a CPU which is about twice as powerful as my current one, according to the complexity of projects I can run compared to how complex I would LIKE to run them.

I use this PC for everything.

Now, I'm off to university in September for audio engineering. I was going to take my mums basic laptop (which would just be for internet and essay writing). I thought it would be very convinient if I could have a powerful laptop at university so that I could mix etc. outside of the studios, and seen as I want to upgrade my home PC anyway - why not kill two birds with one stone?

So I'm looking for a laptop to serve as a replacement for my home PC and for university. Would some custom made thing be the best option?

I'm thinking Windows 7 64 bit, 6GB RAM, (recommend me a processor please), ethernet socket for internet, USB port for 8 socket USB adapter for all my needs, a graphics card decent enough to run something like the recent Grand Theft Auto (my PC couldn't quite handle it, partly because of the processor though). I'm no modern gamer though. Basic soundcard for listenting to music.
THE IMPORTANT PART - Firewire for my Presonus Interface (I believe it's important to have a Texas Instrument Firewire chip or something...I didn't think about this when I bought the interface for my PC but have had absolutely zero issues setting it up, so I presume I have the right chip!)
I'd like something with a pretty full keyboard. Not too fussed about the touch pad as I'll use a mouse most of the time. 15/17" monitor. A connection for my 24" when I'm at home.

Now here's another thing...multiple monitors. How do you set these up? I'm thinking I might aswell be able to do that to make use of my laptop monitor as well when I'm at home, rather than just using an external monitor. I don't want to run the split down the middle of the screen type setup...Just something where I can drag some virtual instruments over to the laptop screen or something.

I want a harddrive AT LEAST as big as my current one (although the 300GB is really damn small...If I can get something significantly larger inside a laptop then that will be cool).

I'm not too fussed about external HD or partitioning and all that at the moment, as I've seen no need for it thus far. Maybe I'd consider it though.

That's all I can think of right now, so please fire away with any advice!
Also bare in mind I'm not a person who likes updating and keeping with the times. Once I have a setup that works, I'm likely to stay with it. If my current PC had more RAM and processing and HD space, I'd be happy to use this for the next 10 years :D
 
What kind of music do you perform? Generally, I think laptops are only good for checking e-mail, internet surfing, some gaming and writing term papers but if you just do some simple recording like, say an acoustic guitar or something you might get away with the laptop you're looking at. Unless you play live in which case that laptop would come in handy.

You said something about virtual instruments? The higher the quality of the soft synth, the better the processor you're going to need. How about FX? The more FX you use, the better processors you need.
 
Geesh Laptops are good at more than checking email Dude - I record DAILY on a Dual-Core Intel 2 ghz. laptop with 4-gigs - running Windows 7 Ultimate. It works great.
 
sonicpsyops said:
What kind of music do you perform? Generally, I think laptops are only good for checking e-mail, internet surfing, some gaming and writing term papers but if you just do some simple recording like, say an acoustic guitar or something you might get away with the laptop you're looking at. Unless you play live in which case that laptop would come in handy.

You said something about virtual instruments? The higher the quality of the soft synth, the better the processor you're going to need. How about FX? The more FX you use, the better processors you need.
Click to expand...

Progressive metal, orchestral, and dubstep. Generally never have a project with less than 30 tracks. Lots of FX on each. I WOULD be running around 4GB of virtual instruments at all times if I could. Like I said, I'm currently running 2GB+2.2Mhz dual core and would be comfortable with something exactly twice as powerful.
 
I've done quite a bit of looking around and whilst I have found several laptops that seem like they would be good, I am very nervous to buy them because Presonus interfaces seem to be hell with laptops and incompatible firewire etc. 95% of people seem to have negative experiences.

Mac was out of the question seen as I do not wish to run anything other than Windows, but I've just discovered I can run Windows 7 on a Mac. Does this function entirely normally? I.e. I would still be able to install PC specific software and keep my current set up running as usual? This seems like a good option as Macs seem to be plug-and-play with any setup.
 
The multiple monitors thing is just a Windows Control Panel Display feature... you'll sort it out, I'm sure. I use it at work.
 
check out tigerdirect.com and newegg.com if you haven't already. Some of the laptops on there are very appealing.

Personally I would prefer an AMD processor but its whatever you want and what will make you happy. :p

oh, and about your additional monitor. its no big deal to setup a secondary monitor. lots of people do that. if you have a newer TV, you may even be able to connect directly to that from your laptop.
 
sonicpsyops said:
Generally, I think laptops are only good for checking e-mail, internet surfing, some gaming and writing term papers but if you just do some simple recording like, say an acoustic guitar or something you might get away with the laptop you're looking at. Unless you play live in which case that laptop would come in handy.
Click to expand...

Dude...you are way behind the times. Laptops are capable of recording 48 tracks and then some.
 
The macbook pro comes with firewire, but the cheaper macbook does not i believe. As for Windows 7 on a mac, it is most commonly used on a mac either by via a dual-boot option (bootcamp) or with software called Parallels (a virtual machine).

There is no promise that just because the firewire port works well under OSX that it will also work well under Windows 7. Usually the problem is not with the hardware, but with the drivers and software. OSX and its apps typically only needs to deal with a very limited diversity of hardware, so the drivers are given a lot of focus. Under Windows 7, there is a huge amount of diversity, so drivers and software tend to be more prone to problems.

The drivers on mac and windows are different. also, different production runs of Macbook pros are known to have different firewire chipsets, so things can be tricky if you want to use a verified-compatible macbook fw chipset and driver for windows 7. The TI FW chipset, i hear, is popular.

There are not many notebooks with built-in Firewire, so the Macbook may not be a bad option, but cheaper options exist.
The HP Pavilion dv7t offers a quad-core Intel i7 processor and built-in firewire i think, and its relatively cheap. I have no idea which FW chipset it uses though....

The new Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors are all really nice! I would take them over AMD anyday if price was no issue.

You could always also just buy a basic laptop, and add a firewire card via the 34mm expresscard port found on most new laptops. It will jut out a bit, but it is not a bad solution if you are looking for a specific Firewire chipset and are on a limited budget.

adding a solid state drive, instead of a typical spinning hard drive, would also be a nice addition to your setup. Very little latency on SSDs, and most the new ones have very fast write speeds. I have an OCZ Vertex drive, it's only 60GB, but its awesome. No hiccups, fast random I/O, and fast seq. read/writes! You can buy ~256GB drives also, if you're rich and need the extra space. I can record two live 720p resolution video feeds to my laptop at the same time with like 100MB/s bit rates with very few dropped frames - thats like a kabillion audio channels.
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Thanks again guys.

Yeah, I've quickly gone off of the idea of a Mac again since finding out they havn't been using TI chipsets for years now. There are people complaining all over the place. And I expect your right, that the issue would only be excalated by bootcamping Windows 7.

I'm looking at ADK - seems good. I can't find anything on their site about shipping to the U.K, though I read on a forum that they do. However, I would rather avoid the probably quite hefty import tax. Another thing - do they have ethernet ports?

At the moment I have my eyes on a top end HP laptop...
With 8GB Ram, 1TB storage...has everything I need by the looks of it. That IEEE 1394 DOES mean Texas Instruments, right?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s.../psg/notebooks/High_performance/dv8tqe_series
 

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dastrick said:
IEEE 1394 does not mean TI. It just means firewire. You'll probably have to contact hp tech support to find out if it's TI chipset. And even then, they probably won't be able to tell you.


When you go to Device Manager you should see something like this.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Interesting - turns out my current is a VIA. And they are approved by Presonus. Mine works very well. I will try and find out what chipset this laptop is because I really like everything about it.
 
That's why I asked the OP what kind of music he performs. I'm a film/TV composer and I need a system that run samples intensively. I use this

Nuendo 4.3
Sonar 7 Producer
2 x Intel Xeon x5560 2.8GHz Quad Core
48GB RAM
Windows 7 (x64)Pro
RME Multiface II
Intensity
Vienna Symphonic Library
ATI HD3450 graphics card

and I still get hickups. For the type of music that the OP said he performs he'll probably do just fine with a laptop but, in my world, laptops don't cut it along with external HD's firewire, soundcard companies who don't keep their drivers updated. They don't make the grade. But I'm glad somebody was able to help the OP. BTW have you checked out these sites:

http://www.stonewaveproductions.com/
Laptop: http://www.shop-sonica.com/d2500.cfm
http://www.pcaudiolabs.com/

I believe they will ship to the UK. Good luck.
 
So I found a used dv7t on ebay and sent the buyer a message asking about the firewire chipset. I'm not totally convinced of his answer, but here is what he said.

"... and the chipset for the IEEE1394 Bus Host Controller i think is 1394 OHCI compliant Host Controller."


"thinks"?? There shouldn't be any thinking. Either it is or it isn't, but that's the answer I got.
 
RastaSean said:
48 gigs of RAM? holy hell! How much money does that add up to on just RAM!!
Click to expand...

Whew....48 gigs??? What's the max?

And newegg.com has 24 GB of ram for $1300. So it's be $2600 for 48 gigs. :eek: Plus you get a free 2TB hard drive with each purchase.
 
Cheers for the info :)
I've read around a lot more, also about the laptop I was looking at, and have decided that I'd be best off going with something designed for audio like ADK and those others suggested, especially seen as they are basically the same price.

However...One big issue. Even if they do ship to the U.K - isn't there some customs fee or tax (or both!?) that I'll have to pay? Ontop of shipping, I'm under the impression I'll end up paying £400 more or so than the price of the laptop itself!

A question about processors:
I'm trying to cut the price down as much as possible. I'm going for pretty much top quality, but I don't think I need an absolute top quality CPU. Like I said before, I have a Core 2 Duo 2.2Mhz, and would be comfortable with something twice as good. I feel like I'd be spending a lot of unnecessary money if I went for the top i7 or whatever, but I want confirmation on this :)
 
You could always look for "music" type computer builders in the UK like ADK.. I'll bet there are several..
 
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