Which laptop ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter wuzzo
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wuzzo

wuzzo

668- the neighbour of the beast
Hello,

Any stock laptop suggestions ? I'm looking for something which will comfortably manage large and hungry audio tools such as Omnisphere and Guitar Rig .

I'm thinking a quad core , 8Gb RAM and lots of storage.
 
wuzzo said:
Hello,

Any stock laptop suggestions ? I'm looking for something which will comfortably manage large and hungry audio tools such as Omnisphere and Guitar Rig .

I'm thinking a quad core , 8Gb RAM and lots of storage.
Click to expand...

If all you'll be using is those 2 things, you don't nearly need all that power. A dual core and 4GB of RAM will do you fine. Can get plenty of cheap laptops with that kinda stuff in.
 
It depends what your maximum session is going to be like.

If you're just going to be running a small number of tracks you can get away with a lot.
If you're going for lots of tracks, heavy on the synths and effects then maybe your quad core isn't a bad idea.

Tell us more.
 
OK, I'm currently recording with up to twelve tracks- using Reaper or SONAR X1 on Windows 7- and I've often got Omnisphere/Guitar Rig/Jamstix/Nectar open across several of them. My quad-core desktop can handle that but I wouldn't want any less power on a laptop. I'm moving towards more tracks too. The laptop might be used for live performance later but in the near future it's just intended to carry my stuff about so I can reproduce elsewhere what I do on my desktop in my studio. Ideally, the laptop will also be capable of running two screens.
 
The trouble is, the "stock" laptops tend to change key bits of their spec without warning.

A few things I'd look for:

Decent processor speed but it doesn't have to be amazing. Not all software can efficiently use quad cores--check the support forums for Reaper and Sonar to make sure (though it can be useful for your next upgrade I guess).

As much RAM as you can get can be useful for multitrack work.

Yes to lots of storage but see if you can get a 7200 RPM drive instead of the 5600 (or less) they often put in laptops.

Do you need Firewire? If yes, you'll likely want to make sure it's a TI chipset. If not, try to get a USB3 device as that's the coming thing.

Graphics: an output to use a second monitor might be useful in the future.
 
But what's currently a 'decent' processor speed? And what's an adequate amount of ram? Drive speed is also going to be important (I figure I can upgrade to a ss drive), but I would think capacity would be less important, as you're going to want to save everythng on either an external drive or dvd.
 
notCardio said:
But what's currently a 'decent' processor speed? And what's an adequate amount of ram? Drive speed is also going to be important (I figure I can upgrade to a ss drive), but I would think capacity would be less important, as you're going to want to save everythng on either an external drive or dvd.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'd be happy with a 256Gb SSD. My archives are all on external drives so I see now that volume storage isn't an issue. An SSD is still very expensive though, but I'm opting for one as essential . Sony have a good online custom-build service for the VAIO range but the prices are astronomical. Looking at the cost of individual components, SSD- /Intel i7 Quad-core / 8Gb RAM etc. I'm determined not to hand over an extra thousand bucks just to have somebody else assemble them. I've built a few desktops and it's not that hard.


I don't need Firewire, bobbsy, but USB3. I've got a small Roland Quad-Capture external USB sound card that will be travelling with the laptop.
 
The Best Laptops at the present in marketplace are ACER, Toshiba and DELL. In this I recommend you for DELL for the reason that their workstations are in numerous places out their. Moreover if u goes for the cheap one I can only suggest you the best is HP.
 
In the past I've heard about some problems with audio driver compatibility because of the way Dell installs Windows. It's not always but, other things being equal, I might avoid Dell if you main priority is an audio workstation.
 
I'd completely avoid Dell and a lot of Toshiba stuff too. Not heard anything bad about Acer though. Yet.
 
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