What new laptop should I get? suggestions please!

  • Thread starter Thread starter ollie99
  • Start date Start date
I bought an Apple wifi router today! It better be awesome or I gonna mail it to you Steen and then make you paddle across the Atlantic to take it back to Best Buy for me!!!! :D
 
ollie99 said:
So much for not being a pc vs mac thread :p
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Boiling this down...It's not a pc/mac thread.
No one here is recommending a mac.(Ok, I did before your budget ruled it out)
Furthermore, I'm not talking about best/better/worse.
I'm not even interested in preference or circumstances.

I'm pulling PTravel because he said apple hardware/software is more expensive with no benefits.
That's wrong.

I'm guilty of it I'm sure, but I hate misinformation on forums.

PTravel said:
"Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in." Extra points for anyone who knows what that's from. :)
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Michael Corleone - Godfather III / George Costanza - Seinfeld. :p
 
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guitaristic said:
I bought an Apple wifi router today! It better be awesome or I gonna mail it to you Steen and then make you paddle across the Atlantic to take it back to Best Buy for me!!!! :D
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LOL. In fairness, it's probably no different to any other router. :p
 
Basically your purchase should be based on the following four things if you are looking for a good laptop that is quite good for recording..
1.Firewire Chipset
2.Hard Drives
3.Processors.
4.Power saving utilities..
Get a laptop which incorporates all the features at good price.
 
"Apple computers are totally usable out of the box."

Adobe Reader? Unzipper? Ability to play all and every audio and video file type?

Dave.
 
Berndtwhite said:
Basically your purchase should be based on the following four things if you are looking for a good laptop that is quite good for recording..
1.Firewire Chipset
2.Hard Drives
3.Processors.
4.Power saving utilities..
Get a laptop which incorporates all the features at good price.
Click to expand...
Wow. I can't say I agree.

1.Firewire Chipset: There are plenty of great USB audio interfaces. There's absolutely no need to consider Firewire/1394 unless the OP had already invested in a 1394-based interface.

2.Hard Drives: Virtually irrelevant. Audio creates tons of data. Both for convenience and data safety, particularly for on-location work, it can be recorded to external USB drives.

3.Processors: I agree with you there. I'd say this is a primary consideration as it not only affects performance but also will determine the useful life of the laptop.

4.Power saving utilities: Completely irrelevant. Just plug the laptop in to a wall outlet. Where would anyone be working where they are dependent solely on battery power? For those rare occasions when it might be necessary, get an external high-power battery -- that will contribute far more to run time than any utility.
 
ecc83 said:
"Apple computers are totally usable out of the box."

Adobe Reader? Unzipper? Ability to play all and every audio and video file type?

Dave.
Click to expand...

What's the point of that, eh? It doesn't even compare to what we were talking about.


You advised the OP to keep daily use (wifi) separate from music recording.
PTravel says the win 8 GUI is "unusable for most serious purpose".

I said I don't need to do that since the move to OSX.
Over a year on a Macbook Pro and I'm still in disbelief myself to be fair.

It's that simple. A friendly wave of the hand to someone contemplating a new computer.
He shot it down on price and that's cool; They are expensive machines.

But how come the OP can never walk away thinking, "Well, OSX doesn't require the same degree of setup and maintenance....Good to know."
They never get the chance because this always happens.


Since you ask though-
Yes, Osx has native PDF reader (and editor), native zip compression/decompression, and plenty of free media player alternatives if itunes won't cover your needs.

Is abode reader not a 3rd party windows download? Limited to 'read-only' at that.
Seems like an odd trump card unless something has changed.

Still. This is irrelevant.
I don't consider downloading your favourite OSx media player or win adobe reader to be on the same level as steering clear of wifi or stripping back the GUI.

I'm comparing my day to day experience with what you guys are telling me.
 
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Steenamaroo said:
What's the point of that, eh? It doesn't even compare to what we were talking about.


You advised the OP to keep daily use (wifi) separate from music recording.
PTravel says the win 8 GUI is "unusable for most serious purpose".

I said I don't need to do that since the move to OSX.
Over a year on a Macbook Pro and I'm still in disbelief myself to be fair.

It's that simple. I friendly wave of the hand to someone contemplating a new computer.
He shot it down on price and that's cool; They are expensive machines.

But how come the OP can never walk away thinking, "Well, OSX doesn't require the same degree of setup and maintenance....Good to know."
They never get the chance because this always happens.


Since you ask though-
Yes, Osx has native PDF reader (and editor), native zip compression/decompression, and plenty of free media player alternatives if itunes won't cover your needs.

Is abode reader not a 3rd party windows download? Limited to 'read-only' at that.
Seems like an odd trump card unless something has changed.

Still. This is irrelevant.
I don't consider downloading your favourite OSx media player or win adobe reader to be on the same level as steering clear of wifi or stripping back the GUI.

I'm comparing my day to day experience with what you guys are telling me.
Click to expand...

Right...But, Calm Down Dear.

Dave.
 
Straight up though, is adobe built in to windows now? That's just genuine interest - I'm not up to date post vista to be fair.


It's my thing....lol. Think of it as the equivalent of your mixer thing.....;)
 
Berndtwhite said:
Basically your purchase should be based on the following four things if you are looking for a good laptop that is quite good for recording..
1.Firewire Chipset
2.Hard Drives
3.Processors.
4.Power saving utilities..
Get a laptop which incorporates all the features at good price.
Click to expand...


Nah Firewire is definitely on its way out. Especially with USB 3.0 becoming so mainstream now.
 
guitaristic said:
Nah Firewire is definitely on its way out. Especially with USB 3.0 becoming so mainstream now.
Click to expand...

And you would surely want to disable any and all power saving tricks? (where and IF it'll let ya!) since these cause CPU throttling...JUST what you need in the middle of a 16 track take!

Dave.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Straight up though, is adobe built in to windows now? That's just genuine interest - I'm not up to date post vista to be fair.


It's my thing....lol. Think of it as the equivalent of your mixer thing.....;)
Click to expand...
You are correct. Adobe Reader is not built into Windows and must be downloaded. It also always remains a reader. If you want to write or edit PDFs you need a full-feature PDF program. I use Acrobat XI, but there are free alternatives available.

The Google Chrome web browser (also a separate download) can both read PDFs and save as a PDF without additional software. I'm not sure about FireFox or Internet Explorer (because my machines have Acrobat installed).

This is, I think, a good example of the "different strokes" factor. It is an advantage for some to have PDF-reading capability built in out-of-the-box. For others, the preference is to install software specific to the need and not "bloat up" the OS with unwanted extras (though Windows has its own flaws when it comes to unwanted bloat-ware). I use Acrobat XI because its editing capabilites are so comprehensive that it approaches a full-featured word processor. I use it to edit previously professionally prepared marketing collateral at my firm. I also use it to create fillable-forms out of the hundreds of different flat forms used by various courts across the country. I doubt that the Mac OS has that capability out-of-the-box, but then again, I also doubt most computer users need to do this. "Jack of all trades" makes sense in some contexts, less so in others. Given that the name of this website is "homerecording.com" I doubt that many of us are interested in using the built-in audio recording software in either Mac or Windows OS -- at minimum, people will download and install Reaper, which is free and available in both Mac and Windows flavors.
 
I am experimenting with Linux myself so that's the reason why I write this here.
If you use Linux as your OS you can spare some money. (Most Linux distributions are free, I prefer Ubuntu.)
I know that Linux isn't really popular but you have distros like Dream Studio, KXStudio, Ubuntu Studio with real time kernels and JACK (A 'program' that can connect all different D.A.W. and effects with each other.) also you can get wineASIO (an ASIO driver for Linux, but I can't compile it when using my terminal yet, but like I said, I am just sharing my experiences here for your computer choice.)
Also you have plenty free Linux programs (GIMP as PhotoShop alternative, Pitivi (videos), Ardour (D.A.W.), Rosegarden, Hydrogen, LMMS, ...)
You can even use Reaper and FL Studio for example with WINE (for using Windows programs in Linux).
But the best of all: you get a safe OS (almost no viruses (there are around 48 Linux virusses counted so far, for over 50000 Windows virusses), no Blue Screens of Death (BSD's), faster (it only takes some seconds (7 or so), to close off my computer while in Windows it would take more than the double of that time), a lot of choice (Ubuntu, Opensuse, Backtrack, Zorin OS (made for people coming from Windows, highly customizable), Linux Mint, Red Hat, Debian, Archlinux, Fedora, Dreamlinux, ...), a lot of different user interfaces (you can make Linux look like Mac OS): Gnome, XFCE, Unity, ... ; you don't need to defragmentate your hard-drive (kinda like Mac OS), but the ULTRABEST OF ALL: IT'S FREAKING FREE (Because it is open-source.) !!!!!!! (Still thinking about buying yourself a new computer with Windows preinstalled (Which is a decent amount of the price.) and have a 80% (just saying) more chance to having virusses, lag, ...?

I am not saying that Windows is worth nothing,
I am just saying that Linux powers: 90% of the supercomputers, sattelites, ATM's, Android (Is actually a Linux-'distro'.), a lot of servers because it is so reliable (It almost never needs to shut down on big computers.), ...

It's of course still your choice. :)
 
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