Best Laptop for recording? <1000ish

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Rocket Boy

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I've been thinking about live recording and portability in general and was wondering what you guys think the best laptop out there for recording out there would be for under about 1000 dollars with firewire?

Also, I have a delta 1010 I'm using with N-Track which I like a lot. So I would like to find an equivalent soundcard that will work well with a laptop :) Links please!
 
This is the laptop that acts as my main recording rig right now. It's been rock solid and good setup. Dell is always running specials and here's a great one: 9300 Link
Use coupon at checkout: 7369HKH2NK0JD7

This coupon will take $550 off the total price. Configured with the specs below:

-PentM 740 (1.73ghz, 533 FSB)
-1gb DDR2 533mhz RAM
-60gb 7200 rpm HD
-8x Dual Layer DVDrw/CDrw
-17" screen
-ATI 128mb video card
-Wireless

Gives you a price of $1,019. You can drop the RAM to 512 and drop the wireless and save a little more. But that's a pretty smokin deal for those specs.

Just thought someone would be interested.

Another option would be to get the Dell E1505 with this deal:

Also...here's another deal on their new 1505 with a duo core processor, 1gb ram. You'll have to upgrade the HD and it's a 15.4" screen but it would be a good machine none the less.

1505 link

This has a duo core processor so a little better than the 1.73 single core in the 9300. Comes with 1gb RAM as well as wireless. If the duo core is not essential, you could start with the base model which comes with a Pentium M 1.73 ghz and you could upgrade the HD to 60gb and the wireless for the same amount of money.

Apply coupon code D$P$MMWQLQ0NCS to save $300 off the retail price, gets it down to about $718 for the base model with the HD upgrade and the wireless upgrade.

Either of these will get you going for mobile recording I use the 9300 with:

-Pentium M 1.73 ghz
-1gb DDR2 RAM
-60gb 7200 rpm HD
-Nvidia 256mb 6800 video card
-17" screen
-FW & 6 USB ports
-8x DVD-RW

FWIW, YMMV, etc.....

Jonathan

<edit> Both have Firewire. Also, to be honest you can't get the "best" recording laptop for under $1000. That's the starting point for just a decent machine. The term "best" is too freakin subjective anyway. Either of these machines will get the job done for you for the time being. Then, when you're making thousands on a project you can drop for a Desktop Dual Processor system to do all your editing on and still use either of these to track mobile gigs and dump the projects onto whatever "monster" machine you get down the road.
 
I meant, the best... in someones opinion for around a thousand dollars. not that the best could be purchased for that much.

What about the AMD Hp's? Has anyone tried one of those?
 
Rocket Boy said:
I meant, the best... in someones opinion for around a thousand dollars. not that the best could be purchased for that much.

What about the AMD Hp's? Has anyone tried one of those?
Click to expand...


You need a bell helmet rocket boy. He just gave you a config of a 1500 dollar laptop for 1000.
 
I am using a laptop with an AMD64 processor and it is working great. I don't know if that helps.
 
:p

two points. one - i'm slow.

two - i was thinking of amd's i guess and it got me all wild eyed or something and not thinking straight.
 
What about for Firewire interfaces? Something that will give me similiar operation and quality to my Delta 1010?
 
Chess, not doggin you or anything, but I don't like either of those choices.

1. The 80gb HD on the first link is 4200 rpm, not sufficient for audio IMHO. The second one has a 100gb HD, but it doesn't list speed, I'm willing to bet it's the same.

2. Also, they both have DDR333 RAM, slower than what I configured on the Dell.

3. From what I've read on different forums, the Pentium M performs better than the AMD Turion for audio applications. Just what I've heard.

Both of those laptops are 15.4" screen size, the Dell E1505 link that I posted is a 15.4" with much better specs than either of the two circuit city laptops and it's less, $718 after coupon versus $900.



Rocket Boy:

Interfaces.....there are so many out there that a number of questions must be answered:

1. What is your price range? You gave one for laptops, now how about the interface?

2. How many tracks do you need to record simultaneously?

3. Do you need it to have any mic preamps?

I know you've already got the Delta 1010, you could easily go with the M-Audio Firewire 410 or 1814 and that would give you plenty of ins/outs with two preamps. Are there better interfaces, sure, how much you wanna spend?

I've been using an M-audio 1814 for a year. It has worked great with the Dell 9300. However, I'm getting ready to upgrade because I need more features than it offers. I'll either be upgrading to the MOTU 896HD or the PResonus Firestudio.

Jonathan
 
Well, if you missed it...you missed it. The coupons have reached their max uses. Dell usually puts out the really good coupons about once a month or so. They're always running coupons, but you don't see the good ones all the time.

A good place to look for the coupons is www.notebookforums.com in their Deals and Coupons thread. Good Luck.

Jonathan
 
I was sort of thinking of either the 1614 or the similiar Hercules. The Hercules has a great price, but I fear it to lower the quality of my recordings.
 
I work at a computer repair shop.

Choose Dell and Choose Hell (hardware problems)


The new HP's are great. I use one. pentium M 1.6g 512 mem. Runs solid. 800.00-1000.00

IBM thinkpad is rock solid aswell.
 
Does anyone disagree with the Intel > AMD for audio statement?
 
jabulani jonny said:
1. The 80gb HD on the first link is 4200 rpm, not sufficient for audio IMHO. The second one has a 100gb HD, but it doesn't list speed, I'm willing to bet it's the same.
Click to expand...

You point out some really good things. However, for recording, I wouldn't advocate using an internal HD anyway. I just think it should go without saying that you use a separate HD to record to, whether it's a notebook or a desktop. At least with a large HD on the notebook, you've got some extra space to play with for temporary storage and for porn and stuff. :D

2. Also, they both have DDR333 RAM, slower than what I configured on the Dell.
Click to expand...

You got me there. Still, I think for most audio purposes, a gig of most anything should be at least adequate.

3. From what I've read on different forums, the Pentium M performs better than the AMD Turion for audio applications. Just what I've heard.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's the case at all. For the most part, you get better performace on the dollar out of AMDs when you're talking raw processing power. Also, I rather like the idea of having a 64-bit processor. However, in terms of heat and battery life, the Pentiums might run a little cooler and retain their charge a little longer -- very generally speaking.

Again, though, the notebook you spec'ed out sounds great if you can swing it. I still think the processor on my suggestions have the edge, though. And say what you want about the big chain stores, but I rather like the convenience of walking out of a store with a product in-hand ... and having the ability to walk it right back in if I take it home and it doesn't work or something. Plus, you just can't beat some of these in-store warranty / service plans these big chains offer. With some of these plans, they'll replace it for you if you drop it down a flight of stairs and smash it in to a million pieces, no questions asked.

As nutty as I feel saying this, I actually recommend people buy their recording notebooks from the megastores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.
.
 
Thumbs-down on HP laptops. My buddy (currently being outsourced from HP to India) has (4) laptops, all gone bad. They over heat, drop dead, and fail to charge the battery. Motherboard replacment time. He understands that some of the line has a 50% failure rate.

Thumbs-down on the Thinkpad. I just installed a new one for a client, and the system restore function is a DOS nightmare. Takes *HOURS* to complete. Numerous errors returned by DOS batch commands that build the system from scratch. Lame. And coming from me, an IBM engineer for 25 years. The hardware is excellent, and so is the reliability.

Thumbs-down on machines with Windows Media Edition.

I bought a new Dell 6400. Intel Duo-Core T2300 processor with the red hot 945GM chipset and fastest FSB. 1.0gb of 533 MHz DDR-II as 2x512 to take advantage of dual-memory controller architecture, PCI-Express embedded video. 7200rpm IDE drive.

Spend the $10 extra and buy the Restore Media (WinXP install CD). GHOST your new system, then wipe it clean and reinstall from the CD. Download all Dell drivers. This will dump all the bundled junk the comes stock, and your machine will be MUCH faster.

I completely favor AMD processors, but have no experience with them in laptops.
 
This is a hard decision heh. :p

Since.. you know if i get it wrong i'm sort of stuck with what i got. All it really has to be able to do is run atleast 8 audio channels at 24/88,200 without messing up... any of these should do that job reasonably equally eh? I might try Fry's too since they're always running specials...
 
Jabulani thats really cool you did that

Im a member on several forums...and all have great info....But that coupon post was very impressive.....Do you have any for Apple??????? :rolleyes:
 
Do you guy's like the Presonus Firepod? I'm sort of leaning towards it right now. What I wanted to ask is(i know this is a stupid question but a review i read put this in doubt)...

It has something similiar in there to my Delta 1010 for a "Patchbay/Router" option right? Like I need to be able to assign input whatever to go to output whatever... so that i can do the monitor/headphone mix on a small mixer?

http://www.presonus.com/images/firepoddiagram-big.jpg

they also don't show any pictures of someone doing this on their site which makes it even more confusing heh. i guess they have to do that though since.. why else would it have 8 analog outputs sitting on the back there...
 
If you want a firewire version of something similar to the Delta 1010 with the internal mixer software, etc. then you might have a look at the Echo Audiofire 8. I just think Echo is a great company that makes great products competitively priced. Kinda' like getting RME quality at M-audio prices.
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