DAW notebook & laptop Recommendations?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dejacky
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dejacky

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I've been out of the mobile DAW loop and would greatly appreciate some input from you more experienced folks as to which laptops/notebooks you recommend for my purposes? Thanks in advance.

1) What is your budget?
$1,500 or less

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
d. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?
A) Recording and editing 8-10 tracks of 24bit/88.2khz (sometimes 176khz) live audio simultaneously, then editing & mixing 12-16 tracks in realtime. Notebook must be QUIET and as SILENT as possible
--> I'll be using a RME Multiface & FireFace (www.rme-audio.com), but from my understanding:
too many devices on the same IRQ means the firewire wont work right. the firewire MUST be on its own IRQ with MOST firewire devices to monitor 2 channels with no crackle/pop.
I also need a seperate hard drive (internal or external) dedicated only for audio.
B) Mediocre Gaming..Geforce 7900gs sufficient?
C) MINOR web coding, CAD, & video editing

4) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?
Yes, it will accompany me on trips.


5) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 2
Need For Speed (the newer series)
Half Life 1 & 2
Counterstrike
Any good combat flight sims


6) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
not really, i'm looking for best Bang/Buck for my needs

7) How many hours of battery life do you need?
1 hour? It will be plugged into power outlet 99.9% of the time.

8) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?
No, that is fine.

9) What country are you buying this in?
U.S.A

Screen Specifics

10) Would you prefer standard or widescreen?
either one is fine.

11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?
f. WUXGA - 1920x1200; Wider viewing version of UXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.

12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
Glossy with as minimal reflectiveness as possible :o

Build Quality and Design

13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
NO

14) How long do you want this laptop to last?
5+ years

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 120GB?
As long as I can use external hard drives to their full 7200rpm potential transfer rates, internal hard drive size or speed doesn't matter.

16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD-ROM, DVD-CD/RW or DVD-RW drive?
I prefer a DVD-RW drive, yes..but if there is a better notebook deal without one, I can just use an external drive.
 
The laptop you describe should be well over $1500. Maybe check into rackmountable desktops?
 
If you want to stay under $1500, forget about the 17+ inch display, recording at 172khz, and the super amazing graphics card. These are unreasonable for that price.

This baby is the closest you can get and its still above $1500.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2201244&CatId=1902

My friend has this exact one. We've played Call of Duty 2, Guild Wars (newest one), City of Villains, it handles amazing. The mouse sucks tho. You need the ram in this one, it has 1 gig. The CPU will handle well as long as you exit all other programs before doing anything. Expect to only record 48khz on it, thats still better than cd quality.
 
Well, you have about the same needs I have except that I don't play games at all.

I got myself a Macbook, duo core intel processor, 1GB RAM, cost me less than 1500$. I was a Mac OSX first timer and my initial impressions are that it's much more stable that my old XP and although the internal hard drive is 5400 RPM compared to my desktop 7200 RPM, it wrote faster, probably due to system stability, less bugs and better ressource management, but I'm no expert so it could be a number of other reasons. I still record on an external 7200 RPM and it's still a bit faster than my desktop's internal.

The screen is 13.3 inches, sounds rather small, but on my lap, it was plenty enough for my number of track needs, plus it's a wider screen than the usual PC laptop so you can see further on your track.

It has a powered Firewire port (PC laptop are usually unpowered) which is handful when I don't feel like plugging my bus-powered interface.

Screen is glossy, didn't have any reflective issues, games should work I guess. More silent than I could ever imagine.

If you have a bigger budget, you can always get a Macbook pro. I didn't, 13" with something on your lap is big enough for me, plus, you can hook up an external monitor in your studio area.

I'll never go back to PCs unless there are some big changes made on that side, this is the lesson I learned this year.

Hope I could help a little.
Francis.
 
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