Laptop or Desktop?

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lotness

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Heyas all
Well, I'm relegating the current pc (which I use for gaming, net, downloads, music, everything) to a media pc and I want to get a new pc.

I've got around $1500 Australian to spend. That's about $700 or something in US dollars, not a lot I realise.

But my big choice at the moment is whether to go for a laptop or desktop pc. Until today I was all about desktop pc, because I've always built my own and have no hassles with their maintenance etc. and because I do play games now and then I've never really considered laptops.

Today it hit me though that laptops are now pretty powerful and I could probably game on one just fine if need be. And for recording it would have to be handy just for saving space alone. Not that that is an issue as such. But the convenience of being mobile.. mm..

As far as recording gear goes I don't have much. I'm just a guy doing his own thing at home, nothing too superior.

In the way of gear I am a guitarist first and foremost so I have a few electric guitars, a Maton semi-acoustic, some effects... all that sorta thing. I have a Shure SM58 microphone. An Edirol UA-25 USB sound card which I haven't really used much yet, but I think will be enough for getting some songs together on my own. And that's about it.

The Edirol works ok, though I haven't had it set up in the last 3 months or so. I don't think I worked out the whole monitoring thing properly yet, but that'll come with practice and working out how everything plugs together better.

Anyway, that's where I am at. What are people's experiences with using laptops over desktop pc's for recording. Are they better or worse? Educate me! :)
 
I switched to using a laptop exclusively just over a year ago. I haven't once wished I was working on a desktop instead in that time.

I do DAW work, video editing, 3D modelling and Photoshop work. None of these apps suffer from the fact that I am not on a dekstop.

I really do not see a need to ever purchase another desktop again. My laptop works just fine.

Having said that, I still use an external monitor when I am at home just because I like the extra screen realestate.
 
Yeah, I would definitely go external monitor/mouse. Can you use external keyboards (for typing) as well or you have to use the laptop keyboard. Because I have pretty fat fingers and using laptop keyboards can be a bit of a drag.

I'll have to see what sort of deals I can find.

Say I buy a cheap laptop for now, what sort of specs would I look at needing to get by? What size processor, how much ram, do I need as a minimum for decent music recording?

Thanks for the response! :)
 
lotness said:
Say I buy a cheap laptop for now, what sort of specs would I look at needing to get by? What size processor, how much ram, do I need as a minimum for decent music recording?

It really depends on what you're recording, ie: how many tracks you're recording at once, if you're doing MIDI, etc. I would try to get one with a Core Duo processor if you can. A minimum of 1GB RAM.

Try to get a 7200 RPM hard drive. Size will depend on how much you'll be recording.

I normally don't recommend Dell to anyone, but for laptops it might be your best bet. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You can probably get the best price through them, a warranty, and upgrades.
 
lotness said:
I've got around $1500 Australian to spend. That's about $700 or something in US dollars, not a lot I realise.

quickly, for the convenience of everyone else, $1500 Australian is closer to $1200 American. For a laptop, this probably will get you something a little under what you want. I use a laptop only because it is my computer for uni work and everything i do which means i can take it easily to the studio, uni etc etc.

If mobility is important, you should be able to get something pretty decent, a lot of people dont like dell but there seriously have great prices and realyl damn good service and warrentys. I had a problem with my AC adaptor and they came and replaced it the next day.

For the price, a desktop will get you something with a lot more power. Assuming you dont have to move it too often, i would go this route. I know i would have but easy packing and moving is pretty important to me. Im in the process of saving for a dedicated DAW which will be a desktop (i also plan on networking the two and running some plug ins from my laptop to spread a little processing power)

It really comes down to working out how important mobility is compared to processing power.

Hope you make the right choice.
 
danny.guitar said:
It really depends on what you're recording, ie: how many tracks you're recording at once, if you're doing MIDI, etc. I would try to get one with a Core Duo processor if you can. A minimum of 1GB RAM.

Try to get a 7200 RPM hard drive. Size will depend on how much you'll be recording.

I normally don't recommend Dell to anyone, but for laptops it might be your best bet. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You can probably get the best price through them, a warranty, and upgrades.

Dell's Core Duo laptops with the 845 chipset have had several documented issues with Firewire devices.

I have a Gateway laptop with an Athlon-64 M processor and 1Gb of RAM. It works just fine.

If you can afford it, go with with either an AMD Althon-64/Turion ML-64 processor or a Core 2 Duo from Intel.
 
Laptops offer many advantages. Ease of upgrade probably isn't one of them.

Laptops generally have more expensive and specialist parts that mean they are harder to reconfigure (graphics, etc.).

As I say, they have many advantages (portability being top) but it is something to bear in mind.
 
I was a laptop user for about 3 years.

The portability thing is pretty much a washout when you realize the need for a firewire interface device, plus an external hard drive, a flat surface so your laptop fans dont get clogged, then some sort of power conditioner for that to really be set up right. By the time you're done, a rack with wheels with a rackmount computer ends up being more portable and costing you less, while giving MUCH better performance.
 
I just bought myself a notebook.... Hopefully i don't run into portability problems :p

I do have a 300gb external, but also have 200gb internal, with a 1814 connected to the notebook.... I don't see the use for my external other than to archive my data which means less luggage to carry. In my notebook case, I have the notebook of course, 1814 on one of the front pockets, and a Korg padKONTROL on the back pocket, along with cd's, thumb drives, and a smaller 8gb palm drive, all in one bag. It beats carrying my pc around I think.... laptops now a days are a little different designed... but also depends on brands... My fans & sink etc, are exiting out the back & side of the notebook. Personally, I would go for a PC before a Notebook. I view notebooks as a commodity. Build a solid foundation for your home studio with a pc daw, and expand with a notebook.
 
My fans exit out the back too, but they suck in from below. It just depends on the design.

There are 2 ways to find the limits of a notebook really fast. First try running Ivory or East West Symphonic Gold on it using just the internal drive. Second, try using all the i/o of your interface at the same time.

I still use the laptop for lite stuff but it just cant hold a candle to the desktop. I agree with mindset there. "Build a solid foundation for your home studio with a pc daw, and expand with a notebook."
 
Agreed.

My notebook (apart from work use) will be used as a wireless device to control my desktop, which will house my DAW.

That way, I can keep my desktop in one room (my study) and track in another - which is where most of my gear will be.
 
Whatever you do, do it quickly. Take advatage of Windows Vista coming out and buy a machine with XP on it. This way, you get the most updated XP, and you also get the "free" (sans shipping) upgrade to Windows Vista. You can work with XP for a year or so, and then upgrade to Vista after the first round of bugs have been worked out. The other advantage is that a lot of the "old" XP machines are now going on clearance compared to the "new" Vista machines (with identical specs).

FWIW, my new laptop (purchased two weeks ago) is an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz machine with 1G memory (expandable to 4G). The hard drive is fairly slow (5400RPM), but everything else flies. I haven't pushed it hard yet (still shopping for a good FW interface), but it's handled everything that I've thrown at it, including programs that only my brother's dedicated gaming machine could handle.

I guess it's all about what your purposes require. If you want something mobile, then get something mobile. Otherwise, no sense in sitting a laptop on your desk and leaving it there.
 
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