Laptop processor Question

[Echelon]

I'm getting a new laptop for mobile recording and I thought I'd get some opinions for you guys (and girls). I'm looking to spend $3-3,500 on it, but i'm stuck when it comes to processors. Do I go for the high clock speeds of the P4 or the performance of the Centrino? I've been looking at various tests and such, but most are just comparisons when gaming. In almost all instances, the Centrino performed better than the P4 in gaming, despite only being 2.13 ghz. The options are Pentium 4HT 3.8ghz or Centrino 2.13 ghz. The P4 will have 3gb ram, the centrino will have 2gb. I'm not looking to run a million programs at once, just something like Cubase SX2, Reason, Absynth, Ableton, Altered States, and the like. I've heard good things about the Centrino stuff, but that lower clock speed has me a bit freaked out. Any suggestions or information would be great.

 

[Halion]

With that kind of power, and 3 gigs of ram, you could mix much, much more at once than you'll probably need. Ofcourse, I don't know 'bout your mixing. Processor power is that important, ram is. Two hard disks would be great (one for the programs, one for the recordings), but I don't know many laptops that have them.

 

[manning1]

check out echelon posts by henchman on gearslutz.com about the great performance he is getting using a emachines/gateway amd 64 laptop.
i think its a 6800 series - but check.
the key is making sure to get a fast internal 7200 rpm drive plus maybe a second one. also ensure before you buy that your sound solution will be compatible.
peace.

 

[dogwomble]

Apparently the Centrino laptops perform as well as much higher powered true P4 chips, so the lower clock speeds aren't so much of an issue. The chips are actually designed this way - they perform at equivalent speeds to higher spec'd P4 chips to save on battery power. So personally, I'd look at the Centrino chip over the P4 chip because you'll probably get roughly similar day-to-day performance between the two and more battery life out of the Centrino.

As for the RAM, more is better too, even if you aren't planning on running much. A machine with a slower clock speed and more RAM can in certain situations perform better than a machine with a higher clock speed and less RAM. When I built my box here (AMD XP-2600) , I went for the same theory. I bought an AMD XP-2600 instead of a higher 2800 or 3000 andused the money I savaed to put 1.5gb RAM in it, purely because I do some image editing work and in the future a bit more serious sound work, which both go through memory like you wouldn't believe, so having more is obviously going to be better.

 

[ocnor]

With $3,000-$3,500 you could buy 2 really nice Athlon 64 laptops that will kick the crap out of a P4 or Centrino.

 

[Echelon]

With $3,000-$3,500 you could buy 2 really nice Athlon 64 laptops that will kick the crap out of a P4 or Centrino.

heh, I love AMD. it's what's in my desktop, but i'm also looking at Intel still.

 

[tanlith]

With $3,000-$3,500 you could buy 2 really nice Athlon 64 laptops that will kick the crap out of a P4 or Centrino.

Agreed... also, video game ratings are really focused on the graphics capablilities and processor capabilites... what you want is a machine(s) that has an excellent audio chipset.

You could have the fastest laptop in the world, but if the audio chipset sux, the sound sux.

(And get the fastest HDD available - this is where you'll find MOST of your latentcy issues)

In fact, if the machine supports 2 HDs (not likely) all the better. Set your swap file on the second drive ONLY and you'll increase performance.

- Tanlith -