Minimum requirements for REAPER on a lap top?

[Steenamaroo]

Here's a great list for cpu comparison.
Ok, it's just a number, but it'll give you an idea where something lies.

As you can see the desktop chip you listed scores 921
The laptop chip scores 1814

An old q6600 will score 2972!

If desktop is a consideration I'd get on ebay or local adds and look for an old e6600 or q6600 box.
I'm sure people would be giving them away these days.

 

[mjbphotos]

What DO you have for an interface? (If youhave one now) Make sure it has drivers available for W8!

 

[TimOBrien]

I still have my old 7-year-old XP laptop (Gateway M520 with 2.5gb of ram and outboard firewire and usb drives) around from Reaper 1.5 days.
I originally bought the Gateway because it had native TexasInstruments firewire chips and I always had ZERO problems with it.

Still runs just fine even with the current version. Don't sweat it, just be aware of your horsepower and ram limitations.

 

[John Smiff]

What DO you have for an interface? (If youhave one now) Make sure it has drivers available for W8!

I should have made that clear at the beginning, I guess. I have a TASCAM US-800 (not us-1800). Never thought of the fact that I might have to make sure it has drivers for Windows 7 or 8. Anyone know?

I still have my old 7-year-old XP laptop (Gateway M520 with 2.5gb of ram and outboard firewire and usb drives) around from Reaper 1.5 days.
I originally bought the Gateway because it had native TexasInstruments firewire chips and I always had ZERO problems with it.

Still runs just fine even with the current version. Don't sweat it, just be aware of your horsepower and ram limitations.

Great, that's re-assuring. Thanx.

 

[DM60]

I should have made that clear at the beginning, I guess. I have a TASCAM US-800 (not us-1800). Never thought of the fact that I might have to make sure it has drivers for Windows 7 or 8. Anyone know?

States on the website, XP-Win7. You should be good.

 

[John Smiff]

Here's a great list for cpu comparison.
Ok, it's just a number, but it'll give you an idea where something lies.

As you can see the desktop chip you listed scores 921
The laptop chip scores 1814

An old q6600 will score 2972!

If desktop is a consideration I'd get on ebay or local adds and look for an old e6600 or q6600 box.
I'm sure people would be giving them away these days.

That laptop scores higher than the E6400 that was in my Dell Dimension 9200, and I never had any problem with that until the PC died. So, that laptop is starting to look good to me at that price.

The only thing I'm worried about now is the drivers for my US-800. The US-800 seems to have available drivers for W7 but not W8. I'll have to see if I can get it with W7 and I should be good.

 

[DM60]

That laptop scores higher than the E6400 that was in my Dell Dimension 9200, and I never had any problem with that until the PC died. So, that laptop is starting to look good to me at that price.

The only thing I'm worried about now is the drivers for my US-800. The US-800 seems to have available drivers for W7 but not W8. I'll have to see if I can get it with W7 and I should be good.

More than not, the drivers will work on Win8, Win8's guts are the same as Win7, just GUI has changed for most part.

 

[John Smiff]

More than not, the drivers will work on Win8, Win8's guts are the same as Win7, just GUI has changed for most part.

HA! I was just typing that exact question. You guys are good.

OK, that's good to know. It does seem to only come with W8.1, and the TASCAM site says nothing about W8, so I was going to ask what the chances are that W7 and W8 are the "same" thing.

You guys are awesome. You helped me out a lot and made everything easy to understand. Thanx guys!

 

[Steenamaroo]

HA! I was just typing that exact question. You guys are good.

OK, that's good to know. It does seem to only come with W8.1, and the TASCAM site says nothing about W8, so I was going to ask what the chances are that W7 and W8 are the "same" thing.

You guys are awesome. You helped me out a lot and made everything easy to understand. Thanx guys!

Glad you got some useful info.
Best of luck.

 

[Armistice]

My advice is always, at the start, get the gruntiest machine you can, even if it means delaying things for a month while you source a few extra shekels to get a faster processor, more RAM etc. Given that you're probably going to be using a bunch of free VSTs for processing, your expenditure on recording past the point of purchasing the machine itself should be very low, so unless there's a driving need to do it NOW, then take your time and see if you can find a few more dollars to throw at the project and you should be rewarded with the amount of time the system remains viable...

Good luck...

 

[John Smiff]

My advice is always, at the start, get the gruntiest machine you can, even if it means delaying things for a month while you source a few extra shekels to get a faster processor, more RAM etc. Given that you're probably going to be using a bunch of free VSTs for processing, your expenditure on recording past the point of purchasing the machine itself should be very low, so unless there's a driving need to do it NOW, then take your time and see if you can find a few more dollars to throw at the project and you should be rewarded with the amount of time the system remains viable...

Good luck...

Thanx. I'm not just starting out. I've been recording for years. I just need to replace my PC that died.

 

[ecc83]

Warning !PC numpty about to opine!!

I've had a bit of a read thru ' and I would like to comment on a couple of points?

Yes, go for another desktop if at all possible. Faster drives, usually more memory slots (but check that but in any case you should be able to get 8G in any dtop chassis and that will be fine for most music work) Then, as you say, why fork out for ANOTHER monitor, k'bd and mouse! You can also stuff in PCIe cards for usb 3.0(say) and have shedloads of connectivity.

SSDs? Numpty yes I be but several times I have read that they really only reduce boot times (I just put the kettle on) because the way OS'ess work is that data from the HD is shunted into ram and run from there as is DAW operations and the HDD only has to keep that topped up. If laptops still came with Express card slots things might be different but most do not now.

Drivers and W7 W8.. "Ok for W7 so W8 should be ok"...DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT! This was said for XP to Blista, Vista to W7 and now "they" are saying it again. If there is not a dedicated NOT beta driver for an AI, expect trouble.

Dave.

 

[Steenamaroo]

SSDs? Numpty yes I be but several times I have read that they really only reduce boot times (I just put the kettle on) because the way OS'ess work is that data from the HD is shunted into ram and run from there as is DAW operations and the HDD only has to keep that topped up.

I've seen people saying that a lot and, yes, boot times are phenomenal but the overall system performance increase I've seen has been incredible too.
I see a huge improvement on importing audio, copying files, unzipping things, archiving things etc.
I haven't seen an egg timer or beachball in a few years now.
I definitely wouldn't build a machine without an SSD now.

I have a oldnlinux box on SSD that is super for day to day work, but during a recent version upgrade I did a test install on an old WD 10k raptor.
Now, in old money that's a fast drive but man I noticed a difference! It just felt so sluggish.
I actually thought I'd missed out some critical driver or something.

It can be hard to get by on a small drive, but a 60gb vertex 2 can be had on ebay for £30/£40!
around £120 will get you a decent Samsung 256gb which is a lot more comfortable.

Still, for someone buying gear (OP), as much as I recommend them it's always good to test out what you've got, or what you're going to get, and assess if any upgrades are needed.
I have mixed pretty big sessions on 5400 drives.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Incidentally, OP.
I forgot to ask about your old computer. Did it handle the task OK?
You say it died..What does that mean?

Perhaps someone on here could help you fix it? Is it a software issue, do you think, or has some hardware failed.

PM me if you think you wanna run through some troubleshooting.

 

[John Smiff]

Hey thanx guys.

Steenamaroo, I answered your PM. You can copy and paste my response here if you think it will help. I hope I gave you enough info in my response.

I really hope I can get my PC fixed because I'd hate to buy something and then find out that my interface isn't compatible with it (The whole W7 or W8 issue that Ecc was reffering to).

Thanx again for all the help guys.

 

[Steenamaroo]

No problem John. Your info was useful.

John had suspected hard drive failure (BSODs etc) but bought and new drive and a friend who is helping is now having problems fresh-installing windows on it. (If you can get him to elaborate on this it might help).

I sent some general trouble shooting tips for ruling out faulty ram/peripherals/cmos battery etc incase the HDD was never the issue. (my suspicion)

We'll see what comes out of it.

 

[DM60]

No problem John. Your info was useful.

John had suspected hard drive failure (BSODs etc) but bought and new drive and a friend who is helping is now having problems fresh-installing windows on it. (If you can get him to elaborate on this it might help).

I sent some general trouble shooting tips for ruling out faulty ram/peripherals/cmos battery etc incase the HDD was never the issue. (my suspicion)

We'll see what comes out of it.

Many times, even if you can't boot the HD, I have used like an Acronis (It uses it onwn OS at Boot) did a copy of the old drive to the new drive. Even if I couldn't boot up the old drive. Seems like, as long as it is spinning, at a very low level, you can get the data. I've used this approach for 25 years (with various utilities) and it has not failed. Doesn't mean it will work, but it has for me and you get the same computer as you had before, just with a new drive. Might give it a try.

 

[mojo filters]

I have an old Acer laptop with a 2.8g Intel Pentium 4 processor, which only scores 332 on the CPU comparison site. It has recently had a new screen and HD replaced, so the original 40gb HD is now 160gb. Also when the shop replaced the hard drive they had to reload Win XP, but I've no idea if that has improved on the original OS.

I'm interested in Reaper as I was advised it was the least processor-intensive DAW. I currently have a Focusrite iTrack Solo that I have tried using with Music Studio on my 1st gen iPad, but that app has a tendency to crash with just a few in app MIDI tracks going.

Is it worth trying a DAW like Reaper on my ancient laptop instead?

I have experience recording at home on analogue 8 track, as well as previous experience in analogue studios. However I have only spent time in commercial digital studios with a tech to deal with the engineering side.

I don't aspire to use my iTrack Solo to record lots of recorded instrument / vox tracks, though would want to add a few on the projects I plan to make.

I can't afford a new PC or iPad right now, but thought there are folks participating in this thread who could say whether it's worth trying a DAW like Reaper on my old laptop, or whether it's simply too old and underpowered for music production.

Please bear in mind whilst I have a lot of experience using professional studios, this home use would be for low track counts, and my previous experience using a cassette 8 track has taught me how to exercise economy with both number of tracks and fx returns etc.

Thanks in advance for any and all help folks can provide!

 

[John Smiff]

I've been hijacked!!!!!

 

[Steenamaroo]

there are folks participating in this thread who could say whether it's worth trying a DAW like Reaper on my old laptop, or whether it's simply too old and underpowered for music production.
!

The simple answer is just try it. It's free to download and to try, so what can you lose?

That is an underpowered machine by today's standards, but then when you look at it the other way it was cutting edge once, right?

Steamline it as much as you can. I'm not talking about what's installed or what storage you have; I'm talking about currently running applications and processes.
The more you can clean out, the better.