Should I buy a new laptop?

3

3nigma

New member
I've saved up some money on the side for my at home studio.

Currently I have $600. The thing is, I've taken a look at my current laptop and I'm wondering whether or not I should buy a better one before I start buying my equipment. The only problem is, if I did it would set me back to about $50 - $100 and I'd have to start saving all over again. I could probably get back up to where I am now in two to three months time, and that's bearable, but should I do this in the first place?

My current laptop's BASIC specs.

# Intel Pentium M 1.73 GHz processor
# 1 GB DDR RAM
# 100 GB hard drive

The laptop I want to buy's BASIC specs

# AMD Turion 64 Dual Core - 2200
# 4 GB of RAM
# 320 GB hard drive (5400 RPM)

Reason being, I'm thinking that with my current laptop - it wouldn't be able to process as quickly. I'm going to have 2 - 3 BIG audio programs and sequencers open at once, recording streams of audio, and saving to a second hard drive to write to, this might be too much to handle for the poor guy. So, what do you recommend? Do I stick with my current, or do I buy the other one?
 
Monkey Allen said:
I would advise no. Don't do it. Get a desktop.
Click to expand...
You have a point. I know that Desktops are more stable, you get more performance for your money, and the screens are alot larger. But... I don't know. There's something really cozy sounding about making music on a laptop. And since I plan to move around to get better sounds when recording from the microphone, it might be easier to take the laptop into say, a soundproofed closet or such.

I'm tempted to keep the laptop on hand, and buy a desktop at the same time but... I'm not sure man. Any other suggestions? I have to think about it.
 
Yeah....they are mobile...so buy a new one and buy the most powerful one you can. Just get fistfuls of all the money you can....fistfulls of dollars...and buy the the most powerful stuff you can. You have to have the money though. If you have no money then what can you do? Save...etc. It's a shame that you have to pay for things in life. You know, like I bought this Martin Dx1 guitar...and I'm still paying for it now. I mean, I settled the score finacially with the guitar shop. But I'm still paying for my decision to buy that particular guitar. So...you know...be careful...there's a lot of jungle out there...no guarantees
 
Laptops suck for recording---even good ones. The enclosures are just too small to get adequate cooling for hot modern CPUs, so the fans end up being loud enough to mar the recordings. If you were doing recording of a loud band in a club, I'd say yeah, go for a laptop. For home recording, though, I'd say get a longer mic cable and a Frontier Tranzport or similar and be done with it.
 
You wouldn't want to take your laptop into the closet while you're recording. It will be too noisy. Do you already have an interface? If so, have you tried it with your current laptop?

I suggest a desktop. Even better...I suggest building your own PC. You can build a very good and stable desktop for less than $500 if you don't buy all of the new "state of the art" components.
 
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