What's the optimal laptop for Live

sebastian_renix · Post by **sebastian_renix** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:15 am

drumroll57 wrote:Same situation as you...

There is NOTHING available from Apple that currently gives me this amount of power on the road, except if I was willing to trod around between gigs with an X-Serve G5. (LOL!..)

D.

Werd! I was actually considering doing that until I read that the X-Serve weighs something around 30lbs. Maybe someday we Mac users will once again reign supreme in the audio kingdom...but utill that day comes...

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:25 am

sebastian_renix wrote:Thanks for the advice so far. Anyone else out there with experience using different laptops--maybe you've got friends whose laptops you've compared with your own. It seems to be clear that the Centrino runs cooler than the P4, but is it as powerful? Also, about the Athlon 64, it sounds really great and I'm definitely in favor of supporting AMD over Intel. Does anyone know of other manufacturers who use AMD chips besides HP/Compaq?

I'm currently scratching my chin over the laptops at www.acernotebooks.co.uk

sebastian_renix · Post by **sebastian_renix** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:38 am

Amberience wrote:
sebastian_renix wrote:I'm currently scratching my chin over the laptops at www.acernotebooks.co.uk

Hmm..I actually have a couple of friends with Acer laptops so I should ask them how they like them. Unfortunately, though, Acer laptops are only sold with Intel chips in the US (at least as far as I could see). Anyone else out there have any experience with Acer?

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 8:17 am

Well Acer have some well priced 64bit Athlon setups on the UK website.

nicka · Post by **nicka** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:40 pm

the amilo range by fujitsu-siemens uses the athlon 64 chip and comes in around £1000 for the 3400+ version which im going to buy buying soon from www.dabs.com for use with live4

srminimo · Post by **srminimo** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:49 pm

I cannot argue where Live runs better, but I CAN tell you Live runs just fine in my Mac (12" powerbook 1.33 Ghz OSX). I never have memory problems, I've played set after set in clubs, lots of effects per track and the master output and it has never crashed. I also do all my mixdowns with all sorts of plugins and effects.
Maybe what you need to do is upgrade to a newer Mac (if that is indeed the case, and if you DO preffer Mac).
BUT, if you insist on a PC, might as well give this a look:
http://www.alienware.com/

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:02 pm

might i add that on my HP zv5000z i've successfully overclocked my Athlon 64 3000 up 200mhz to 3200 speeds.

i was able to do this because the default voltage for the A64 Mobile's and A64 DTR (desktop replacements)'s is actually much higher than the chip really needs. rated at 1.5v

since i was able to UNDERVOLT to 1.3v before clocking up 200mhz, the increase in heat is subsidized by the decrease in voltage. i've been running Mobile Meter and the core cpu temps at 1.3v + 200mhz are the same as 1.5v (stock) with stock frequency.

Furthermore, if you just wanted to undervolt and not overclock, keeping the cpu at the stock speed... you'd gain about 45 minutes battery life on the 12-cell battery. This makes the competition with Centrino alot healthier.

another reason to go AMD... =o)

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:01 am

AdamJay wrote:might i add that on my HP zv5000z i've successfully overclocked my Athlon 64 3000 up 200mhz to 3200 speeds.

another reason to go AMD... =o)

Adam;

You appear to be the absolute AMD guru around here... Please send me a quick PM and let me know how your laptop is handling the overclocking, and whether this is fairly easy to do... I am a newby to PCs at all, having abandoned Macs only six months ago.

Also, for those who are singing the praises of the centrinos, yes they are effecient and fast, but I have two problems with them;

1. You are paying a premium for their intel sponsored "brand" name and their wireless connectivity. If neither are important for you, (ie you don't put your music machine on wireless networks) then why pay for that feature, when it makes up a huge portion of the increased price?

2. All 32 bit PCs are going to drop in resale value like stones in a lake when Microsoft introduces Longhorn (or whatever they end up calling their 64 bit OS). If you plan on upgrading your computer every three or so years, you'll be better off selling it if it can handle a 64 bit OS and 64 bit software. This was the PRIMARY reason I went with an AMD Athlon 64.

No flames or nastiness intended, this is just my $0.02.

nicka · Post by **nicka** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:53 am

yeh ive been pondering over going for a centrino but in a years time it will be usless (wll almost

) mainly because of the 64bit version on XP due next summer but also compaines like m-audio have already designed drivers for the firewire cards that are optimised for 64bit processors!

I personally cant see why people are still buying p4's/centrinos when they will have to upgrade in 2 years time!

Just my 2cents

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 11:21 am

montrealbreaks wrote: 2. All 32 bit PCs are going to drop in resale value like stones in a lake when Microsoft introduces Longhorn (or whatever they end up calling their 64 bit OS). If you plan on upgrading your computer every three or so years, you'll be better off selling it if it can handle a 64 bit OS and 64 bit software. This was the PRIMARY reason I went with an AMD Athlon 64.

No flames or nastiness intended, this is just my $0.02.

I bought a 1.5ghZ pentium M machine a year ago, and it's an amazing beast. And a 64bit version of XP won't make my computer run any worse on 32bit xp... That's how I see it; there's always going to be a nextbigthing just around the corner, waiting to depreciate our kit. But if it works, it..erm..works. Basically, if you feel you *neeeed* longhorn, then fine. I don't really care about the value of my computer. I'm not selling!

Reg's,
A

Fingers · Post by **Fingers** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 11:32 pm

nicka wrote:I personally cant see why people are still buying p4's/centrinos when they will have to upgrade in 2 years time!

Just my 2cents

Two years' time? That seems like a decent lifetime for a cheap-as-chips, ridiculously fast pc. Let's be realistic, the current Athlon 64s might be able to run Longhorn in two years' time, but they'll be right at the bottom end of the system requirements list in every other department (doesn't longhorn require the equivalent of a room full of sgi workstations just to minimise a window smoothly?) And who says anyone will "have to upgrade"? If you're determined to keep up with all the software updates, there's really no such thing as a future-proof computer. But if you're happy with something that meets your needs, who cares if it comes with transparent windows?

I have a rapidly ageing titanium Powerbook but I'm thinking of buying a PC laptop (only for Live - I'll keep the Mac for everything else. Life's too short to go online with Windows). I'd have no qualms about spending £1000 on a fast centrino just because microsoft are eventually going to produce an os that understands how to crash a 64-bit processor.

And while I'm on, does anyone know of any pc laptops that have 6-pin firewire ports that can supply bus power to my fa-101? It would be nice to really make the most of centrino's battery benefits.

nicka · Post by **nicka** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 1:21 pm

Fingers wrote:
nicka wrote:I personally cant see why people are still buying p4's/centrinos when they will have to upgrade in 2 years time!

Just my 2cents
Two years' time? That seems like a decent lifetime for a cheap-as-chips, ridiculously fast pc. Let's be realistic, the current Athlon 64s might be able to run Longhorn in two years' time, but they'll be right at the bottom end of the system requirements list in every other department (doesn't longhorn require the equivalent of a room full of sgi workstations just to minimise a window smoothly?) And who says anyone will "have to upgrade"? If you're determined to keep up with all the software updates, there's really no such thing as a future-proof computer. But if you're happy with something that meets your needs, who cares if it comes with transparent windows?

I have a rapidly ageing titanium Powerbook but I'm thinking of buying a PC laptop (only for Live - I'll keep the Mac for everything else. Life's too short to go online with Windows). I'd have no qualms about spending £1000 on a fast centrino just because microsoft are eventually going to produce an os that understands how to crash a 64-bit processor.

And while I'm on, does anyone know of any pc laptops that have 6-pin firewire ports that can supply bus power to my fa-101? It would be nice to really make the most of centrino's battery benefits.

agree with you there but either way u look at it the current athlon 64's can run apps n stuff just that lil bit faster then the top end p4's (plus the extra fsb speed), so when u look at it your getting a faster pc with a longer lifespan and its cheaper than the equevalant p4/centrino

also on the 6-pin firewire port on laptops and seems to be a rare thing (altho macs have them)

Hypomixolydian · Post by **Hypomixolydian** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 12:15 am

Hello,

Well I have an Asus 6800 Ne, 1.8 Centrino and I'm really happy with it!!!
I run Live 4, Cubase SX 2 and Logic 5.5.1, plus Kompakt 2 stuff, Reason and Tassman 4. I couldn't be happier. If worse comes to worse and I need more CPU I just bounce down and take it from there.
No doubt it will be obsolete sooner or later, but I see at least 5 years life in it if not more!!! For about 4 years I was mainly using a Dell 450 dimension desktop and I achieved what I wanted to easily. Basically it's how you use it rather than size (said the actress to the bishop).

stevie_si · Post by **stevie_si** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 12:00 pm

hello just a note on the 6 pin firewire thang.
I almost got a gateway m505x centrino just b4 xmas and b4 leaving the usa.
Now this has the 6 pin (dunno if it`ll power your peripherals) and the slot loading dvdr/cdrw (like a powerbook) and a half decent hard drive (toshiba 60 gb 5400 rpm/16mb cache)
Also i believe it can handle up to 2 gig`s ram.
Sadly it never arrived coz of a snow storm so i`m stuck with silly uk prices now and my old p3 633mhz desktop.
But i still got my cash locked up in a us bank account waiting for the next trip over.
hope this helps in some way

Fingers · Post by **Fingers** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 12:43 pm

Thanks stevie_si, I'll have a look at Gateways. I wonder why it's so hard to find a pc laptop with six-pin firewire. Anyway, I'm also going to have a look at some athlon 64 laptops, seems like nicka's got the right idea if they really are faster and cheaper. Can anyone recommend one? (with a six-pin firewire port, of course...

What's the optimal laptop for Live

Re: Windows boxes

what?