Best laptop for Ableton + college?

[Trial]

So I'm heading off to college soon and I want a laptop that will be my main music production rig. I am open to most suggestions, but I want something that I can use both to produce music and play a live performance. It also has to be reasonably portable. I'm a big guy and wouldn't mind carrying it around to classes and such but there is an acceptable limit. I wouldn't want to go above fifteen or maybe sixteen inches for a screen. I also would like to have three or more USB ports, firewire would be cool too, and dockability is a major major plus. Oh, and I'm a PC.

Right now I'm looking at the Lenovo T510. Any thoughts on that?

[3dot...]

price-range ?

[Trial]

I'm pretty flexible. I wouldn't want to go much above $1500.

[navdo]

I know you said yer on a PC... But if your serious about music and school get a MacBook Pro!

[leedsquietman]

Many college courses on music or audio production give you a Macbook as part of the course and fees.

I would check with the course co-ordinators on what their requirements and recommendations are before buying anything.

Of course, you don't need a Macbook Pro to be SERIOUS, there are plenty of good options, Mac or PC but many college courses prefer you have Mac. Best to check first if they have any pre-requisites such as 'you must have an Apple laptop'.

Otherwise check out all your options.

Firewire typically sucks on modern PC laptops, 4 pin mini FW with a cheapo ricoh/ene/O2 chipset. Macs definitely are a better choice if you are requiring firewire, they have a proper 6 pin FW port (which allows buss powering, 4 pin does not) and although they now also use a cheapo chipset (Agere) it's much better supported because the vendors have worked around it given it's only a couple of different hardware combinations as opposed to potentially thousands on a PC. There are several good USB 2.0 interfaces around now which perform on equally well as firewire in most situations and these might be a better choice for a PC laptop.

The Lenovo has a ricoh firewire chipset, as does Dell, HP, Sony and Toshiba. A bespoke manufacturer such as ADK make better laptops designated for audio and have an expresscard to Texas Instruments (best firewire chipset) adapter but tend to cost quite a bit more.

[Cool Character]

I know you said yer on a PC... But if your serious about music and school get a MacBook Pro!

I have a feeling his serious.

[Trial]

I know you said yer on a PC... But if your serious about music and school get a MacBook Pro!

I have a feeling his serious.

You're right. I am not a big fan of Apple computers or their operating system. I've tried to like them, but I still like Windows better. It's personal preference. (Unless you're saying I'm serious about music, which is true, too! )

I am actually going to college next year. I'm still in high school, but I was looking to get a computer sooner than that because I'm currently outgrowing my IdeaPad. I will, however, look into the course requirements for the colleges I am looking at. That's good advice, thank you!

Firewire typically sucks on modern PC laptops, 4 pin mini FW with a cheapo ricoh/ene/O2 chipset. Macs definitely are a better choice if you are requiring firewire, they have a proper 6 pin FW port (which allows buss powering, 4 pin does not) and although they now also use a cheapo chipset (Agere) it's much better supported because the vendors have worked around it given it's only a couple of different hardware combinations as opposed to potentially thousands on a PC. There are several good USB 2.0 interfaces around now which perform on equally well as firewire in most situations and these might be a better choice for a PC laptop.

The Lenovo has a ricoh firewire chipset, as does Dell, HP, Sony and Toshiba. A bespoke manufacturer such as ADK make better laptops designated for audio and have an expresscard to Texas Instruments (best firewire chipset) adapter but tend to cost quite a bit more.

I feel as though my two top choices for a laptop right now if I am allowed a Windows lappy at college are Lenovo and ADK. I will call their sales department tomorrow because their website isn't overly informative but the laptops look fantastic. I have enough time and resources available to me so that if I wanted to I could probably work and save up enough for a lappy that will cost a significant chunk of change. Also, firewire isn't necessary for me, my interface and controllers are all USB. It would just be a nice thing to have. I will keep the above information in mind, though.