Which Notebook

imex · Post by **imex** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:22 am

I'm about to buy a notebook, any suggestions, especially on the size/capabilities. Please help.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:52 pm

MacBook Pro.. fill it up with RAM, install Boot Camp and XP, have the best of all possible worlds...

swishniak · Post by **swishniak** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:05 am

as a mac guy, im curious to know what pc laptop users are using or would recommend - and what's the going rate for something that LIVE could run well on.

dan aktivix · Post by **dan aktivix** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:14 am

Allo

Im in the UK, and have just bought a custom-made laptop from nusystems. In comparison to my old machine (I put it together myself) its rock solid - but it still drops audio for about a half second, maybe once every set. There seems to be no good reason: no particularly heavy processor or H/D use.

Which is such a shame - can't it be possible to get a machine that just... works? (This notebook's got all it should have; has had all the tweaks it should have..)

It got me to thinking: I wonder, do mac laptops do better? Do they just never drop audio under normal working conditions? If not, I'd start thinking about getting one at some point in the future. Though the only real difference now seems to be the linux base of its O/S, vs Microsoft...

Anyone? MAC vs Windows? Does anyone have a windows system that's absolutely 100% perferct?

Fantismo · Post by **Fantismo** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:47 pm

... and im thinking of buying a macbook - would be great to have smooth running of ableton...

can anyone whos bought one pop a comment on here?

dan aktivix · Post by **dan aktivix** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:55 pm

Having said this, its worth reading the thread on current problems with Live 5: glitches seem to be a perenniel problem at the moment with this version.

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 284#267284

Though maybe we don't hear from the vast majority for whom 5 is working glitch free...? Still, given that v 1 - 4 seems to have worked solidly for most people, something seems to have gone a little awry....!

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:00 pm

dan aktivix wrote:Though maybe we don't hear from the vast majority for whom 5 is working glitch free...?

-> (nutshell)

swishniak · Post by **swishniak** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:54 pm

i guess i thought that some pc guys would chime in with some killer machine that is half the price and runs great (like they actually should be ?!) -- oh well, still waiting for that happen,

in the meantime 5 is running great on my powerbook and even ran pretty good on my old ibook g3.

anyone with a good pc laptop out there?....

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:12 pm

swishniak wrote:i guess i thought that some pc guys would chime in with some killer machine that is half the price and runs great (like they actually should be ?!) -- oh well, still waiting for that happen,

in the meantime 5 is running great on my powerbook and even ran pretty good on my old ibook g3.

anyone with a good pc laptop out there?....

the folks at macdailynews did a cost comparison
for a pc based laptop with EQUAL features of the macbook pro
and well the pc one was twice as much money...

Ribo · Post by **Ribo** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:26 pm

windows laptop here and happy with it. amd turion 2.2 GHz, 1 gig ram, 2 x 80 gb hdd, 17" widescreen, edirol fa-66 firewire soundcard

chris vine · Post by **chris vine** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:04 pm

Seeing as you're in the US, I would check out the m-tech laptops...

www.m-tech.com.

They look pretty good and they are configurable, unlike the Toshibas etc - which probably cost an arm and leg to re-configure

I am looking at Intel duo core/ati radeon graphics, 7200 rpm drive etc.

Course I am not in the US - so m-tech is out for me javascript:emoticon('

')
Crying or Very sad

Cheaper thaN A macbook pro.....and....no-one has given a good report on XP running on a macbook yet as far as I know.

After years of using windoze I found the mac os AND software to be pretty infuriating - I mean I don't have time to get into a new OS - which is also why I never went for Linux.

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:04 pm

gomi wrote:
the folks at macdailynews did a cost comparison
for a pc based laptop with EQUAL features of the macbook pro
and well the pc one was twice as much money...

That is just utter and pure bullshit Mac fanboy propaganda. They must have included the cost of hand machining an aluminum casing (since they couldn't find a PC with one) or something.

Shit, doesn't people ever question what they read? The PC industry is one of the most competitive there is and a Macbook is a PC, believe me. Steven Jobs might be good at what he does but he isn't a magician. Or the saviour of mankind. Halving the cost of common computer hardware overnight - wow!

The new Macbooks are certainly competetively priced. But I'm pretty sure the eqivalent PC is still a bit cheaper. Not very much though. And now that you can run XP on them, Apple might have a whole new audience. Very clever move.

BTW, stores here in Sweden are still selling G4 Powerbooks (Reduced! While stock lasts!) for more than a new Macbook! That is how damn expensive those Powerbooks used to be...

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:45 pm

Just to back up my claims: I just specced out a Dell to the equivalent of a 2.0 GHz Macbook and the Dell came in 15% cheaper (but I got 1 GB of total memory and a 7200 RPM drive too). 14.1" screen instead of 13. I didn't get a built in camera, but I think I can live withou that...

Still, it is pretty damn close.

nolus · Post by **nolus** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:50 pm

I just bought a Sony Vaio FE21M 1.67 GHz core duo based system and it runs live beutifully. 90% of the power of a MacBookPro and nicely packaged for 2/3 the price. Superb screen as well, great for dvd playback.

runs nice and cool and quite, the noise from my Lacie external drive is starting to annoy me now - I couldn't even hear it over the noise from my old machine.

Althought the disk is only 4200 rpm it turns in 22 MB/s on Sisoft File System benchmark which is the same as the macbook pro (according to CM review).

I did have to get rid of a load of nagware (comes with trial versions of Ghost and Norton Internet security which are a pain in the arse).

Wheelie · Post by **Wheelie** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:07 pm

I just got a Macbook Pro, purely for running XP on, but I'm disappointed...

I thought that it would run like a similar PC, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

I loaded up some arrangements that played fine using around 40-50 CPU on my Vaio S5, Centrino 2Ghz... But on the mac book pro it seems that the CPU meter is at least 70-85 playing the same arrangements.

Obviously the Macbook Pro is a faster laptop, so if anything it should be a lot lower than the Vaio...

As I'm using a firewire soundcard I decided to check the IRQ sharing on the Firewire port, because if the IRQ is shared for the firewire port it usually causes problems... and

unfortunately the Firewire port is shared with the hard disk controller and a USB port. This would explain the poor performance with Ableton using a firewire soundcard...

So think I'll be sending mine back... shame about that...

Which Notebook

Which Notebook

notebooks

laptop - PC vs MAC...?

MMM im using a dual amd system at the moment..

But problems with 5.2...

Re: But problems with 5.2...