Advice Wanted: Getting a new laptop

[kevlarwhacker]

So I am finally graduating college and my Dad is going to get me a new laptop as a graduation present. I just upgraded to live 8 suite and look forward to diving into MFL once I get some free time this summer. I mainly write/produce for fun and eventually want to do some live performing. And though my Dad does see the value in getting something quality, he is not by any means Daddy moneybags.

Currently im on an old acer apsire running xp. so pretty much anything will be a step up. I'm thinking I want to stay away from win8 for the moment. If anyone has a compelling reason beyond the normal fanboy babble-drool, I'm open to the idea of getting a mac.

Here are some of the models I have been looking at on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834230648
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834230533


With that in mind, I'm open to suggestions about anything you all think are must have items/specs

Thanks for any and all input

Luke

[kb420]

The biggest problem that I see with those laptops is the hard drive. You don't want a laptop with a 5400 rpm hard drive. You have to get one with at least a 7200 rpm hard drive, or you will have issues. I have a 3 year old laptop that I was going to get rid of. It had a 5400 rpm hard drive that went bad. Instead of buying a new laptop, I went a got a 750 gig/ 7200 rpm SSD hybrid drive, and I love it. Now more disc under run errors or dropouts.

[bastien]

A compromise is to get a 32 gig SD card, a good fast Class 10 one, and run your live set from that (ie, Collect All and Save your project onto it).

Not as quick as an SSD but cheaper and less hassle and still vibration-proof.

[J0n35y]

While I do agree that you should aim for a 7,200 rpm minimum I have to confess to having had few problems at all with my 4 year old laptops 500gb 5,400rpm hard drive.

Other than one BSOD issue caused by the HDD needing reformatted (this was before I got back into music making) everything else has been fine.

Saying that, I don't use Live live - if I did I would be sticking with SSD's or the SD card bastien suggested (had never thought of that one, a good tip!)

[102455]

You don't want a laptop with a 5400 rpm hard drive. You have to get one with at least a 7200 rpm hard drive, or you will have issues.

Hmmmm....

Dunno about that. Bit of a sweeping statement!

I've never encountered any issues using Live (or indeed any other audio editing/DAW/DJ s/w) on my old laptop, and it's pretty long in the tooth now.

I'd say there are a lot more factors involved than just HDD speed when it comes to using software such as Live on a computer.

He said he's doing this for fun, so I doubt he's going to be running 96 tracks of 192khz 24 bit audio and mixing down to 7.1 for a blockbuster movie.

[kb420]

You don't want a laptop with a 5400 rpm hard drive. You have to get one with at least a 7200 rpm hard drive, or you will have issues.

Hmmmm....

Dunno about that. Bit of a sweeping statement!

I've never encountered any issues using Live (or indeed any other audio editing/DAW/DJ s/w) on my old laptop, and it's pretty long in the tooth now.

I'd say there are a lot more factors involved than just HDD speed when it comes to using software such as Live on a computer.

He said he's doing this for fun, so I doubt he's going to be running 96 tracks of 192khz 24 bit audio and mixing down to 7.1 for a blockbuster movie.

I didn't mean to come across as making a "sweeping statement". I was only speaking from personal experience. I have a dj set that I use that has well over 400 mp3's, and at that point there were some issues. With the 5400 rpm drive, there were dropouts and disc overload errors. I would try to work around the problem by loading the mp3's into Ram on the fly, but that would only last until the I started running out of Ram. Then you have to un-load the mp3's that you aren't using, and it gets to be a real pain.

5400 rpm drives should all be considered obsolete. I think that most manufacturers stop using them in desktop computers back in the '90's, but for some odd reason they are still the standard in laptops. If you don't have an issue with it, then consider yourself fortunate, but if you have the time/money, upgrade to a 7200 rpm drive and see the difference. You won't be disappointed.

{I can't seem to find it on the website anymore, but at one time the minimum system requirements for Live 8 stated that a 7200 rpm drive was recommended.}

[102455]

I have a dj set that I use that has well over 400 mp3's, and at that point there were some issues.

Well there you go. That's hardly going to be the case here. Someone doing a bit of music for fun isn't going to be loading up 400 full length stereo tracks!

I'd suggest that for the type of use he's likely to put Live to, a 5400 drive will be fine.

Pick the computer based on the more important aspects such as CPU speed & amount of RAM, then if (not when) any issues arise from having a drive with a slightly slower spin speed, swap it out for a faster one.

[Szuumm]

I'm not even sure having 400 mp3s in a set would be an issue unless you were trying to play them all at the same time...and assuming they'd all be decoded in advance.

[kb420]

I'm not even sure having 400 mp3s in a set would be an issue unless you were trying to play them all at the same time...and assuming they'd all be decoded in advance.

I'm never playing more than 3 at one time when those issues surface, and all are decoded and warped in advance. It never happens right away, but after continued use there are issues.

[darkenedsoul]

You also will probably want a laptop with a discrete video card in it (AMD/ATI or nVidia) so you won't be sharing memory with the onboard video card. Or perhaps one with the Intel 4000 HD chip on it may suffice but I don't know about that one first-hand.

I won't know about win8 but more than likely that's what it will come with and will cost you to downgrade to win7 if you go through a mfr (HP/Dell) but I don't like going that route due to bloatware or crap you *have* to take like Office trial I think Dell shoves onto order..... You can always remove that though while tweaking the system to your liking. 8gb Memory, 16GB if you can afford it, quad CPU as well would be nice. But you could get a decent one set up for maybe $1k or so depending on system stats, what you get internally in it (SSD + HDD 7200 rpm, 16gb mem, discrete video, etc...).

Store-boughts may work but have to check specs out, and again, I can't stress more to get one with a discrete video card in it.

Mike

[Tarekith]

Check the refurb section on the Apple online store, you can get good deals on basically brand new Mac laptops there.

[agent314]

+1 to a refurbed MacBook. That is what I'm planning on doing with tax return money.

I have been a Windows user as long as I've been using computers (coming up on 20 years now) and recently started using a MacBook Pro for work

I'm not a huge fan of the OS overall, but a few things stood out as being huge for me in my music work

1. The ability to copy and edit files that are currently in use by Live, in other programs (i.e. RX2 for spectral repair/denoise) without needing to close the set is HUGE.
2. The ability to hot-swap USB items (MIDI keyboard, audio interface, etc.) without having to restart Live.
3. Aggregate audio devices (i.e. use the onboard audio for playback while your input is your interface).

Not to mention latency times (I get consistently lower latency with my interface on my work MBP than I do on either my desktop or laptop PC), better stability+crash recovery (i.e. no hanging processes that keep you from restarting Live for 5 minutes, no USB devices being held hostage after a crash, etc.)

I was so hostile to the idea that Macs are actually better for production and was so keen to dismiss that as fanboy herd-following, but after using one myself for even just a few weeks I understand why most pros are using Macs over PCs

[kb420]

Here's a really good laptop. I think it should be able to handle anything that you want to throw at it.

http://www.studiocat.com/3/index.php/Platinum_Laptop

[kitekrazy]

So I am finally graduating college and my Dad is going to get me a new laptop as a graduation present. I just upgraded to live 8 suite and look forward to diving into MFL once I get some free time this summer. I mainly write/produce for fun and eventually want to do some live performing. And though my Dad does see the value in getting something quality, he is not by any means Daddy moneybags.

Currently im on an old acer apsire running xp. so pretty much anything will be a step up. I'm thinking I want to stay away from win8 for the moment. If anyone has a compelling reason beyond the normal fanboy babble-drool, I'm open to the idea of getting a mac.

Here are some of the models I have been looking at on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834230648
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834230533


With that in mind, I'm open to suggestions about anything you all think are must have items/specs

Thanks for any and all input

Luke

I'd say either one is fine. You could eventually upgrade to a SSD drive when they come down in price. Forget "refurbished Macs". Refurbished means something was broken. ASUS laptops have a good record of reliability. In fact ASUS hardware is top notch. You'll be fine with either one.

[J0n35y]

Depending on how you plan to use your laptop I'd suggest not getting anything with Windows 8 on it. The core of your set up will be fine (ie - Live) but I have found issues with various vst's. In my experience, the CPU load is much worse under Windows 8 just now but thats to be expected for another few months until patches are released.

Synthmaster in Maschine (standalone) is barely functional under Windows 8.