Rain Recording VS. Music XPC

Joshua Boden · Post by **Joshua Boden** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:15 pm

Just came into some money and lookin to get a killer laptop to do live shows with...my band and solo.....

I have looking at 2 PC's in particular
Rain Recording's Live book
and
Music XPC's M# Professional

I have yet to find any review (show down style) comparing the two.....any one care to comment?
Its a lot of money to spend either way...so Im just trying to find the best machine...oh, all you MAC cats out there...Im not interested in getting one....i have no probelm wiht MAC...but my hone set up is wiht a PC and Im not gonna awitch up the whole works....
Also looking for a really good audio interface that i can switch back and forth between home and stage.....again, any comments are welcome.
Peace,
Joshua B.
www.theangelicbombs.com

glu · Post by **glu** » Thu May 25, 2006 1:56 am

for that kind of money, you could get a pretty decent PC laptop and just do a little research and customize/tweak it yourself. Check the live 5 performance thread for top performing laptop series.

If you just want something that runs out of the box, get a mac,
and you can boot Xp on it! I am a PC guy myself, but I don't see how you could go wrong for the price of XP on a macbook, versus what you are looking at. Plus, its intel duo, Live 6 around the corner.

$3900 singlecore PC

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... c=3SOSWXXA

OR

$1100 duocore macbook running XP

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/W ... lm=MacBook

hell, you could buy an intel Imac, macbook, that work "out of the box" and Logic for the cost of a singlecore M2

glu · Post by **glu** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:03 am

the two HDs in that M2 look pretty kick ass though... each 7200RPM, and a keypad too... Still think you can do better than this for 4 grand though

XPC M2 Professional

* Intel Pentium 4 HT processor 3.2 GHz 512K cache
* Intel 865PE + ICH5 Chipset
* 800MHz Front Side Bus
* 1GB DDR400 RAM [Expandable to 2GB]
* 1 PCMCIA 3.3V/5V Socket supporting CardBus
* DISPLAY:
* 17.0" WXGA TFT LCD display
* ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
* 128-bit 2D/3D Graphics accelerator
* 256MB DDR SGRAM On Board
* Dual-view display monitor
* External Display Resolution up to 1600 x 1200
* HDTV Support
* STORAGE:
* DVD+/-RW/CD-RW 48x40x16x8
* ATA100 7200rpm 60GB System Drive
* ATA100 7200rpm 60GB System Drive
* Supports master Mode IDE, PIO Mode 5, ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA)
* 7-In-1 Card Reader
* AUDIO
* AC'97 support for 5.1 channel surround
* 3D Stereo Enhanced Sound System
* Virtual 6-channel Audio Output
* 1 S/PDIF output
* 1 Microphone input
* 4 Speakers built-in
* 1 Line output/Headphone output
* KEYBOARD, POINTING DEVICE & BUTTONS:
* Full size WinKey Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
* Built-in TouchPad
* 3 Hot Keys (Default Internet browser / Email program / application)
* INTERFACE & COMMUNICATION:
* 3 USB 2.0 ports
* 4 mini IEEE1394 [FireWire] ports
* 1 S-Video Jack for TV Output
* 1 Serial port
* 1 Parallel Port (LPT1) Supporting ECP/EPP
* 1 Infrared Tranceiver (IrDA 1.1/FIR/SIR/ASKIR)
* 1 DVI-Out port
* 1 PS/2 port (mouse/keyboard)
* 1 Integrated V.90/I56K MCD Modem(V.92 Compliant)
* 1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1,000 Mbps LAN port
* 802.11g Wireless LAN
* 300K Pixel Video Camera Module
* Bluetooth Module
* POWER:
* Full range AC Adapter: AC-In 100~240V, 50~60Hz
* DC Output 20V, 7.5A
* Easy Changeable Main Battery Smart Li-Ion
* Supports ACPIv1.0b
* Supports Hibernate/Standby Modes
* Supports battery Low Sleep
* Supports Resume From Modem Ring

Joshua Boden · Post by **Joshua Boden** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:04 am

I see your point man thanks...but what of the LiVE book by Rain Recording...have you checked that out?

Joshua Boden · Post by **Joshua Boden** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:05 am

And I was lookin at the M3 which is little cheaper......

Joshua Boden · Post by **Joshua Boden** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:07 am

The live book is what really caught my eye.....

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:37 am

i keep editing... but the basic idea is... not impressed with either one

Joshua Boden · Post by **Joshua Boden** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:50 am

[.......not impressed wiht either one....]

Cool...what would you suggest?[/quote]

erichkopp · Post by **erichkopp** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:57 am

As glu said, your best bet would be to get a Macbook, or even a Macbook Pro and run XP on that. Even with maxed out RAM and an after-market 7200RPM hard drive, you'd still be saving quite a bit of money.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:32 am

Joshua Boden wrote:Cool...what would you suggest?

i think i'd be looking at the macbook as well.

Joshua Boden · Post by **Joshua Boden** » Thu May 25, 2006 6:15 pm

Everyone is sayin MAC. But no one is really giving me much of a reason. The live book by Rain Recording seems comprible. The reviews for it have been great! It seems to me that cats get so wrapped up in MAC...but never really give a good reason to go with it. I mean, wont I have to buy a copy of windows XP pro?
Now I dont claim to be Up on computers...granted I have usaed them most of my life be it for music, work and what have you. Its just frustrating. I have never been a brand person...just like I have never been the kind of person that says "My country right or wrong!" but I meet alot of cats that do that wiht their computers.....my Mac right or wrong....my PC right or wrong! This whole thing gets on my nerves! everyone has a bias.......Im not trying to start some nerd debate here...all i wanna do is make art, and Im looking for the right tools. If anyone has an unbiased opion based on real world expereince, pleas drop me a line.....
Thanks to all the have writen, I respect your opions.......
PEACE

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Thu May 25, 2006 10:46 pm

I would be a bit weary of going the Mac -> XP route before it is more tested.

Sure, a Macbook is a just PC running a different OS. But Apple is NOT supporting XP officially, so no idea calling them if something doesn't work. No hardware vendors has tested their drivers on the Macbook under XP yet. Since it is basically a PC, it should (and will in the future) work, but who knows? Also, the new Macbooks have graphics cards with shared memory. That might work fine on OSX (?), but who know what happens under XP?

Too lazy to check your specs on your laptops in detail, but you shouldn't buy a laptop with a Pentium 4 in it. Fast P4s get very hot and use a lot of battery power. The laptop should have a dual core Centrino (Pentium Mobile).

Go to dell.com and spec out the laptop you want with say a 2.0 GHz dual core centrino, 1 GB memory, 7200 RPM harddrive and a graphics card with it's own memory.

That will give you a baseline price. You might want to pay more to get better build quality, some other type of screen, cool logo, whatever. But Dell will give you a baseline price to compare all other vendors against.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Fri May 26, 2006 12:02 am

well based on what i remember from the m3 description, it seems the macbook has a much better processor, faster RAM, and is otherwise similar, but is much cheaper

might be nice to have the pcmcia slot on the m3 but so many interfaces are fw/usb now i don't know how much it matters

glu · Post by **glu** » Fri May 26, 2006 1:40 am

Personally I would be looking for a duocore AMD if I wasn't considering a mac. The new Turions are coming out really soon. But then again the Intel Meroms are almost out, so shit it sounds like you should wait if possible... at least to drive other prices down and see what's the fastest for audio.

I don't know about anything with a p4 either. Its just dated, or about to be really soon. And $4000 is something serious to think about.. at least in my economic shoes. I suggested a macbook because it sounds like you want to buy something out of the box, made with good solid parts, and its all that at half the price. By the end of summer, summer NAMM, maybe we will hear about audio hardware for macintels- OSX and XP supported. Maybe Apple will release their new OS and a non-beta version of bootcamp. Maybe not, but I say wait it out... you will have more choices, and it will be a smaller investment.

Just look at the computer climate. Duocore is almost the standard. Once the Meroms come out, and Live 6, your $4000 single core p4 over heats and poops out on you, while you sadly skim the Live 6 best performance thread with your chin down, or jaw dropped at what these $1500-$2500 machines will be doing. THink forward!

and have patience!

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Fri May 26, 2006 7:50 am

USD 4000 for a P4 laptop almost sounds like a scam. A fully specced Dell with dual core 2 GHz would set you back USD 1500 or so.