6-pin Firewire laptops advice needed

4.33 · Post by **4.33** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:21 am

i'm looking for a core2duo lappie with 2G ram, hopefully with a dedicated videocard, and a 6-pin firewire for bus-powering an audio interface

and most stuff on the market has a 4-pin fw, which would not provide bus-powering....

any recommendations?

no macbook suggestions, please

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:02 pm

6-pin firewire ports are very hard to find on a PC laptop. I think there may be a few ASUS/ACER desktop replacement models that have them, but it will be difficult.

One alternative: get an expresscard Firewire interface. You'll have to power that though.

Another alternative: get a 4-pin laptop, and just power the device. You're going to have to run a power cord from the laptop anyways, so unless the laptop is very far away from the interface, it's not that big a deal.

tricil · Post by **tricil** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:20 pm

macbook pro?

inmazevo · Post by **inmazevo** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:38 pm

Indeed.
Macbooks and Macbook Pros have what your looking for, with the caveat being that the non-Pro versions don't have dedicated video.
Depending on what you're doing, having dedicated video might not matter.

I have a 2.16GHz Macbook, with shared memory, and I haven't had a problem with graphics. I bumped the RAM to 2GB ($65), and got a 200GB 7200RPM drive for it ($200).
They're MUCH cheaper than their Pro counterparts ($1100 entry level vs. $2000 entry level). Of course, you'll want to bump the RAM, etc at some point.

Both OS X and Windows XP run flawlessly on these...

I buy new ones, historically, but very likely I'll start getting refurbs.
One of my workmates gets only refurbs, and it's always worked well for him. You can shave $300 - $500 off, depending on what you get.

Here's an example:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/W ... =FA895LL/A

Screen size is obviously better on the Pro versions, and they have dedicated graphics, and hold 4GB memory (and come with 2).

Hope this helps,
- zevo

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:40 pm

macbooks or some of the acer travelmates, I believe even a few of their 14" models have 6-pin, definitely not just their desktop replacement units

But yes, Acer/Asus/Apple is the place to go.

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:52 pm

Macbook Pro, out of the box (working that is), live running in minutes.

Fire wire = 400 (6pin) & 800

LJN · Post by **LJN** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:56 pm

Frost ACM makes great PC lappies with 6-pin firewire sockets (for powering fw-boxes like MOTU etc). Great machines but pricey.

http://www.frostacm.com/

fuzzyhead · Post by **fuzzyhead** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 5:19 pm

hi,
you may check this one :
http://www.shop-sonica.com/pd_livetracker_mkii.cfm

terragong · Post by **terragong** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 7:10 pm

switch to engl.
http://www.partsdata.de/Notebookzubehoe ... _shop.html

4.33 · Post by **4.33** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:43 pm

thanks chaps))
no esy way out, i see..
i just cant go with a macbook))) it'll mean i'll have to rework all my setup, and i'd rather work on music instead

robbmasters · Post by **robbmasters** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:40 pm

How about a MacBook Pro with BootCamp? That's what I'm using, having bought a Mac over a PC (partly) for the 6-pin FireWire myself. It's just like a PC (when you want it to be). Though admittedly I am having FireWire latency issues. And only a handful of audio interfaces can actually be bus-powered.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:43 pm

4.33 wrote:thanks chaps))
no esy way out, i see..
i just cant go with a macbook))) it'll mean i'll have to rework all my setup, and i'd rather work on music instead

just bootcamp it. No worries, tons of people do that.

inmazevo · Post by **inmazevo** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:20 am

Indeed. Bootcamp.
I run Logic Pro 8 and Live on the OS X side, Sonar and Live on the Windows side, with one audio interface and one midi interface for both. It's EXCELLENT.
Plus, you can surf the web on the Mac side. Hehehe.

Besides, it's not just a 6-pin FW port, it's a 6-pin Texas Instruments FW port.
No matter which laptop you get, make sure your FW controller is TI for audio interfaces. You might already know that, but just in case...

Another alternative would be a custom DAW:
http://www.studiocat.com/
http://www.adkproaudio.com/

Both of those guys offer laptops with TI chips. I don't know about the 6-pin part.
But, they're highly recommended, and I've chatted with them on forums for a while now. Stand-up guys, it would seem.

NOTE: Custom DAW laptops are NOT cheap. They'll cost you as much as a Macbook Pro, which (to me) begs the question: why not just get a Macbook Pro and bootcamp it. Two OS for the same price (well, plus $90 for an OEM copy of Windows).

But, the links are there if you need them.

Take care,
- zevo

Summer2000 · Post by **Summer2000** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:15 am

Machinate wrote:macbooks or some of the acer travelmates, I believe even a few of their 14" models have 6-pin, definitely not just their desktop replacement units

But yes, Acer/Asus/Apple is the place to go.

Can anyone provide some good links for Asus and Acer laptops with 6 pin firewire?

Thanks
Summer2k

tricil · Post by **tricil** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:21 am

terragong wrote:switch to engl.
http://www.partsdata.de/Notebookzubehoe ... _shop.html

engl makes awesome guitar amps

6-pin Firewire laptops advice needed

6-pin Firewire laptops advice needed

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