What is the Best Laptop..?

Dj Nasty Nolan · Post by **Dj Nasty Nolan** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:13 pm

Its time for me to get a new one....

Should i stay with mac.....or is pc better....

i hear that ableton was created on a pc....
i know that mac runs great...i use mac....perhaps i should stay with mac..

What is up you ableton freaks....??

let me know...your fellow ableton rocker..

What is the most powerful laptop beast to run Ableton.....?

i mix up to 16 channels live in my shows..with all sorts of efx at same time.
so lets get nasty shall we....

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:32 pm

Macbook Pro.

sparklepuff · Post by **sparklepuff** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:35 pm

Wrong.

Million Dollar Laptop

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:40 pm

sparklepuff wrote:Wrong.

Million Dollar Laptop

OK. That, then the Macbook Pro.

john gordon · Post by **john gordon** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:49 pm

macbook pro...i love it.

Dj Nasty Nolan · Post by **Dj Nasty Nolan** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:54 pm

are there any options.......

mac book pro is now like a pc ....similar hardware wise..

ANY THING ELSE..?

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:58 pm

For a PC laptop, Lenovo makes nice ones.

I recently got a Lenovo laptop for work and it's the best-built box I've ever had.

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:16 am

Dj Nasty Nolan wrote:ANY THING ELSE..?

Yes...a Macbook Pro...

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:53 am

The biggest problem with windows laptops is... err Windows right now (and I speak as a PC laptop user not someone tainted by the Apple)

What is wrong ?

1) Vista - vista will probably, eventually, maybe be a good solution for pro audio after a service pack or two and another year or two down the tracks but in the NOW it is a horrible mess, with poor support for drivers and many manufacturerers choosing NOT to update from XP to Vista.

2) XP - it works and pretty well (it only took it about 4 years to run well with pro audio !), but in a year's time or so it will be non supported, dead software.

3) Firewire - Yes, USB 2.0 or Expresscards etc offer other possibilities, but firewire interfaces represetn a sizeable chunk of the audio interface market. Many PC manufacturers are not considering pro audio and just getting the cheapest crappest components in for firewire (which is not used as much in pcs compared to macs for other peripherals as USB 2.0 tends to be the norm there). Consequently, some chipsets by ENE and Ricoh are just designed to be cheap, not to give performance and because they're cheap, this is what is going into many PC laptops. Texas Instruments make the best, most reliable and performance orientated firewire chipsets and they are used by Apple and less so by PC manufacturers. Also, Apple tend to incorporate the 6 pin firewire interfaces which allow for bus powering, as opposed to the 4 pin interfaces found in 98% of PCs.

4) The biggest kicker for not using Mac used to be having all your windows programs not be compatible but Bootcamp (although fiddly for some beginners to set up) addresses this. Your PC, on the other hand does not run Logic, DP, Final Cut or whatever macosx software that is quality stuff as there are no official mac osx emulators that actually work well.

h_double · Post by **h_double** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:55 am

leedsquietman wrote:The biggest problem with windows laptops is... err Windows right now (and I speak as a PC laptop user not someone tainted by the Apple)

What is wrong ?

1) Vista - vista will probably, eventually, maybe be a good solution for pro audio after a service pack or two and another year or two down the tracks but in the NOW it is a horrible mess, with poor support for drivers and many manufacturerers choosing NOT to update from XP to Vista.

2) XP - it works and pretty well (it only took it about 4 years to run well with pro audio !), but in a year's time or so it will be non supported, dead software.

XP will be fully supported by MS until April 2009, and will then be in Extended Support until 2014 (which means MS will still release security hotfixes and provide paid support, but will not add any new features or honor warranty claims).

I'm currently speccing out a new desktop machine, probably sometime in the next 3-6 months, primarily for audio use. The main thing which keeps MacOS from looking more attractive is I've already sunk a fair bit of money into VST plugins, and as far as I know Boot Camp won't let you use Windows plugins in a Mac-native application.

I'm pretty happy with XP, though I definitely share your mixed feelings about it being an aging OS. But everything I've heard about Vista has been unencouraging and like something I don't want to get near for at least another year or two.

Right now I'm mainly using a Vaio laptop which I bought about a year and a half ago, which I've been very happy with. At the time, I debated getting a Macbook, but considering all the price/performance/features, the Vaio won out and I've been happy with my decision -- they're a bit pricy for PC laptops (but still probably cheaper than a Macbook with similar features) but nicely designed and reliably stable.

But that was a year and a half ago, and now that the new Vaio laptops ship with Vista, and now that there's Boot Camp and Intel-native Macs, I'm not sure if I'd make the same choice today.

Anubis · Post by **Anubis** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:13 am

I got a PC with Vistuh. Trust me, get a Mac!

simpleton · Post by **simpleton** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:11 am

The best laptop is that one they're going to make three months from now.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 7:32 am

I hear you on the VST issues, although many of the ones I use do have Mac vst or AU versions. For me, AU is another bad example of divisiveness that was unnecessary, probably the money Apple spent putting into developing AU was significantly more than licensing VST from Steinberg - I know what the argument will be from Mac Heads - that they had to develop AU for the OSX platform as a necessity. But really, Apple don't make things easy for those trying to switch to Mac when they insist on their proprietary software and hardware choices ...

bartvd · Post by **bartvd** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:30 am

why not just buy a macbook.. not the pro version..
not much difference in both machines powerwise. works great

Vertical · Post by **Vertical** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:52 pm

bartvd wrote:why not just buy a macbook.. not the pro version..
not much difference in both machines powerwise. works great

I totally agree with this. Same processor series (just different Mhz), same ram, same front side bus, same sata HD mostly running at 5400 rpm (you can install a 7200 into a non pro anytime). Buy a non pro today and put the remainder of your money into a ingdirect account for 2-3 years from now. 2-3 years from now buy another macbook non-pro with the saved money and that new macbook will blow the pro of today away!