Used to - Need a laptop... and still not a Mactop...

[Earwax69]

Just a question... why is firewire so important for you guys? Is it for plug a fast drive or for a firewire audio interface?

I feel usb audio interface are quite great and cheap for live gig and eSATA would be way better to handle fast data on an external drive. eSATA card for laptop are quite cheap.

If your laptop is your main station I understand someone will need it, especially for editing HDV and such but I feel for serious work, its way better to use a desktop computer anyway. Nothing can beat the pleasure to work on a 30" monitor.

[H20nly]

If I don't have a fire wire connection I have to buy a new mixer. I don't wanna

[Earwax69]

Ok!

For the Studio 15, here something cool;

Today my new 1555 finally arrived to replace the 1537. I'm running TSP on Vista Ultimate right now and have encountered no problems whatsoever.

My new specs:
P8600 (was P8400)
1920x1200 (was 1550x900)
Intel 5300 wireless
Bluetooth
BR drive
4GB RAM

Very satisfied with the swap so far.

Look like the Studio 1555 dont have the latency problem. My old laptop is dead, im gonna order one of these.

[lunabass]

Look like the Studio 1555 dont have the latency problem. My old laptop is dead, im gonna order one of these.

on the dell site, where does it state model number (1555 versus say 1537)? all i see is studio 15 etc without the 55 appended

[zalo]

none of the dell studio models have a built in firewire port only the studio xps does

it looks like lenovo only offers a 6 pin firewire

[Earwax69]

Wrong, the Studio 1555 have a mini firewire port.

"For video there are the usual HDMI and VGA outputs, while one of the three USB ports moonlights as an eSATA connection as well. You get three audio connections, one line-in and two line-outs, alongside which sits an increasingly rare mini-FireWire port. A 34mm ExpressCard slot, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a multi-format card reader finish things off, ensuring you shouldn't be left wanting in any department."

About how to find if its a 1555, I was wondering the same thing and I customized a studio 15 for fun... At final step for buy the laptop they write Studio 1555 on the japanese site but I cant find it on the american site. Thats a bit stupid. I think they are all 1555 though... I guess the fastest way to know is to chat with a representent on the support site. I did that in the past and in 1 min I was chatting with some tech guy.

[sporkles]

FWIW, I'm running my firewire audio interface through an express card. It does look rather clunky sitting there on the side
of my laptop, but it works all right.

[H20nly]

thanks everyone for the data...

its nice not shopping alone

@ sporkles what's your experience like with that express card? I mean besides a little ugly does it come loose or give you any weirdness type grief?

[sporkles]

^
It definitely sticks out, and aesthetics aside, I'm always concerned I'll bump into it somehow - particularly because it's
located in the lower right corner. The card itself needs to be pushed inwards in order to come loose, so the firewire cable
sticking out about ten centimetres before it starts to curve is more of a concern to me.

It's far from ideal, but considering that my Audio Kontrol (which I bought for my laptop) was complete rubbish on my laptop,
I had to switch and use my Audiophile for my laptop and the AK1 on my desktop.

[Earwax69]

Hahaha I called Dell Japan this morning and they could not deliver a Studio 15 before mid october. Fuck them!! I've just found a ridiculously cheap Lenovo Thinkpad, the sl500, its only 599$ for the 2.4ghz configuration... 650$ if I put 3gb and a 9-cell battery.

I have a question though... Is Ableton need some graphic power?? It have the intel x4500 gpu which is quite weak... I could get the GeForce G105M 256MB update for 100$...

[leedsquietman]

The DPC latency issues are mainly with Vista and certain drivers. My wife owns a Studio 1537 and I own an XPS 1530 and they both run really well, but I've yet to see any Vista laptop from any manufacturer come within 300 points of a well trimmed win XP system on the latency checker. I disable the DVD drive and wifi and it runs like a champion - neither of those are Dell's fault, as the wifi driver is Intel and the DVD driver is Optiarc.

The Dell XPS is freaking awesome, even with it's dodgy Firewire chipset (same as Toshiba and Lenovo), I can do loads of tracks and plugins, even with my Alesis FW interface, especially with Cubase 5 but Live is no slouch, especially if I switch to the internal card with ASIO4ALL. Lenovo are another great choice.

[ekwipt]

are you nuts... of course it's dells fault they chose to put in crap hardware with bad drivers....

[leedsquietman]

the drivers are by other companies and the hardware is not crap - so no.

almost all wifi causes issues and needs to be disabled, even on Macs.

The Optiarc drive is fine and causes less issues than NEC drives in many other machines.

The firewire chipset (ricoh) is in lenovo, toshiba, fujitsu, sony, HP and other manufacturers - no one uses TI any more in laptops, more's the pity.

[H20nly]

The search is over...



Lenovo ThinkPad T500


Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8700 (2.53GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2)1
Windows XP Professional preinstalled through downgrade rights in Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate12
15.4 WXGA TFT, w/ LED Backlight
ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 with 256MB with Intel Advanced Management Technology
4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)8
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm4
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)5
Intel WiFi Link 5100 (AGN) with My WiFi Technology10
Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable65
6 cell Li-Ion Battery60
ThinkPad T500 / R500 15W Privacy Filter
Siig Firewire 2-port ExpressCard

Should arrive in a couple of days...

Thank you everyone for your insight and assistance!

/gear lust

[H20nly]

Oh... and special thanks to pip. Your coupon code recommendation saved me 131.00 USD. me likey.