Ableton Forum

Obvious Alias wrote:

3dot... wrote:laptops are not as good as desktops..
that sucks...

if I would find a laptop that matches the smoooothnes of my desktop I'd buy it..

I have a laptop with a quad-core desktop processor, 3x 320GB HDs, and 4GB ram, with a 17" display. It's pretty KILLER. Seriously.

But like kb420 said, though, it cost a pretty penny.

yeah..I'm starting to get the picture here...
I should probly wait for prices to drop / specs to rise
no way I'm paying 3000$ for a computer...
I can't afford it...
<end daydream>

Obvious Alias wrote:

3dot... wrote:laptops are not as good as desktops..
that sucks...

if I would find a laptop that matches the smoooothnes of my desktop I'd buy it..

I have a laptop with a quad-core desktop processor, 3x 320GB HDs, and 4GB ram, with a 17" display. It's pretty KILLER. Seriously.

But like kb420 said, though, it cost a pretty penny.

my tiny 12" kills it definitely. for portability anyways, and in performance, thanks to the intel 160gb ssd in there...

and it performs just well enough for anything i throw at it. still, the quadcore at home is nice, too.

hp delivers killer laptops since years. but only for the business, and that's why no-one really knows it. the line is now called elitebook and is awesome.

Earwax69 wrote:Do you get a discount because you work at HP?

Yes. 15%

Quad cores will come down in price in the New Year they are still hot in demand as a new release. That could shave off a couple of hundred dollars. You need to pay for quality.

If your needs are more modest, and you don't require a FW interface, a Dell XPS (I own one and am using it with a FW inteface, although it is not optimal and I have to mix using the inbuilt card as the FW interface cannot handle 60 plus tracks and dozens of plugins on the Ricoh chipset, whereas my older, slower Dell Inspiron with a TI firewire chipset could handle it) or HP or Toshiba etc are fine. But if you are building a serious DAW workstation and require a lot of I/O and lots of tracks and plugins, then a more specialized audio computer is a good investment. If you are just using a lappy for portability and for DJing, you can use the inbuilt audio in most cases and do your studio work on a desktop - but for a serious all in one laptop for DAW work with no desktop, I think it's fair to say you should be prepared to drop at least close to 2k if you want to be totally covered and with no regrets.

I really think a duo2core 2.4ghz can handle anything you throw at it if you have a fast enough drive (7200rpm). I have a 5200rpm drive and all is fine!

Try to find the best ratio quality/price, its more clever than getting an overpriced monster which will be outdated in 1 year anyway.

I've spent 2000$ on a laptop in the past but I've got my lesson. Im not gonna spend more than 1000$ for a lappy in the future. There's plenty of nice machines out there.

I just spent $550 on a Core2Duo laptop. It's fast enough for what I do with it, which is just mix songs. I don't have any vst's on it at all. It's just a dj set up. I do all of my composing on a quad core desktop.

If you drop 1k on a laptop, you can't expect it to run firewire, run very low latencies (i.e. 64 samples or less) or high track counts and plugin counts. But it all depends on your needs. For DJing which is much less intensive, probably fine.

If your main studio DAW is a desktop and you just use the laptop as a live tool, or as a scratchpad then fine. But if you need your laptop to do EVERYTHING, 1k laptops don't cut it. You need at least $1500 plus another bunch of money to buy a decent USB2 interface (which are scarce) as firewire won't cut it.

Here you go... on clearance at Best Buy for $1167.
Vista Home Premium 64 bit (free upgrade to Win 7)
Intel® Core™2 quad (2.0 GHz)
6 GB DDR2 RAM @ 1066 MHz
ATI discreet graphics 1 GB
4 USB 2.0 including combo eSATA port
17.3" widescreen display
ExpressCard, HDMI, Firewire
500 GB 5400rpm HDD but here's the kicker...
this machine has an extra bay to accommodate a secondary internal HDD! I had the geek at BB pull the cover off of the demo machine and saw it with my own eyes then confirmed it with HP. All you need is to order the $52 connector cable and mounting bracket. I'm going to drop two Seagate Momentus 7200rpm, 16 MB cache, HDDs in there. (I've already done this on my current machine)
If this isn't a desktop replacement then I don't know what is.

The firewire is o2. In other words, a poo consumer grade FW chipset designed for handling nothing more than a digital camera, which can't be made better because it integrates the expresscard controller as well.

Otherwise a nice machine.

leedsquietman wrote:The firewire is o2. In other words, a poo consumer grade FW chipset designed for handling nothing more than a digital camera, which can't be made better because it integrates the expresscard controller as well.

Otherwise a nice machine.

Yes, the firewire is useless on most of these things. But I never use it anyway. I'm poppin' my Echo Indigo IOx into the card slot. That'll leave me four available USB ports for controllers and other stuff.

i wouldnt ever touch a desktop again because they are not mobile..
except of my atari..still love the machine... its so much fun..it groove ..you can perform octave up..octave down.. 16th earleir.16th later..copy track..route to other sound... just with clicking within 1 cm mouse movements..wow !!
And its runing since 4 month in a 1000 bar loop and records any midi events in the studio without a single crash or compromising my electricity bill

simpleton wrote:Here you go... on clearance at Best Buy for $1167.
Vista Home Premium 64 bit (free upgrade to Win 7)
Intel® Core™2 quad (2.0 GHz)
6 GB DDR2 RAM @ 1066 MHz
ATI discreet graphics 1 GB
4 USB 2.0 including combo eSATA port
17.3" widescreen display
ExpressCard, HDMI, Firewire
500 GB 5400rpm HDD but here's the kicker...
this machine has an extra bay to accommodate a secondary internal HDD! I had the geek at BB pull the cover off of the demo machine and saw it with my own eyes then confirmed it with HP. All you need is to order the $52 connector cable and mounting bracket. I'm going to drop two Seagate Momentus 7200rpm, 16 MB cache, HDDs in there. (I've already done this on my current machine)
If this isn't a desktop replacement then I don't know what is.

I posted that same link, but where's the link to the clearance statement?

Now for the second internal drive..if you BITCH to HP enough about why you need to pay for the tool accessories...you just might get them to send them out for free. I want this laptop as well, but I'm thinking the Envy is more my taste.

The Echo Indigo is an awesome card and great for low latency - only kickers - no preamps, and only one input, so not the most useful for recording multiple sources - but for in the box mixing - awesome.

Plus the Expresscard slot is useful for TV/PVR type recorders, or if you go for a UAD-2 laptop solo card so it's a pity to have it tied up.

It's strange why there's no attack from Mac fanboys yet.

i wouldnt ever touch a desktop again

There is nothing like working on a 30inch Dell monitor. Even a dual 24inch workstation is no match. It's by far the best thing I have ever buy, especially because I got it for 800$. Watching 1080p movies on it is also a delight!