laptop choice // the eternal question

[julienb]

thanks a lot to all of you.

the HP is a very big monster and a 17"3 one!
wow!
big disk
i7 like the asus

I have to check Lenovo mark... I didn't even know it ... I'm a bad noob on that!

[julienb]

afaik thinkpad r currently only offering 15,4 1680x1080 or 1920x1200 resolution without mirroring display, which i use and think its perfect for Live. Unfortunatley no LED, but u can integrate 2nd HDD/battery, trackpoint. Isnt Live only 32bit? So max 3GB RAM possible? Look for T61, T500, W500 (only ones with numpads afaik), should be some in ur price range.

I would also like to test a macbook for some months to understand the hype/religion behind it. But i must say that the marmor like keyboard and mirroring display is a no go for me. I cant do everything with mousegestures And Live runs superb on my T61, there can be no big advantages...

live is 32bit for sure.
BUT, with 4Go and a 64bit OS, I guesslive could fit more comfortable than with a 3Go and a 32bit OS.
right?

about Lenovo, I don't find the X61 on their site ?!
Lenovo seems to feature a lot of useful thing. you talked about the retro lighted keyboard?

[julienb]

the HP quoted here seems VERY reliable, powerful etc!

the GT 230M Nvidia seems a bit less powerful than the one of the Asus but ... quiet the same..
The HP is sold with 6Go RAM ! and can be extended to 8Go!

wow!

[julienb]

Here is what you want. It's $1300 so should be in your price range. Please note, this laptop ships with one 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD. BUT, there is an additional internal HDD bay which accept another internal HDD to store your audio files and sample libraries. This is the mother of all Windows laptops at a reasonable price.

I only can find the configuration builder on the US website.
everything is ok, the price too.
but I CANNOT find an information about international delivery and ... subsequent tax/Fee etc....!

[RCUS]

+1 on the thinkpads.

I recently went through this about a month ago and after weeks of research, I ended up with a Lenovo T400. I use it with an external touchsceen monitor that I got on eBay for like $180, but my thinkpad cost me $1200 shipped for:

2.8ghz dual core processor (P9400 I think?)
15" screen
4GB RAM
320 GB 7200 rpm HD
LED backlit screen upgrade
graphics card upgrade (I forget the name) with a 256MB cache. You really need this if you plan on running a second monitor
XP proffesional installed with a free upgrade to Win 7
minimum bloatware to uninstall

take a few hours to browse the ableton performance benchmarking thread and take some notes. you will also see a slew of data that shows just how solid these machines are. Not to mention the T Series has a carbon fiber rollcage, spillguard (basically a drain if you spill something), and a shock resistant HD.

The only bad thing is it's a really ugly laptop. It is however a TANK!

[alex.the.forge]

You can connect the macbook to an external monitor which are uber cheap.
The 13" footprint is perfect for gigs too

I'm sure about that.
but with that, I loose the mobility feature.
it is just my feeling based on my actual use

Yeah I thought exactly the same at first!

I didn't like my HP Pavillion laptop for a few reasons - the main one that sticks out was that the soundcard ports are on the front, so if you want to sit with it on your lap with headphones it would stick right into you - I ended up buying a right angle adapter but it was still really annoying

can't remember the other things, - oh yeah, the battery died really soon - but to HPs credit they sent me a replacement in the mail right away for free

I just felt the unit itself was a bit poorly designed (the headphones for eg. indicating that they really hadn't thought that one through)

[Anubis]

the HP quoted here seems VERY reliable, powerful etc!

the GT 230M Nvidia seems a bit less powerful than the one of the Asus but ... quiet the same..
The HP is sold with 6Go RAM ! and can be extended to 8Go!

wow!

The thing I like about this HP is that it truly is a desktop replacement, with some pretty impressive specs to boot...
(up to)One terabyte internal 7200 rpm storage capacity. (try doing that on a macbook/pro)
One gigabyte of dedicated graphics RAM.
(up to)8 GB of DDR 3 RAM (1066MHz).
A 1.6 GHz quadcore processor.

I have been running Live on a (similar)dual HDD Pavillion for three years with zero problems. (except for the limitations incurred by Vista 32 bit) I slipped on the stairs two years ago while carrying my notebook and dislocated my shoulder! but the laptop survived just fine even after hitting the floor! I would think that's plenty rugged.

But wait! Here's an even cheaper one ($1150!) with a faster quad processor! (2.0 GHz) It only has 4 GB DDR 3 RAM but it has the ATI 1GB video card. Same 500 GB 7200rpm HDD (also upgradeable to dual internal 500's)

[julienb]

the HP quoted here seems VERY reliable, powerful etc!

the GT 230M Nvidia seems a bit less powerful than the one of the Asus but ... quiet the same..
The HP is sold with 6Go RAM ! and can be extended to 8Go!

wow!

The thing I like about this HP is that it truly is a desktop replacement, with some pretty impressive specs to boot...
(up to)One terabyte internal 7200 rpm storage capacity. (try doing that on a macbook/pro)
One gigabyte of dedicated graphics RAM.
(up to)8 GB of DDR 3 RAM (1066MHz).
A 1.6 GHz quadcore processor.

I have been running Live on a (similar)dual HDD Pavillion for three years with zero problems. (except for the limitations incurred by Vista 32 bit) I slipped on the stairs two years ago while carrying my notebook and dislocated my shoulder! but the laptop survived just fine even after hitting the floor! I would think that's plenty rugged.

But wait! Here's an even cheaper one ($1150!) with a faster quad processor! (2.0 GHz) It only has 4 GB DDR 3 RAM but it has the ATI 1GB video card. Same 500 GB 7200rpm HDD (also upgradeable to dual internal 500's)

thanks again.
your link doesn't work

I'm in France and I have to figure out tax if I order from US...
and more, I'm not sure HP US website delivers in France too...

[luzil]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavili ... &cp=1&lp=1

that link works, was interested myself.

surely nice price, but i would not only look at power specs. If u work alot on the road as u said afaik, non glossy display and trackpoint (surely nice for max editing) is pretty nice, T500 comes with 1680x1050 resolution and 3year warranty

[julienb]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavili ... &cp=1&lp=1

that link works, was interested myself.

surely nice price, but i would not only look at power specs. If u work alot on the road as u said afaik, non glossy display and trackpoint (surely nice for max editing) is pretty nice, T500 comes with 1680x1050 resolution and 3year warranty

finding tax I'd have to pay by ordering from US is a pain!!
I cannot find that
and more, I made a pretty custom configuration with the website US, but they don't deliver outside of US ......

Your dv7t Quad Edition series

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
Memory 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard drive 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Graphics card 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
Display 17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900
Primary optical drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support edit
Personalization Webcam Only
Networking Intel Wireless-N Mini-card
Keyboard HP Color Matching Keyboard
Primary battery 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

1549$ = 1033€

how can I order it?
grrr

[Anubis]

Thanks luzil, I dunno why I couldn't get it to work. Here is the link to the HP website:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp ... g=en&cc=us
This model has an ATI graphics card, also with 1 GB of dedicated memory. Note: the nVidia graphics cards have been reported as being problematic in some of the Pavillion notebooks. So I would go with the ATI version.

[citizenchris099]

+1 on the thinkpads.



take a few hours to browse the ableton performance benchmarking thread and take some notes. you will also see a slew of data that shows just how solid these machines are. Not to mention the T Series has a carbon fiber rollcage, spillguard (basically a drain if you spill something), and a shock resistant HD.

The only bad thing is it's a really ugly laptop. It is however a TANK!

its still amazes me how these laptops are ignored in large part by the "laptop musician community". They are quite simply the best PC laptop bar none....everything else is a toy. The only exception being tough books.....or maybe Fujitsu. Had no idea about the Ableton performance benchmarking tests...thats awesome.

btw...I think they are gorgeous looking. Maybe I'm just nuts lol

[RCUS]

Yeah the benchmarking stats are nutty, especially when you compare to MacBooks that were twice what I paid.

Those new quadcore laptop/desktops were tempting me when I got my thinkpad too, but it really came down to the fact that I'd be using this laptop for playing out and needed proven performance that can take a little beating every now and then.

Slightly OT: I've been building my master live set on my OL Miko workstation and was really worried that what I had built was going to be maxing out at like 75% CPU on my thinkpad (it was at like 35% on my quadcore Miko). So loaded it up last night finally after a month of planning the perfect layout for my APC, and the Lenovo topped out at like 25% with all guns blazing!

Then I realized when I was building the set on my Miko I had the audio inputs turned ON! My thinkpad has it's audio inputs turned off by default. Talk about a pleasant surprise!

[julienb]

finally, for price reasons, availability reasons etc, only 2 remain here:
- HP Pavilion dv7-3080ef
- Asus M60J-JX041V

same i7 1,6Ghz processor
same 4Go RAM not expandable (but HP can be extended to 8Go... hum..)
HP screen is 17,3" vs Asus which is 16"
Asus is provided with 640Go HD, HP with 500Go
Graphic card are nVidia® GeForce™ GT 230M or nVidia® GeForce™ GT 240M ... pretty much the same!
...etc etc etc etc

so, I guess performances would be VERY similar

thanks a lot for your contributions

[citizenchris099]

finally, for price reasons, availability reasons etc, only 2 remain here:
- HP Pavilion dv7-3080ef
- Asus M60J-JX041V

same i7 1,6Ghz processor
same 4Go RAM not expandable (but HP can be extended to 8Go... hum..)
HP screen is 17,3" vs Asus which is 16"
Asus is provided with 640Go HD, HP with 500Go
Graphic card are nVidia® GeForce™ GT 230M or nVidia® GeForce™ GT 240M ... pretty much the same!
...etc etc etc etc

so, I guess performances would be VERY similar

thanks a lot for your contributions

what os you planning on rocking? only reason I'm asking is that unless you go 64 you're not going to need/use more than 4gb of ram. also can either board handle ddr3 ram?
what speed are the drives? try to go w/a minimum spin of 7200rpm