Lap Top: recommendation please.

[sham-79]

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions,

I have finally come to a decision about what to get based on my long term rather than immediate needs.

I could have got a MacBook Pro but they were too expensive new (£1600) or refurbished (typically £200 cheaper)…

I could have gone for a cheaper model like the well recommended Packard bell (£540, thankyou wascal), but I feel like I'm gambling too much about its suitability for my particular hardware (I’ve been burned before).

So I'm going for a custom 3XS system by Scan Computers (just over £1000) 4Gb Ram i7 processor. Scan's 3XS, from what I understand, is an ADK tweaked and released under licence for the UK.

The 3XS computers review extremely well, perhaps not surprising given they have been optimised for DAW use. Basically I know I’ll be getting a Laptop that can handle what I’ll through at it musically, without having to worry about how my day to day software will effect it, or having to tweak the BIOS or alter settings myself (something I sort of know but am not very experienced at).

Just as important for me however is the service offered. I get one years in home call out cover for free and can extend this by two further years if I so choose. So I know the machine will definitely last me a minimum of three years and there will be a team of music computer specialists I can send it off too for an upgrade/appropriate repair should I need to after that.

In short I’ve compromised (quite a bit) on my starting budget for peace of mind over the quality of what I’m getting and the knowledge that what I’m getting should suitably last me that much longer for the extra price I’m paying.

Thankfully they also do a number of favourable credit options which is how come I can afford this system right now.

For anyone who’s interested you can view at http://3xs.scan.co.uk/Category.asp?Syst ... tegoryID=2

I’ll run the Ableton spec test and show the results on the other forum thread as soon as I can. I am particularly interested to see how well it performs compared to the MacBook Pro’s.

PS.
For future reference and the benefit of anyone else in my kind of situation I think I’ll start a new Lap Top thread for sub £1000 ($1600 US, Euro1200) gems and stinkers, to see if any pattern emerges.

[edmannprc]

I have been running an ASUS K52Jc i5 laptop for 5 months, it is great. Did the usual Win7 tweeks but nothing exotic. Win7 and Mac OS are close enough now (that Mac is Intel) that the diff for me is negligeble - and this machgine works as wel as my macs easily. I paid $700 for it.