Ableton Forum

I am thinking I would like to go the way of portable (sometimes). So I'm laptop shopping.

TBH I wouldn't mind a Mac book, but I'm not replacing all my software to go that route. I don't want one that bad.



I kind of lost faith in Dell in the last few years as it became obvious to me that they were cutting too many corners like Gateway started doing in the early part of the decade.

I usually build my own PCs and haven't paid any real attention to laptops in a while. Any good recommendations? Obviously something that works well with Live... as that will be the first full blown program that gets installed

H20nly wrote:Obviously something that works well with Live... as that will be the first full blown program that gets installed

Wish I could afford a nice laptop where Live (and maybe a few select VST's) would be the ONLY things installed. Completely live music designated lappy, now that would be greatness.

aren't most music apps MAC compatible.. i mean besides fruity loops and some random vst plugs..

I usually build my own PC's too. I snagged a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p a little over a year ago, and I've been very happy with it.
Very solid build, shock-mounted hard drive, spill-resistant keyboard, discrete graphics, firewire. Some ThinkPad models are still available with XP downgrades FTW. Do some digging for coupon codes if you're buying direct, you'll probably save alot of money.

Rock on,
--Pip

I'm a Toshiba convert. I completely abuse my Toshiba Satellite at work (it sits on the floor of a moving truck in NYC all nite getting banged around) I pull it out and run Live, Torq and Reason beautifully.

then you are wacktop











jk

Lennovo Thinkpad t-series for the mutha fuckin WIN

The quality of Dell laptops is generally excellent. We probably have around 50 currently in service and its very rare for one to actually fail during its warranty, extended or otherwise. This includes the bottom and top end. If they do fail, Dell are in the next day and have it repaired, unlike Toshibas which we seem to send away and not hear about for 6 weeks at a time.

Brand loyalty is pretty pointless with PCs anyway, read all the reviews of what is around at the moment. The most reliable/best value for money brand 6 months ago may not be worth spitting on 6 months later. For my own money at the mo, id buy Lenovo, then a Dell. Whatever you buy, get an extended warranty from the manufacturer, not from the store you get it from.

I have a 17" Toshiba and the screen got tons of weird lines now after 3 years. Toshiba refuse to fix it because I bought it in another country. A lot of other user had the same problem. Maybe now Toshiba changed the screen maker but I will not get a Toshiba in the future.

As Dell have the best price here in Japan, I only use that and so far so good. Love my 30" monitor.

I personnaly prefer pay 800$ for a good laptop than 2000$ for the same damn thing. My music will not be better on a more expensive solution anyway as all my soft work perfectly.

Just be sure to test it with dpc latency checker.

^^^^^

This - check the DPC latency scores (eg google 'Dell Studio DPC Latency')

Dell currently have some big troubles with their laptops & DPC latency but they seem to be working on it :

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/1 ... ageIndex=1

At least you can be sure that after this huge mess they won't risk releasing another model before it's been properley checked for Audio/Video streaming perfomrance.

EDIT : Thread link on Dell Studio/XPS/Lattitude latency - (35+ pages!):
http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... 9b&t=82401

Android Bishop wrote:Lennovo Thinkpad t-series for the mutha fuckin WIN

absolutely Lenovo makes some bad ass laptops and they've recently come down in prices.

H20nly wrote:I am thinking I would like to go the way of portable (sometimes). So I'm laptop shopping.

TBH I wouldn't mind a Mac book, but I'm not replacing all my software to go that route. I don't want one that bad.



I kind of lost faith in Dell in the last few years as it became obvious to me that they were cutting too many corners like Gateway started doing in the early part of the decade.

I usually build my own PCs and haven't paid any real attention to laptops in a while. Any good recommendations? Obviously something that works well with Live... as that will be the first full blown program that gets installed

if the software is your concern... i don't see the problem companies issuing you a second license for your products as OSX instead of Windows... i think a few people around use both platforms with the same software...

outershpongolia wrote:

H20nly wrote:Obviously something that works well with Live... as that will be the first full blown program that gets installed

Wish I could afford a nice laptop where Live (and maybe a few select VST's) would be the ONLY things installed. Completely live music designated lappy, now that would be greatness.

Got my laptop as dual boot-up with partition for normal pc use and one for music only. Music ones been stable for over 2 years now. (the other ones a right slag)

hp elitebooks are awesome and stable.

I just got a new Asus machine and REALLY like it. Very fast, no latency, under a grand w/ an external firewire soundcard.