Ableton Forum

hi

im just about to take the plunge from djing to producing and am looking at what sort of laptop i should go for . is a mac really the only way i should go ? ive got a friend who works for dell who can sort me out with a really hi-spec one for less than the price of a macbook . any advice would be much appreciated .






appologies if this is has been posted millions of times before

No but,have a look at live5 performance test and see wich computer have beter performance.This is just to get an idea how live works on diferent machines.

although it's worth noting that the performance of multi-core laptops will be enormously increased come live 6.

there really is no diference between a mac or a pc nowdays..
its not like you buy a computer just to play with an operating system all day.
you will more than likely be using it to run apps...so if you can get a good dell for cheap why not buy it...

boy, i sure am glad you took five seconds to check and make sure that ten million other people hadn't already asked this same exact question

snowtires wrote:boy, i sure am glad you took five seconds to check and make sure that ten million other people hadn't already asked this same exact question

And this comment of yours really helped.

meep_audio wrote:

snowtires wrote:boy, i sure am glad you took five seconds to check and make sure that ten million other people hadn't already asked this same exact question

And this comment of yours really helped.

I just spent about an hour trying to find a good laptop thread, with no luck, especially ones discussing PC laptops with core duo processors.. and most laptop threads were spammed with "just buy a macbook"...

I am also currently in the market for a PC laptop, so I'll post what I've been checking out..

Inspiron E1505
Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2050 (2MB Cache/1.60GHz/533MHz FSB)
Windows® XP Home
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™
60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Sound Options Integrated Audio

$889.28 after coupons and tax, free shipping..

Go laptop thread go!

MattJacob wrote:

meep_audio wrote:

snowtires wrote:boy, i sure am glad you took five seconds to check and make sure that ten million other people hadn't already asked this same exact question

And this comment of yours really helped.

I just spent about an hour trying to find a good laptop thread, with no luck, especially ones discussing PC laptops with core duo processors.. and most laptop threads were spammed with "just buy a macbook"...

I am also currently in the market for a PC laptop, so I'll post what I've been checking out..

Inspiron E1505
Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2050 (2MB Cache/1.60GHz/533MHz FSB)
Windows® XP Home
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™
60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Sound Options Integrated Audio

$889.28 after coupons and tax, free shipping..

Go laptop thread go!

That's a hell of a good deal! Can you post a link?

Just go to dell.com and congfigure an Inspiron... the key to the deal is here... http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread ... ight=e1505

A few things to consider:

1. Do you want/need a second hard drive? With Macs, you have to get a firewire or usb external drive. With PCs, you can get a laptop with two internal hard drives. I've had two hard drives in my laptop, and I've been able to do songs with 50+ tracks of 24-bit audio for two years.

2. Core Duo is nice, but Intel is about to release Core Duo 2.66 and 3ghz models, and they're the fastest things out there, smoking even Athlon FX2s (see www.TomsHardware.com ) - Might be worth the wait - get Live 6 and a faster CoreDuo in a few months.

3. Current Mac CoreDuos have heat issues. If you live in Texas, like I do, you don't need no more heat.

4. The cheaper CoreDuo PC lappies are priced nicely, but that's because the screens suck. Get a larger screen, especially for Live performances. Nothing beats high rez. With respect to screens, macs are easily the ones to beat. But boy do you pay...

5. Dell is cool, but also check out www.SagerNotebooks.com and Mtech notebooks - these are both made by Clevo, and I would swear by them.

njh wrote:there really is no diference between a mac or a pc nowdays..
its not like you buy a computer just to play with an operating system all day.
you will more than likely be using it to run apps...so if you can get a good dell for cheap why not buy it...

The only thing I'd disagree with is mac's have true/honest/dedicated 6pin fw port. That can be very important for some.

Performance wise, pc's are great. AND mac's right now have the universal binary compatibility issues....................

nebulae wrote:A few things to consider:

3. Current Mac CoreDuos have heat issues. If you live in Texas, like I do, you don't need no more heat.

HA! Isn't THAT true!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, this look like a good PERFORMACE machine. I'm looking to something I can take out live. I've got DAW for home studio use so this could suit my needs.

thanks for the advise lads , i think im gonna go for the dell , any suggestions on what the essential things i need to get with are ( e.g soundcard etc . . ) ?

RME Fireface 400 if you can afford it. Otherwise, the Presonus Firewire modules are all pretty good.