Ableton Forum

I've been on the scope for a new notebook and it's discouraging how many incorporate shared video memory. My Toshiba is unusable because of this. I tried using it onstage three times with my US-122 and everytime it glitched and sputtered and...just sucked. I'd like some recommendations on particular models or perhaps a website that does a good job of giving thorough details of their models. I've been to NewEgg and Tigerdirect already. Not alot to choose from if you don't want to share that precious video memory. So what are you guys succssfully using?

I bought a fairly high-end HP w/512Mb video vs 256 that came stock in it. Intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghz w/2Gb 667Mhz memory. I made sure not to waste any time looking any laptop that had shared memory. Check out Gateway or even Dell for the more expensive models to get non-shared video onboard. You won't be getting one real cheap for a reasonable onboard video.

Mike

Asus A8Js. fastest video setup for the money - been weighing up getting one of these this week. someone recently reported having trouble with the firewire port and a soundcard last week though... and i remember asus laptops having a problem with firewire soundcards in the past. not insurmountable, but you have to get a firewire expresscard to get around it.

That Asus looks great, Clearscreen. But a bit out of budget for me. Ultimately about $1000 tops is what I've earmarked for a new lappy. I'll need to reserve a few bucks for a firewire or usb interface too. But thanks for the reco. Your posts always seem to be very knowledgeable when discussing notebooks/pc's. Given the price point I'm looking at can you recommend something else?

Can't think of anything with dedicated video for that kind of money off the top of my head... if i get time i'll have a look around later, but i wouldn't get your hopes up unfortunately...

if u are going for an expensive unit why not buy a MAcbookPro and install Windows on it under Bootcamp and dual boot into either OS ?
You get the best of both worlds and a high quality piece of hardware
Mine came with a 160gig SATA Hard drive and an X1600 ATI Raedon video, 400 ans 800mbs firewire ports plus USB's Nice camera great audio card. 2.33ghz Core2Duo chipset.. not to mention and awesome screen
They are worth looking at for any PC guy even if you never use OSX on it.
PS you wont have the hassles that people are having with Vista unless you choose to install it. I actually run OSX and XP together on the system at the same time..

shaneblyth wrote:if u are going for an expensive unit why not buy a MAcbookPro and install Windows on it under Bootcamp and dual boot into either OS ?
You get the best of both worlds and a high quality piece of hardware
Mine came with a 160gig SATA Hard drive and an X1600 ATI Raedon video, 400 ans 800mbs firewire ports plus USB's Nice camera great audio card. 2.33ghz Core2Duo chipset.. not to mention and awesome screen
They are worth looking at for any PC guy even if you never use OSX on it.
PS you wont have the hassles that people are having with Vista unless you choose to install it. I actually run OSX and XP together on the system at the same time..

Not a bad idea. Have a model number I can research?

BENJ-AMG wrote:

shaneblyth wrote:if u are going for an expensive unit why not buy a MAcbookPro and install Windows on it under Bootcamp and dual boot into either OS ?
You get the best of both worlds and a high quality piece of hardware
Mine came with a 160gig SATA Hard drive and an X1600 ATI Raedon video, 400 ans 800mbs firewire ports plus USB's Nice camera great audio card. 2.33ghz Core2Duo chipset.. not to mention and awesome screen
They are worth looking at for any PC guy even if you never use OSX on it.
PS you wont have the hassles that people are having with Vista unless you choose to install it. I actually run OSX and XP together on the system at the same time..

Not a bad idea. Have a model number I can research?

nope but if u go to your local online apple store www.apple.com or what ever country you live in and check out the MAcbook Pro range I have the 17" but there is the 15" as well.. there are alo of extras you get little things other laptops generally dont have
3 examples
1. backlight keyboard light with ambient sensor.. as the room gets darker the keyboard is lit up brighter and brighter automatically.
2. sudden motion sensor. drop it and it instantly protects your hard drive from shock.. some people have even used this to do some bizarre things like tilting the laptop around to control a robot vacuum cleaner ! weird I know.
3. blue tooth and wireless "N" built in standard. The N is backwards compatible with G and B wireless.

they are the only pc you can run any OS on as in any Windows any Linux and any OS X
It just gives you a ton of options and they are very highly rated reliability wise. There was a video on youtube of a macbook pro with a bullet hole in the the front of the unit and it was still functioning.
I have used PC's for 20 years and this is my first MAc and I am very pleased. I like all those extra options.

using a old dell no problems! www.musicxp.com have you done all this?

Might have to make a pseudo balanced cable to cancel out ground hum.

Not getting ground hum. USB and firewire interfaces don't jive with systems that used shared video memory. It screws with the latency and causes all kinds of nasty glitches and timing problems.