Laptop / Notebook Recommendation

antilog · Post by **antilog** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:08 am

I am looking to purchase a laptop to eventually use Cubase SX3 and an unknown as of yet audio interface. Are there any special considerations or experiences that people have had recording to a PC laptop - usb2 recording, amd64 laptop recording, recommended interfaces for pc laptops?

thanks

syrupcore · Post by **syrupcore** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:34 pm

I bought a refurbed emachine m6811 and it totally fuckin smokes. will it run sx well? no idea. if you know you're gonna run sx, I'd go to the SX forum and ask around about what's working well for people.

Will

sleep over jack · Post by **sleep over jack** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:02 am

I have a newer ZV veries HP laptop. AMD 64, etc. I run a MOTU 828 firewire interface and a WD external HD, on different firewire devices respectively. using SX as well. it rocks for what I do. i don't really have any complaints.

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:57 am

I also just bought a new HP laptop. The ZV6130. Its $999 at the shitty CompUSA. Has a AMD 64bit 2.2ghz chip in there and comes with 512mb of memory. I'm going to max it out to 2gb when I get the chance.

I did a dual-boot configuration on it so that I have a separate partition with XP Pro that is stripped down just for music. I'm using it with a Presonus FIREPOD and Cubase LE and it runs absolutely flawlessly.

sleep over jack · Post by **sleep over jack** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:03 pm

if anyone decides to go with an HP, make sure you buy the 3 year warranty, if you know what i'm saying

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:25 pm

Really? Do tell...

antilog · Post by **antilog** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:35 pm

thanks for the replies, it was good to hear feedback on the amd64, as i was unsure that it would be wise to make such an investment on a new technology without a lot of history.

UXB · Post by **UXB** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 9:52 am

If money is no object, or you want something very robust, the IBM thinkpads have survived much abuse, but you pay for the construction.

Best,
H

earl parameter · Post by **earl parameter** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:35 am

how about a price range?

that matters a lot, and may determine the overall reliability of the laptop. also some interfaces have problems with certain laptops and their chipsets (amongst other things). maybe decide on that first.

and id say firewire over usb2. from my understanding usb was never really intended to support media transfer. its more for peripheral devices like mice and printers. usb for things like audio and even communication (networking) have and may always be problematic.

Mr. Dipity · Post by **Mr. Dipity** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:58 am

UXB wrote:If money is no object, or you want something very robust, the IBM thinkpads have survived much abuse, but you pay for the construction.

Best,
H

1. I second the IBM vote. They are solid stable, no-frills machines. Perfect for professional audio, since you would want to add any peripherals you require yourself.

However: IBM has sold it's laptop business to a chinese company called Lenovo. It is uncertain whether their stability will suffer - certainly the new Lenovo laptops are being stuff full of craptacular consumer trinkets, such as memory stick readers and other junk. Your best be would be checking IBM website's refurbished section - best price ratio, too.

2. Sager makes most of the rest of the world's better laptops, which are the rebranded by Sony, and the like. I have heard very high praise of original Sager machines, which would make sense since they need the PR to ensure that OEMs keep coming back to them.

musikman316 · Post by **musikman316** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:07 pm

I'm an Apple guy, so I'd say a Powerbook, especially now that you can buy them with 7200rpm drives. A gig of ram on the 15" with a 100gig 7200rpm drive is about $2400.

Later,
Josh

antilog · Post by **antilog** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:48 pm

I am looking at an ABS Mayhem G3

w/
Athlon 64 3400
1GB 400MHz ram
80GB 7200rpm HDD

hammertime · Post by **hammertime** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:55 am

I got a toshiba satellite at Best Buy about a year ago (Pentium 4 2.8 ghz), that works fine with SX 1.06. One of the things I found out while researching was that alot of the formerly "budget" manufacturers like HP and Emachines are actually making decent laptops. One thing I don't like about my Toshiba is there's a bunch of software that you can't remove without buying a new copy of xp and reinstalling. I haven't had the same problems steamlining my Dells and the HP laptop I used to have. Toshiba's generally have the least amount of hardware failures reported amongst users though, with Sony and Dell following close behind. Personally, if I went Intel, I'd get a centrino model, because, last I heard, they require intel chipsets on their mobo's, which prevents the chipset incompatibility problem that has plagued audio computers. My satellite has a Pentium M cpu and a "toshiba" chipset. I don't know if it's that or all the bullshit background software they put on it, but sometimes my system freezes a bit (doesn't crash), but it's probably sometime I could solve if I put a few hours into it.

antilog wrote:I am looking to purchase a laptop to eventually use Cubase SX3 and an unknown as of yet audio interface. Are there any special considerations or experiences that people have had recording to a PC laptop - usb2 recording, amd64 laptop recording, recommended interfaces for pc laptops?

thanks

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