Hi all,
I've recently been thinking about making the switch to a notebook computer. I would use it primarily for music composition/audio recording. Is there a notebook out there that is designed specifically as a digital audio workstation?
I've haven't shopped around and I don't know too much about what notebooks have to offer. I currently use a Pentium4 3.2Ghz machine. Can notebooks provide comparable horsepower? I'd also be going the PC route so the Mac powerbooks are out of the running.
I briefly looked at the sony vaio notebooks and they look very nice, although I have to admit the main thing that drew me to them was their slick, streamlined design. I've never used one.
My computer is noisy as well, are notebooks fanless and more or less silent?
Also, I'd need a decent audio setup for my notebook. I currently use an m-audio delta66 pci card. I've been really happy with it. I know m-audio makes some firewire/usb audio hardware as well but I've never tried any of these. Can I get just as low latency using the firewire/usb audio gear?
I'm not entirely convinced this is something I should blow my money on but I've saved up the cash and I better do something at least somewhat useful with it before I spend it on something reeeeally stupid...
Any experience and or advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to spend a lot of money and not be totally satisfied.
thinking of buying a notebook - advice, suggestions needed
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- KVRer
- 10 posts since 2 Apr, 2003
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- KVRAF
- 4223 posts since 10 Oct, 2002 from Nashville, TN USA
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- KVRAF
- 5703 posts since 6 Dec, 2003 from Mission Control
Really fast laptops run really hot and you can be sure that you are going to have a drop in performance it you drop in Hz. So, as long as you are looking and willing to spend the money look into tablet pcs. Fujitsu has been in the business the longest.
http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www ... view.shtml
The cool thing about a tablet is that you can do your editing right on the screen. It's not that much different than turning real knobs, you just do it with a pen.
I want a controller w/cpu & digitizer built in. You could really crank the speed up if you had the room to keep the cpu cool.
http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www ... view.shtml
The cool thing about a tablet is that you can do your editing right on the screen. It's not that much different than turning real knobs, you just do it with a pen.
I want a controller w/cpu & digitizer built in. You could really crank the speed up if you had the room to keep the cpu cool.
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- KVRist
- 298 posts since 23 Nov, 2003 from nj
Before you buy any laptop, first visit this site:
http://www.notebookreview.com - it has a very useful forum with subforums dedicated to every laptop brand. Here, you can get a biased opinion of a few people who will swear their life on their laptop (like me
). There, you can see hundreds of complains about various laptop brands. Like, for examlpe, Sony is at the bottom of the food chain, and considered to be the most unreliable laptop. Also, there are a lot of problems with cheap Dell laptops. Or, you should never buy a laptop from a third party reseller since they don't have a return policy and you get most of the time laptop with dead screen pixels. Some very interesting stuff you find there. Do your research first.
Also, keep in mind, the touch pad on all of the laptops are NOT good for any precise movement within your sequencer and you can forget about drawing notes in piano roll
The only true portable way of laptop pointing device are those Thumb-stick pointers on IBM Thinkpad or Dell Inspiron laptops. Otherwise, you will have to hook up a mouse and than forget about portability. Also, stay away from desktop replacement laptops. They are very heavy, run hot, battery life is almost nothing, fans are too loud, and the size is too big. Pentium M is the way to go, but make sure you get the latest Dothan series CPU with 2MB L2 cache. I just got IBM Thinkpad T42 with M1.7GHz (Dothan 735) and it has almost the same performance as Dell 9100 with P4 HT 3.2GHz. I'm not making it up cause before I got T42, I purchased 9100 (which I already returned) and loaded the same FLS projects with cpu intense instruments and effects. I also ran a number of bechmark test, and just based on those, M1.7GHz performs in a range of 2.8GHz-3.0GHz
http://www.notebookreview.com - it has a very useful forum with subforums dedicated to every laptop brand. Here, you can get a biased opinion of a few people who will swear their life on their laptop (like me
). There, you can see hundreds of complains about various laptop brands. Like, for examlpe, Sony is at the bottom of the food chain, and considered to be the most unreliable laptop. Also, there are a lot of problems with cheap Dell laptops. Or, you should never buy a laptop from a third party reseller since they don't have a return policy and you get most of the time laptop with dead screen pixels. Some very interesting stuff you find there. Do your research first.Also, keep in mind, the touch pad on all of the laptops are NOT good for any precise movement within your sequencer and you can forget about drawing notes in piano roll
The only true portable way of laptop pointing device are those Thumb-stick pointers on IBM Thinkpad or Dell Inspiron laptops. Otherwise, you will have to hook up a mouse and than forget about portability. Also, stay away from desktop replacement laptops. They are very heavy, run hot, battery life is almost nothing, fans are too loud, and the size is too big. Pentium M is the way to go, but make sure you get the latest Dothan series CPU with 2MB L2 cache. I just got IBM Thinkpad T42 with M1.7GHz (Dothan 735) and it has almost the same performance as Dell 9100 with P4 HT 3.2GHz. I'm not making it up cause before I got T42, I purchased 9100 (which I already returned) and loaded the same FLS projects with cpu intense instruments and effects. I also ran a number of bechmark test, and just based on those, M1.7GHz performs in a range of 2.8GHz-3.0GHz-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 10 posts since 2 Apr, 2003
Thanks for the info, that was something I was wondering. I noticed the GHz on laptops was considerably lower than desktops but I didn't know how the M chip performed relative to a desktop Pentium 4.twister wrote:I also ran a number of bechmark test, and just based on those, M1.7GHz performs in a range of 2.8GHz-3.0GHz
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- KVRist
- 298 posts since 23 Nov, 2003 from nj
Also it helps a lot when you optimize your WinXP: http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.phptrispectrum wrote:Thanks for the info, that was something I was wondering. I noticed the GHz on laptops was considerably lower than desktops but I didn't know how the M chip performed relative to a desktop Pentium 4.twister wrote:I also ran a number of bechmark test, and just based on those, M1.7GHz performs in a range of 2.8GHz-3.0GHz
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- KVRer
- 29 posts since 19 Apr, 2004
im going to buy an asus m6n from here-http://ynot2k.com/products/laptops/m6n/m6000n.htm
i bought an emachines amd 64bit machine and found it heavy, loud, and hot(not to mention the build quality was just terrible). i want a laptop, not a portable desktop.
i also luv my asus motherboard, so i have that trust element to work with. the sales rep says that the asus is easy to take apart and upgrade. for me, that is a dream. another selling point is that it is made out of some strange composite material, not plastic.
the only other puter i would consider after about a month of research is the ibm, but with the specs i want it would run around 3grand. even the alienware pentium m machines r small, and only have integrated graphics.
i should have the asus by next week, so if u want ill tell u my feelings after i get it.
i bought an emachines amd 64bit machine and found it heavy, loud, and hot(not to mention the build quality was just terrible). i want a laptop, not a portable desktop.
i also luv my asus motherboard, so i have that trust element to work with. the sales rep says that the asus is easy to take apart and upgrade. for me, that is a dream. another selling point is that it is made out of some strange composite material, not plastic.
the only other puter i would consider after about a month of research is the ibm, but with the specs i want it would run around 3grand. even the alienware pentium m machines r small, and only have integrated graphics.
i should have the asus by next week, so if u want ill tell u my feelings after i get it.
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- KVRer
- 29 posts since 19 Apr, 2004
oh and make sure u get a "dothan", if u r considering an m processor. those r the ones that have a 2mb L2 cache.
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- KVRer
- 9 posts since 8 Sep, 2001 from Los Angeles
I have the ASUS M6N with the 15.4 wide screen and 1.7Ghz Pentium M 2MB Cache. It is a very nice laptop it has 64MB Radeon Video Built in, and Firewire and 4 USB 2.0 Ports, you can also put in a 2ND HD in the CD-rom bay and it has an intel chipset motherboard. Alot of laptops have shared video and Ali and SIS chipsets which could caue problems.
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- KVRer
- 19 posts since 26 Jan, 2004
to twister: desktop replacement laptops are not so mobile as others, but I dont want to dance with my notebook But I agree with you that Pentium-M is the best choise.
But I agree with you that Pentium-M is the best choise.