Desktop vs Laptop

[sQeetz]

I'm lucky the motherboard was smart enough to shut things down before I did further damage to it.

Indeed you were. What were you trying to do if I might ask?

[BONES]

It's "dead silent" in the sense that even when the fans kick in it's still barely hearable.

That sounds like every laptop I've owned in the last 10 years, except for the ultra-powerful gaming machine I had a couple of years ago. Pretty much the only time the fans are on is when it's rendering. They don't run when I'm recording vocals, which is the only time it actually matters and I can't hear them when I'm working, either. I only notice the sound when I'm rendering and, even then, I have to crane my head forward over the laptop to make sure that's what it is.

If you have space for a tower, get a tower.

I used to take a tower to gigs, even took one on our World Tour back in 2005, but I don't have to to do that any more, so I don't.

From what I've gathered this can only be achieved on the Zenbook by disabling a lot of stuff to the point it gets almost unusable.

The test the guy did was to loop Netflix full-screen in Chrome with the second screen turned off and brightness at 50%, which is a fairly standard battery test. On full power, with everything running at max, I get about 4 hours of run time, which is more than enough to comfortably get me through soundcheck and a 90 minute set. And that's the thing Apple knows they can rely on with their marketing - that the people they are marketing to have no f**king clue about practicality. IT doesn't matter to me that there are or are not laptops out there with even better battery life than mine, it only matter than mine is enough to get me through a gig. In fact, it wasn't even a spec I looked at when I was deciding what to buy, as it's been utterly irrelevant to my needs for a decade or more. It's the same with the f**king fan noise - I don't care if something else is quieter because mine is more than quiet enough already. It's not even a consideration. In fact, until i started hanging around here again a few years ago, it's not something I would have believed anyone would worry about. But Apple tells you it matters o, all of a sudden, it matters.

While the Macbook does the same feat by default.

Not according to Engadget, it doesn't. From memory, I think it was around 14 hours in their rundown test.

Another point almost never gets mentioned is that a Mac doesn't have any preference if you're using it powered or running out the battery. The performance is always the same.
I remember juggling settings around what to sacrifice while on battery while using the XPS.

Whilst all I remember is turning all that shit off the day I bought it so that it always runs at full power. But it makes sense that Apple don't bother because I was really surprised that their battery life wasn't a lot better with the M1s. With 12th Gen Intel CPUs we might start to see the same thing, now that they are on a big-core/little-core set-up.

If space isn't a main concern: get a freaking tower. It will last longer, is upgradable, has more options when something malfunctions, etc. I have two laptops only because I have very limited space and move frequently.

If any of these things are issues for you, get a gaming laptop. Most manufacturers will allow you to upgrade components without voiding the warranty and they tend to make it easy to do so. Personally, I've never had anything fail on any laptop I've owned. Even the Dell M3800 I had ran for 9 years before the screen gave out.

I also had the mindset of having a "tower" at home and a notebook for travel.
It vanquished when I got the M1 MacBook. It IS my travelmate and also my desktop computer once it is docked to its docking station. it IS my freaking computer on a big screen, mouse and keyboard.
How technology has grown over the years... it's almost like magic

That's been the case for me since I bought my first laptop in 2006. It's nice to see it only took Apple 25 years to allow you to do the same. Even at work, all the office people get is a tiny HP laptop that hooks up to a 32" touchscreen with a keyboard and mouse, via USB-C. Our producers get Z2 Minis to run Avid and we get big f**k-off tower workstations. The Flames get even bigger workstations that I reckon raise the temperature in our dept by several degrees. You can feel the heat pouring off them as you walk past.

[sQeetz]

That sounds like every laptop I've owned in the last 10 years, except for the ultra-powerful gaming machine I had a couple of years ago.

Good for you. Your ears must be tough as leather just like yourself

On full power, with everything running at max, I get about 4 hours of run time, which is more than enough to comfortably get me through soundcheck and a 90 minute set.

It's your use-case and you know how to circumvent the low battery life. it's allright.

And that's the thing Apple knows they can rely on with their marketing - that the people they are marketing to have no f**king clue about practicality. IT doesn't matter to me that there are or are not laptops out there with even better battery life than mine, it only matter than mine is enough to get me through a gig.

I'm not going to go any further. You go on. it's fine

[sQeetz]

That's been the case for me since I bought my first laptop in 2006. It's nice to see it only took Apple 25 years to allow you to do the same.

You tell it like Apple just now claimed to have invented the concept of a docked laptop.
I had basically the same setup back when I had a Dell XPS 15 maybe 4 years ago. It was nice, but not as seamless as it is right now with a Macbook, though...

[Canyouplease]

I'd say desktop first and then a laptop. I got both and mostly regretted getting a higher end laptop because I usually do my work on rhe desktop. I also thought "Hey! I can bring my laptop to vacation and make music there too!" And realized that I was on vacation so why would I work on music there .

If you're just starting out, definitely go desktop as you'll be home most of the year. Once you're ready to travel (gigs, collabs, etc) then get a laptop.

In the end, it mostly depends on what music you're making and to ask yourself if you really DO end up travelling a lot.

[adl]

I have been on desktop like forever and bought a laptop 3 years around. Except for the loud fan I don't regret it. I can take it with me to friends and we're making music there (Ableton has a neat "sync over wifi" feature where our laptops are synced when they are logged into the same wlan). I also can take it with me into another room (we had a baby 2 years ago) cause is it's a very mobile setup (RME Babyface Pro FS, Slate VSX headphones. Barely use my Neumann KH 310s anymore since I got the Slate VSX headphones). I love to take it with me on vacation, cause making music is just a thing I need to do for recreation and coping with stress.
Next time I'll definitely getting a laptop again. That being said, I do electronic music, so VSTs only.

[kvotchin]

Desktop, unless you specifically need portability.

[rickyableton]

I have a laptop and want to switch to desktop because of the small screen and keyboard taking up space on my desk i play guitar and record on ableton live 10 suite its for sale if anyone is interested $300 digital license

[BONES]

Good for you. Your ears must be tough as leather just like yourself

No, it's just that I don't live in an anechoic chamber, there are always other sounds around that make any sound the laptop makes irrelevant. Cars going past on the street outside make way more noise than my laptop fans. The fridge in the next room is louder than my laptop fans. Sometimes just the sound of the wind through the trees is louder than my laptop fans. Hell, even the noise I get through the system when my hardware is plugged in is way louder than my laptop fans.

I'm not going to go any further. You go on. it's fine

Would you like me to give you examples? There are plenty to be had, from Retina screens to "you're holding it wrong".

[Tj Shredder]

Since with the introduction of Apples M1 laptops are as powerful as desktops while being silent, there is no point going desktop… If you need a bigger screen, just place a huge monitor on your desk and you get even two…
Even Win laptops seem fast enough if you don‘t mind the noise as BONES convinced us…

[BONES]

FFS, when will you guys open your f**king eyes!?! Apple laptops are NOT as powerful as desktops and they are NOT silent. There is one fanless model in their line-up and it is the least powerful. Every other laptop has fans, as do their desktop machines.

As you can see from this article, the Mac Studio's fans are on all the time, just like any other powerful desktop machine with a small footprint. If you bother to read the article, you'll see that it is almost as loud as a MacPro and you can fry an egg on a MacPro when it's working. So can we please stop with this f**king bullshit and stick to reality?

[sQeetz]

As you can see from this article, the Mac Studio's fans are on all the time, just like any other powerful desktop machine with a small footprint.

Did you actually read the article you posted?
Here the conclusion:

Does the Mac Studio have loud fan noise? Relative to other M1 Macs, yes. The Mac Studio's fan noise is constant when idle or browsing the web, and that's also true if you're doing more demanding tasks. But even at the loudest rating of 25dB, that means the Mac Studio's fan is only slightly louder than leaves rustling or someone whispering from multiple feet away. It is one of the loudest Macs that Apple sells today...

If you bother to read the article, you'll see that it is almost as loud as a MacPro and you can fry an egg on a MacPro when it's working. So can we please stop with this f**king bullshit and stick to reality?

oh, the irony... MacPros are only available with Intel CPUs ATM. So they are inherently loud. And nowhere in your article there is a mention of MacPros.

[Hink]

[BONES]

And nowhere in your article there is a mention of MacPros.

Maybe you need to go back to school because the MacPro gets three mentions, including these two -

"The Mac Studio is also louder than Apple's 11dB rating for the Mac Pro." That's claimed noise, this is actual, recorded noise -

"the Mac Studio's fan noise reaches 25db when idle — just slightly lower than the 27dB of noise recorded from an idle Mac Pro."

This seems to be an excellent example of the way Applytes use selective hearing and vision to maintain their reality distortion bubble - you completely unsee actual facts and figures but notice the reference to "rustling leaves" that is irrelevant in the context of this discussion. And you need to remember that I don't give a shit about fan noise, that's you guys claiming something that is simply untrue. If it's on, it's on and that makes a liar of anyone who says they are silent because, last time I checked, 25dB was not "silent", it was 25dB.

[FapFilter]

the fans in their laptops only kick in during maximizing all computational resources inside these systems for a while, which means GPU too, especially the latter usually not being the case in audio work.
from an audio related perspective what i've read so far is one guy managed to let the fans kick in after a >8min CPU intensive song bounce, which might not affect everyone.
during mixing and recording they should remain dead silent for most people.

and yes, the fans inside the Studios (and the Mini) are always on. But it's rare that these fans will spin up further than their standard 1300 or 1400RPM, even during comparisons on Youtube which compare a Studio Ultra vs a 12900KF, where the Studio is beating the intel in most (not all) tests and the intel is getting noisy, the Studio was staying at 1400RPM with a CPU temp of 56°C