What Drives Your DAW - Laptop Or Desktop?

[THE INTRANCER]

What do you primary use for driving your DAW?

Additional questions:
If you use a laptop, what is the specification of it and why did you choose it?

If you use a desktop, what is the specification of it, be that pre-built (from a retailer) or one custom built yourself?

[vurt]

i drive it, im in control. mostly.

[EnGee]

My DAW(s) is running on my desktop(s).

The specs:
1. Windows 11 , Linux Mint 22 PC: AMD Ryzen 5800x, 32 GB, 3 SSD (2x 512, 1x 1TB), nVidia 3070 (custom assembled by me).
2. Mini Mac M1 with Sonoma (16GB/512GB)

I use mainly Ableton Live 12 on Windows/PC, Bitwig Studio 5 on Linux. I use Logic/Live 12 on the Mini Mac.

[thecontrolcentre]

I use a desktop and a laptop to run Live 12, but the laptop gets used very rarely these days, as it's still on Win 8.1 and is much slower and less stable than my newer Win 11 desktop. The 17" screen is very difficult (for me) to read too.

[gentleclockdivider]

What drives you ( making these pointless threads ) ?

[mjolnir]

I used to be homeless but I didn't want to give up music, music-making, or the internet, so I bought a portable (laptop) computer. But I kinda regret the decision because the designers optimized it for portability instead of expandability. It only has 64 GiB storage max, and the internal drive can't be removed or replaced (it's built into the motherboard without a drive bay). I could use an external drive though, maybe.

Anyways, it's still an OK system for Linux. It's only got an SSD drive, not NVME, but it's still pretty fast for reads and writes. I don't get drop outs during recordings or whatnot. I have both a realtime kernal for audio use and a normal one. I upgraded the 4 GiB RAM to 16 GiB RAM. The battery lasts a very long time, the audio is good quality, the screen colors are good, but the screen size is probably too small. I do have the option for HDMI video output to another monitor though. I tried that earlier in the year, and it was nice.

I loaded up the system with several audio programs, both Windows freewares and Linux freewares.
I probably will try to buy some audio hardware later this year if I can. I only have wimpy computer speakers.

The computer has 4 CPU cores and handles data OK. There's no fan and it's still quiet as can be because it's a low-power system. I customized the Linux to keep the display static and dark most of the time to save battery time.

I didn't get hardly anything done while I was homeless, except learning a lot about Linux distros and standards.

I hope to eventually buy a guitar and do something almost like early KMFDM with synths, drum machine, and electric guitar.

The computer will probably be used more as a synth / sound generator if I play my cards right.

For programs, I mainly only have freewares / demos which is largely insignificant at the moment.
I can still get my ideas down and rendered to 32-bit floating point stereo WAVs.

[careyletendre]

What drives you ( making these pointless threads ) ?

[dexrow]

I am using a very bottom of the barrel laptop that I paid $300 for new.. It does seem to have problems with samples some times and I ran out of disk drive space on c: so I had to buy another drive and alot of vst's do not play nice when you try to start loading them on D drive. I am not particularly attached to the pc but if I am not making alot of money on music I don't really want to upgrade the pc. My life is fairly mobile so I need portable stuff.

[dellboy]

Windows laptop with a 16 inch screen. The main disadvantage of Windows laptops is that you cannot fully close them up when a monitor is attatched because of cooling issues. This is in contrast to Apple silicon laptops that can be fully closed and used with an external keyboard and mouse as if they were a desktop. However, mine is a Lenovo Yoga with a touch screen,and because it has a magic hinge, the lid can be swung fully around so that it can be propped up somewhere with an external monitor attatched and also allows access to the laptop touch screen if needed.

Which brings me to the thought of why does no one make an Amiga/Atari style keyboard computer?They had the computer guts built into the keyboard with all the ports along the back and sides. Just add a monitor and mouse and get music making.

[whyterabbyt]

OP is clearly prejudiced against tabletops, floortops, and shelftops.

Also, what idiot actually uses a modern system on their lap? Do you like the smell of your own charring skin?

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Using the same laptop I bought on craigslist 12 years ago. Dell 6430 I5 dual core. I bought it because it was cheap.Does everything I want. Just wish my interface was class compliant. I would go linux. I ran a pro studio back in the 90s. Three Da 88 tape machines synced together. Nice SoundCraft console. My laptop and Motu interface is easily competitive......I do miss treated rooms though.

[_leras]

What drives you ( making these pointless threads ) ?

Advertising. That people pay for on this website. The name says exactly what he's trying to do.

[seafire]

Never owned a laptop.

[AdvancedFollower]

I use a desktop computer but it's under the desk, not on top of it. I'm rebellious like that.
It's an older system, Ryzen 3800X, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe + a bunch of SATA SSD's and an RTX 3060 Ti (I also do a bit of gaming) but still handles everything just fine. Thinking about upgrading to a 5900X or 5950X though (one of the advantages of desktops is being able to upgrade).

[legendCNCD]

My R7950X Desktop. No need for laptop for music at all.