What Drives Your DAW - Laptop Or Desktop?

[osiris]

i3 laptop. They had an i5 on sale but I'm skint. Maybe I'll be able to afford an i5 when the i11 comes out.

[jens]

I can't imagine anymore to work on a machine that has a fixed location somewhere in a room. Twenty years ago it was a completely normal thing for me, but nowadays... that's like having to use a conventional landline instead of my cellphone.

some of us are too lazy to need a laptop!

*hehe* I would be too...

[jens]

I have a Desktop because they are more powerfull

Sure they are - but then again my Laptop is obscenely powerful already - plus it even doubles as a tablet.

[audiojunkie]

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.

There are tiny usb drives smaller than a dongle. I bet you could pop one in there and never notice it wasn’t built in.

Here’s an example:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-512gb- ... lsrc=aw.ds

[mjolnir]

hey, audiojunkie, that's a great idea, THANKS

[havran]

A homebuilt desktop tower for me. Some of the components are about 8 years old. Hoping to upgrade sometime next year:

Gigabyte AB350-Gaming Rev 1.0 MB
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card
32GB of RAM (more would be better if I actually made music; lots of RAM helps with projects that use lots of sample libraries)
Toshiba X300 4TB old-fashioned spinny HD (7200 RPM) -- aiming to replace that with a 4TB SSD when I can
MOTU M2 USB audio interface
LG widescreen monitor, 2560x1080p, about 34" diagonally
A corded USB mouse
A corded USB keyboard without the numpad, to save some deskspace
Corsair RM850X power supply
CyberPower SX950U battery backup with surge protection (helps with power flickers during storms)

As for the OS: Currently back on Windows 10 Pro, but if another year goes by without my making any music or even opening a DAW (or Corel Painter or Clip Studio Paint), then I might as well just switch completely over to Linux at that point.

[havran]

i drive it, im in control. mostly.

When the day comes I can just do music in my head, all bets will be off.

When people in Japan can do music in their minds AND broadcast it impolitely to fellow passengers on the train, Tokyo will go mad.

(Broadcasting to neighborhoods outside the train would of course be next-level.)

[havran]

(double post)

[havran]

What drives you ( making these pointless threads ) ?

Curiosity?

But I think the OP's question has provoked some interesting replies (and not just mine) that go well beyond spec lists.

[havran]

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

Good point. In hotter places a ceiling-mounted computer might be a better idea (vented through the attic or into the upper neighbor's apartment), whereas in colder climes a floortop would be a thrifty, dual-duty way to heat the room.

[havran]

Some thoughts about portability and space-saving:

When large-screen laptops were first introduced, I thought that was a cool idea. But they're less portable than others, and I would still prefer an even larger screen, so might as well go with a high-spec brick/mini PC next time around (in my case, anyway).

I do like the idea of having the computer inside the keyboard, though -- similar to Amiga, Commodore, and TI back in the day. I myself have switched to using a keyboard without a numpad to save desktop space.

Probably relatively soon some smartphones could have high enough specs to run a DAW, plugins, and maybe even sample libraries (without setting the user on fire, let's hope) -- then we'd just have to consider the display and input methods: display glasses, mini-projectors, etheric gesture interpreters?

[zerocrossing]

Desktop tower, baby. I run 2 4K monitors and a regular old model for plugins that don’t scale. I don’t need anything small and the extra configurability is welcome.

[THE INTRANCER]

What Is your Setup?
Maybe you should start with that when you want to start a discussion about it

Ah, then people would accuse me of boasting or some shit like that for posting my kit from the outset I typically post/contribute sometime later in threads I create and always have.

My main system for music production is desktop based although for a two years it was exclusively laptop based between June 2008 and January 2010 as my Athon 64 3500 was only a single core. I still use that same laptop, a 15.6" Toshiba Satellite Intel 1.73 Dualcore for web browsing in the living room to this day.

My custom built PC system (Jan 2010 build) which took about a year between research /(procrastinating) has evolved over the years and has been solid through out for everything I bought for it pretty much. At the time of build, it was the most expensive system I assembled at around £970.

The latest system spec of it.

Case: Coolermaster Scout Black/Side Window (it's built like a tank)

An Intel I7 920 Quadcore | 8 Thread CPU
A Gigabyte EX58 UD5 Motherboard (With 6 Ram slots)
An AMD Radeon Sapphire Pulse RX 570 8 Gig Graphics card (Dual Fans)
20 Gigs of DDR3 Ram - 16 Gig of Kingston + 4 Gigs Of Crucial (2x2)

An Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue, Modular, 82% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V PSU - (The original installed in 2010)

A Zalman CNPS10X Extreme Heatsink/Fan

One 1 TB Main Hard Disk for Windows 10
One SSD - Linux - Ubuntu (The compatible version for Studio One)
One 2 TB Internal Hard Disk (Backup Storage / Programs)
An 8 TB External Hard Disk (USB3 Supported) (Backup Storage / Programs)
A USB3 PCI Card
A Docking Station for SSDs and large hard disks.
An External Hard Disk / SSD Caddy
A DVD/RW Drive
An External DVD/RW Drive

A Focusright Pro 14 Audio Interface (Firewire)

A couple of other hard disks with Windows 7 on it.

Other stuff....

A 23.6" Samsung Sync Master B2430 Monitor
A 23.6 LG LED / TV / Monitor

An Epson Printer/ Scanner (2006)

An optical mouse and backlit keyboard (couldn't for get that lol).

An Audio Technical Hi-fi Separate Amplifier (1996) model.

Large Aiwa Speakers.

Synthesizers:
One Casio XW-P1
One Casio XW-G1 - Primary cause I've no space for the P1 atm)
__________________

Other than all that, I'm considering buying a gaming laptop as it will be a more space effective solution and mean lower electricity bills.

[seafire]

Ah, then people would accuse me of boasting or some shit like that for posting my kit from the outset I typically post/contribute sometime later in threads I create and always have.

Actually, you don't.

99% of them are pointless clickbait

You're an attention whore.

[THE INTRANCER]

Ah, then people would accuse me of boasting or some shit like that for posting my kit from the outset I typically post/contribute sometime later in threads I create and always have.

Actually, you don't.

99% of them are pointless clickbait

You're an attention whore.

I'll correct you, I'm a likable, generous, compassionate, funny, intelligent, highly gifted, unique and multi talented human being able to entertain people musically, artistically, verbally, visually and textually. It's these attributes, which contribute to my popularity both online and in the real world. Now if you can't handle that truth, I suggest you avoid clicking on my threads, but if you do, you could be missing out on a lot of entertainment and learning.