Advice on a new laptop for music production

[irontaff]

Hi guys,

I'm new on this site and I thought I asked you guys for advice on purchasing a new laptop.

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Fernando. I'm an Electronic Engineer, from Mexico. Even though I know a little bit about audio (given my electronic engineering background, and because I'm a fan of music, specially Rock), I know nothing about music production. Where I work - which has nothing to do with music - one of my co-workers - who's also one of my best friends - is also a fan of electronic music and likes to mix music. Recently, he took a course on electronic music production, and he told me he's planning on switching to music production, so he would need someone to help him with production and audio engineering, so I decided to step up to the challenge.

I'm still learning. However, one thing I need is a new laptop. According to what I've been researching, these are the main specs that I would need:
- Multi-core CPU. At least i5 but i7 is better (the more cores, the better).
- RAM: At least 8GB, preferably 16 GB.
- HDD: 7200 RPM or SSD if possible (because it is faster and silent).
- As silent as possible.
- Slim & light (my laptop from work is a Dell Precision M6800. It's a good laptop, but thick as a brick and equally heavy).

I've looked at many options (at this point, perhaps too many). At first, I wanted a 2-in-1. However, I think those mobile processors aren't enough for music production. After more research, I have the following options:

- Asus Zenbook Pro UK 501
- Pros: Great design, slim, great performance, silent and very nice.
- Cons: The screen is very reflective (it could be resolved with an anti gloss protection, but I don't know if there are any.
- MSI GS63VR
- Pros: Very beautiful, excellent build quality and great performance.
- Cons: It gets very hot and thus, the fans get somewhat loud. The SSD drive might be small (only 128 GB) and the 1 TB SATA drive is only @ 5400 RPM (which I understand it's too slow for music production). Battery life is not very good.
- Razer Blade Stealth
- Pros: Very nice, excellent build quality, great performance
- Cons: Mediocre battery life and it gets very loud. It is also somewhat pricey.
- Apple Macbook Pro
- Pros: Excellent build quality, great performance and the OS is very stable.
- Cons: It's a Mac (I hate Mac OS). Very pricey (it is the most expensive of my four options, and the worst spec-wise... and I don't buy the "because the OS is optimised for the hardware" argument... A fine-tuned windows pc performs as good as a mac... You just have to do it yourself).

As of now, I'm stuck. I don't know what to choose. I'm open for suggestions. I should add that I'll be using it for production, maybe with FL Studio and Ableton live (and perhaps also performing live). I was also thinking of partitioning the hard drive, with windows 10 in one partition and linux in the other one (mainly for experimenting).

Thanks in advance, guys. Sorry for the lengthy post, but I felt like I needed to give as much details as possible.

[liquidsound]

I'm in a similar situation. I use a Thinkpad W540 for my CAD work with W8.1 OS.
I need to get a dedicated laptop for my music production for personal reasons.
I was shopping for a powerful laptop regardless of the operating system because ultimately Windows or Mac allows thousands of musicians to produce their music.
I'm interested in a good quality, sturdy, powerful laptop.
I'm looking at the 2015 MacBook Pro or the Asus Rog G752VS.
Somehow I have a pull for the Mac since I can also instal W10 if I need to.
I'm a little tired with the Windows drivers issues here and there and more.
I used Windows from W98 and I use Mac from the the Mac Se to the first blue iMac
So I'm aware of both world in a way.
I use Live and MuLab so I have no issue either way.
If you hate the Apple OS then your choice it's easier except the overwhelming choices in the PC world.
ASUS seems to be powerful but I read some horrible reviews and so for the Razer, MSI etc.
The good and the bad.
Not fun in buying a laptop lately.
Hopefully some one here will give some good advice

[irontaff]

I know, both OSes have their advantages and disadvantages. I'm not saying one or the other is bad per se. I actually haven't used Mac OS that much. However, the few instances I have used it I have found it cumbersome and very closed.

Around 7 or 8 years ago, I was setting up our home wifi. I've always been a bit "paranoid" (according to my sister) about network security, so I decided to set it up with WPA security. I had no problem setting all our windows computers (at that time, windows xp), however, my sister has an iMac (she's a graphic designer). I tried setting up the wifi with WPA, but I just couldn't get it to connect to our home network, so I had to fall back to WEP (which troubled me, because I know how insecure WEP is). From that moment, I started hating Mac OS. I also find hard to believe that a Mac computer with lesser hardware could cost so much more than a similarly spec'd Windows computer.

Don't get me wrong, I also consider Windows hard to maintain and very attack prone. If it were up to me, I would set up linux. However, I don't know how trustworthy it is for music production and/or live performing (again, I'm pretty new in the music making world), that's why I want to set up a partition for experimenting.

However, I'm not totally close-minded. If, for any reason, the advice is "those laptops are not at all adecuate for music production and you will have very big issues", I'd go for the Mac (which might be difficult, given that it is much more expensive than my other options). I might be also going for too much processing power (I don't know if an core i5 would be sufficient), but I want my next laptop to last me at least 5 years.

Thanks a lot for the reply and happy holidays, by the way.

[liquidsound]

I couldn't find the UK501 but I checked the UX501 and at $1499 it's a great choice.
The review also didn't see any issues with the heat problem.
It looks like a good deal indeed.
I may consider this one as well.

Any input anyone?

Happy new year to you too

[J-909]

If you don't or didn't like Mac don't buy a Mac! Believe me, I did it and I am regretting it all the time. Mac Os is very stable but I can't work with it (no possibility to minimize and retrieve windows easily, closed system, no personalization, everything works as it does, not as you want it to, many compatibility issues..) so I installed Win 7 on it. It works good but again youu are forced to depend on Mac's will. I am getting Windows fatal loading errors once every month or so wich gets it to a previous state automatically (I have already learned to work on an eexternal drive and not a big issue).
However, if you want to go for live performance I recognize Mac OS is more stable than Win for the main DAWs out there.
Linux should be the answer!!!

[liquidsound]

@ j-909
I took my new year walk for dinner and I visited the Apple Store.
10 minutes and I was out.
It's going to be ASUS 99% (the ZEN from irontaff, UX though)
The specs are too good for the money and the touch screen with W10 is a dream actually.
I don't perform live and perhaps Windows future may be brighter in the long run.

Thanks for the honest take on MAC.

[irontaff]

@liquidsound

You're right, there's no UK 501, it is UX501. That's a typo. Sorry for that.

The only thing that puts me off a bit about the Asus is its screen reflectivity. I don't know if is too reflective to work with it indoors (many reviews say that it is not proper for working with it outdoors, but that's not important for me). If you do get it, please share your experience, because the rest of the specs are really amazing.

@J-909
That's why I'm very reluctant to buying a Mac. I won't do it unless I have no other option. I might be using the new laptop for live performing, but I'm not sure at this point yet (my friend is the "creative" guy... I would be the "technical" guy, i.e., the audio engineer, so he would be performing live). Nevertheless, I still feel that windows is adequate for live performing (alas, not as stable, I get it).

I don't know if Linux is good for live performing; that's another reason I want a windows laptop... I want to partition the disk and install a linux audio distribution, such as kxstudio, to experiment with it and find out (and, from what I've heard, trying to install Linux on a Mac pc is much more difficult than in a windows pc). If I found out that Linux is good for live performing, I might ditch the hole Mac OS idea for good (and maybe even windows).

Thanks for your input, guys.

[liquidsound]

I read somewhere that you can easily put a protective screen over it and it looks terrific.
Also I just did some more research and ASUS has updated the lower models with the latest Kaby Lake processor and maybe the 501 could be next pretty soon.
I rather wait for that really.
I'm not sure about the screen reflectivity as I haven't seen one yet, tomorrow I probably will, but if it's like an iPad then it's fine with me.

As soon as I know more I will update.

Thank you for pointing me to the Zen model!

[edit1754]

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I would avoid the Zenbook Pro.

ASUS uses the RG/BW Pentile matrix in this laptop to cheat the ability to advertise it as 4K, without actually providing the full detail of the resolution. RG/BW Pentile displays require the GPU to do the all work to render the full 3840x2160 resolution, but the display doesn't actually have enough dots to fully display the resolution, so it has to be downsampled. The result usually ends up being jagged text, loss of detail on anything zoomed less than 200%, and sometimes poorer color reproduction due to the use of the added white dot to increase brightness ratings at the cost of color fidelity.

I would recommend putting the Zenbook Pro product line on a blacklist for now and for future purchases until it can be confirmed that they have stopped doing this.

EDIT: Just realized you're looking at the MSI GS63VR too. If you're looking at the 1080p version, that display is great. But if you're looking at the 4K version, it's the same issue (https://www.reddit.com/r/MSILaptops/comments/52br2u/avoid_gs63vr_and_possible_others_advertised_as_4k/)

If you like what the ASUS Zenbook purports itself to be, I would buy a Dell XPS 15 4K, Lenovo Y700 4K, or Acer Nitro Black Edition 4K. All of those laptops use the same GPU (NVIDIA GTX 960M) but have significantly better 100% honest true 4K UHD 3840x2160 displays.

[Richard deHove]

I've had very good experiences with MSI laptops for music. I'd consider something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834152946

[T-CM11]

I'm in a similar situation. I use a Thinkpad W540 for my CAD work with W8.1 OS.
I need to get a dedicated laptop for my music production for personal reasons.
I was shopping for a powerful laptop regardless of the operating system because ultimately Windows or Mac allows thousands of musicians to produce their music.
I'm interested in a good quality, sturdy, powerful laptop.
I'm looking at the 2015 MacBook Pro or the Asus Rog G752VS.
Somehow I have a pull for the Mac since I can also instal W10 if I need to.
I'm a little tired with the Windows drivers issues here and there and more.
I used Windows from W98 and I use Mac from the the Mac Se to the first blue iMac
So I'm aware of both world in a way.
I use Live and MuLab so I have no issue either way.
If you hate the Apple OS then your choice it's easier except the overwhelming choices in the PC world.
ASUS seems to be powerful but I read some horrible reviews and so for the Razer, MSI etc.
The good and the bad.
Not fun in buying a laptop lately.
Hopefully some one here will give some good advice

- Get a business laptop, they're made for reliability; e.g. the Thinkpad T-series (Same as the W-series, but without the expensive and unnecessary CAD/3D-rendering graphics card), Dell Latitude/Precision, HP Pro/Elitebook
- Or a "made for pro audio" one... e.g. https://www.adkproaudio.com/music-production-laptops
And whatever you pick, never go below 1920x1080 resolution.

Why is everyone looking at consumer or gaming laptops?

[Richard deHove]

Words like "consumer, gaming and business" are meaningless. Business laptops aren't "made for reliability". You think they last longer than anything else? Only if you have military-grade components then you'll get something better, otherwise it's all the same. It's simply about the specifications.

[chk071]

That ASUS Zenbook Pro really looks great. But, i guess, there's more relevant things than looks.

[thecontrolcentre]

Have a look at laptops by SCAN computers. I've been very happy with my 17" quad-core i7 Win 8.1 system built by them in 2015. I got 3 1TB SSDs & 24GB RAM put into mine ...

[T-CM11]

Words like "consumer, gaming and business" are meaningless. Business laptops aren't "made for reliability". You think they last longer than anything else? Only if you have military-grade components then you'll get something better, otherwise it's all the same. It's simply about the specifications.

So you can read the build quality, choice/combination of components, testing, etc. in the specifications? Tell me, which laptop motherboard would you recommend? And how about the DDR4 - which make and model? How about DPC latency? Do you use an Intel Crystal Ball to measure it in advance? Right.