Shopping for a new Laptop tomorrow.

[DrNomis_44]

Hi everyone, tomorrow (24/06/2015) I'm going to be going shopping for a new Laptop computer so I'll be able to take my music-making software with me without having to lug around my desktop PC, I'm giving myself a budget of at least $800.00 to start with, I'm going to look for a Laptop that satisfies these criteria:


CPU: i7

CPU Clock Speed : At least 2.4Ghz.

Ram: 4Gb installed (I can install more later on).

Hard Disk: Conventional HDD (I don't want an SSD since they have a limited number of Read/Write cycles before they fail) with at least 200Gb capacity.

Screen Size: at least 15inch.

USB Ports: 2 Minimum.

Optical Drive: DVD Burner.


Will let you know how I go, I saw one that piqued my interest in JB Hi-Fi in the Casuarina Shopping Centre, it was retailing for about $845.00 if my memory serves me right.

[dave.king1]

G'day DrN,

I use my wife's old Toshy Satellite for portable recording and then transfer the projects to the big box in the office when I get home.

It's a pretty basic machine running Vista 32 bit ( don't ask ), the big box has a lot of grunt and runs Win 8.1 64 bit.

I'm really not sure how much grunt you need but the little lappy seems to be up to the task and I also use it for video editing of my incar race stuff it's quite a bit slower than the big box but still does the job out in the field ( or more to the point over a beer or two in the motel at the end of the day )

[DrNomis_44]

G'day DrN,

I use my wife's old Toshy Satellite for portable recording and then transfer the projects to the big box in the office when I get home.

It's a pretty basic machine running Vista 32 bit ( don't ask ), the big box has a lot of grunt and runs Win 8.1 64 bit.

I'm really not sure how much grunt you need but the little lappy seems to be up to the task and I also use it for video editing of my incar race stuff it's quite a bit slower than the big box but still does the job out in the field ( or more to the point over a beer or two in the motel at the end of the day )

I'm looking at getting something that has a fair bit of CPU grunt since some of the plugins I use on my desktop PC are a bit CPU intensive (Glitch being one of them), also, FL Studio needs a bit of CPU grunt too, my current Desktop PC has an i5 3.3Ghz Quad Core CPU in it, my previous desktop PC had a 2.14Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU in it and I was always running out of CPU grunt, so I'm figuring that an i7 CPU should definitely give me lots of CPU grunt, reason being, the new Laptop is going to be used for live performances as well as studio recording.

I'm going to be using a Focusrite Scarlett USB audio interface with the new laptop.

[keloooe]

Errrrr I need to find the name, but a mate of mine has a $850 laptop that I think suits those specs nicely.
If I were to pick brands, I'd go either Asus or Toshiba, possibly even an Acer or HP....

Maybe this could tickle your fancy? http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/o...top-hp15k039tx

[kimball492]

If you want it to work with your Pro Tools make sure they are compatible . I've bought two laptops neither worked properly, so be wary . This may help
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...m-Requirements

[DrNomis_44]

If you want it to work with your Pro Tools make sure they are compatible . I've bought two laptops neither worked properly, so be wary . This may help
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...m-Requirements

Definitely a very good point there, I should have included that on my list of criteria, cheers.

[DrNomis_44]

Errrrr I need to find the name, but a mate of mine has a $850 laptop that I think suits those specs nicely.
If I were to pick brands, I'd go either Asus or Toshiba, possibly even an Acer or HP....

Maybe this could tickle your fancy? http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/o...top-hp15k039tx

That HP Envy Laptop was one that caught my attention as I was doing some browsing in my local Dick Smith Electronics store last year, definitely going to put it on my list of contenders....cheers.

[kimball492]

When you use Pro tools on laptop you'll still need two drives one for the operating system and samples you may use ,the other would need to be specifically for recording audio to.The ext drive will need to be a 7200rpm drive . Min of 8gb memory if you have any FireWire devices you'll need a Texas Instruments chipset FireWire Card . Windows 10 is coming soon . That will hopefully give audio on laptops a big boost. Have fun Dr Nomis.
The other option you have , is buying a secondhand 2012 i7 MacBook Pro . That way you can use as mac and run windows too, on same machine. Just choose which operating ststem on the boot up screen. That's what I do .

P.s some notebooks can take two drives internally if so again just make sure the audio or drive you record to is 7200 rpm or you might be lucky and get away with using An SSD drive for audio work.

[DrNomis_44]

When you use Pro tools on laptop you'll still need two drives one for the operating system and samples you may use ,the other would need to be specifically for recording audio to.The ext drive will need to be a 7200rpm drive . Min of 8gb memory if you have any FireWire devices you'll need a Texas Instruments chipset FireWire Card . Windows 10 is coming soon . That will hopefully give audio on laptops a big boost. Have fun Dr Nomis.
The other option you have , is buying a secondhand 2012 i7 MacBook Pro . That way you can use as mac and run windows too, on same machine. Just choose which operating ststem on the boot up screen. That's what I do .

P.s some notebooks can take two drives internally if so again just make sure the audio or drive you record to is 7200 rpm or you might be lucky and get away with using An SSD drive for audio work.

The only problem is, a MacBook Pro is a bit out of my budget, and a lot of the software I'm currently running on my Desktop PC only runs on Windows although Image Line, the makers of FL Studio, are working on a version for Mac OS X.

Good point about the extra hard drive though, I'll be using an external hard drive for audio.

Since I have Windows 7 Home Premium installed on my Desktop PC, I'm eligible for the free update to Windows 10 and I've already signed up to it, I'm pretty excited about the new Windows 10 OS and can't wait to try it out once it's been officially released and installed on my PC, the free update to Windows 10 will be available on July 29th this year so there's not long to go.

[dave.king1]

Sadly I expect that the upgrade will be Win 10.0 and Win 10.1 won't be a freeby

Too many years have taught me that x.0 releases are always beset by major problems and often x.1 ( hello Cisco are you listening )