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March 28, 2024, 08:46:49 PM

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Another "Which laptop?" thread

Started by The Masked Unit, July 01, 2013, 01:37:43 PM

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The Masked Unit

Although actually, the question is more about which CPU you'd go for.

The main thing I'll be using it for is music production using Ableton and loads of third party instrument and effect plug -ins.

I've decided to get one custom built, probably from http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ although I'm open to comments about that, and I'm a bit confused as to which CPU gives me the most bang for my buck and is best for what I need it for. The choices in my price range are:

Quad core i7 3630QM (2.4ghz, 6mb cache)
Dual core i7 3540M (3.0ghz, 4mb cache)
Dual core i5 3380 (2.9ghz, 3mb cache)

The quad core is the cheapest of the bunch but they're all roughly in the same ball park so price isn't really a consideration whichever one I choose. I can always stick more RAM in (up to 16gb in the model I'm looking at) at a later date, but I'm not likely to buy another laptop for a good 3-4 years so my reasoning is that I may as well get the best CPU I can without going stupidly overboard. I guess the crux of the issue is slower quad core or faster dual core, although the quad in this case also has the biggest cache. Does that make much of a difference?

Also, is a hard drive upgrade worth it considering what I'll be using it for? Will samples load noticeably more quickly from a library if I get a 7,200RPM drive rather than 5,400RPM? I can't stretch to a SSD but are hybrid drives worth it? I could get a 500bg hybrid for the price of a 750 7,200rpm or a 1tb 5,400rpm, roughly speaking. Is a better but smaller drive which is full to the brim worse than a half full big HD?

Ta.

Jamie Oliver is fat

The rules are;

PC's

Custom build yourself, or get built if you can't do it yourself

Laptops;

don't buy custom built :)

I think I got my last laptop from here

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/

Get SSD at any cost

How much data is on there won't really make any difference on a spinny drive in terms of performance, unless it's badly fragmented, which is unlikely

7,200 probably will be a bit quicker if you can't stretch to SSD, which you absolutely should

The Masked Unit


Jamie Oliver is fat

I wouldn't touch one personally, it's a sleeker piece of hardware that you need to get the absolute most from the least physical space, so I'd always go with a large manufacturer who will have carried out extensive testing of their builds and configs for heat and usability

I'm also looking at a laptop to use purely as a DAW, but am overwhelmed by stuff I don't know about. I've heard an SSD is good for improved performance, but as soon as I start reading about partitions and things such as that I get confused and pissed off. Not trying to hijack the thread or anything I'd just like the SSD thing simplified.

The Masked Unit

The thing with SSDs is that they're mad fucking expensive even for ones with very small capacity.

That's true but I thought, probably wrongly, that you separated your personal data (in my case about 1.5 TB) from Windows and programs and shite (with no games installed 20-30 GB). And this somehow made your system run better. But I don't know what I'm putting where or why.

The Masked Unit

Yeah, I think that's the gist of it.

lazarou

A major concern for producing music should be a good ASIO soundcard of some stripe. The internal chips on most laptops are absolute garbage, so it'd probably be a good idea to get a decent external unit. You can fudge it on just about any lappy using ASIO4ALL, but my experience is that performance and sound quality are leagues better even with just some cheapy external one.

I've no idea what the current state of the market is, but be sure to get something designed for music production (like a line6 or something, I'm sure others on here have a better idea what to go for) over a consumer model.

Quote from: lazarou on July 01, 2013, 04:03:14 PM
A major concern for producing music should be a good ASIO soundcard of some stripe. The internal chips on most laptops are absolute garbage, so it'd probably be a good idea to get a decent external unit. You can fudge it on just about any lappy using ASIO4ALL, but my experience is that performance and sound quality are leagues better even with just some cheapy external one.

I've no idea what the current state of the market is, but be sure to get something designed for music production (like a line6 or something, I'm sure others on here have a better idea what to go for) over a consumer model.

See I know what asio is as I've been using it for a while but this is the first I've heard of line6 and a quick google tells me... its an audio interface? I have that (kind of) covered. I'm just really struggling to find a reasonably priced DAW laptop.

Edited to add: Thank you for replying!

lazarou

It's not just an interface, it's also an external ASIO soundcard. It takes all audio processing duties off the internal chip/soundcard in your laptop, which isn't really designed for that kind of work. They tend to have most common inputs built-in, as with most soundcards designed for music production. If that makes sense.


Jamie Oliver is fat

SSDs aren't that expensive anymore when you take into account the performance they offer, and it's correct to say you need to have your OS and applications installed on it, as well as any data you are working on in an audio or design application

They are still expensive compared to traditional drives, and the ideal model is to have at least 2 disk drives in a PC, with something like a 128gb SSD for OS and apps (70 quid! http://www.dabs.com/products/sandisk-128gb-ssd-sata-6gb-s-2-5--solid-state-drive-870X.html?refs=56350000-52750000&src=2) and then a bigger drive for everything else.

When I was doing some 3d studio stuff I would move the project I was working on to SSD for speed of access whilst constantly saving it etc and then move it back to the large disk for storage

I don't even know if there are laptops with multiple drives in them?

I guess "hybrid" could be the answer, but I've never used one so cannot comment

Any reason you want a laptop over a desktop that I missed up there ^ ?

For any sort of serious work like graphics or audio editing, you really should be looking at a desktop PC with a large monitor, which would allow you far higher performance for your money, and give you the flexibility to add multiple drives easily

The Masked Unit

I appreciate the advice to go with a pre-built rather than a custom and the reasons for doing so, but I think I'm going to go down that route regardless. Two reasons really: one is that I can get a better spec for the money and have the flexibility to decide what's more important to me in terms of more RAM vs a better HD etc, but mainly because I run a hooky but very stable version of Ableton 8.0.1, which will only work with Windows 7, which is something I can also specify if getting a custom build.


Jamie Oliver is fat

I'm sure it will be fine, it's just not something I'd do given the choice

Laptops can and do break as they are one single piece of hardware, i.e. network connections just stop working as they're shunted about so much, to give an example, and it's a part that cannot easily be replaced. Problems that just don't blight static desktop computers

So pushed to go down the laptop route, I've been bitten too much in the past to do anything other than buy Big Brand A, but as I say, you'll no doubt be fine

glitch

If you can afford it and want to do audio, I'd really recommend a Mac. Even a 2-year old refurb would be good for that.

But then I really recommend a Mac for most things these days.

The Masked Unit

What I'm getting is a massive upgrade on what I've got now, which itself actually gives fairly reasonable performance. If all it does is allow me a few more plugins open without grinding to a halt it'll be worth it.


The Masked Unit

It's based on this with the i7 quad core, 4gb ram (upgradable to 16) and a hybrid HD.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/genesisIV

Let us know how it works out. You're using yours for pretty much the same reason I intend to with mine, and though I want to do some live work with mine, I'm interested if you get what you want out of it.

I'm still looking. Something about this seems shite (and I don't mean Windows 8) but its definitely an enticing price. But then I am really in the dark in terms of what to look out for.

Jamie Oliver is fat

You can't really get it wrong ladies, you'll be able to do what you're asking on most modern PCs/laptops