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anyone here using the ibm thinkpad x60 for firewire recording?


techristian

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Someone, locally is selling a bunch of these used for under $300 and I'm considering buying up to 2 of them for firewire recording. This particular batch has 1 gig of memory which should be enough and the TOUCH SCREEN should be cool with the mixer in Cubase.

 

It comes with Vista business installed but I will probably put XP on it.

 

It also comes with the ULTRA BASE DVD R/W .

 

Are any special drivers required for the touch screen, or will XP with SP3 cover it ?

 

Dan

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I haven't used an X60, but I used various T-series computers for DAW and live use: T20, T30, T41p, and T61p. All worked quite well except the T61p. I was never able to get audio working without bad latency or dropouts or both. The T61p was a basket case, no end of problems -- even after my MOBO failed and was replaced. Let's not even talk about docking and undocking, or closing the lid with it powered up. Too bad too, because the base hardware looked great on paper. I suspect it was bad drivers (despite being regularly updated). That was on WinXP, and probably Win2K on the T20.

 

I'm using an X510 with Win7 64-bit now, and it rocks.

 

I use a MOTU 828.

 

Who knows, the X60 might work fine. I'd start with one and check it out first.

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That is probably the question i should be asking, since all of the new computers with built.in firewire are priced in outer space. What is the best type of firewire interface for TODAYS.. Laptops. Is xpress card the fastest? USB???? is there pcmcia any more?

 

 

Btw how is the touch screen with cubase?

 

Dan

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That is probably the question i should be asking, since all of the new computers with built.in firewire are priced in outer space. What is the best type of firewire interface for TODAYS.. Laptops. Is xpress card the fastest? USB???? is there pcmcia any more?

 

 

They don't make computers with PCMCIA slots any more, but most full sized notebooks (not most netbooks) have ExpressCard slots, which is a different version of the same function. There are ExpressCard Firewire adapters and several use VIA or TI chipsets, which seem to make most Firewire audio interfaces happy.

 

What some people have found (if you can believe the netlore explanations) is that certain computers have a chipset that controls the ExpressCard port that makes a perfectly good Firewire ExpressCard work poorly with audio devices in that computer. Unfortunately, you can't usually get a satisfactory answer about this from your local Best Buy salesman, so the best thing to do is what you've done - ask the man who owns one - if you can find one, that is. (the man, not the computer - that's the easy part).

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So ,in other words, you can't assume that a laptop with firewire will do the job, just because it has firewire. Anyway, I picked up one for only 139$, on ebay, last night....not sure of the condition, but for 139$ i will get to try it out.

 

Anyway, I just found out that the stylus isn't just a pointy piece of plastic like for my old PDA. It is a $45 interface item. I'll take this one step at a time. Let's see if this is capable of recording, on location, with Cubase. Then the fancy bells and whistles come later. I also notice that there are more of these at the same price as the one I bought yesterday. :)

 

BTW Thanks Mike

 

Dan

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