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Laptop for Audio Recording.........


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Both laptops are OK. However, I'm not a big fan of most consumer laptops as a general rule. I support hundreds of laptops from several companies including Dell, HP, Compaq, and IBM and I wouldn't even consider buying *any* notebook without a 3-year manufacturers warranty. Even if you take very good care of a laptop the parts are prone to failure, especially hard drives. Don't ask me how much the company I work for has spent on sending in dead laptop drives to OnTrack for recovery :mad:. I personally like HP Business Notebooks, as they come stock with a 3-year manufacturer warranty, XP Pro, Centrino or Turion CPU's, and a very light build with hardly any applications preinstalled. Check out the nc6230 if you really want a nice system. The graphics are dedicated, unlike most budget PC's and it's lightweight and fast. I use a nc6220 for work and it's great. The main drawback compared to the nc6230 is that my video card is shared, meaning that the system processor and RAM handle the video tasks.

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Originally posted by ViLo

Or this one?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7742927&type=product&id=1140393564933


Thanks again
:thu:

I put together that exact laptop for a freind for DAW. Kicks ass and runs at 2.6ghz full out and has 1mb L2 cache. He's running Sonar with a Presonus Firebox and an external Western Digital FW drive. The only complaint is it's a 4 pin FW so you can't bus power any FW devices. He hasn't picked it up yet so I'm pretending it's mine. :D

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I'll ditto the 3 year warranty, bigtime.

 

Happily, I haven't had any problems with my just-over-two-year-old Dell (Pentium M, Travelstar 60 GB 7200 drive* -- which has seen a lot of field use, almost every day for a long time, though not for recording), touch wood, but I've had a few friends who were sending their HPs and Compaqs back like crazy (one buddy had three hard drives replaced in his HP before he gave up and bought a Dell after the HP went out of warranty. He's been okay so far. But got a four year warranty on the Dell.)

 

[Now... it ought to be said here that I've also talked to a few people lately with Dell horror stories re support. So. Buyer beware. And -- when I stumbled onto the Dell sales line instead of the support line trying to buy an OS disk -- I had an hour-plus runaround that had me just about taking out a verbal contract on Michael Dell, if you know what I mean. (It's a joke. But it wasn't funny to me, then.) Once I got to the support line, things got back on track but I was, for an hour, going through phone HELL.]

 

And a few people who didn't have extended warranties ended up with very expensive paperweights when things like mobos or screens went out out (or were SUGGESTED to have gone out -- since finding out would have cost a minimum charge of $500 in several cases).

 

 

*A note on the Hitachi Travelstar or other 7200 rpm 2.5" drives: I was a strong advocate of having a fast(er) drive in any notebook I would be using. And, all else equal, faster is definitely better. (And the drive has, touch wood, been a little trooper!)

 

But -- with the possible exception of field work -- any serioius recording you're going to do is PROBABLY going to be on an outboard drive, where your dollars will go farther buying speed.

 

I think the7200 rpm drive in my machine has helped make it an overall fast-seeming machine vis a vis other laptops -- but I'm not sure just how crucial it is. And it has to be noted that the Hitachi in my laptop is not as fast at big file copying as the 7200 rpm in my tower, by a fair amount. (Now, no doubt, 5400 rpm drives are similarly slower in laptops.) Something to consider, anyhow.

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I jsut got a Gateway Athlon 64 (2.2Ghz) notebook. 512ddr 80gig (4200 - I don't do too much recording on it but I have gotten 12 tracks with no problem).

 

This notebook works great for audio even with the intrnal audio. (I have, of course, tweaked it for audio). The cool thing about my model is that the keyboard, DVD burner are both user replaceable! . The HDD and RAM are too but most notebooks can do that. It's built very solidly too.

 

FWIW I used to work for HP and I would not consider an HP notebook for audio.

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I'm using a Rain Recording laptop. It was sent to Keyboard for review, and I ended up reviewing it. Initially I was kind of underwhelmed given the price, but the more I used it, the more I liked its "vibe" -- it doesn't feel cheap, and they got a lot of details right. I ended up buying it. Here's the conclusion from the review:

 

"The Livebook runs surprisingly cool, which is crucial for live use, the screen is both big and bright with a wide viewing angle, and the long battery life (I consistently got around 4 hours) is a joy when travelling. The AC adapter is small and light, another plus while on the road, and there are plenty of ports. Perhaps most importantly, the LiveBook has a solid, reliable feel that inspires confidence. It

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Originally posted by Dylan Walters
Check out the nc6230 if you really want a nice system. The graphics are dedicated, unlike most budget PC's


The main drawback compared to the nc6230 is that my video card is shared, meaning that the system processor and RAM handle the video tasks.

Doesn't "dedicated" graphics mean that the CPU and its RAM aren't used for graphics? Or am I mixing metaphors here? It's hard to keep up with all of this newfangled cheepcut technology. ;)

 

It doesn't seem to have a DVD writer. I'd think that would be essential these days, particularly if you do recording on the internal disk drive.

 

I, too, would like to find a new notebook computer but once I think I've found the right one, it becomes extinct before I can buy it. ;(

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Originally posted by Alndln2

I put together that exact laptop for a freind for DAW. Kicks ass and runs at 2.6ghz full out and has 1mb L2 cache. He's running Sonar with a Presonus Firebox and an external Western Digital FW drive. The only complaint is it's a 4 pin FW so you can't bus power any FW devices. He hasn't picked it up yet so I'm pretending it's mine.
:D

 

Thanks! That gives me hope, because the Rain computers are way too expensive for me.

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Doesn't "dedicated" graphics mean that the CPU and its RAM aren't used for graphics? Or am I mixing metaphors here?

 

you are correct - most laptops share the CPU and 128 of the Ram for graphics. The puter I posted has a fully dedicated video card and it's 512 meg and a Nvidia which the 3D guys tell me are the best for graphics.

 

cheers

john

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>

 

Yeah, it was not a purchase I undertook lightly...but I thought about how much I use a laptop and how much it's a part of my income stream, and realized that I could indeed justify the purchase.

 

There are only a few things where I really feel the need to go first class. One is my PRS guitar, the other is food, and the third is computers. My ADK desktop and Rain laptop get along real well. I hope they mate someday and produce the Windows equivalent of a Mac mini :)

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Originally posted by ViLo



Thanks! That gives me hope, because the Rain computers are way too expensive for me.

A couple of more details. The CPU is an AMD Newark(excellent) socket 754, and the laptop is based on the ATI chipset which I'm really starting to like with AMD. The graphics is an Ati mobility Radeon X600 256 mb which is not shared with system memory which is one gig DDR. The drive is the typical 4200rpm,but since all audio is running off the external FW WD drive so it really doesn't matter much, and since the machine runs fairly cool a faster internal drive would just needlessly heat things up more. I re-did Win XP home that shipped with the machine to get rid of all the infested crap(AOL etc.),then used Partion Magic to creat 2 more partitions and installed XP Pro stripped with XP Lite for DAW so it's like he has 2 machines, one for internet and crap and the other a stripped down XP Pro for DAW and the 3rd partition for storage. So far it's very solid and fast. Great deal for the money.

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Originally posted by jamesp



Wouldn't a second internal HDD be better for recording or performing?

Yes, or an external hard drive. But I was thinking of backups for the recording drive whether it's internal or external.

 

If all you were using the laptop computer for was for gathering sound and all the real work would be done on another computer, then you could probably risk holding off the backing-up until you get the disk to the other computer. But if this is going to be your audio computer, you'd want some thing for convenient backup. Of course you could use an external DVD writer, but that's one more thing to carry.

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Originally posted by Alndln2

A couple of more details. The CPU is an AMD Newark(excellent) socket 754, and the laptop is based on the ATI chipset which I'm really starting to like with AMD. The graphics is an Ati mobility Radeon X600 256 mb which is not shared with system memory which is one gig DDR. The drive is the typical 4200rpm,but since all audio is running off the external FW WD drive so it really doesn't matter much, and since the machine runs fairly cool a faster internal drive would just needlessly heat things up more. I re-did Win XP home that shipped with the machine to get rid of all the infested crap(AOL etc.),then used Partion Magic to creat 2 more partitions and installed XP Pro stripped with XP Lite for DAW so it's like he has 2 machines, one for internet and crap and the other a stripped down XP Pro for DAW and the 3rd partition for storage. So far it's very solid and fast. Great deal for the money.

 

Can I install a faster HD?

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Originally posted by Alndln2 A couple of more detail

The drive is the typical 4200rpm,but since all audio is running off the external FW WD drive so it really doesn't matter much, and since the machine runs fairly cool a faster internal drive would just needlessly heat things up more. ....

 

So I can record to an external drive?

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Originally posted by ViLo



So I can record to an external drive?

Of course. With Sonar I just set it's folders to the external FW drive. I actually prefer this because a 7200 drive in a notebook would definitely heat things up shortening the life of the laptop ultimately.

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Originally posted by Alndln2

Of course. With Sonar I just set it's folders to the external FW drive. I actually prefer this because a 7200 drive in a notebook would definitely heat things up shortening the life of the laptop ultimately.

 

Thanks :thu:

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