Couple things that stood out:
1) I like the "wide" style laptop, the 15.4" versus the more squared 15"
2) I like the new "bright screen" technology, where the LCD screens are more glossy. Seems to be appearing on more laptops.
3) Centrino laptops have a slightly smaller for factor which is nice. But I'm not sure what's better, a 1.6 Centrino or P4/3.2 with HyperThreading.
4) 15.4" seems to be a good size, 17" seems huge if using on stage!
5) All those multimedia controls some manufacturers put all over their laptops can get annoying. Too many little shiny silver buttons everywhere.
6) Every laptop has plenty of USB. It's annoying when some manufacturers don't include at least one firewire port. Even a small 4-pin would be nice.
7) The Powerbook 15" and 17" are nice, slim, and clean. A definate plus for Apple. Also includes two USB 2.0, one FW400 and one FW800, one PCMCIA. Props for that too.
What would be nice is if people could reply to this thread and post
a) What laptop you own (make, model, speed)
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
Went and looked at laptops today
a) What laptop you own (make, model, speed)
HP Pavilion zv5000z. AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1.8ghz
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
like you, i prefer the widescreen. 1280x800 is great for live. its big without being HUGE. i like that i can get 4+ hours battery life with the Athlon 64 processor. i can do a 3 hour live pa on battery life. it was cheaper than centrino's and P4's in terms of cost/performance. it can take up to an Athlon 64 3700 which i can upgrade myself in a year or two so upgradability was a big factor. its easy to take apart and do user upgrades of ram and hd. the cpu is an warranty voiding upgrade but i'm the kinda guy that takes all my shit apart. upgrading the hard drive in my 12" powerbook was like playing "Operation". It also runs extremely cool and extremely quiet. and i also got a $100 rebate by buying it at hpshopping.com
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
i wish it had 6 pin firewire instead of 4 pin. but thats a typical pc laptop for ya. i'll live. i wish it had a better video card but i also understand it would be more expensive that way as well. still, the option for like a Geforce FX 5200 would have been nice. i also wish that when i bought it they had the 3700 cpu as an option. then (a couple months ago) they did not, now they do and for only $200 more (the chip is $500 alone). can't win em all but i got it for a great price.
HP Pavilion zv5000z. AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1.8ghz
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
like you, i prefer the widescreen. 1280x800 is great for live. its big without being HUGE. i like that i can get 4+ hours battery life with the Athlon 64 processor. i can do a 3 hour live pa on battery life. it was cheaper than centrino's and P4's in terms of cost/performance. it can take up to an Athlon 64 3700 which i can upgrade myself in a year or two so upgradability was a big factor. its easy to take apart and do user upgrades of ram and hd. the cpu is an warranty voiding upgrade but i'm the kinda guy that takes all my shit apart. upgrading the hard drive in my 12" powerbook was like playing "Operation". It also runs extremely cool and extremely quiet. and i also got a $100 rebate by buying it at hpshopping.com
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
i wish it had 6 pin firewire instead of 4 pin. but thats a typical pc laptop for ya. i'll live. i wish it had a better video card but i also understand it would be more expensive that way as well. still, the option for like a Geforce FX 5200 would have been nice. i also wish that when i bought it they had the 3700 cpu as an option. then (a couple months ago) they did not, now they do and for only $200 more (the chip is $500 alone). can't win em all but i got it for a great price.
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anti-banausic
- Posts: 1609
- Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2004 9:15 pm
- Location: NYC
Q: What laptop do you own?
Sager 8790 - in sig, but 17" WXGA screen, P4 3.2Gig H/T, 1 gig DDR400 dual channel RAM, desktop mobo, 60 gig 7200 RPM HDD.
Q: What sold you on buying it?
Well, I wanted performance and was willing to buy a DTR (hence the 17"). When I bought it in April, the AMD 64 chips were just hitting the scene in laptops, and there weren't any that I can think of in a 17" at the time. I actually wanted to buy an Apple Powerbook, but I talked to many friends in the computer world, and they basically said that PC laptops were just more powerful at the moment (basically until the G5s come out), add to this that I need a PC for school...yes it does pull a little schoolwork as well as music. But also, I was sold because of the cardbus controller for the PCMCIA slot was TI, dual channel fast RAM, etc...and for a reasonable price (a good $600-$1000 cheaper than a comparably spec'ed Powerbook (again, I really wanted a PB, just couldn't convince myself). It is also one of the prettiest PC laptops I have seen.
Just have to say, that while the 17" is a bit of a behemoth, when you are on stage, it is nice to have a big screen (and in a way WXGA is good) because you can see things on the screen, don't have to scroll, and can spend all of your time behind your controller or whatever, and not playing with the computer.
Q: What I wish I could change.
It runs a little warm due to the desktop components, so the fans on the bottom come on fairly often, especially when using a lot of vsti's in a slightly warm environment.
It's a little heavy, and the battery gets about 1.5-2 hours. Less when using a lot of vsti's obviously. But, really, when is it a big problem to plug in? If you have your gear (mixer, monitors/speakers,etc....) then wouldn't you have a power strip? I guess it would be different at an outdoor event, but what is powering everything else?
So, I am really happy with mine. Really a lot of headroom that I don't think I would have otherwise.
PS. I was also definitely looking at the Centrino procs, especially the Dothans, but they actually came out after my purchase and I couldn't wait. And the 2.0 is really expensive and sort of hard to find.
Sager 8790 - in sig, but 17" WXGA screen, P4 3.2Gig H/T, 1 gig DDR400 dual channel RAM, desktop mobo, 60 gig 7200 RPM HDD.
Q: What sold you on buying it?
Well, I wanted performance and was willing to buy a DTR (hence the 17"). When I bought it in April, the AMD 64 chips were just hitting the scene in laptops, and there weren't any that I can think of in a 17" at the time. I actually wanted to buy an Apple Powerbook, but I talked to many friends in the computer world, and they basically said that PC laptops were just more powerful at the moment (basically until the G5s come out), add to this that I need a PC for school...yes it does pull a little schoolwork as well as music. But also, I was sold because of the cardbus controller for the PCMCIA slot was TI, dual channel fast RAM, etc...and for a reasonable price (a good $600-$1000 cheaper than a comparably spec'ed Powerbook (again, I really wanted a PB, just couldn't convince myself). It is also one of the prettiest PC laptops I have seen.
Just have to say, that while the 17" is a bit of a behemoth, when you are on stage, it is nice to have a big screen (and in a way WXGA is good) because you can see things on the screen, don't have to scroll, and can spend all of your time behind your controller or whatever, and not playing with the computer.
Q: What I wish I could change.
It runs a little warm due to the desktop components, so the fans on the bottom come on fairly often, especially when using a lot of vsti's in a slightly warm environment.
It's a little heavy, and the battery gets about 1.5-2 hours. Less when using a lot of vsti's obviously. But, really, when is it a big problem to plug in? If you have your gear (mixer, monitors/speakers,etc....) then wouldn't you have a power strip? I guess it would be different at an outdoor event, but what is powering everything else?
So, I am really happy with mine. Really a lot of headroom that I don't think I would have otherwise.
PS. I was also definitely looking at the Centrino procs, especially the Dothans, but they actually came out after my purchase and I couldn't wait. And the 2.0 is really expensive and sort of hard to find.
Macbook c2d 2.0, 2G RAM, 160G HD 5400 RPM, OSX(10.5.5), XP Home, LIVE6, BCR 2000, UC33e, Yamaha P-200, Logic Studio, KRK V6 II
Its cheap and cheerful..
a) What laptop you own (make, model, speed)
emachines m5116
2.4 celeron 512ram (32 used by graphics card)
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
PRICE, it works well with my indigo DJ card, inbuilt g wireless, 15.4 inch screen..itll run Live!, Making Waves and Soundforge 7 fine...
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
Id just get a more expensive emachines with a AMD64 bit chip and at least 768 memory with none shared for the graphics..the keybords a bit cheap, but Ive got an old toshiba laptop with a great keyboard, which Im typing this on....
a) What laptop you own (make, model, speed)
emachines m5116
2.4 celeron 512ram (32 used by graphics card)
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
PRICE, it works well with my indigo DJ card, inbuilt g wireless, 15.4 inch screen..itll run Live!, Making Waves and Soundforge 7 fine...
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
Id just get a more expensive emachines with a AMD64 bit chip and at least 768 memory with none shared for the graphics..the keybords a bit cheap, but Ive got an old toshiba laptop with a great keyboard, which Im typing this on....
a) I own an Averatec 3150D -- Athlon 1600 and a whopping 128 MB RAM!
b) I bought it because it was $700 brand new, and it's about 12 inches square, but it runs ableton, 8 tracks, 4 sends, 2 USB midi controllers with no hassle.
c) If I could change something about it, I'd make the shell a lot more rugged.
rs
b) I bought it because it was $700 brand new, and it's about 12 inches square, but it runs ableton, 8 tracks, 4 sends, 2 USB midi controllers with no hassle.
c) If I could change something about it, I'd make the shell a lot more rugged.
rs
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robbmasters
- Posts: 1107
- Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:37 pm
- Location: London, UK.
a) IBM T23, PIII 1GHz, 512MB RAM.
b) Cheap, but (just) powerful enough - bought secondhand for less that half what a new laptop would have cost.
c) Built in WiFi - I can't use my WiFi PCMCIA card and Echo Indigo DJ at the same time (the laptop has two PCMCIA slots but both cards have a "bulge" that stops another card being inserted above).
Personally, I would go for the Centrino over the P4. I understand that a 1.6GHz Centrino should give you a similar performance to somewhere between an 2.4 GHz and a 3.2 GHz P4, depending on the rest of the spec. and what you're doing with it. Given Live's relatively modest requirements, I'd be happy to take the potential CPU hit for the extended battery life, etc.
If ultimate power is your goal, the P4 may be better for you.
Whatever the screen size, check the resolution - as laptops only really display their native resolution well. You may find a smaller screen with a higher resolution that a larger screen.
You can pick up Firewire PCMCIA cards for peanuts. I got mine off ebay for just £7 (around $12) - and I think that inlcuded delivery! I made sure I got one with a dongle as opposed to a "bulge" so I could use it with another PCMCIA card.
Finally, don't skimp on RAM. A few tests that I ran before buying my laptop showed that Windows plus Live needed 256MB just to get started, then around another MB per clip... So 512MB was essential. (Sure you can get buy with less, but you'll be wasting all that lovely CPU on "swapping".)
b) Cheap, but (just) powerful enough - bought secondhand for less that half what a new laptop would have cost.
c) Built in WiFi - I can't use my WiFi PCMCIA card and Echo Indigo DJ at the same time (the laptop has two PCMCIA slots but both cards have a "bulge" that stops another card being inserted above).
Personally, I would go for the Centrino over the P4. I understand that a 1.6GHz Centrino should give you a similar performance to somewhere between an 2.4 GHz and a 3.2 GHz P4, depending on the rest of the spec. and what you're doing with it. Given Live's relatively modest requirements, I'd be happy to take the potential CPU hit for the extended battery life, etc.
If ultimate power is your goal, the P4 may be better for you.
Whatever the screen size, check the resolution - as laptops only really display their native resolution well. You may find a smaller screen with a higher resolution that a larger screen.
You can pick up Firewire PCMCIA cards for peanuts. I got mine off ebay for just £7 (around $12) - and I think that inlcuded delivery! I made sure I got one with a dongle as opposed to a "bulge" so I could use it with another PCMCIA card.
Finally, don't skimp on RAM. A few tests that I ran before buying my laptop showed that Windows plus Live needed 256MB just to get started, then around another MB per clip... So 512MB was essential. (Sure you can get buy with less, but you'll be wasting all that lovely CPU on "swapping".)
OS X, Live 9, Microbook II
I noticed that only the "optimized resolution" looks good on a laptop. anything else make the text look fuzzy and blurry.robbmasters wrote: Whatever the screen size, check the resolution - as laptops only really display their native resolution well. You may find a smaller screen with a higher resolution that a larger screen.
I have seen 15" laptops with 1600x1200 resolution (UXGA) and while it's nice to have that much screen real-estae, it's tiny as heck!! 1024x768 on 15" is more readable but almost too big. The SXGA 1400x1050 on a 15" seems perfect.
Own: Powerbook 15" 1.5 gHz with 5400 RPM HD and Maxed out Video Card
Why did I buy it: Multi-use machine. I work in graphicas, so I use them at work. I can work on them and I don't need to worry about viruses when downloading email attachments and whatnot. I am also partial to OSX. This is my 3rd Mac Laptop (and 5th Mac) and I have always had really goo luck with them. The extended warranty (Applecare) makes them care-free...
What would I change: Better plug-in performance, better battery life, FASTER stock Hard Drive (The 5400 RPM drive was the UPGRADE
), Price... (I dam near got a AMD 64 lappy cuz the prices are so good..., runs too hot...
I am VERy happy with mine, but I run more on it than music apps - Photoshop, Illustrator, inDesign, games, web-stuff, etc. I never sweat my computer.
Why did I buy it: Multi-use machine. I work in graphicas, so I use them at work. I can work on them and I don't need to worry about viruses when downloading email attachments and whatnot. I am also partial to OSX. This is my 3rd Mac Laptop (and 5th Mac) and I have always had really goo luck with them. The extended warranty (Applecare) makes them care-free...
What would I change: Better plug-in performance, better battery life, FASTER stock Hard Drive (The 5400 RPM drive was the UPGRADE
), Price... (I dam near got a AMD 64 lappy cuz the prices are so good..., runs too hot...I am VERy happy with mine, but I run more on it than music apps - Photoshop, Illustrator, inDesign, games, web-stuff, etc. I never sweat my computer.
15" PB 2.5 Ghz, 4 Gig RAM, 750 GB HD, Live 9 still no cue points or program change messages?!?. Doesn't do shit.
Re: Went and looked at laptops today
a) What laptop you own (make, model, speed)
Centralfield 15.4 widescreen W8050W (Bought it in Hong Kong, but I think it's just a generic barebone notebook computer made in Taiwan)
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
Widescreen. I wanna go for 17", but the shop does not have the barebone component. So I have to make do with a 15" widescreen.
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
DVD burner, but most of all, a 6 pin firewire port rather than a 4-pin one (have to use an external wall wart for my ESI QuataFire 610). An extra USB port would be nice (there're 3 in my notebook, but they're all occupied: one for Coolmaster Coolpad, another one for Wacom Graphire tablet and another one for external harddrive).
Centralfield 15.4 widescreen W8050W (Bought it in Hong Kong, but I think it's just a generic barebone notebook computer made in Taiwan)
b) What sold you on buying it (price, features)
Widescreen. I wanna go for 17", but the shop does not have the barebone component. So I have to make do with a 15" widescreen.
c) What you wish you could change about your laptop
DVD burner, but most of all, a 6 pin firewire port rather than a 4-pin one (have to use an external wall wart for my ESI QuataFire 610). An extra USB port would be nice (there're 3 in my notebook, but they're all occupied: one for Coolmaster Coolpad, another one for Wacom Graphire tablet and another one for external harddrive).
you've seen this chart I assume?performance of Live4 on laptop performance tests - thread and graph
the smaller the bar, the better the performance. That dothan 2mhz above the dual 2.5 mhz Macs is making me laugh - a laptop supercomputer?
the smaller the bar, the better the performance. That dothan 2mhz above the dual 2.5 mhz Macs is making me laugh - a laptop supercomputer?
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::mic-minimal::
- Posts: 658
- Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2003 8:32 am
- Location: behind you
one related thought:
having a rig that's powerful enough to get the job done is good, but remember that having a rig that's 10% more powerful won't make your music 10% better...
if i was a person looking to make music, i'd focus on just getting something adequate (most anything off the rack will do nicely to get you started) and working with it.
rs
having a rig that's powerful enough to get the job done is good, but remember that having a rig that's 10% more powerful won't make your music 10% better...
if i was a person looking to make music, i'd focus on just getting something adequate (most anything off the rack will do nicely to get you started) and working with it.
rs
Sadly that's not the case when dealing with open ended software emulations.
I could understand your point if we were only ever going to play a fixed number of tracks with a fixed number of effects on a fixed resource consuming application.
Unfortunately (for my machines cooling) I am a total resource hog, I make my own VSTs, I use reaktor, fruity and Live all at the same time and STILL like to add a ton of fairy dust and compression on top.
So when I make a big fat new VSTi, I want a bit of CPU and memory headroom to make sure I can cope with any spikes. 10% sounds a little low in terms of safety margin to me!
I think it is (and always has been) common knowledge that when youy buy a computer you should buy one over the spec you think you need.
I could understand your point if we were only ever going to play a fixed number of tracks with a fixed number of effects on a fixed resource consuming application.
Unfortunately (for my machines cooling) I am a total resource hog, I make my own VSTs, I use reaktor, fruity and Live all at the same time and STILL like to add a ton of fairy dust and compression on top.
So when I make a big fat new VSTi, I want a bit of CPU and memory headroom to make sure I can cope with any spikes. 10% sounds a little low in terms of safety margin to me!
I think it is (and always has been) common knowledge that when youy buy a computer you should buy one over the spec you think you need.
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noisetonepause
- Posts: 4938
- Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2002 3:38 pm
- Location: Sticks and stones
Most, maybe, but it sort of makes me laugh - I've got everything right here that I need to make decent music. iBook G3 900, 384 MB of RAM, live3 and reaktor. Not a powerhouse at all, but it does the job...::mic-minimal:: wrote:most mac heads here and on mac.org aren't laughing though, they're pissed cause it's true.
What would I get if I needed a new one?
A G4 iBook probably.
Why? Cos I'm a fashion victim. And cos MacOSX is better for me; easier to operate (when you're an old Mac man that's partially converted to *nix thought patterns), easier to maintain, nicer looking, and has the best developer tools around, which I need (not that I can code, really, I just want to...). Either way, I use Macs cos of the OS. And cos they're sexy. Which is both the stupidest argument, as stupid as a person who says 'stupidest' instead of 'more stupid', actually - as well as the best. I like it. I get things done (when I pull the Interweb plug, anyways!), and I have fun getting there. So err. That's it.
-Paws