Rackmount PC case for live touring

DGA · Post by **DGA** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:13 pm

Don't do it, buy one or more laptops. I know the theory of a super beast machine makes sense on paper, but i have never seen someone dragging out a computer and monitor and keyboard, and... and not have problems, whereas given the number of laptops ive seen out, there have been very few problems.

What about power stability? With a laptop, ups and voltage regulation is built in.

If it is about money, suck it up and do it right the first time, instead of building an expensive "portable" machine that you curse every tiem the power gets weird or you have to plug everythign in, or simply carrying everything.

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:15 pm

DGA wrote:Don't do it, buy one or more laptops. I know the theory of a super beast machine makes sense on paper, but i have never seen someone dragging out a computer and monitor and keyboard, and... and not have problems, whereas given the number of laptops ive seen out, there have been very few problems.

Do you know any laptop with strong video card for vj'ing, that supports quad core like Q9550, with 6 usb and powered firewire?

DGA · Post by **DGA** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:20 pm

yoyek wrote:
DGA wrote:Don't do it, buy one or more laptops. I know the theory of a super beast machine makes sense on paper, but i have never seen someone dragging out a computer and monitor and keyboard, and... and not have problems, whereas given the number of laptops ive seen out, there have been very few problems.
Do you know any laptop with strong video card for vj'ing, that supports quad core like Q9550?

i dont know much about video, but whenever ive looked over at their setups, i see mac laptops.

Perhaps you are trying to pull off soemthing more powerful than what peopel are typically doing with arkaos, but prepare to pay to play

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:24 pm

DGA wrote:i dont know much about video, but whenever ive looked over at their setups, i see mac laptops.

As I said before, Mac is not a option. Well, simply I need something elastic. You know, to customize my setup, with my own PCI cards. This is not only for vj-ing. Laptop can get one cardbus... only one. They have maybe max 4 usb, and mostly no powered firewire (exept mac). No extra internal hdd (external hdd on usb is just funny for my needs).

Well, macbook is not always an answer.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:30 pm

yoyek wrote:Do you know any laptop with strong video card for vj'ing, that supports quad core like Q9550, with 6 usb and powered firewire?

oh, there are LOTS of laptops that do what you want, but you don't need 6-pin powered firewire. Any arguments for "well, then you need powersupplies" and so on don't quite cut it when you're prepared to buy a rackmount pc!

Almost EVERY laptop manufacturer makes "gaming grade" flagship machines with huge-ass graphics processors. And yes, there are also a lot of laptops that support two internal drives. And yes, a usb hub works just fine, too!

In my opinion it seems you haven't researched the market, nor made a pros/cons list reflecting that research. YMMV.

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:36 pm

Machinate wrote:oh, there are LOTS of laptops that do what you want, but you don't need 6-pin powered firewire. Any arguments for "well, then you need powersupplies" and so on don't quite cut it when you're prepared to buy a rackmount pc!

Almost EVERY laptop manufacturer makes "gaming grade" flagship machines with huge-ass graphics processors. And yes, there are also a lot of laptops that support two internal drives. And yes, a usb hub works just fine, too!

In my opinion it seems you haven't researched the market, nor made a pros/cons list reflecting that research. YMMV.

Hmm.... well... maybe I shoud check it once again. Can you recommend something? (PC)

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:32 am

I dunno, to me the best argument for a PC is the ability to build your own rack mount PC. In Seattle there are at least 5 used computer stores, with server cases to be had for $30. So in theory this becomes really cheap. You should be able to build a monster system that's upgradable for less than $700. Add in a touch screen for live use and mouse/keyboard could be tucked away for the most part.
For me personally it would definitely be less cumbersome. I already cart around a 6 unit Rack, so a ten space wouldn't really change things much, except make it that much harder to rip off my computer.
Hell you could use a PCI sound card and save space, plus the ability to use regular size hard drives etc.

Anyway I bought a 17" Macbook Pro off craigslit last year so I really don't need any of this, but if I was using PCs I definitely would be thinking about rack mount PC's.

ava · Post by **ava** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:42 am

http://www.tower-cases.co.uk/productdet ... oductID=24

I got one, smallest 3U I could find.

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:44 am

ava wrote:http://www.tower-cases.co.uk/productdet ... oductID=24

I got one, smallest 3U I could find.

It seems that two i posted before are smaller.

ava · Post by **ava** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:21 am

I blew mine up, was using it with a smoke machine & lighting, the smoke moisture got sucked in by the psu fan, had a power surge and blew every board inside.

For the price, the first one you mentioned is pretty good.

But now looking for one with fanless psu.

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:26 am

Right now I'm looking through laptops with quad core processors. Too bad I'm in Poland, otherwise I would buy one at adkproaudio.com or xtremenotebooks.com. Is there any kind of above in europe?

DGA · Post by **DGA** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:21 pm

Again, do you want to carry around a ups or would you rather carry a few laptops, because if the power goes out for any reason during a show, you are looking at the longest minutes of your life while everything reboots.

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:35 pm

DGA wrote:Again, do you want to carry around a ups or would you rather carry a few laptops, because if the power goes out for any reason during a show, you are looking at the longest minutes of your life while everything reboots.

As I said, I started to think about laptop, but I need some recomendation.

Few laptops? you have some experience in building laptop cluster? or do you mean 1 for audio, 1 for video, 1 for backup and one for porn

?

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:14 am

Does anyone know what kind of firewire chip do Dell Precision M6400 have?

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:45 pm

DGA wrote:Again, do you want to carry around a ups or would you rather carry a few laptops, because if the power goes out for any reason during a show, you are looking at the longest minutes of your life while everything reboots.

? How is that going to be different with a laptop? Are you saying if the power to your computer only goes out, but the DI and the the PA are OK? Honestly how many times has only the stage outlets gone down, but the PA is running? Not a good reason to discount a rack mount IMO.

Now trying to drag a rack to your parents house for christmas etc. that's a good argument for a laptop.