Laptops or Desktops for FL Studio?

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TheRealJoe

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What's up guys, I've been running Fl Studio off both a laptop and a desktop for quite a few years. At first i only used the desktop, but when I left for college I started running it off my laptop. I haven't noticed any differences in FL Studio operating on my laptop and it's way easier to bring along my flps (I just take my whole computer). What do you guys think, I'm about to get a new one strictly for Fl Studio and can't decide if I should get a laptop or desktop.
 
As long as the laptop has plenty of ram, a decent processor, and a good sound card, you wont notice a difference at all. The only difference between a desktop and a laptop is you can upgrade a desktop easier. Get something that has at least 6gb of ram and a i3 or i5 processor, and run the 3gb fl studio version.
 
Chondrokeith said:
As long as the laptop has plenty of ram, a decent processor, and a good sound card, you wont notice a difference at all. The only difference between a desktop and a laptop is you can upgrade a desktop easier. Get something that has at least 6gb of ram and a i3 or i5 processor, and run the 3gb fl studio version.
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Care to qualify any of your statements with a little fact?

He could run FL on a P4 laptop w/1GB of RAM. I've run it on less than that and have no problem making music with it.

So... Again, please elaborate on your statements.
 
We have reached a point where desktop processors are now based on laptop processors so the difference in power is much narrower than it once was, you can still put a more powerful processor into a desktop but it's not going to be miles ahead like it once was, you can also fit more RAM into a desktop as well as a bunch of hard drives and this is where things get interesting because if you use a lot of high end sample based instruments you need a lot of RAM or you need to stream the samples direct from disk.

Configuring a laptop for serious production work compromises it's potability because you end up with all kinds of shit hanging off wires, naturally if you do have a genuine need to move around you will need to compromise a bit (ie you are not likely to haul a full sized keyboard and studio monitors down to the cafe for a bit of casual beat making) so I would recommend ditching the optical drive to add a second internal hard to a laptop as well as getting a compact MIDI controller with a built in audio interface to reduce the amount of shit you need to lug around.

Although it seems counter intuitive using a laptop as the main computer in a studio tends to be quite messy compared to having a tower system tucked away, this is because a laptop imposes more than just a screen upon your desktop, it's computer portion is a desk hog that places all it's connections on the desktop so you end up with unnecessary wires and shit all over the place, so if you lean more towards having a well planed out productive studio environment then a tower system is more ideal, but if you are just making beats in your bedroom on headphones then you might need a laptop so you can escape the funk of rotting socks.
 
logic7 said:
Care to qualify any of your statements with a little fact?

He could run FL on a P4 laptop w/1GB of RAM. I've run it on less than that and have no problem making music with it.

So... Again, please elaborate on your statements.
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If you only use plugins that come with FL , or are not adding alot of tracks and patterns, then sure it will work fine. If you add 3rd party plugins(which most people do) then that will begin to eat up memory. Having more ram and higher processor will help, not only with making music but with anything you do. The more you get into producing the more stuff you want(plugins, midi controllers, ect.), which will use more memory. Default, FL uses 2gb max with the regular .exe and 4gb with the extended .exe.
You cant just go buy any laptop or desktop and expect to run what ever you want on it. I was suggesting a better laptop, not a computer that will be outdated within a few months. Having a computer with a faster processor and more ram is common knowledge that your CPU will run better. I am trying to save someone of going through the frustration with the problem of underruns in FL, This is why I was suggesting a better computer.

CPU & Memory Panel
 
hollandturbine said:
We have reached a point where desktop processors are now based on laptop processors so the difference in power is much narrower than it once was, you can still put a more powerful processor into a desktop but it's not going to be miles ahead like it once was, you can also fit more RAM into a desktop as well as a bunch of hard drives and this is where things get interesting because if you use a lot of high end sample based instruments you need a lot of RAM or you need to stream the samples direct from disk.

Configuring a laptop for serious production work compromises it's potability because you end up with all kinds of shit hanging off wires, naturally if you do have a genuine need to move around you will need to compromise a bit (ie you are not likely to haul a full sized keyboard and studio monitors down to the cafe for a bit of casual beat making) so I would recommend ditching the optical drive to add a second internal hard to a laptop as well as getting a compact MIDI controller with a built in audio interface to reduce the amount of shit you need to lug around.

Although it seems counter intuitive using a laptop as the main computer in a studio tends to be quite messy compared to having a tower system tucked away, this is because a laptop imposes more than just a screen upon your desktop, it's computer portion is a desk hog that places all it's connections on the desktop so you end up with unnecessary wires and shit all over the place, so if you lean more towards having a well planed out productive studio environment then a tower system is more ideal, but if you are just making beats in your bedroom on headphones then you might need a laptop so you can escape the funk of rotting socks.
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@ bolded - this is simply not true in even the slightest bit. You can buy an 8, 12, or 16 core single processor desktop, but you cannot buy a laptop with these processors; they simply aren't available for laptops.

---------- Post added at 05:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:34 PM ----------
Chondrokeith said:
If you only use plugins that come with FL , or are not adding alot of tracks and patterns, then sure it will work fine. If you add 3rd party plugins(which most people do) then that will begin to eat up memory. Having more ram and higher processor will help, not only with making music but with anything you do. The more you get into producing the more stuff you want(plugins, midi controllers, ect.), which will use more memory. Default, FL uses 2gb max with the regular .exe and 4gb with the extended .exe.
You cant just go buy any laptop or desktop and expect to run what ever you want on it. I was suggesting a better laptop, not a computer that will be outdated within a few months. Having a computer with a faster processor and more ram is common knowledge that your CPU will run better. I am trying to save someone of going through the frustration with the problem of underruns in FL, This is why I was suggesting a better computer.

CPU & Memory Panel
Click to expand...

I've proven otherwise on this board repeatedly. I've run 13 plugins on a socket 478 3.4GHz Pentium4 w/2GB of RAM with about a 60-70% load on the processor (Korg Legacy Digital, Novation V-Synth, and others). My current laptop is a 1.2GHz i3-320um w/8GB of ram running FL 10 (running the standard executable). No problems with anything I throw at it.

We've been at the point where, yes, you pretty much can go out and buy just about any computer on the market and make music with it as long as you have a decent audio interface. You can do more with a good interface than you can with on-board audio. This is something I've proven on this board.

There's also a "work smarter" ethic that many of you here on FP simply lack. Changing the way many of you approach recording and composition can allow you to work with less.
 
logic7 said:
@ bolded - this is simply not true in even the slightest bit. You can buy an 8, 12, or 16 core single processor desktop, but you cannot buy a laptop with these processors; they simply aren't available for laptops.

---------- Post added at 05:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:34 PM ----------



I've proven otherwise on this board repeatedly. I've run 13 plugins on a socket 478 3.4GHz Pentium4 w/2GB of RAM with about a 60-70% load on the processor (Korg Legacy Digital, Novation V-Synth, and others). My current laptop is a 1.2GHz i3-320um w/8GB of ram running FL 10 (running the standard executable). No problems with anything I throw at it.

We've been at the point where, yes, you pretty much can go out and buy just about any computer on the market and make music with it as long as you have a decent audio interface. You can do more with a good interface than you can with on-board audio. This is something I've proven on this board.

There's also a "work smarter" ethic that many of you here on FP simply lack. Changing the way many of you approach recording and composition can allow you to work with less.
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Everyone has their own opinions, experiences and what works best for them. Obliviously you have yours and its not worth my time arguing with you over a forum. Throwing insults around isn't going to help any one. So keep on doing what you do and I will do the same.

This thread was about buying a laptop or a desktop for FL and it seems everyone at least agrees you can run it on a laptop with no problems.
 
i know this is not really playing by the rules but i would do both IMO i would just use your laptop for when you get spur of the moment ideas or are board somewhere and get a desktop that you can really customize. plus then you can keep your tower computer off the net and never have to worry about stolen work or viruses and you can turn off many of the annoying windows saftey stuff that comes standard and takes up memory. just my 2 cents.
 
Chondrokeith said:
Everyone has their own opinions, experiences and what works best for them. Obliviously you have yours and its not worth my time arguing with you over a forum. Throwing insults around isn't going to help any one. So keep on doing what you do and I will do the same.

This thread was about buying a laptop or a desktop for FL and it seems everyone at least agrees you can run it on a laptop with no problems.
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the difference is that I have proven these things, making them fact, not opinion. There's a difference. I haven't insulted you, I've corrected you. If you take education as an insult, then prepare for a hard road ahead in life.


I agree that you can run it on a laptop, what I disagree with is the misinformation thrown around here, this is what needs to change. Cement your statements in fact and I have no problem with anything you have to say.

---------- Post added at 06:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
1k drop said:
i know this is not really playing by the rules but i would do both IMO i would just use your laptop for when you get spur of the moment ideas or are board somewhere and get a desktop that you can really customize. plus then you can keep your tower computer off the net and never have to worry about stolen work or viruses and you can turn off many of the annoying windows saftey stuff that comes standard and takes up memory. just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

This is what I do, except my desktop is also connected to the internet (it's also much slower than my laptop). I don't worry much about malware because I have a firewall/IDS machine inline with my desktop which also does packet capture for analysis.
 
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laptop cpus are based on desktop cpus but are usually weaker due to heat/power/size constraints. Laptop cpus are released out after the dektop versions in most cases. My desktop has a way more powerful i7SB than my laptop does. That being said any newerish laptop is prob going to be fine for FL. The biggest issue to me with FL is getting enough space on screen without an external to work easily. Fl is not that demandanding in general so it shouldnt even be an issue. the bigger issue is do you need the portability or do you need more power.
 
ultra auris said:
laptop cpus are based on desktop cpus but are usually weaker due to heat/power/size constraints. Laptop cpus are released out after the dektop versions in most cases. My desktop has a way more powerful i7SB than my laptop does. That being said any newerish laptop is prob going to be fine for FL. The biggest issue to me with FL is getting enough space on screen without an external to work easily. Fl is not that demandanding in general so it shouldnt even be an issue. the bigger issue is do you need the portability or do you need more power.
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this is the one thing that irritates me the most about my laptop. The 1366x768 resolution sucks. My desktop's monitor does 1600x1200, and for music that's a godsend.
 
Desktop processors are now prototypes of designs that must be applicable to mobile processing, it's a convergent design philosophy that is quite a different concept to building a desktop processor and then adapting the design so it will work in a laptop.

A more obvious example of such a convergent design philosophy would be Windows 8.
 
I'm going to skip all the technical mumbo jumbo and just ask you this. Where do you make most of your music? If you make it on the go while you're out then grab a laptop. If you sitdown at home in your bedroom then grab a desktop. Plain simple. no need to overcomplicate things
 
hollandturbine said:
Desktop processors are now prototypes of designs that must be applicable to mobile processing, it's a convergent design philosophy that is quite a different concept to building a desktop processor and then adapting the design so it will work in a laptop.

A more obvious example of such a convergent design philosophy would be Windows 8.
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Care to show proof of this?
 
hollandturbine said:
Sure, no problem.
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that proved absolutely nothing.

The Pentium M is the evolution of the Pentium III architecture, specifically the final variant of the P3 Tualatin core: The Pentium III-S SERVER processor (the final variant)... I own a P3-S and will post a pic as proof if you want.

In a highly simplified explanation, what intel did was take the Pentium III-S, die shrink it, give it a slightly longer pipeline, graft the front side bus from the Pentium 4 to it, and add a few other updates.

So, you're 100% wrong here.
 
logic7 said:
that proved absolutely nothing.

The Pentium M is the evolution of the Pentium III architecture, specifically the final variant of the P3 Tualatin core: The Pentium III-S SERVER processor (the final variant)... I own a P3-S and will post a pic as proof if you want.

In a highly simplified explanation, what intel did was take the Pentium III-S, die shrink it, give it a slightly longer pipeline, graft the front side bus from the Pentium 4 to it, and add a few other updates.

So, you're 100% wrong here.
Click to expand...

The evolution of the Pentium M is not in dispute, it's the evolution from the Pentium M that is the issue.
 
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