What Kind of Laptop Should I Get?

[jake_h122]

Hi, I'm kind of new to music production and im not quite sure what laptop i should get. I currently have the dell inspiron 1545 and its really not that good for music production, but i got it before i was interested. I heard Lenovo is really good. I've been looking at the Thinkpad Edge 520 and the Thinkpad W510. I use FL Studio 9 and Reason 5. I have A LOT of music probably almost 100GB. Also I use a lot of Adobe products like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator. Also I use AutoCad a lot. I do some gaming. So i need a computer that can handle all of this. My budget is probably $2000 but if you know of a laptop that is just amazing and its a little over let me know. And also I'm not a big fan of Apple, I might get one eventually because theyre great for music production but I want to make sure I have a solid Microsoft laptop first, Thanks for any information you have its greatly appreciated. P.S. sorry that was so long

 

[Xabiton]

I just bought this guy and it kicks ass for beats. Hell I have been doing some video stuff on it too and it runs really well. I should also preface that I am using Reason 6 and Reason is notorious for not using a ton of CPU. I think any core i5 based system should work well for most stuff but if u have the budget to buy a high end computer why not future proof yourself.

Samsung - Series 7 Laptop - Silver - NP700Z5B-S01UB

 

[logic7]

Hi, I'm kind of new to music production and im not quite sure what laptop i should get. I currently have the dell inspiron 1545 and its really not that good for music production, but i got it before i was interested. I heard Lenovo is really good. I've been looking at the Thinkpad Edge 520 and the Thinkpad W510. I use FL Studio 9 and Reason 5. I have A LOT of music probably almost 100GB. Also I use a lot of Adobe products like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator. Also I use AutoCad a lot. I do some gaming. So i need a computer that can handle all of this. My budget is probably $2000 but if you know of a laptop that is just amazing and its a little over let me know. And also I'm not a big fan of Apple, I might get one eventually because theyre great for music production but I want to make sure I have a solid Microsoft laptop first, Thanks for any information you have its greatly appreciated. P.S. sorry that was so long

The Autocad part raised my eyebrow. Complex objects in Autocad will require a decent video subsystem to render properly in real time. I would suggest something with an Nvidia Quadro like a Dell Precision Laptop or Lenovo W-Series laptop. The reason for this is Quadro based video subsystems are more for correct 3D real time rendering (i.e. no missing polygons in your models) vs gaming where a few missing polygons or improperly rendered textures, etc ar ok as long as it's fast. If you don't mind that, then get something with a Geforce or Radeon on board.

 

[skoolafish]

the quadro's come in different classes just like any other card. meaning some of them are not worth a damn for anything current. not saying you are wrong but i wouldnt hinge on the name

for the sub 2000 range and your needs, i would personally look at the HP envy line. they offer the most bang for the buck on paper, and in actual performance. samsung series 7 is a close second

edit: the HP's actually come with photoshop and premiere elements pre-installed...

go to their site and check out the quick-ship configurations...beastly. i bought this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+EN...09237994&skuId=4699995&st=15-3040nr&cp=1&lp=1

 

[logic7]

the quadro's come in different classes just like any other card. meaning some of them are not worth a damn for anything current. not saying you are wrong but i wouldnt hinge on the name

for the sub 2000 range and your needs, i would personally look at the HP envy line. they offer the most bang for the buck on paper, and in actual performance. samsung series 7 is a close second

edit: the HP's actually come with photoshop and premiere elements pre-installed...

go to their site and check out the quick-ship configurations...beastly. i bought this one:
HP - ENVY Laptop - Nero Black/Natural Silver - nv15-3040nr

The reason the op raised my eye is that I've worked with AutoCAD as well as Pro/E, Lightwave, 3D Studio MAX, Ray Dream Studio, Truspace, and Bryce.

While Quadros do come in different classes, they all share certain core aspects the first of those is proper polygon rendering. Whether some are faster or slower than others is neither here nor there; the name of the game for AutoCAD is proper rendering in realtime. Years ago the big gripe about using a Geforce over a proper 3D workstation card (i.e. Quadro, 3DLabs Wildcat or Oxygen, etc) was the fact that, in AutoCAD, the gaming card would screw up the display with missing or misrendered or missing polygons.

If the threadstarter places any weight on AutoCAD operating with a high degree of accuracy, then a laptop with a Quadro or FireGL mobile solution will be the best bet for him.

(FWIW, I still have and use one of my old 3D workstations equipped with a 64MB Elsa Gloria II Quadro card in it)

 

[Dj Aqueous]

I don't know much about the gaming or graphics, but for music I have an HP Envy with beats audio. The laptop shown in the Dre commercial was simply too small (14") so I got the 17.3" instead, but the sound card itself is to die for. I mean, it almost isn't fair. Once I am done making a beat I know the only place it might sound better is in the club.

BUT, if your main thing is music. Do yourself the favor and convert to Mac

 

[Xabiton]

going mac for music isn't always the answer. getting the right computer for you to do music is the right answer. some great songs get made in pc only software just like the same can be said for mac. I went pc instead of mac on my most recent computer because for mac they wanted so much money but didn't offer me close to everything I would need vs a pc which out the box in the same price range needed little to no upgrading. I actually went to best buy debating on a mac book pro and 3 gs on me. Decided that pc was just better and its doing great for my music. Unless you need a mac app to make music I wouldn't bother.

 

[logic7]

going mac for music isn't always the answer. getting the right computer for you to do music is the right answer. some great songs get made in pc only software just like the same can be said for mac. I went pc instead of mac on my most recent computer because for mac they wanted so much money but didn't offer me close to everything I would need vs a pc which out the box in the same price range needed little to no upgrading. I actually went to best buy debating on a mac book pro and 3 gs on me. Decided that pc was just better and its doing great for my music. Unless you need a mac app to make music I wouldn't bother.

^^^ This.

in 1997, there was a strong case for going Mac, 15 years later it's quite the opposite.

 

[Dj Aqueous]

I am more comfortable with PC's and realize that they are much easier to customize which is why I haven't switched to Mac yet. Still, most professional studios I have seen use logic &/or Cubase, and I have heard people who use Logic on PC complain about all the fiddling required to even get it to work on a pc. I don't use logic personally, however it seems to still be a pretty popular program from what I have seen.

 

[Xabiton]

I am more comfortable with PC's and realize that they are much easier to customize which is why I haven't switched to Mac yet. Still, most professional studios I have seen use logic &/or Cubase, and I have heard people who use Logic on PC complain about all the fiddling required to even get it to work on a pc. I don't use logic personally, however it seems to still be a pretty popular program from what I have seen.

Most professional studios are using Pro Tools HD chances are you are not using Pro Tools HD at home. Logic is the new studio standard which actually originally was a PC application made by E Magic in the 90s and Cubase has been said to be best on PC. Its my understanding that its actually made for PC and ported to Mac (I am not sure if that part is rumor though) point is equipment used isn't important if the product is good. People will take good music because it is good music and with music getting more and more home studio based having the gear the real studio has is mattering less and less.

 

[Dj Aqueous]

I haven't used protools in years, right now I am happy with ableton. Now I don't know anything about the history of logics programming, but if it was originally designed for PC why or what makes it so difficult to run? Is it simply a matter of having a specific set of hardware, processor etc?

 

[skoolafish]

going mac for music isn't always the answer. getting the right computer for you to do music is the right answer. some great songs get made in pc only software just like the same can be said for mac. I went pc instead of mac on my most recent computer because for mac they wanted so much money but didn't offer me close to everything I would need vs a pc which out the box in the same price range needed little to no upgrading. I actually went to best buy debating on a mac book pro and 3 gs on me. Decided that pc was just better and its doing great for my music. Unless you need a mac app to make music I wouldn't bother.

if youre the same kevwestbeats from the Pheads forum, i'm pretty sure youre the one that prompted me to research more. thank you! i was super close to buying a macbook when i discovered that hp. way too beastly to pass up...

 

[logic7]

Most professional studios are using Pro Tools HD chances are you are not using Pro Tools HD at home. Logic is the new studio standard which actually originally was a PC application made by E Magic in the 90s and Cubase has been said to be best on PC. Its my understanding that its actually made for PC and ported to Mac (I am not sure if that part is rumor though) point is equipment used isn't important if the product is good. People will take good music because it is good music and with music getting more and more home studio based having the gear the real studio has is mattering less and less.

Lemme go ahead and make some corrections here:

Logic was originally an Atari ST sequencer. It was ported to the Mac first, then ported to the PC but even when it was finally ported to the PC (Logic 2.0), it lagged behind the Mac version feature-wise. Truthfully, Logic wasn't worth a damn on the PC until LAP4.0, 4.7 was relly good, and 5.0 was where it was at feature-wise. Sadly, 5.5.1 was the last version of LAP for the PC. I still have 4.0, 4.7, 5.0.1, and 5.5.1 in a closet somewhere. I had the notion a few months ago to build a PC with Windows 98SE or Windows 2000, likely based on either the 1.4GHz P3-S I have or the Athlon XP 2500+ I have laying about, strictly for Logic Audio Platinum 5.5, but I got lazy and never got it going.

To another point made earlier: Older versions of Logic were notorious for having a near vertical learning curve. I once spent a week getting it going to the point where music could be made with the rig I had at that time... A process which took all of 15 minutes with Cubase. The old interface is needlessly difficult to understand and was simply not intuitive at all.