Laptop Advice

Hi I am a mac person normally but I can't afford a MacBook Pro so have decided to go PC.

I want something that won't overheat every 10 minutes and stop working. And I want a super fast processor + graphics card.

I have about 7-800 pounds. What's the best possible make? I was thinking about this one:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/version...rsion&page=

Thanks

This is a good source for information http://www.notebookreview.com/

I've personally never had much luck with laptops and thus can't really recommend you any particular brand. Just pay attention to the user reviews and build of the laptop. For example, the toshiba that I currently have (satellite u200) is built in such a way that it is impossible to access the vent/fan area without disassembling the entire laptop in a specific way. Toshiba doesn't provide you with instructions and insists that you visit a certified specialist if you want to clean up the fan. So, I'm stuck with a laptop that heats up quickly, makes a lot of noise, and is slowly dying (the screen already has 2 vertical dead pixel lines and the right arrow no longer works).

I've had a bunch of different laptops, mostly Toshibas and HP, and they've all been fine.

Like the chap said, just check the reviews for the particular model you're into.

I think Dell are pretty respectable these days and good value.

Am i right in saying Kaini works/worked for Vaiio?

Acer are fantastic value especially at those sorts of prices G.I.

I've had a fairly modest HP for over 2 years and it's holding up nicely

  mrx said:

This is a good source for information http://www.notebookreview.com/

 

I've personally never had much luck with laptops and thus can't really recommend you any particular brand. Just pay attention to the user reviews and build of the laptop. For example, the toshiba that I currently have (satellite u200) is built in such a way that it is impossible to access the vent/fan area without disassembling the entire laptop in a specific way. Toshiba doesn't provide you with instructions and insists that you visit a certified specialist if you want to clean up the fan. So, I'm stuck with a laptop that heats up quickly, makes a lot of noise, and is slowly dying (the screen already has 2 vertical dead pixel lines and the right arrow no longer works).

thanks for the link

That's really interesting about the fan. I have (or had) an acer, a cheap celeron one. It was unusable after a while because of the fan clogging up so I took it apart using instructions from this site: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/clean-coolin...er-aspire-3620/, pulled a massive chunk of dust out of it, put it back together and now it's dead. TWAT

I asked the guy in PC world which make was the best and he reckoned Toshiba and Sony are the best makes.

access to the fan for cleaning seems essential

Also am I right in thinking Intel Core 2 Duo is the best Processor, on Mac or PC ?

I built myself a machine recently, it's a fucking monster, cost me just under £800. If you're interested I can PM you the parts and where I got it all from, web links and prices. It's got good onboard sound but you'll obviously want to get a soundcard, just change a couple of things here and there (like, get a 500GB HD, not a 1TB) save some pennies for a sound card too...

Is this laptop going to be strictly for music making, or general use as well?

I personally don't think the fan should be an issue, unless you'll be leaving the computer on to download stuff, etc. As long as you turn it off whenever you're not using it, and it's not near a lot of dust most laptops shouldn't overheat.

In terms of CPUs you should definitely get dual core, Ableton Live for one is optimized for dual core processors, and I'm sure there are other music programs out there that will double performance with the dual cores. Ones with a faster front side bus and larger cache will make differences as well. If you wait a while hopefully quad core laptops will be cheaper, and the amount of power compared to a dual core is pretty nice... =) [edit: just realized you asked if intel core 2 duo is best, these days it doesn't really make a huge difference. AMD laptops were cheaper before but it seems they're the same price these days. There are probably benchmarks comparing the two, all I know is that when I got my laptop AMD performed better for audio related stuff so that's what I got.]

2GB of RAM should be enough, and most laptops can have even more so you can upgrade them later.

  G. I. Raffe said:

Also am I right in thinking Intel Core 2 Duo is the best Processor, on Mac or PC ?

Here's a page about the common processors that are out there:

http://compreviews.about.com/od/cpus/a/NoteCPUSpec.htm

most laptops seem to be Core 2 Duo these days, but there are different speeds of Core 2 Duo (denoted by the Tnnnn number after the name) and there are also Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme processors out there, which are faster, presumably.

re:fans: It's funny, I've owned laptops for about 10 years but never even thought about cleaning out the fan in one of them.

dudes can people give me names of their laptop models and shit because i don't want to get all this core 2 quad bullshit and have do all the fucking research i just want a good laptop for under 1000 bones if anyone could help me out it'd really get r dun thanks

  Obel said:

I built myself a machine recently

What did you put together? Just curious.

and I'd agree. How much do you need the space/do you really need the portability? You can put some amazing things together for a decent price, and it's usually no more difficult than a lego kit.

Go for Toshiba, i got an AMD 2.2 Ghz, 2GB RAM this time last year, still runs perfectly, no problems.

i put together something from lenovo:

thinkpad t400

intel core2duo t9400 @ 2.53

running windows 7

i've had no problems, it's been about 9 months i guess

  G. I. Raffe said:

Hi I am a mac person normally but I can't afford a MacBook Pro so have decided to go PC.

are you sure. they released some new&cheaper ones yesterday

  goDel said:

  G. I. Raffe said:

Hi I am a mac person normally but I can't afford a MacBook Pro so have decided to go PC.

 

are you sure. they released some new&cheaper ones yesterday

I could afford a macbook.. the cheapest is about £750 but my instincts have always told me to get the fastest possible for longevity. Particularly with macs

Thinking Toshiba now

Compaq/HP make good laptops as well. Mine has worked solidly over the years, and the upgrades I did to it all went smoothly (increased to 320GB harddrive, and added another gig of RAM)

Of course I take care of my computer, but I'm sure you will as well. =)

  futuregirlfriend said:

  Obel said:

I built myself a machine recently

 

What did you put together? Just curious.

 

and I'd agree. How much do you need the space/do you really need the portability? You can put some amazing things together for a decent price, and it's usually no more difficult than a lego kit.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 810 2.6GHz (Socket AM3)

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD1001FALS)

Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel (TR3X6G1333C9)

OCZ StealthXStream 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)

Wow it must be amazing for music editing... I always think about how crazy it would be to have double the power I have now, and I've seen a quad core in action (with a giant monitor too) and it handled audio perfectly.

Of course any time there is room for more it's really easy to fill that space up! ;)

Whoa, I completely forgot the thread was called laptop advice when I was drooling all that crap. Saw PC mentioned and assumed you meant desktop, my bad. Ignore my shitty contributions.

And to Tamas: The machine is so quick, so so quick, but I haven't get done any musics on it so I can't say! No doubt it is gonna be amazing though. Wanna try a new DAW though...

  Mesh Gear Fox said:

Just buy something you can trust, basically. Look for reviews on the nets and make your decision based on those.

I'd rather trust WATMM

  G. I. Raffe said:

  Mesh Gear Fox said:

Just buy something you can trust, basically. Look for reviews on the nets and make your decision based on those.

I'd rather trust WATMM

trouble is, the models on the market change so frequently that its hard to recommend anything

but here's my story anyway:

I bought a reconditioned HP Pavilion dv6500 about a year ago from a company on ebay. it cost about £450

Its got an AMD turion 64 x2 chip, 1.9 Ghz

Its discontinued so you probably wont find it anywhere now.

It was by no means cutting edge but I've never had any trouble running cubase + reason + multiple vsts. Music software isn't that taxing really for todays hardware. It seems that only complex video editing or computer games really need cutting edge hardware.

It used to crash occasionally until I upgraded the video drivers (Vista and NVIDIA have never got along that well). The video driver upgrade worked fine until I installed the vista service pack, then the crashes started again, then I upgraded the video drivers again and its been more stable. I mention this because even a system that is initially stable and getting good reviews may become unstable if you keep up with service packs and microsoft updates.

That sony you link to in the first post looks OK, but you could probably get a much cheaper laptop of equivalent spec because you pay more for the sony brand. Even within any particulalar brand, the manufacturers all keep swithing production from one country or factory to another, so its hard to say anything definitive about which brands are reliable. Its easy to see which brands are more expensive though.

When I'm out and about I notice a large number of people have Dells these days, don't know whether thats because they are cheap or good or both. I've bought a few desktops from Dell for my family over the years, and as long as you uninstall all the crapware and nagware that comes with them, they seem pretty solid.

edit: in summary, find something you like the look of, then look up at least 2 reviews. unless the reviews say definitively 'it sucks' or you find something to put you off (eg keyboard gets bad review) then its probably ok

Thanks Zazen

I wouldn't recommend a Dell. I work in tech support with some media based clients and Dell's are just unreliable after a while. Sure, the price tags are definitely attractive, but they tend to react unpredictably to certain programs.

This is a generalisation of course, but my experience with Dell has been mostly negative.

HPs's are decent. Sony Vaio's are okay, but the price tag isn't justified (plus Sony's tech support hates their customers). Asus are getting their shit together in recent years.

If I had to choose a brand, I'd go HP, for a few extra quid you get quality gear, plus thy've got excellent support should you need it (due to most of the hardware being made by HP so they're rapid for replacement anything).

You probably don't need to be told this, but if you're looking on other websites for reviews and recommendations, stay away from sites that deal specifically with one of the brands. Their views will obviously be biased.

in my experience to be honest the brand means really a lot less than what type of extended warranty you happen to get on a Dell, HP, etc. My own usage of Hp and Dell showed that both had problems arising at around the same time.

i've owned, Vaios, Hps , apples and Dells and in my experience they all start having hardware problems about 2 years into owning them sometimes less. As long as you get it fully covered (usually $250 extra from the manufacturer but tollally worth it) from damage you are pretty much fine. I had a similar warranty for my Vaio and a chair fell onto my screen causing it to basically shatter. They came within about 1 week to my house and replaced it there on the spot.

Just don't get a netbook for music production