Help me WATMM

Before I start, I just wanna say I've used the search function and whilst it did throw up some useful tidbits, I couldn't find an answer to my main questions.

Right, it's been about 5 years since I bought my last laptop, and I now have no fucking idea what to look for now with regards to certain components.

#1 - What are better/best processors these days? I've lost track of what's been released and what's ideal for the musics.

#2 - Is there a recommended motherboard/chipset that will somewhat future proof me? Or at least get me a good 4/5 years of use before it starts to take a shit with its clothes on. Or will it be the case that whatever is needed to support the kind of processor recommended in #1 will be good enough for that?

#3 - I'm looking at a minimum of 4 gig of RAM, but more importantly - DDR2 or DDR3?

A few FYI's;

- I mainly run Ableton as my DAW - both in a studio and live capacity, and often deal with 30+ tracks of Audio/Midi with various VST's etc, so keeping my CPU load down is a must.

- Yes I'm on a PC, no I don't want a Mac. I don't want to get into that debate. I'm looking for answers specific to PC components. Likewise, just saying, "get a Dell/HP/*insert brand here*" isn't very helpful - I can look into that myself once I have a clearer idea of what I'm might be looking at.

You've helped me many a time before WATMM, and I know I can rely on you now, so don't be shy.

Thanking you in advance.

buy a mac

#1 i5 core is considered the best bang for your buck. But if price isnt an issue, look up i7. I dunno how that is in a laptop though.

For audio work take VAIO, they have good usb and firewire controllers, so you will not have any troubles with external audio devices. My E-MU 0202 on PC (not laptop) sometimes stops working, thats because of bad usb controller on motherboard.

Future proofing is impossible. A good rule of thumb is to get the stuff that gives you the best bang for the buck and save the money for either your next computer purchase or something else.

  On 5/4/2011 at 2:20 PM, oscii said:

For audio work take VAIO, they have good usb and firewire controllers, so you will not have any troubles with external audio devices. My E-MU 0202 on PC (not laptop) sometimes stops working, thats because of bad usb controller on motherboard.

AHHH! that happens to me....now I know why.

Cheers guys, that's a good start. Most of the i7's come with DDR3 RAM so that's that question answered too.

Of course get DDR3 instead of DDR2. It's cheaper and faster. Why would you need DDR2?

  On 5/4/2011 at 2:38 PM, illfly mandog said:

  On 5/4/2011 at 2:20 PM, oscii said:

For audio work take VAIO, they have good usb and firewire controllers, so you will not have any troubles with external audio devices. My E-MU 0202 on PC (not laptop) sometimes stops working, thats because of bad usb controller on motherboard.

AHHH! that happens to me....now I know why.

Yes, very annoying. Some software may cause windows shut down in this situation. I thinking of buying usb-pci controller, but it's hard to find one with Texas Instruments chip.

Get a 64bit system, don´t go for 32bit anymore. Unfortunately you may have to use Win7, WinXP is discontinued already afaik. Or it will be soon. Go for 16Gigs of RAM, I know, it´ll cost much, but with that your machine will likely be safe also in five years. I´d recommend Intel Processors and NVIDIA Graphics. But that is only my preference, others will tell you AMD and ATI are better, it´s always the same, as with that Mac-PC debate.

16GB???? :wtf: How it's possible to consume that much???? just curious because my most complicated projects use ~700mb.

Ive 8 gigs of ram.

Playing Crysis 2 takes up a good bit

  On 5/4/2011 at 9:38 PM, tonfarben said:

Go for 16Gigs of RAM

Holy Shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

only got 4 here, but then i don't play any games on my PC, it's purely just for music. 1GB laptop for every-other-mundane-thing else.

fuck me, 16 gigs is a crazy big amount. will definitely be alright in 5 years with that.

1 gig laptop I have is the bane of my life.

Grrrrrrrr

  On 5/4/2011 at 10:41 PM, chassis said:

1 gig laptop I have is the bane of my life.

 

Grrrrrrrr

imagine 256MB RAM, 4GB HD, and a 56k Modem... Lol

  On 5/4/2011 at 10:50 PM, sirch said:

  On 5/4/2011 at 10:41 PM, chassis said:

1 gig laptop I have is the bane of my life.

 

Grrrrrrrr

 

imagine 256MB RAM, 4GB HD, and a 56k Modem... Lol

I can remember those days. Although at the time I didnt know what any of that shit was.

EDIT: But at the time Id say that was enough to run the OS. Windows 7 with 1GB ram, where be the logic thur?

  On 5/4/2011 at 10:50 PM, sirch said:

  On 5/4/2011 at 10:41 PM, chassis said:

1 gig laptop I have is the bane of my life.

 

Grrrrrrrr

 

imagine 256MB RAM, 4GB HD, and a 56k Modem... Lol

lol, that's my pc about a year ago except the hard drive. it was 40gb.

Yeah, I also remember these days, or what about MS-Dos? :) OK, 16GB of RAM seems pretty much, but I do 3D-rendering, and MotionGraphics, so for me it´s quite normal. And trust me, in five years 16GB means nothing to all of us.

Oh yeah 3D and all that visual stuff eats a lot of Ram.