New Studio Laptop

Hi,

I am currently using one laptop for everything, but now want to get a second laptop, optimized for Traktor, Maschine and Cubase only!

What would this Laptop require? I want to spend as little money as possible, and obviously don't need any good graphic card etc.

Could someone recomend a good Laptop for that purpose, which is available in Germany/Ireland (ie. not only US).

 

Hi Mate

Very difficult question to answer as you haven't mentioned how many VST's you are gonna be using...

it's like asking...

"Are that woman's tits big enough?"

 

Sounds reasonable.

I would usually not use more than 1-3 minor VSTs actively at a time, that not including VSTs running in the background in cubase.

When DJing, the Laptop should be able to support Maschine and Traktor running at the same time.

That's all I need. If possible, it shouldn't even have wifi or built in speakers, but i don't think something like that exists.

And do you reckon that SSD drives are necessary nowadays?

 

Generally, sticking with anything Intel based usually heeds great results; at least from my experience! Minimum of 8GB of RAM as well! Look for a decent price dual core i5 based computer or so!

 

graphics cards are important, imo. with dedicated video memory on the higher end chips there is less latency with vsts and the overall mix. generally dislike being a snob but you really would notice the difference in latency. i hope someone can offer some input on this because i have always heard how necessary a good graphics card/video memory are. in other words my thinking is your ram would get tied up on video processing instead

 

Honestly I don't think the graphics aspect of it makes that much of a difference unless you're trying to work with large image files at the same time. Memory and SSD make a large difference, though.

Have you considered a macbook? A lot of the headaches of dealing with midi interfaces and audio inputs and outputs are completely eliminated on the mac platform. You may pay a slight premium for the notebook to begin with, but they're rock solid. I use an i5 powered macbook pro for work and music and it's never crapped out, even with all the cores mostly pegged and all memory in use.

 

I don't like the mac software, whatever it's called.
Also, it is far over my budget.
All the routing options with mac sound great, but are not convincing enough for the high price.

 

Get something cheap and intel then, with an SSD and 8gb or more of ram. They're pretty much all the same either way, most are put together by one of maybe 4 main integrators in China.

 

Just figured out a plan:

I will keep my current one4all laptop, upgrade from 4 to 8GB of ram, build in this ssd which is supposed to be really good, re-install windows and all my studio hardware. My laptop now has got an i5 and I was always happy with it, that should do.

I got offered an old laptop, which i can then use for office and internet purposes.

 

Just make sure your laptop supports the SSD Sata III. It'll say on the manufactures website.. But yes the SSD and RAM are the best/cheapest. Just get an ext. HD if you need more space for sound libraries or w/e if you fill that SSD.

 

It makes a huge difference...

a dedicated grapics card offloads graphics processing from the CPU and releases 1-2BG of RAM for system use in addition to dramatically reducing system calls and process scheduling..

---
the ram upgrade is a real good idea.. if you use latency monitor you will see hard page faults dramatically decline... follow the optimisation tips in the traktor thread and you will be golden... just keep the laptop solely for music work..

 

If your on Windows try this one:
http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP700Z7C-S03US-features

 

I think it is a good plan, you don't say what you have for PC.
If you are still looking, I saw this, TOSHIBA R830 1K7 very impressive specs and comes with SSD...599Euros!
Site is in French but just look at the specs...
Intel * Core ™ i5-2450m (2.5 GHz / 3.1 GHz Turbo) - Screen 13.3'' LED Mat Anti-glare - 1366 x 786 pixels - 4096 MB RAM - 128 GB SSD Storage - Map Intel Graphics HD 3000 Graphics - HDMI Port - Ethernet - Wireless N WiFi - Bluetooth 3.0 - card reader 2 in 1 (SD / MMC) - USB 3.0 Ports - integrated VGA Webcam - integrated Microphone - face Recognition - Battery life up at 8:00 AM - 6 Cell Battery - Weight 1.4 Kg - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
http://www.rueducommerce.fr/Ordinat...raphics-3000-Windows-7-Home-Premium-Rouge.htm

 

Can you cite this somewhere? 2GB of ram usage? That seems like a total crock to me.

I'm a server hardware engineer. We generally never put anything worth using as the onboard video chipset, but they generally never use more than 256mb of ram. 2GB? Most people's machines only have 4gb still.

 

Ok, I will upgrade my laptop tomorrow, because I happened to get a virus the other day (which is hopefully eleminated completely) and want to rush getting a new SSD now.

Basically, I have a few questions left:

1. Is there anything I have to do before getting the new SSD built in? Like uninstalling something? I have saved all my music and Maschine projects on a portable disk, so is there anything else?

2. Can i just use my old service center account to use my licenses, or do I have to contact NI to make the license keys available again?

3. I had the "S.M.A.R.T HDD recovery" virus which installs software that should aparently fix HDD problems that don't exist. I think I managed to get rid of all parts of the virus, but I am still unsure if its safe to connect my portable disk. Could the virus go onto that and infect other laptops from the disk?

 

dpc latency

whatever you buy, most important thing is DPC latency on windows based systems. don't mind ram,ssd... you can upgrade them whenever you want but if the laptop has dpc latency problem you may not solve.

people like use mac because dpc latency doesn't exist in mac operating system

 

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6110-clevo-w110er-p-4343.html

i just ordered this little tank. Didnt want to splurge to much so I didnt get a mac.

I got the core i7 upgrade, nvidia 650m graphics card (same as mpb atm), 8gb ram and 256 ssd. And 11" makes this little guy easily transportable.

I know ppl don;t like small screen keyboard, but im going to love this. I saw the 15.6" from the same company for the same price mayb a bit more powerful.

Also that company allows you to switch odd bay for a harddrive, which can be more expensive, but can make you computer a super storage system for all you samples, but you may need to invest in an external dvd drive.

THese sager computers are very fairly priced for the power they have. AND new Intel processors out now IVY bridge, so try not to get the 2nd gen processor

 

Are you adding to or replacing your existing hard drive? If you're adding to, then no. If you're replacing, then you just want to make sure you have everything you want to keep saved to a portable disk as you have your music and Maschine projects saved.

The NI website says "It is not necessary to "deactivate" an existing installation to activate the product on any further machine, but due to the license agreement it is required to uninstall the product from the previously used computer." which sounds like you can just use your old service center account to use your licenses. They just don't want you installing your software and activating it on a bunch of computers and moving on to the next, thereby allowing someone to take you old PC to have a "free" copy of the software. It's a copyright protection/pirate type clause.

Check out www.help2go.com they have several methods of ridding your system of spyware, spamware, trojans, and viruses. Plus all their methods are free!

If you wish to keep your existing hard drive and do not plan to format it, and the virus still exist on your system, then yes it is possible for it to infect your portable hard drive when you connect it and then infect any other system you then connect that portable hard drive to. Is this likely? I don't know this virus in particular so I don't know how it behaves or how it infects, so I can't say for sure.

Viruses can be sneaky if they are programed to be. But they can be dumb, simple and easily wiped clean, if the creator made it this way (out of ignorance or laziness). Just depends on the virus.

 

I have never had a virus in my life...

What sort of things are you people downloading? viewing on the net?

obv not legal

 

Ya I had a big problem with my DPC latency from my wlan card, so if go hardwired, fixes pretty much all the latency. Ill have occasional 1 ms spike when its disabled, but with the network card I get like 10 ms spike every minute.

Deferred Procedure Call=windows process mechanism, so Mac just does every process in the order its assigned? anyone ever experience sudden video or audio interruptions with a mac? mayb bc its older version, these new ones sound to beastly to cause hiccups in signal