spiralstairs July 30, 2004 Share spiralstairs Member July 30, 2004 I'm finally getting a new computer. My current rig is a Dell Dimension 8100 desktop and it is starting to show its age. I need a more powerful computer because I recently purchased Protools (recording software) to replace my old analog multi-track studio and my current computer can't run it without crashing. My old Dell is also incapable of playing most new pc games. I definitely decided on getting a laptop so it can be a mobile music studio (also I am going to college next year...hopefully). So this new computer will be functioning mainly as a music studio, but I also want to be able to play the current crop of pc games (farcry, hl2 soon) on it. Any and all suggestions appreciated, noah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa July 30, 2004 Share Playaa Member July 30, 2004 my suggestion buy a cheap laptop to run the protools then start slowly upgrading your desktop to run those games (starting with vid card, then processor then ram) I looked into a gaming laptop and realized it would be one of the worst technology purchases ever...it would be amazingly expensive to get one that would play those games well and then it would be TOTALLY out of date in 1 year probably. At least with a desktop it's easily upgradeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL July 30, 2004 Share dwEEziL Member July 30, 2004 Alienware has decently upgradeable laptops. (BTW, I looked up how to spell upgradeable on m-w.com cuz I couldn't decide if I needed the first "e" or not and I was curious. m-w.com said both are acceptable Thanks alot) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 30, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 30, 2004 With the money it costs for a good laptop ( $1500+ ) you can easily get a laptop and rebuild the desktop. I'm glad i had a desktop in college instead of a laptop. If one had to be better then the other i'd want a nice desktop instead. /agrees with the Playaa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa July 30, 2004 Share Playaa Member July 30, 2004 yeah Alienware does have upgradeable laptops...but again, cost ain't worth it. I say buy a $700 Dell or HP for the Protools and spend the other $600 to $800 on upgrading your pc...heck you could build a totally NEW pc for that price and it would play any game out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL July 30, 2004 Share dwEEziL Member July 30, 2004 Agreed. Or just dump the whole amount into an Athlon 64 system and bump the laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs July 31, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member July 31, 2004 thanks. sounds like solid advice so i'll probably just buy a cheap laptop to function as my studio and then maybe get a friend of mine to build me a state-ofthe-art rig on the cheap. probably could spend about a 1,000 on all the makings for a real nice computer, right? thanks for the advice, noah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r July 31, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member July 31, 2004 $1000 will get you a real nice desktop if you get custom built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar August 1, 2004 Share Crowbar Member August 1, 2004 As far as playing with ProTools, I'd use a desktop for that. It's not as mobile, but mixing multiple tracks really takes a toll on the processor. I wouldn't get less than an Athlon 64 or a higher end Pentium 4. The Pentium 4s seem to do better with the music compression, though the Macintosh G5 (best computer for that kind of stuff) uses a 64 bit processor, so a good Athlon 64 will work great as well. Also, you'll need a big hard drive, which laptops don't usually have. If you plan on keeping any of that music on the hard drive very long, I'd go with the desktop. Look into a Shuttle pc, they're small enough to carry around, especially if you've got a flat panel monitor, but they can be easily upgraded and they use desktop components, such as a Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. If you're set on the laptop, you might try going for an Apple. A lot of the current games are available on Macs, and you'll still get that greater performance in the music mixing. Dammed expensive though. Apple Powerbook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs August 1, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member August 1, 2004 Those shuttle pc's look amazing. that seems like what i need... good combination of portability/upgradability. thanks noah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchtower August 2, 2004 Share Watchtower Member August 2, 2004 Protools HOGS RAM.. I wouldn't even bother running it on a laptop.. Look for as much RAm and the fastest hard drive accessing you can.. Either SATA raid or SCSI raid.. I'd go with an Intel processor as well due to floating point related issues.. Goto Sweetwater.com and check out their recommended rig.. I believe they can advise you to what specs to look for.. Why do you want to run it on a laptop? Oh and Ditto on what Crowbar said.. Anyone who is anyone uses Protools ona Mac.. Not putting you or windows users(I included) down, it's just the way it is.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs August 2, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member August 2, 2004 ahhh man.... so much to think about! things were much simpler when i was recording with a tascam 4-track...hit record, lay down some guitar...overdub some vocals, then drums...but its just so damn limiting. not to mention the sound (everything wrapped in a thick layer of static...). i'm starting to think limits are better though... i want to get a laptop because i have instruments scattered all around my house. grand piano in one room...pedal steel in another... i dont have a good set of drums so i would want to be able to go over to a friends house and record drums there... basically the freedom to have a self-contained portable studio. my brother has a real nice apple powerbook and i tested out protools on it and it ran rather well. guess im gonna have to do some more thinking on this one. noah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiZad August 3, 2004 Share RiZad Member August 3, 2004 Protools HOGS RAM.. I wouldn't even bother running it on a laptop.. Look for as much RAm and the fastest hard drive accessing you can.. Either SATA raid or SCSI raid.. I'd go with an Intel processor as well due to floating point related issues.. Goto Sweetwater.com and check out their recommended rig.. I believe they can advise you to what specs to look for.. Why do you want to run it on a laptop? Oh and Ditto on what Crowbar said.. Anyone who is anyone uses Protools ona Mac.. Not putting you or windows users(I included) down, it's just the way it is.. Macs gotta be able to do atleast 1 thing decent. Why would anyone want one if it lost that portion of the market also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralstairs August 4, 2004 Author Share spiralstairs Member August 4, 2004 what exactly makes macs better for protools, and audio stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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