laptop conundrum
in [Cakewalk]
|
From: Phoenix on 16 Feb 2010 13:47 OK, some of you folks might remember that I've been trying to decide what to do about replacing my old laptop for a while now. I thought the advent of the new mobile processors ( core i5 and core i7 m's) would make things simpler, but it seems to be more complicated. Variables like TurboBoost and all of those power-related things that one would be able to adjust in the BIOS of a RYO desktop or a custom-built laptop, that the off-the-shelf ones, even higher end, don't have such flexible BIOSes. Also, the clock speeds are daunting. The fastest mobile i7 widely available is the 720QM, only 1.66GHz clock speed. Past that price range, even if I could find the faster mobile core i7, I couldn't afford it. According to Scott of ADK, the faster core i5s, which he expected to be faster, aren't benchmarking any better. Some of the older Core 2 Duos are faster. And if ADK is still adjusting their BIOSes to make the aforementioned factors adjustable, that confirms my suspicion about laptop BIOSes. Yes, I talked to Scott. I believe in custom-made, if I can afford it; my main guitars are all custom and my desktops are RYO. Unfortunately I can't build my own laptop. Scott has some machines comparable price-wise with store-bought; but with a store-bought laptop I could do time payments on my PC Richard card, whereas most custom builders of things quite understandably want to be paid up front...and I don't know how much money I'll be getting in or how long it will last me. ADK does have some laptops on clearance which are fast Core 2 Duos. But if everything os going to be optimized for quad core (and above?) how future-proof is a Core 2 Duo, store-bought or custom? I found a benchmarking site myself by Googling (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php) which I've been using to look up the various laptops on offer in the stores, so I'm not going just on one guy's word. Then there is also the fact that I am not sure I can afford the luxury of having a laptop be audio-only. Right now the only working computer I have is my DAW, which is why it's connected to the Internet when not recording, cos it's my lifeline. So a laptop would have to do double duty as well, cos it would be my only laptop. So maybe it's not the right time to get a laptop from a DAW builder... Sometimes I just say phooey and figure I'll make the rounds of the stores with DPC latency checker on a flash drive and see if there's a bargain laptop out there that has decent latency, get that if it's under $1000, and when the faster core i7s and i5s come down (right now a laptop with one of those is in the $4000 range!) get a better laptop for DAW only and the bargain one would be my "everyday" machine. So I'd like to know if anyone here is running Sonar 8.5 on a newish 64-bit laptop, and how they are faring, and any other thoughts.
From: kitekrazy on 16 Feb 2010 18:39 On 2/16/2010 12:47 PM, Phoenix wrote: > OK, some of you folks might remember that I've been trying to decide > what to do about replacing my old laptop for a while now. > I thought the advent of the new mobile processors ( core i5 and core i7 > m's) would make things simpler, but it seems to be more complicated. > Variables like TurboBoost and all of those power-related things that one > would be able to adjust in the BIOS of a RYO desktop or a custom-built > laptop, that the off-the-shelf ones, even higher end, don't have such > flexible BIOSes. > Also, the clock speeds are daunting. The fastest mobile i7 widely > available is the 720QM, only 1.66GHz clock speed. Past that price range, > even if I could find the faster mobile core i7, I couldn't afford it. > According to Scott of ADK, the faster core i5s, which he expected to be > faster, aren't benchmarking any better. Some of the older Core 2 Duos > are faster. And if ADK is still adjusting their BIOSes to make the > aforementioned factors adjustable, that confirms my suspicion about > laptop BIOSes. > Yes, I talked to Scott. I believe in custom-made, if I can afford it; my > main guitars are all custom and my desktops are RYO. Unfortunately I > can't build my own laptop. > Scott has some machines comparable price-wise with store-bought; but > with a store-bought laptop I could do time payments on my PC Richard > card, whereas most custom builders of things quite understandably want > to be paid up front...and I don't know how much money I'll be getting in > or how long it will last me. ADK does have some laptops on clearance > which are fast Core 2 Duos. But if everything os going to be optimized > for quad core (and above?) how future-proof is a Core 2 Duo, > store-bought or custom? Core 2s aren't going away at least on desktops. Intel is not in the habit of dropping older platforms compared to AMD. > I found a benchmarking site myself by Googling > (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php) which I've been using to look > up the various laptops on offer in the stores, so I'm not going just on > one guy's word. > Then there is also the fact that I am not sure I can afford the luxury > of having a laptop be audio-only. Right now the only working computer I > have is my DAW, which is why it's connected to the Internet when not > recording, cos it's my lifeline. So a laptop would have to do double > duty as well, cos it would be my only laptop. So maybe it's not the > right time to get a laptop from a DAW builder... > Sometimes I just say phooey and figure I'll make the rounds of the > stores with DPC latency checker on a flash drive and see if there's a > bargain laptop out there that has decent latency, get that if it's under > $1000, and when the faster core i7s and i5s come down (right now a > laptop with one of those is in the $4000 range!) get a better laptop for > DAW only and the bargain one would be my "everyday" machine. > So I'd like to know if anyone here is running Sonar 8.5 on a newish > 64-bit laptop, and how they are faring, and any other thoughts. > > I would never run Sonar on a laptop if it involves using softsynths. Sonar is not resource friendly. I'd run Reaper. If I were to spend over 4 figures on a laptop, I'd get a Mac and use Logic.
From: Phoenix on 16 Feb 2010 19:44 I'm not overwhelmed with my aunts' iMac; and would rather not have to deal with the vagaries of an extra OS. And somehow I think Logic has its pitfalls as well as Sonar. I may eventually buy Reaper. I haven't had a chance to give it much of a try so far, and am still having a bit of a hard time finding which Reaper features are analogous to the Sonar ones I know. I know it's more resource-friendly, and some folks here like it a whole lot... It's too bad there's no easy way to transfer projects between Sonar and Reaper. As far as recording goes, for the time being I'd be more likely to use a laptop for recording vocals if anything, since my home setup isn't exactly acoustically perfect. I don't have to record anyone else's band or anything like that. I would want to be able to take my "virtual rig" and play on someone else's project if I was asked/hired. That's mostly Guitar Rig, but could also be Sonar with GR and a bus with some additional efx. And I might want to play live along with Sonar, but the softsynth tracks would most likely have been rendered to audio already and mixed (except for Guitar Rig). Aside from that, mixing comes to mind as something I might want to do in someone else's studio sometime. I know, of course, that using my firewire interface might be problematic with a laptop since none of the new ones have TI chipsets (except for the custom ones). But I also have my old M-Audio Ozone; tried the new drivers out with Win 7 RC. I was surprised to find that not only did Sonar see the Ozone as 24-bit capable (finally) but I was able to get down to 64 samples, which I never had before. Your last sentence is interesting, kite. " If I were to spend over 4 figures on a laptop"...do you think it's best to spend the minimum necessary to do what one needs it for (or most of it)? "kitekrazy" <kitekrazy(a)kitekrazy.org> wrote in message news:hlfacc$79v$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > On 2/16/2010 12:47 PM, Phoenix wrote: >> OK, some of you folks might remember that I've been trying to decide >> what to do about replacing my old laptop for a while now. >> I thought the advent of the new mobile processors ( core i5 and core i7 >> m's) would make things simpler, but it seems to be more complicated. >> Variables like TurboBoost and all of those power-related things that one >> would be able to adjust in the BIOS of a RYO desktop or a custom-built >> laptop, that the off-the-shelf ones, even higher end, don't have such >> flexible BIOSes. >> Also, the clock speeds are daunting. The fastest mobile i7 widely >> available is the 720QM, only 1.66GHz clock speed. Past that price range, >> even if I could find the faster mobile core i7, I couldn't afford it. >> According to Scott of ADK, the faster core i5s, which he expected to be >> faster, aren't benchmarking any better. Some of the older Core 2 Duos >> are faster. And if ADK is still adjusting their BIOSes to make the >> aforementioned factors adjustable, that confirms my suspicion about >> laptop BIOSes. >> Yes, I talked to Scott. I believe in custom-made, if I can afford it; my >> main guitars are all custom and my desktops are RYO. Unfortunately I >> can't build my own laptop. >> Scott has some machines comparable price-wise with store-bought; but >> with a store-bought laptop I could do time payments on my PC Richard >> card, whereas most custom builders of things quite understandably want >> to be paid up front...and I don't know how much money I'll be getting in >> or how long it will last me. ADK does have some laptops on clearance >> which are fast Core 2 Duos. But if everything os going to be optimized >> for quad core (and above?) how future-proof is a Core 2 Duo, >> store-bought or custom? > > Core 2s aren't going away at least on desktops. Intel is not in the habit > of dropping older platforms compared to AMD. > >> I found a benchmarking site myself by Googling >> (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php) which I've been using to look >> up the various laptops on offer in the stores, so I'm not going just on >> one guy's word. >> Then there is also the fact that I am not sure I can afford the luxury >> of having a laptop be audio-only. Right now the only working computer I >> have is my DAW, which is why it's connected to the Internet when not >> recording, cos it's my lifeline. So a laptop would have to do double >> duty as well, cos it would be my only laptop. So maybe it's not the >> right time to get a laptop from a DAW builder... >> Sometimes I just say phooey and figure I'll make the rounds of the >> stores with DPC latency checker on a flash drive and see if there's a >> bargain laptop out there that has decent latency, get that if it's under >> $1000, and when the faster core i7s and i5s come down (right now a >> laptop with one of those is in the $4000 range!) get a better laptop for >> DAW only and the bargain one would be my "everyday" machine. >> So I'd like to know if anyone here is running Sonar 8.5 on a newish >> 64-bit laptop, and how they are faring, and any other thoughts. >> >> > I would never run Sonar on a laptop if it involves using softsynths. > Sonar is not resource friendly. I'd run Reaper. > > If I were to spend over 4 figures on a laptop, I'd get a Mac and use > Logic.
From: Phoenix on 17 Feb 2010 00:21 Good to know. I think most off-the-shelf laptops I've seen use Ricoh. Been a while since I looked, though. Which brands use VIA? "kitekrazy" <kitekrazy(a)kitekrazy.org> wrote in message news:hlfrc2$641$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > On 2/16/2010 6:44 PM, Phoenix wrote: > >> I know, of course, that using my firewire interface might be problematic >> with a laptop since none of the new ones have TI chipsets (except for >> the custom ones). But I also have my old M-Audio Ozone; tried the new >> drivers out with Win 7 RC. I was surprised to find that not only did >> Sonar see the Ozone as 24-bit capable (finally) but I was able to get >> down to 64 samples, which I never had before. > > I've never had a problem running FW 410, Presonus 1394 with VIA chipsets. > > >
From: Ted Perlman on 17 Feb 2010 01:13
<If I were to spend over 4 figures on a laptop, I'd get a Mac and use Logic> I'd have Jim Roseberry build me a laptop and keep using Nuendo. I've been down the Logic trail once - that's enough. -- Regards, Ted Perlman www.tedperlman.com www.myspace.com/tedperlman www.facebook.com/ted.perlman |