should i get a laptop :(

garyfl

garyfl

garyfl

Associate
Joined
26 Jun 2010
Posts
2,118
Location
west yorkshire.
I keep wanting to sell my pc for portability for a laptop, then i think its not worth it and decide to keep my pc and do hundreds of pound sof upgrades a la be quiet b9 850 watt psu and an 128gb m4 ssd, some mods to the hhd bay for the ssd , cathodes, beaut cable management.. then i think, this is all wasted power and i would genuinly be better off with a laptop. can someone help me make the be all end all decision

the bottom line of applications i use are

embarrasingly fl studio sometimes for quick vst support
ableton live for on the go mixing
cubase for production and composition
sometimes nuendo
i sometimes will use avid or premiere pro/ after affects to do videos but im still learning these programs will do some 3ds max too for stills.

games wise the graphical power of games i really play are things like team fortress 2, dead space 2, sims 3, if i had it then dirt 3 and hopefully if its good, bf3.

the only thing i can think my laptop would need is an ssd. lots of storage and a fast processor lots of ram, id specifically like a 1080p screen but that would bugger game fps but thats what i need for real estate at a minimum really.

i have in my pc whats in my sig and probly use 20% of is power max a day. i doubt id really lose much going from a pc to laptop money wise really. at least if im using 85% of the laptops power compared to my 20% of my pc im getting better value in the end. plus it dosent bugger much electric. even though my be quiet gold rated is a god :P

if you read this thanks and if you help then a further thanks :)
 
Last edited:
ever thought of going SFF?

and what do you mean by portability, moving it from one location to another or something else
 
SFF ? and yeah my best friend is a song writer and im doing projects with him, it would be so much better if i was able to carry over a laptop and record right there or produce, lugging 80kg the other month wasnt my favourite past time.
 
nah it still means carrying around all the parts, case, monitor, kb, mouse, id rather have alaptop in a bag
 
seems like you've made your mind up really.

have a look round at the lappies and see what sort of price the spec you need will be first, once you have an idea you can figure out what you need to get for your current kit and go from there.
 
ive got my eyes on the xps 17 series, though theres some cracking cheapies with extras on the outlet far cheaper than retail, do you know if dell laptops come with a pci slot to put pci extentions in ?
 
I'm not sure what you're saying, but I assume you want to game on a laptop and things like Sims 3 are horried on a fast PC anyway never mind on a laptop.

What I would suggest is you get a small laptop for the things you need portability from, maybe something like the MSI X-Slim range. It'll do you web/facebook/irc/forums what ever and even some basic gaming if you feel up to it and you the battery life is pretty good that you won't have to charge it up every 30 minutes.

The idea of a laptop is nice, but the gaming laptops aren't really all that portable, they are bulky and heavy and you really do need to take the power supply (at least) and a mouse or you'll last a good half hour playing games.. if you're lucky. But then you'll really have to get a decent messenger/laptop bag to protect your expensive laptop when moving it about and storing your charger etc. IMO that isn't what a laptop is about.. and then lets not get started on the ergonomics of using a laptop for long periods of time at a dedicated workstation/desk let along fumbling somewhere trying to get comfortable in random locations.
 
Laptop. I bought an midrange machine with an i3 and a 5650 graphics card in 2010 and I find everything runs brilliantly. Stopped using my PC after I bought it (which was a [email protected]) and ended up selling my desktop. Don't regret it at all :)
 
Its funny but ever since my wife bought her new laptop I find myself using that more than my PC now, and now im thinking of swapping to a laptop also.
 
Laptops don't carry the same durability as desktops. Anything breaks in a laptop and it's never a good thing. Parts are expensive and motherboards are almost impossible to source, never mind trying to open it up to fit it!

Desktops are much easier to repair, cheaper, superior quality components and will last three times as long as a laptop and a bit more.

If size is an issue and you need it to be portable. Why not just buy a cheap laptop and keep the desktop? For extreme portability... get a £200 Dell netbook. OcUK stock them. That will do all your browsing and whatever else you need it for.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
Laptops don't carry the same durability as desktops. Anything breaks in a laptop and it's never a good thing. Parts are expensive and motherboards are almost impossible to source, never mind trying to open it up to fit it!

Desktops are much easier to repair, cheaper, superior quality components and will last three times as long as a laptop and a bit more.

If size is an issue and you need it to be portable. Why not just buy a cheap laptop and keep the desktop? For extreme portability... get a £200 Dell netbook. OcUK stock them. That will do all your browsing and whatever else you need it for.
Click to expand...

A netbook doesn't really offer the power that the OP needs. Laptops are generally durable and now even easy to take apart (not that it really needs to be done unless you want to upgrade the CPU).

As said before I think you should go for it! I did and haven't looked back.
 
@sagum, i mean a pci expasion slot so that you can put in addon card for example say the EMU 1616m, i want a laptop powerful enough to be an audio production workstation, the software i use utilizes multiple cores so quad core will make a beter impact over dual.

The idea of keepingmy desktop and getting a midrange laptop is a good idea but m gopoing to need a bit more processing power, besides my pc will then never get used and ££££ of hardware will be left sat there until i use it for extreme recording.

edit: a pci on a laptop would be the thing on the top of this box.

this goes into the slot.

27464_l.jpg
 
Last edited:
if the PC is just being moved to a single place where you can store some of your stuff then you could always go for a SFF upgrade to the PC, and buy a second monitor/keyboard/mouse/whatever for the place you record. obviously this wont work if your recording in lots of places, or if you cant store the stuff at the recording place
 
The expansion card you mean is called a PC card, or if you're old school PCMCIA.

Don't know why they changed the name, it seems just needlessly confusing, though easier to say.
 
its important that the laptop i got was able to house that card in that picture emu 1616m, it would allow me to hook up the break out box and record in 24 bit 192khz plus it would allow me to hook up tudio monitors, i just hope dell have them i cant see anywhere where it would state
 
I don't think you'll find many laptops with the PCMCIA slot anymore, not because its slow (card bus is about twice as fast as USB 2) but rather its bulky.
With laptops, as you know space and weight are a premium, so when the same thing (at least most of the time) can be done with USB due to the increased CPU power, it makes sense to move from PCMCIA to USB devices.

Do creative an updated USB version? I'd be surprised if they even have Windows vista/7 drivers for the PCIMA card anyway.

The only real direct expansion laptops have these days is Mini-PCI express slots but they're mostly internal for things like wifi cards.


On the topic of the orignal post with regards to premiere pro, after affects and 3dmax they can be setup to use the processing power of your PC as a server.
It wouldn't be left there wasted if you set it up properly. I've not had any experiance with the sound side of things, but I assume there would be something along the same lines in the bigger software titles.
 
garyfl said:
the only thing i can think my laptop would need is an ssd. lots of storage and a fast processor lots of ram, id specifically like a 1080p screen but that would bugger game fps but thats what i need for real estate at a minimum really.

i have in my pc whats in my sig and probly use 20% of is power max a day. i doubt id really lose much going from a pc to laptop money wise really. at least if im using 85% of the laptops power compared to my 20% of my pc im getting better value in the end.
Click to expand...

Laptops with lots of RAM and an SSD cost quite a bit. Due to the desktop real-estate you require, you'll need a monitor to go with it. You want lots of storage, so that's an external drive to carry as well, or an insanely expensive internal SSD.

a 1080p screen doesn't mean you have to play the game at that, lower it and boost the fps....

Using a laptop at 85% may seem better value for money than a PC at 20%, but it simply isn't because the laptop will cost more for what you require. Also, when you do need the extra capability, you'll be pulling your hair out because you simply can't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom