Laptop Spec for Music Production

M

MrMoon

New member
Hi All
I'm wanting a new laptop for work and music production, my work won't be as system intensive as my Music stuff. I will be running something like Cubase using something like NI's Komplete. It will all be MIDI and there will be no recording of live instruments.
Here is the important bits of the spec

Chassis & Display: Enigma II: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit Wide Screen (1920X1080)
Processor (CPU): Intel Core I7 Quad Core Mobile Processor (1.73GHz)
Memory RAM: 8GB Samsung 1333MHZ SODIMM DDR3 Memory (2*4GB)
Memory - Hard Disk: 500GB WD Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT, Sata 3GBs 16MB Cache (7200 Rpm)

The rest of it is standard fodder from the 'Build Your Own Laptop'> Top Spec Laptops 15.6 Enigma i7.

If anyone could give me there expert opinion on it if there is anything else I should be considering I don't want to spend over 1K and it has to be portable enough for me to take on my daily commute into work.

I also have a couple of other questions:
1. Could someone explain the new 'i' processor figures to me I thought the higher the number then the faster it is ie) A 2.54 Intel Core 2 or whatever will be quicker than a 1.6 something or other, I assume it has something to do with the number of cores as my old laptop is higher than 1.73GHZ.

2. I may get a Blu Ray player with it as well I'm assuming the screen resolution 1920X1080 Full HD is for Blu Ray's, I would hate to get one and it looks just like a normal DVD.

Sorry if there noddy questions.:cool:
 
pengipete

pengipete

Rising Star
The 1920 X1080 resolution is the right one for full HD but that doesn't mean that you "must" have Blu-ray. On a screen that size, you'll see the difference of HD versus SD movies but you'll not be staggered by the difference. Overall, I'd say that Blu-ray on a laptop is still in the luxury stage but if you can afford it and you will buying Blu-ray movies rather than DVD to watch at home then go for it. Don't forget that Blu-ray discs don't hold "better" pictures - they just hold a lot more data and it's that which allows for improved image quality as there's less compression required. If you are getting a Blu-ray reader, you won't be able to write to the disks but if you also have a desktop with a Blu-ray rewriter, you are looking at being able to store upto ten times more data than you can on a DVD - very useful for backups (essential for anyone creative). As an aside, if you own DVD's that you still want to watch, there's a number of PC applications such as PowerDVD 10 that will upscale and process the picture quality - they'll not look as good as genuine HD but the difference is quite amazing.

The "i" series is a family of CPUs. There are two things to look at to work out which is most powerful - the number after the "i" and then the three figure number. It's not quite this simple but basically, an i5 is more powerful than an i3 but less powerful than an i7. After, the larger the three figure number - e.g. 920, 930 etc - generally means either faster or newer design. (In reality, there may be no physical difference between, say, an i7-920 and an i7-930. The chips are produced and tested and the best ones will be sold as 930s whilst the next best will have their top speed "capped" so they can't run quite as fast - where minor flaws would be more likely to cause problems - and sold as 920's. The chips are tested in batches rather than individually so some "good" chips get sold as the cheaper version and some lucky owners are able to overclock them to get premium performance at "bargain" prices.)

There are a few other differences - the i3 and i5 series have the graphics processor built into the CPU whereas the i7 series (except forone odd-ball chip) don't. Unfortunately, it's difficult to compare the "i" series with previous CPUs but in general, they are much faster at the same speed - so a 2.5GHz "i" will feel a lot faster than a Core 2 at the same speed in most situations.

...Skip this bit unless you enjoy reading boring waffle....
Also, the three figure numbers change as the basic design is changed, Sometimes the change is dramatic and obvious - six cores instead of four - but more often it's because the machines that build the chips have been improved to allow for the same components to fit onto a smaller amount of silicon - that why you'll see chips describes at 65nm or 45 nm - the smaller number means more components in the same space. When you're looking at microscopic circuits, reducing the space between components makes a measurable difference to speeds - much like moving Birmignham nearer to London - the car travels at the same speed but gets there quicker)
...Boring bit finished...

One important thing to consider in your specific circumstances is the operating system. With Windows 7, 64 bit computing has really taken off and I think PCS would tell you that it's almost the default now. The problem is that Cubase and - more so - the various VST's and VSTi's can be very twitchy and many will refuse to work on 63 bits systems if they were designed for 32 bits. For that reason, when I bought my latest PC from PCS, I ordered it without an OS and purchased a full copy of Windows 7 seperately because it includes both 32 and 64 bit versions. Cost wise, it was around £30 more than the OEM version that PCS supply (got mine on Amazon - cheapest I could find that I knew would be legit). If you use a 32 bit version of Windows, you will be limited to using around 3Gb of RAM no matter how much is installed - there's no way around it.

Other than that, what are you going to do sound-wise? Onboard sound is fine for listening but if you will be recording live instruments you could suffer with high latency or struggle to get full duplex. You may need to look at external hardware if you don't already have it.
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
The original i-series processors are spllit into 3 catagories: i3, i5 and i7. The i3's are dual core cpu's with hyperthreading (4 threads) which are better than core 2 duo processors, the i5's are very similiar to the i3's but have turbo boost to increase their clock speed when it's needed and the i7's have 2-4 cores with hyperthreading but also have a superior architechture with more cache available.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top