Help me buy a new laptop!!!

Radius · 7th February 2006, 02:48 AM

Bad news: My car got broken into and my laptop was stolen...(I'm a grad student by day....D'oh.....)

Good news: Gives me a reason to get away from Dell, who I had a terrible experience with.

So all you laptoppers out there, recommend me a laptop! Hopefully something with a Pentium M, I want to be able to be very portable and have a long battery life, that's nice and portable. I don't need a bigger screen than 14". What's a good compromise of CPU/RAM/$$$??? What brands should I check out (outside of Gateway, HP, etc. just please don't say DELL). What have you had good experiences with? Are there any discounted laptop brands a la eMachines?

Also, anyone with one of the pre-tweaked-for-audio computers, how did it work out? I had an annoying time making my old computer happy with the i88x (although I did finally get it there).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks slutz!

FFTT · 7th February 2006, 03:17 AM

Dual Core Mac Book Pro!

Henchman · 7th February 2006, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FFTT

Dual Core Mac Book Pro!

Usless for audio, and slower than any PC laptop for the samer price.

No that we got that out of the way, first what's your budget?

In the 1k to 1.5K range, nothign beats the AMD64 based gateway machines for Audio.

FFTT · 7th February 2006, 11:38 AM

It may help to know what applications you plan to run and your budget would also help.

Logic 7 Pro, ProTools LE/M-Powered, Cubase SX, LIVE?

The company I work for just purchased new Windows based laptops for our entire department.

They were finally forced to update our machines from '98 to XP.

We work in the field, so these machines are secured to our truck mounted
pedestals.

These computers have one purpose, to connect to the wireless LAN server
with one application.
We aren't even permitted to email each other or connect to the intenet in any way.

They spent $3700 on my new Panasonic ToughBook.

When I think of how much computer I could have bought with that budget, it makes me cringe.

kclisby · 7th February 2006, 07:02 PM

If you're trying to stay with a pc with pentium M processor then Fujitsu is the bomb.......

They are reliable as hell... and they're a workhorse... I personally have the the lifebook 6210... It's a beast .... Big 17" screen... 200 gigs of hard drive, 1.5 megs of ram... Fast... I run everything on it without a problem...

It's a more pricey than a dell would be but it's that much better...

Kerry

hammerfall · 7th February 2006, 07:13 PM

Chec out the Sonica Labs Z-7100

http://www.shop-sonica.com/pd_d800.cfm

I love it! Fast, firewire and cardbus are both robust, 7200rpm hard drive, 2GB of RAM, did I mention it's fast?

theblue1 · 7th February 2006, 08:09 PM

Hmm... I'm still a bit iffy about the nameplate, but I have heard a fair number of good things (mostly from one guy

) about the relatively low-priced Acer notebooks.

I noticed this one at circuit city (web special):

Acer Aspire Notebook PC (AS5004WLMI)
ACA AS5004WLMI
• AMD Turion™ 64 M-34
• 1024MB of DDR333 memory
• 15.4" WXGA TFT display
• 100GB hard drive
• Double-layer DVD+/-RW
• 802.11g/b wireless

$900 after rebate. 64 bit chip, GB or RAM. No Firewire, though.

I noticed they had a Pentium M for $100 more (better battery life but probably not as much raw processing power).

Me... I've had good luck with my Dell notebook -- but then I haven't had to call them (except for a little rubber replacement foot for the bottom of the [refurbished] unit right after I got it). They Fed-Exed it, which I thought was unnecessary but nice. But I just had a friend who had a negative experience with Dell (after my recommendation. Now, I never really figured out what he thought the problem was, he's kind of a difficult guy. But he wasn't happy. So, draw your own conclusions. But I've backed off a bit on my already qualified recommendations.)

tnjazz · 7th February 2006, 09:50 PM

Fujitsus rock. IMO, far and away the best manufacturer of laptops (with reasonable pricing for accessories and such!) out there today.

In the past 4 years I've owned a total of 7 Fujitsu laptops. I still have three of them. The other 4 were sold to upgrade, etc. - each one worked and was rock solid from day one until the day I sold it.

I'll admit I'm an import laptop slut to some degree. My main surfing/2-4 channel recording laptop is a T-70G (Japanese model of the P5020D). Still, there are very small differences between the imports and the US models. Made a difference for me, but probably not for most people out there. Regardless of all that, the Fujitsu laptops are just so solid and superior in every way to anything else I've messed around with that I wouldn't even consider using anything else.

If/when one of my current crop goes down, there is absolutely no question that it will be replaced by another Fujitsu. I don't think you can go wrong with them at all.

Lots of different product lines for different types of laptop users - not a lemon in the bunch from my experience.

Dirk

Radius · 7th February 2006, 11:13 PM

Thanks, folks.

Sorry about the vagueness, but it prob. needs to be XP for work stuff. Plus all the freeware available.

I don't really care about intel or amd, I just would like something with long battery life a la Pentium M.

Hopefully budget in the 1K-1.5K range. I use SX and Live.

Keep 'em coming! I'll check into the Fujitsu and some of the AMD 64 processors.

kclisby · 7th February 2006, 11:46 PM

You can really get a fujitsu on ebay from the fujitsu computer store.... It's their ebay division.... I got my computer for half off.... Great deal.... You can go through and look at all the auctions they have going.... Some will be refurbished, but mostly all of them are brand new.... You get the manufacturers warranty and all... And their customer service is the best.... They even gave me extra ram.... So really check em out.... on ebay of course.... The savings are incredible... I was debating between my fujitsu and a mac notebook... and this thing is one of the most amazing pc's on the market... and again... the reliability of fujitsu speaks for itself... ask any computer guy at any major computer place.... They out perform any of the other desktops at FRYS.... So just search for them on ebay...

Kerry

moon_unit · 8th February 2006, 12:28 AM

As much of a fan as I am of AMD ... for the most part, you'll tend to get longer battery life out of Intels, and particularly with the Centrino processors. And they tend to run a little cooler, which can be a bonus depending on the model.

Personally, I tend to be more concerned with price / performance and speed variables, which is why I tend to favor AMD Turion. However, if battery life were a high priority, then I probably wouldn't go in that direction. Centrino would be a more likely bet in that scenario. As for brands, I would look at Acer or Gateway if you want high value for the dollar (I have a newer AMD 64-based Acer Aspire that I couldn't be happier with - solid machine), or Sony or Toshiba if you don't mind paying a little more and getting a few more bells / whistles in the process (the chipsets on the Sonys and Toshibas are also compatible with just about any audio interface out there).

Check the reviews, though, first if you want to get an idea of how many hours you can get out of the battery. Also to look out for any issues like overheating (stay away from anything that does).

.

CeretoneAudio · 8th February 2006, 01:40 AM

Hey I just bought myself a beautiful new lttle Toshiba laptop, its an M70 satellaite with a PM 1.8 proc, 512 MB RAM (will be upgrading to 1.5 GB asap with Corsair 1 GB stick) 80GB HDD etc, ATI x700 128 MB graphics 15.4" ws etc it has TI fire wire chip sets and TI PCMCIA etc.

Its not the top of the line or anything but it smokes for audio. Im using it with a Presonus Firebox and its Low latency performance absolutely kills my desktop (P4 3.2 1GB corsair ll, Rme Multiface etc) Im really really happy with this machine its fast and solid as a rock, What more can you ask for? Im running SX 2.2.39 software.

manning1 · 8th February 2006, 02:43 AM

(i wish someone would make this a sticky)...
my standard laptop tip list...
radius)..laptop do's//donts..potential problem areas..
0. laptop onboard sound chips (eg..sigma tel)...should NEVER BE USED.
they were never designed to do low latency pro audio multitracking.
also they are very noisy.
1. if a laptop has less than 512 memory ram. this can be a problem.
because xp needs memory itself. sophisticated power hungry users with lots of samples/orchestras will need tons more memory..
or even have to dedicate a seperate pc for just such needs.
2. if the laptop has a slow hard drive (eg..4200 rpm)...the "lite"
user might get away with it but the power hungry...needing lots of tracks/plug ins will prolly need to replace the slow internal laptop drive with
a 7200 rpm one....and maybe at some point get a second external drive.
3. if a laptop has a slow processor...this can be a problem for the power user.
i recommend people BEFORE BUYING A LAPTOP load up your audio software on amd 64, sempron,p4,centrino laptops...record 3 minutes of audio..then time with a watch how long the laptop takes to do pitch shift on the track.
the fastest time is the fastest laptop.....my own preference is amd 64 due to the way it handles memory, and intel centrino (because of the centrino cache size).
for the power user i recommend staying away from celerons.
4. if the laptop has a poor usb or firewire implementation..in its chipset
this can be a problem.....a clue to a flaky laptop chipset is if several different
usb and firewire devices wont work with it.
ideally the chosen sound solution should be checked with the laptop before buying the laptop.
unfortunately too many people buy the laptop before checking this critical aspect.
which is bass ackwards....the problem is plug n play is oversold...
and with some laptops its plug n hope when it comes to external sound devices.
if others have anything more to add to the list ...please go ahead ..
i'm sure i forgot something.

ps..a friend of mines had an acer awhile which seems to be able to take a lot of
non stop work....but there are other many good ones out there.

petsematary · 8th February 2006, 02:52 AM

After owning several PC laptops and one (1) mac laptop, I couldn't seriously give any other recommendation than Mac. It's just no competition, no matter what you're using it for. No contest at all.

Henchman · 8th February 2006, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petsematary

After owning several PC laptops and one (1) mac laptop, I couldn't seriously give any other recommendation than Mac. It's just no competition, no matter what you're using it for. No contest at all.

Yeah yeah, we've heard it all before.

Anyway, if you are wanting to do use the laptop as a seriouse desktop replacement, then worrying about how long the battery lasts should be at the bottom of the list. Also, the AMD64 based laptops can shift to halfspeed when it doesn't need the extra power, and when runnign on batteries.

I love my M6805, but am looking forward to when I can get a dualcore AMD64 with 2 internal harddrives.
And a sfar as contest go, I'll put my $1k laptop up against your Apple laptop any day for some seriouse audio work and mixing.

FFTT · 8th February 2006, 03:55 AM

Unless you're planning on burning 8 GB feature films, I'd pass on the dual layer burner.
The discs are expensive and generally, most people don't burn that amount of data.

It's sort of like the cheap printers that bite you in the ass for ink.

You're hearing a lot of flack about universal binary applications not being quite ready for the Intel based Macs, but who says you'll be that much better off when you're forced to update to Vista compatible applications and plugins.

You will also have to deal with the typical Windows Badware issues.

The Mac Book Pros will supposedly be able to Boot OS X, Vista and Linux applications.

That kind of versatility is hard to ignore.

Even if you ordered a MBP today, it probably won't ship till mid March at this point because of back orders.

The equivalent Core Duo Windows based laptops should be remarkable performers.

I don't know about delivery times though.

Unlike most buyers, your situation mandates that you actually NEED a new computer
and fairly soon.

If you weren't dead set on getting another laptop, I'd recommend a Core Duo
17" iMac for $1199 ( edu) with 2 GB third party RAM as your primary workstation and any cheap laptop to cover essential portable needs.

A whole bunch of pros are buying iMacs because they get a much better computer
than any laptop offers for the money. Then then buy a refurb 12" 1.33 GHz iBook for $799.00 to cover portability.

This gives you a powerful workstation AND portability for the price of any high
quality workstation laptop alone.

theblue1 · 8th February 2006, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petsematary

I hate tremolo arms. Why would I want a device to change pitch? If I wanted a higher note, I would've played it in the first place. People who can't decide what note to play should think first and then play it...

Sorry... I just had to respond to your sig...

One thing about even tempered tuning -- you know that many if not most of the notes you're going to be playing will be wrong. At least with a trem bar or a slide you're going to pass through the accurate pitch.

Henchman · 8th February 2006, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FFTT

Unless you're planning on burning 8 GB feature films, I'd pass on the dual layer burner.
The discs are expensive and generally, most people don't burn that amount of data.

It's sort of like the cheap printers that bite you in the ass for ink.

You're hearing a lot of flack about universal binary applications not being quite ready for the Intel based Macs, but who says you'll be that much better off when you're forced to update to Vista compatible applications and plugins.

You will also have to deal with the typical Windows Badware issues.

The Mac Book Pros will supposedly be able to Boot OS X, Vista and Linux applications.

That kind of versatility is hard to ignore.

Even if you ordered a MBP today, it probably won't ship till mid March at this point because of back orders.

The equivalent Core Duo Windows based laptops should be remarkable performers.

I don't know about delivery times though.

Unlike most buyers, your situation mandates that you actually NEED a new computer
and fairly soon.

If you weren't dead set on getting another laptop, I'd recommend a Core Duo
17" iMac for $1199 ( edu) with 2 GB third party RAM as your primary workstation and any cheap laptop to cover essential portable needs.

A whole bunch of pros are buying iMacs because they get a much better computer
than any laptop offers for the money. Then then buy a refurb 12" 1.33 GHz iBook for $799.00 to cover portability.

This gives you a powerful workstation AND portability for the price of any high
quality workstation laptop alone.

You really should lay off the Mac bias trip.

For one thing you're telling him to get spend $2k on 2 computers, both nowhere near te power he'll get if he spends $2k on a PC laptop. Furthermore you want him to buy a computer platform that has no proven track record runnign ANY audio programs.

FFTT · 8th February 2006, 11:40 AM

I know enough people moving away from Windows to justify my recommendations.

As far as I'm concerned, you've been trolling every single post ANYONE makes with
a postive review of Apple products.

**Geert van den Berg** · 8th February 2006, 12:39 PM

Take it easy guys! No need to get sentimental about your weapon of choice.

As far as I can see, the original poster of this thread doesn't intend to go with a Mac.

Suggesting is allright, but if there's no request for further Mac information then maybe it would be better to look for other threads asking for Mac info.

manning1 · 8th February 2006, 02:01 PM

frankly .....imho...its only this past 18 months do i think laptops have sufficient processing power to be used as a daw. ..so i'm not surprised semetary had probs. but TODAYS PC LAPTOPS imho are quite powerfull...and a different
new world.
as i said radius....try a amd64 or centrino based laptop...and run tests.

Henchman · 8th February 2006, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FFTT

I know enough people moving away from Windows to justify my recommendations.

As far as I'm concerned, you've been trolling every single post ANYONE makes with
a postive review of Apple products.

The problem is, that you keep pushing the as of yet non-existant other than at Macworld, unproven new Macbook pro's. I would NEVER recommend a product that hasn't even been used in the realworld when it comes to Audio applications.

djbrough · 8th February 2006, 06:40 PM

http://www.adkproaudio.com/systems/laptop.cfm

These are all highly customizable, and Scott jsut happens to be a computer audio guru. Their knowledge and service are worth the price. You'll get a workhorse right out of the box. With their choices, you can pick your poison.

Radius · 8th February 2006, 06:49 PM

I appreciate the Mac/PC argument and everything, but I'm going to get a PC (for non-musical reasons).

I don't need the absolute fastest laptop in the world, but it seems like we're at a place where you can get a good balance of power and portability.

How's the AMD Turion 64 chip? Is it as good as the Athlons? I found a compaq with the Turion chipset, 14" screen (which actually seems kinda nice, I don't want a computer that's too big), 1G RAM, 100 G HD, firewire, 4 USB ports, good battery life, and the price is right...But I have no idea how the Turion compares...I haven't found a bench test for it online.

Again, thanks for all the responses, they have been quite helpful! Gotta love Gearslutz.

moon_unit · 8th February 2006, 10:05 PM

Yea, the Turions are great.

Make sure the battery life is okay for you ... and check out the fan / cooling on it. I don't know if it's a problem at all with the Compaq's, but there have been some over-heating issues with a few of the Turion models, so just be sure to check that out in advance.

Personally, if you're thinking of going with a Turion, then I'd have a serious look at the Gateway MX6425. What you get for the price with this thing is just sick. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Gatew...oductDetail.do

.

manning1 · 9th February 2006, 01:02 AM

radius....
just a word of caution......
test out your chosen external firewire or usb sound device for recording BEFORE buying the laptop...so....lets say you opt for a presonus firepod....for example....
hook up the firepod to the laptop and test it before buying the laptop.
the reason i say this is too many people just go out and buy a laptop THEN discover the usb or firewire implementation in the laptop is not the best.
another way to cover yourself is to ask the manufacturer of your chosen firewire or usb sound device which laptop brands they KNOW work perfectly with the interface. i was looking at a firepod yesterday....as my convertors are lousy....
it looks quite nice.

transfiguration · 9th February 2006, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kclisby

If you're trying to stay with a pc with pentium M processor then Fujitsu is the bomb.......

They are reliable as hell... and they're a workhorse... I personally have the the lifebook 6210... It's a beast .... Big 17" screen... 200 gigs of hard drive, 1.5 megs of ram... Fast... I run everything on it without a problem...

It's a more pricey than a dell would be but it's that much better...

Kerry

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnjazz

Fujitsus rock. IMO, far and away the best manufacturer of laptops (with reasonable pricing for accessories and such!) out there today.

In the past 4 years I've owned a total of 7 Fujitsu laptops. I still have three of them. The other 4 were sold to upgrade, etc. - each one worked and was rock solid from day one until the day I sold it.

I'll admit I'm an import laptop slut to some degree. My main surfing/2-4 channel recording laptop is a T-70G (Japanese model of the P5020D). Still, there are very small differences between the imports and the US models. Made a difference for me, but probably not for most people out there. Regardless of all that, the Fujitsu laptops are just so solid and superior in every way to anything else I've messed around with that I wouldn't even consider using anything else.

If/when one of my current crop goes down, there is absolutely no question that it will be replaced by another Fujitsu. I don't think you can go wrong with them at all.

Lots of different product lines for different types of laptop users - not a lemon in the bunch from my experience.

Dirk

Quote:

Originally Posted by kclisby

You can really get a fujitsu on ebay from the fujitsu computer store.... It's their ebay division.... I got my computer for half off.... Great deal.... You can go through and look at all the auctions they have going.... Some will be refurbished, but mostly all of them are brand new.... You get the manufacturers warranty and all... And their customer service is the best.... They even gave me extra ram.... So really check em out.... on ebay of course.... The savings are incredible... I was debating between my fujitsu and a mac notebook... and this thing is one of the most amazing pc's on the market... and again... the reliability of fujitsu speaks for itself... ask any computer guy at any major computer place.... They out perform any of the other desktops at FRYS.... So just search for them on ebay...

Kerry

Am looking at Fujitsu seriously.

Intel Pentium 4 vs. Athlon AMD 64...stability for professional audio applications...what say you?

400 vs. 800 front side bus speed...big deal or aint no thing really?

Should I be sorry I missed this?

Best, chris

Radius · 9th February 2006, 01:52 AM

Thanks for the concern...I have an i88x so I already have a PC card that works, so I'm not overly worried.

I'll keep you all posted. There's a Sony dual core machine that looks interesting but I've heard bad things about VAIO reliability.

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7th February 2006, 02:48 AM	#1
Radius Gear interested Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 18	Help me buy a new laptop!!! Bad news: My car got broken into and my laptop was stolen...(I'm a grad student by day....D'oh.....) Good news: Gives me a reason to get away from Dell, who I had a terrible experience with. So all you laptoppers out there, recommend me a laptop! Hopefully something with a Pentium M, I want to be able to be very portable and have a long battery life, that's nice and portable. I don't need a bigger screen than 14". What's a good compromise of CPU/RAM/$$$??? What brands should I check out (outside of Gateway, HP, etc. just please don't say DELL). What have you had good experiences with? Are there any discounted laptop brands a la eMachines? Also, anyone with one of the pre-tweaked-for-audio computers, how did it work out? I had an annoying time making my old computer happy with the i88x (although I did finally get it there). Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks slutz!

7th February 2006, 08:09 PM	#7
theblue1 Lives for gear Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 5,760	Hmm... I'm still a bit iffy about the nameplate, but I have heard a fair number of good things (mostly from one guy ) about the relatively low-priced Acer notebooks. I noticed this one at circuit city (web special): Acer Aspire Notebook PC (AS5004WLMI) ACA AS5004WLMI • AMD Turion™ 64 M-34 • 1024MB of DDR333 memory • 15.4" WXGA TFT display • 100GB hard drive • Double-layer DVD+/-RW • 802.11g/b wireless $900 after rebate. 64 bit chip, GB or RAM. No Firewire, though. I noticed they had a Pentium M for $100 more (better battery life but probably not as much raw processing power). Me... I've had good luck with my Dell notebook -- but then I haven't had to call them (except for a little rubber replacement foot for the bottom of the [refurbished] unit right after I got it). They Fed-Exed it, which I thought was unnecessary but nice. But I just had a friend who had a negative experience with Dell (after my recommendation. Now, I never really figured out what he thought the problem was, he's kind of a difficult guy. But he wasn't happy. So, draw your own conclusions. But I've backed off a bit on my already qualified recommendations.) __________________ biz \| profile \| songblog \| acoustic \| mutant roots pop

8th February 2006, 02:43 AM	#13
manning1 Lives for gear Join Date: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,186	(i wish someone would make this a sticky)... my standard laptop tip list... radius)..laptop do's//donts..potential problem areas.. 0. laptop onboard sound chips (eg..sigma tel)...should NEVER BE USED. they were never designed to do low latency pro audio multitracking. also they are very noisy. 1. if a laptop has less than 512 memory ram. this can be a problem. because xp needs memory itself. sophisticated power hungry users with lots of samples/orchestras will need tons more memory.. or even have to dedicate a seperate pc for just such needs. 2. if the laptop has a slow hard drive (eg..4200 rpm)...the "lite" user might get away with it but the power hungry...needing lots of tracks/plug ins will prolly need to replace the slow internal laptop drive with a 7200 rpm one....and maybe at some point get a second external drive. 3. if a laptop has a slow processor...this can be a problem for the power user. i recommend people BEFORE BUYING A LAPTOP load up your audio software on amd 64, sempron,p4,centrino laptops...record 3 minutes of audio..then time with a watch how long the laptop takes to do pitch shift on the track. the fastest time is the fastest laptop.....my own preference is amd 64 due to the way it handles memory, and intel centrino (because of the centrino cache size). for the power user i recommend staying away from celerons. 4. if the laptop has a poor usb or firewire implementation..in its chipset this can be a problem.....a clue to a flaky laptop chipset is if several different usb and firewire devices wont work with it. ideally the chosen sound solution should be checked with the laptop before buying the laptop. unfortunately too many people buy the laptop before checking this critical aspect. which is bass ackwards....the problem is plug n play is oversold... and with some laptops its plug n hope when it comes to external sound devices. if others have anything more to add to the list ...please go ahead .. i'm sure i forgot something. ps..a friend of mines had an acer awhile which seems to be able to take a lot of non stop work....but there are other many good ones out there. __________________ i'm just a dumb computer engr (ret'd)...."quantum computing is the future" running a native software studio daw...Powertracks and Reaper on amd. my little songs www.motagator.com/bmanning (saving up for pristine ADA convertors i cant afford...lol)

8th February 2006, 02:52 AM	#14
petsematary Lives for gear Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: East Coast, Sweden Posts: 1,141	After owning several PC laptops and one (1) mac laptop, I couldn't seriously give any other recommendation than Mac. It's just no competition, no matter what you're using it for. No contest at all. __________________ (click to see me and my work)

7th February 2006, 03:17 AM	#2
FFTT Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: A stoned throw from ground zero Posts: 2,951	Dual Core Mac Book Pro!

7th February 2006, 11:38 AM	#4
FFTT Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: A stoned throw from ground zero Posts: 2,951	It may help to know what applications you plan to run and your budget would also help. Logic 7 Pro, ProTools LE/M-Powered, Cubase SX, LIVE? The company I work for just purchased new Windows based laptops for our entire department. They were finally forced to update our machines from '98 to XP. We work in the field, so these machines are secured to our truck mounted pedestals. These computers have one purpose, to connect to the wireless LAN server with one application. We aren't even permitted to email each other or connect to the intenet in any way. They spent $3700 on my new Panasonic ToughBook. When I think of how much computer I could have bought with that budget, it makes me cringe.

7th February 2006, 07:02 PM	#5
kclisby Gear maniac Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 153	If you're trying to stay with a pc with pentium M processor then Fujitsu is the bomb....... They are reliable as hell... and they're a workhorse... I personally have the the lifebook 6210... It's a beast .... Big 17" screen... 200 gigs of hard drive, 1.5 megs of ram... Fast... I run everything on it without a problem... It's a more pricey than a dell would be but it's that much better... Kerry

7th February 2006, 07:13 PM	#6
hammerfall Gear Head Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 57	Chec out the Sonica Labs Z-7100 http://www.shop-sonica.com/pd_d800.cfm I love it! Fast, firewire and cardbus are both robust, 7200rpm hard drive, 2GB of RAM, did I mention it's fast?

7th February 2006, 09:50 PM	#8
tnjazz Lives for gear Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Music City, USA Posts: 1,352	Fujitsus rock. IMO, far and away the best manufacturer of laptops (with reasonable pricing for accessories and such!) out there today. In the past 4 years I've owned a total of 7 Fujitsu laptops. I still have three of them. The other 4 were sold to upgrade, etc. - each one worked and was rock solid from day one until the day I sold it. I'll admit I'm an import laptop slut to some degree. My main surfing/2-4 channel recording laptop is a T-70G (Japanese model of the P5020D). Still, there are very small differences between the imports and the US models. Made a difference for me, but probably not for most people out there. Regardless of all that, the Fujitsu laptops are just so solid and superior in every way to anything else I've messed around with that I wouldn't even consider using anything else. If/when one of my current crop goes down, there is absolutely no question that it will be replaced by another Fujitsu. I don't think you can go wrong with them at all. Lots of different product lines for different types of laptop users - not a lemon in the bunch from my experience. Dirk

7th February 2006, 11:13 PM	#9
Radius Gear interested Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 18	Thanks, folks. Sorry about the vagueness, but it prob. needs to be XP for work stuff. Plus all the freeware available. I don't really care about intel or amd, I just would like something with long battery life a la Pentium M. Hopefully budget in the 1K-1.5K range. I use SX and Live. Keep 'em coming! I'll check into the Fujitsu and some of the AMD 64 processors.

7th February 2006, 11:46 PM	#10
kclisby Gear maniac Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 153	You can really get a fujitsu on ebay from the fujitsu computer store.... It's their ebay division.... I got my computer for half off.... Great deal.... You can go through and look at all the auctions they have going.... Some will be refurbished, but mostly all of them are brand new.... You get the manufacturers warranty and all... And their customer service is the best.... They even gave me extra ram.... So really check em out.... on ebay of course.... The savings are incredible... I was debating between my fujitsu and a mac notebook... and this thing is one of the most amazing pc's on the market... and again... the reliability of fujitsu speaks for itself... ask any computer guy at any major computer place.... They out perform any of the other desktops at FRYS.... So just search for them on ebay... Kerry

8th February 2006, 12:28 AM	#11
moon_unit Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Bucktown. Chicago, IL Posts: 509	As much of a fan as I am of AMD ... for the most part, you'll tend to get longer battery life out of Intels, and particularly with the Centrino processors. And they tend to run a little cooler, which can be a bonus depending on the model. Personally, I tend to be more concerned with price / performance and speed variables, which is why I tend to favor AMD Turion. However, if battery life were a high priority, then I probably wouldn't go in that direction. Centrino would be a more likely bet in that scenario. As for brands, I would look at Acer or Gateway if you want high value for the dollar (I have a newer AMD 64-based Acer Aspire that I couldn't be happier with - solid machine), or Sony or Toshiba if you don't mind paying a little more and getting a few more bells / whistles in the process (the chipsets on the Sonys and Toshibas are also compatible with just about any audio interface out there). Check the reviews, though, first if you want to get an idea of how many hours you can get out of the battery. Also to look out for any issues like overheating (stay away from anything that does). .

8th February 2006, 01:40 AM	#12
CeretoneAudio Gear Head Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 56	Hey I just bought myself a beautiful new lttle Toshiba laptop, its an M70 satellaite with a PM 1.8 proc, 512 MB RAM (will be upgrading to 1.5 GB asap with Corsair 1 GB stick) 80GB HDD etc, ATI x700 128 MB graphics 15.4" ws etc it has TI fire wire chip sets and TI PCMCIA etc. Its not the top of the line or anything but it smokes for audio. Im using it with a Presonus Firebox and its Low latency performance absolutely kills my desktop (P4 3.2 1GB corsair ll, Rme Multiface etc) Im really really happy with this machine its fast and solid as a rock, What more can you ask for? Im running SX 2.2.39 software.

8th February 2006, 03:55 AM	#16
FFTT Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: A stoned throw from ground zero Posts: 2,951	Unless you're planning on burning 8 GB feature films, I'd pass on the dual layer burner. The discs are expensive and generally, most people don't burn that amount of data. It's sort of like the cheap printers that bite you in the ass for ink. You're hearing a lot of flack about universal binary applications not being quite ready for the Intel based Macs, but who says you'll be that much better off when you're forced to update to Vista compatible applications and plugins. You will also have to deal with the typical Windows Badware issues. The Mac Book Pros will supposedly be able to Boot OS X, Vista and Linux applications. That kind of versatility is hard to ignore. Even if you ordered a MBP today, it probably won't ship till mid March at this point because of back orders. The equivalent Core Duo Windows based laptops should be remarkable performers. I don't know about delivery times though. Unlike most buyers, your situation mandates that you actually NEED a new computer and fairly soon. If you weren't dead set on getting another laptop, I'd recommend a Core Duo 17" iMac for $1199 ( edu) with 2 GB third party RAM as your primary workstation and any cheap laptop to cover essential portable needs. A whole bunch of pros are buying iMacs because they get a much better computer than any laptop offers for the money. Then then buy a refurb 12" 1.33 GHz iBook for $799.00 to cover portability. This gives you a powerful workstation AND portability for the price of any high quality workstation laptop alone.

8th February 2006, 11:40 AM	#19
FFTT Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: A stoned throw from ground zero Posts: 2,951	I know enough people moving away from Windows to justify my recommendations. As far as I'm concerned, you've been trolling every single post ANYONE makes with a postive review of Apple products.

8th February 2006, 12:39 PM	#20
Geert van den Berg Mac Moderator Join Date: May 2003 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 2,580	Take it easy guys! No need to get sentimental about your weapon of choice. As far as I can see, the original poster of this thread doesn't intend to go with a Mac. Suggesting is allright, but if there's no request for further Mac information then maybe it would be better to look for other threads asking for Mac info.

8th February 2006, 02:01 PM	#21
manning1 Lives for gear Join Date: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,186	frankly .....imho...its only this past 18 months do i think laptops have sufficient processing power to be used as a daw. ..so i'm not surprised semetary had probs. but TODAYS PC LAPTOPS imho are quite powerfull...and a different new world. as i said radius....try a amd64 or centrino based laptop...and run tests. __________________ i'm just a dumb computer engr (ret'd)...."quantum computing is the future" running a native software studio daw...Powertracks and Reaper on amd. my little songs www.motagator.com/bmanning (saving up for pristine ADA convertors i cant afford...lol)

8th February 2006, 06:40 PM	#23
djbrough Gear addict Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 358	http://www.adkproaudio.com/systems/laptop.cfm These are all highly customizable, and Scott jsut happens to be a computer audio guru. Their knowledge and service are worth the price. You'll get a workhorse right out of the box. With their choices, you can pick your poison.

8th February 2006, 06:49 PM	#24
Radius Gear interested Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 18	I appreciate the Mac/PC argument and everything, but I'm going to get a PC (for non-musical reasons). I don't need the absolute fastest laptop in the world, but it seems like we're at a place where you can get a good balance of power and portability. How's the AMD Turion 64 chip? Is it as good as the Athlons? I found a compaq with the Turion chipset, 14" screen (which actually seems kinda nice, I don't want a computer that's too big), 1G RAM, 100 G HD, firewire, 4 USB ports, good battery life, and the price is right...But I have no idea how the Turion compares...I haven't found a bench test for it online. Again, thanks for all the responses, they have been quite helpful! Gotta love Gearslutz.

8th February 2006, 10:05 PM	#25
moon_unit Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Bucktown. Chicago, IL Posts: 509	Yea, the Turions are great. Make sure the battery life is okay for you ... and check out the fan / cooling on it. I don't know if it's a problem at all with the Compaq's, but there have been some over-heating issues with a few of the Turion models, so just be sure to check that out in advance. Personally, if you're thinking of going with a Turion, then I'd have a serious look at the Gateway MX6425. What you get for the price with this thing is just sick. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Gatew...oductDetail.do .

9th February 2006, 01:02 AM	#26
manning1 Lives for gear Join Date: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,186	radius.... just a word of caution...... test out your chosen external firewire or usb sound device for recording BEFORE buying the laptop...so....lets say you opt for a presonus firepod....for example.... hook up the firepod to the laptop and test it before buying the laptop. the reason i say this is too many people just go out and buy a laptop THEN discover the usb or firewire implementation in the laptop is not the best. another way to cover yourself is to ask the manufacturer of your chosen firewire or usb sound device which laptop brands they KNOW work perfectly with the interface. i was looking at a firepod yesterday....as my convertors are lousy.... it looks quite nice. __________________ i'm just a dumb computer engr (ret'd)...."quantum computing is the future" running a native software studio daw...Powertracks and Reaper on amd. my little songs www.motagator.com/bmanning (saving up for pristine ADA convertors i cant afford...lol)

9th February 2006, 01:52 AM	#28
Radius Gear interested Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 18	Thanks for the concern...I have an i88x so I already have a PC card that works, so I'm not overly worried. I'll keep you all posted. There's a Sony dual core machine that looks interesting but I've heard bad things about VAIO reliability.