Thread Are the newest non-pro laptops powerful enough to run a decent DAW?

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Ron Soco

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1 Posted on 09/19/2006 at 23:57:21

Couldn't help but notice

Dell Inspiron 6400
Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHZ/4MB/667MHzFSB)
2 GB RAM
100 GB 7200rpm SATA HD

This seems very well stocked for a mid-priced non-pro laptop. I know laptop hardware is supposed to function at lower speed/power for given specs than desktop equivalents, but would such a machine suffice for a decent entry-level DAW (ie: mixing cubase sx up to 20 tracks, mainly mic'd music and percussion through something like a Presonus Firebox with very few effects)? What about for recording 4 simultaneous microphone/line-in tracks?

I need a portable computer as it will have to function for my work as well because of my limited budget. Am also considering the slightly more expensive iMac 17" 2Ghz because I have heard that it is likely to work well with such audio hardware and software, however this would be too cumbersome to take to work with me and I can't afford Mac notebooks with similar specs. If the Dell could get me by with the above requirements that would be very nice.

If anyone who knows of such things has any input, I'd be ever grateful.
Cheers,
Ron

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ra7or

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2 Posted on 09/20/2006 at 05:06:34

to answer your question i shall quote myself

%1$s a écrit my first recording station (yeeeears ago) was a pentium2 233 mhz pc with cubase vst32 (..windows 98... oh the memories... ) and i could track bands with no problem.

i guess you're good to go

st johns nutjob

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3 Posted on 09/25/2006 at 06:38:39

Hey ra7or! I need some advice from someone who ran computer recording back in the day of win98 and that sounds like you. All I need for mobile recording is max 8 in and headphones out to a laptop. I'm fine with 16bit 48 khz etc. I'm finding that the faster the laptop gets, the louder the cooling systems get. So I'm trying to peg the slowest laptop to use that doesn't get bogged down just recording 8 straight analog channels. Cards like the motu 828, M-audio 1814, and Presonus Firepod have the 8 inputs I want, and I could probably set them to record at 16 bit which would tax the laptop a little less.

I'm just wondering if you had a rig like this around the 400-500 mhz era and how it performed.

All mastering and editing I plan on doing on my desktop, I just want a very easy, quiet, cheap platform on which to record dry tracks

ra7or

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4 Posted on 09/25/2006 at 07:40:26

i had a motu 2408 mk1 (first model with 20 bit digital converters).
the drivers were designed for win98 machines with a minimum cpu of 200 mhz.
obviously you couldn't load your project with tons of vst plugins (that was also a good thing beacause it teaches to choose wisely

), but tracking was definetly not a problem.
cpu speed is critical only for plugins, not for recording.

surfer_en

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5 Posted on 10/06/2006 at 09:11:24

I have: Dell latitute 505 1.7ghz intel m, 1G-ram.
I'm running Pro Tools le on digirack 002 and have an ada 8000 from berhinger.
I can record up to 16 channels with no problems. I think you are in good position with that inspiron

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