Eviance « Alienware m17 »
Published on 09/24/19 at 07:38
Best value:
Excellent
Audience:
Advanced Users
Intro
This is an extremely powerful laptop designed to run quietly under light graphics load.
Although it is primarily a gaming laptop, the powerful processor multiple M.2 slots, a standard SATA drive port, and Thunderbolt 3 port makes it an ideal candidate for a mobile audio workstation.
Power
The entry-level model with an 8th gen i7 8gb of DDR4 RAM is FAR more than enough processing power to handle extremely complex compositions as well as, ultra-low latency live synth and VSTi performance. Ultra-low latency, in this case, is 3-6ms
The Small Things
The lighted keyboard means that when working in the backseat of your band's van or switching settings in between songs at a live performance will be effortless.
The 17-inch screen and while that does take a larger amount of mobile real-estate it also means that working with a DAW will be a breeze.
The reason the Thunderbolt 3 port is important.
Thunderbolt 3 is one of the few ports that will allow backward compatibility to Firewire 400 Audio Devices.
Using either a Startech Thunderbolt 3 to PCI-E breakout box and a Firewire PCI-E card.
or
an Apple thunderbolt 3-Thunderbolt 2 to a Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800 and a firewire 800 to Firewire 400 Cable.
Some Final Notes
Most when looking at mobile workstations go for MACs and while there are a great number of good reasons to do so, most notably asynchronous data transfer over synchronous data transfer.
If you need a great Windows-based workstation and don't want to get slowed down with the small stuff, but also might want something that will let you game as well during downtime, this is a fantastic laptop.
The High price and VERY high-end graphics card do make it rather price prohibitive for those that might be looking for a more budget-minded machine and DON'T have an interest in gaming.
With that said given the above caveat I can definitely recommend this product.
This is an extremely powerful laptop designed to run quietly under light graphics load.
Although it is primarily a gaming laptop, the powerful processor multiple M.2 slots, a standard SATA drive port, and Thunderbolt 3 port makes it an ideal candidate for a mobile audio workstation.
Power
The entry-level model with an 8th gen i7 8gb of DDR4 RAM is FAR more than enough processing power to handle extremely complex compositions as well as, ultra-low latency live synth and VSTi performance. Ultra-low latency, in this case, is 3-6ms
The Small Things
The lighted keyboard means that when working in the backseat of your band's van or switching settings in between songs at a live performance will be effortless.
The 17-inch screen and while that does take a larger amount of mobile real-estate it also means that working with a DAW will be a breeze.
The reason the Thunderbolt 3 port is important.
Thunderbolt 3 is one of the few ports that will allow backward compatibility to Firewire 400 Audio Devices.
Using either a Startech Thunderbolt 3 to PCI-E breakout box and a Firewire PCI-E card.
or
an Apple thunderbolt 3-Thunderbolt 2 to a Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800 and a firewire 800 to Firewire 400 Cable.
Some Final Notes
Most when looking at mobile workstations go for MACs and while there are a great number of good reasons to do so, most notably asynchronous data transfer over synchronous data transfer.
If you need a great Windows-based workstation and don't want to get slowed down with the small stuff, but also might want something that will let you game as well during downtime, this is a fantastic laptop.
The High price and VERY high-end graphics card do make it rather price prohibitive for those that might be looking for a more budget-minded machine and DON'T have an interest in gaming.
With that said given the above caveat I can definitely recommend this product.