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Which Laptop?
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| Hobson |
I'm buying a new laptop today. I will be using it for music production and university work. I have done some research and phoned Apple and Dell to try and get the best prices, and have narrowed it down to the following options, but can't decide what to go for. I will be using Cubase SX3 on it. Which of the following would I be better off with?
Dell XPS M1530 -
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista SP1™ Home Premium - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB dedicated graphic memory
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SW
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)
£787.54
Also I have the option of 2.4 GHz and 2.1 GHz processors deducting £50 for each drop in speed. Do I need the 2.5 GHz?
or
Apple Macbook 13.3" (previous generation)
Intel Core 2 Duo processor. 2.4GHz processor speed. L2 3Mb shared cache.
2Gb RAM (2 x 1Gb) of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300), supports up to 4Gb.
160Gb Serial ATA: 5400rpm hard drive.
8x SuperDrive (DVDR DL/DVDRW/CD-RW) optical drive.
Dedicated graphics card. Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144Mb of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory.
£829.99
or 2.1 GHz model for £699.99
or
The New 13" Macbook
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
£816.63 |
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| adi_hanson |
my laptop has
2.2ghz amd duel core
1gb ram
100gb HD
and cost me £1539 2 n a half years ago
and i run FL and a wad of VSTi's on it
the problems im having now are
not enough hd space
having to bounce more and more audio
so personally for music production , i would buy the one with the best CPU , memory and if possible the best soundcard |
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| Simon_N |
I think its worth getting the mac even though you don't get the hard drive space (But you can upgrade on the apple web site for 70 quid.).
Not sure which one i'd go for tho. Probably the new one just for the looks. |
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| Ry Thomas |
| I've just bought a Dell Studio 17(2.5ghz core 2 duo, 320gb HD, 4gb RAM, Vista etc). Seems rock solid and a good buy |
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| Hobson |
was thinking of looking at those but for some reason theres a 3-4 week delivery delay
The guy at apple I was speaking to says the FSB of the 2.0 GHz processor on the new macbooks is 1066 MHz which means it is just as fast/faster than the 2.5 GHz 800MHz on the Dell? |
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| Subtle |
| Go for the the Dell one, its really fast, the faster CPU the better. |
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| Watts |
| I'm pro PC, but when it comes to laptops for music production get the Macbook if you plan on using a FireWire interface. |
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| wrzonance |
Hah, well. I put it back together again.
I use a Macbook Pro 2.33ghz (late 2006 model), 3 gigs of ram,
and I love it ing dearly.
BY THE WAY. If you want a NEW macbook, you're out of luck when it comes to firewire, and if you go for a NEW macbook pro, you're out of luck for Firewire 400.
I use MOTU audio interfaces, and they all use Firewire 400 as their standard interconnect.
Just so you know. |
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| Stevemarble |
| what type of firewire does the presonus firebox use? |
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| Fledz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stevemarble
what type of firewire does the presonus firebox use? |
6-pin though you can get a 4-pin converter like I have if you need it. |
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| wrzonance |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fledz
6-pin though you can get a 4-pin converter like I have if you need it. |
I didn't know they had those. Can you get them most anywere? |
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| Fledz |
Well it's not really a converter, it's just a cable with a 4-pin on one end. The Firebox comes with it's own 6 to 6. Since my laptop has 4-pin, I got a 6 to 4 cable. Any electronics store will have them.
The only thing with that is you can't run it on phantom power, you have to plug the Firebox into the power socket but I prefer it that way. |
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