Originally Posted By: fiddler2007
Originally Posted By: Guitar Non Hero
One last thought on this thread and that is I figured out a "work-around" that will do until I decide on which laptop to get ..
3 years ago i asked myself the same question, also in regards of video editing. Bought an expensive 'refurbished' i7 Dell Precision, a beast for speed. But i soon missed a few USB ports, especially for realtime stuff, and USB (3.0) at times worked quirky to boot. Put extra RAM in it, and an extra 2GB harddrive inside in the spare bay, but f.i for Audiophile it would be almost full already. So bought me the parts and built an ASUS desktop system after doing some reading. My wife likes the laptop, very stable, and occasionaly i use it for audio location recordings only, no BIAB etc. If you only do BIAB a laptop might be a good thing, the PG sent WD my passport drives seem to be OK enough for the job. Graphics can be important in a laptop for GUI demanding plugins, and also quite a bit of internal RAM. Laptop advice from my ICT pro son in law; steer away from the Microsoft surface; he's got a top model one for location work and f.i. graphics are quite below standard. He doesn't like HP for some reason, but seems to think the higher grade i7, maybe i5 intel based Dells or ASUS's are a better choices. Go for a model with proper specs and successful seller; if you need some part later for repairs it's the same as with cars .. you stand better chances at a scrap yard. My experience; had an AMD based laptop, after 3 years a total loss burn out. No AMD for me. PS a tip: if you go into a shop, steer away from models that seem to run really hot, the ventilator output airflow is a good indicator; Luck, F


Thank you for sharing your experience. Picking the laptop best suited for my needs is definitely a process.

I had good luck with 2 refurbished computers (got many years out of them until they just became obsolete).

I can foresee me doing the following with the next laptop:

1) Band in the Box
2) Recording Using Ableton Live or some other program ( I know I will need more than 4GB RAM)
3) Using EZ Drummer/Superior Drummer programs
4) Playing music (so decent speakers can help keep me from having to use an external one)
5) Playing Music courses (such as from True Fire)
6) Storing and Editing Videos using special effects
7) Drawing graphics for books

So the bottom line is that if I want to be able to do all of these things, I will have to spend more money that I initially wanted to. Or I will have to scale back on a few. My music activities are the most important right now, and I could get by on $400.00. I am looking a lot at the Newegg website and educating myself.

Thanks for the tip on that "Surface" computer and also about how some laptops still have inadequate cooling and can get too hot. I thought they were pass that issue by now.

Last edited by Guitar Non Hero; 08/22/18 02:42 AM.
What a Godsend BIAB is!!