Stephan, I'm on the same quest too! What I'm finding is that "without breaking the bank" might be hard to do.

First, laptop are more expensive than desktops by their very nature. If you want to save some money and get a high performance machine, get a desktop. Best part about desktops is that you can change, upgrade and "play" with the insides. Not as easy to do with a laptop.

Second, if you want desktop performance in a laptop be prepared to spend big bucks. Intel 10th and 11th gen processors and Ryzen processors are good but expensive.

Third, if you want desktop performance you'll probably want to go with an SSD for programs and a mechanical HD for data. This "dual drive" setup will limit the number of options you have from the manufacturers.

Finally, if you really want to go the laptop route, start looking at gaming machines. These will have the processors, memory and HD's to give you what you want but...and here's the big but...these will all have high end video cards that you don't need for music but will drive the price higher. Look for a gaming machine with the lowest level video card that you can find.

You seem like a guy who's really digging into all of this music production. It's not for the faint of heart!

Like I said in the beginning, a desktop would be better choice unless there is a compelling reason that you must have a laptop.

The only reason that I'm looking at a laptop is to get out of the house...can't see me dragging my desktop out into the wild....but I still want that kind of performance. Hence the problem.

Jeff

Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2025, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3