Originally Posted by Tony Wright
I am in the market for a new Windows laptop and am looking for some advice on the ideal specification. I am a little out of touch with Windows computer specs. I have had distortion problems with songs containing the most Realtracks so I want to avoid this particular problem. I am using an external synth and Focusrite.

Hello Tony,

I just purchased a new MSI laptop to replace my current MSI gaming laptop, which I have had for about 6 years. I hopped back on the Band in a Box bandwagon about 12 years ago after first buying (I think a DOS version) sometime in the 1990's. My last 5-6 Band in a Box purchases have been the full audiophile version, and the last 2-3 installs have been a full hard drive install (after running from the purchased hard drive for years before that.)

Here is the laptop I purchased, at Costco, about a month ago after a 2-month search, the MSI Crosshair 18 HX AI 18" Gaming Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX - NVIDIA RTX 5070 - 2560x1600 - 32GB RAM - 1TB SSD - Windows 11 Home:

https://www.costco.com/p/-/msi-crosshair-18-hx-ai-18-gaming-laptop-intel-core-ultra-9-275hx-nvidia-rtx-5070-2560x1600-32gb-ram-1tb-ssd-windows-11-home/4000374413?langId=-1

I also bought a second 4TB hard drive and added it to the laptop, so I have a primary 1TB C drive where I have installed the program and my DAW, and the 4TB where I have the DRUMS and STYLES installed, along with my projects. I also have the full TB of Native Instruments and VST's on the secondary drive.

There are many reasons for choosing this laptop, including the VERY powerful CPU with multicores (handy for the stuff we do), the ability to upgrade (I can upgrade the RAM and have already upgrade the drive), the large monitor which is very hand for the new GUI, and the dedicated graphics card (8VRAM) which is handy for some games I may play. It was also on sale at $300 off when I bought it in January, and Costco provide an additional 90-day return window.

CONS: It is heavier than my current laptop, but has a plastic lid which is fine for carting around from home to office to coffee shops to work on my music, but I would not travel with it on a plane as I think it could be susceptible to damage. I feel like there is the tiniest delay - not really latency - in the display being a touch behind the audio. I did not notice this on my replaced laptop, which seemed to display notes and/or chords right in line with the sound. I will go back and double check. There is also the occasional crackle when rendering new tracks and/or experimenting with VST's, which MAY be latency, but I have been trying to address by closing my browser and experimenting with other settings.

In any case, I am not necessarily endorsing the laptop - indeed, I may still return it - though I am happy with it so far. The other computers I considered are the zephyrus (G14 and G16). Both are more gamer-type laptops with 5070TI, 5080 graphics cards, but lesser CPU's.

I hope this discussion helps a little.

Tom Marvan
Dunbar7376
San Diego, CA

Band in A Box Audiophile 2025

MSI GE66 10SFS 15.6" Laptop (Model GE66048)
Intel Core i7 10th Gen i7-10750H 2.6ghz
32GB DDR4 RAM 2666mhz
8GB GDDR6 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
1920x1080 Full HD LED
2x1TB NVMe SSD PCI