Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > REAPER General Discussion Forum

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-23-2020, 07:51 AM   #1
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default New laptop or tower for audio production. Help

Looking at this for home recording with plugins. Any suggestions
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 08:38 AM   #2
ivansc
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Default

build your own - very many of us on here do as it is easy and allows you to pick your exact preference of components.

My "current" build is almost into double figures of age.
4th generation i7 4770 cpu in a prehistoric Laun-Li case with a modern 650watt powers supply.
1Tb samsung v-nand SSD EVO drive for the OS plus 2x Western Digital Black 2Tb drives for data and samples.
16gb of fairly slow (by todays standards) ram.
A very basic fanless gfx card

I am still using my old PCI based RME HDSP 9652 soundcard, hooked up to a Behringer ADA8200 ADAT 8xI/O preamp set

When I first built it, half the stuff was salvaged from my earlier Pentium quad,
I only needed the motherboard, cpu and new ram.

This is the beauty of having a good case that allows you to upgrade incrementally. Also, of course, a laptop doesnt allow you to pick and choose, or indeed add newer better stuff as time goes by.
__________________
Ici on parles Franglais
ivansc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 09:00 AM   #3
Allybye
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 680
Default

As for as laptop vs tower is concerned then I am with Ivan for the latter.

Firstly components for the less 'squashed together' tower style are usually cheaper (but not always as laptops are in general more popular and therefore made more competitive).
It can be customised much more such as changing graphics adding cards extra drives etc.
Easier and cheaper to repair.
Much more upgradable
Better ergonomics as standard with external keyboard/mouse/screen/speakers
many a cheaper customisable refurbs available so even if you are not on a tight budget you can get better performance for the cost (not being limited to the original design+options of a laptop/

Laptop mainly best for portable use.
You can get great machines but top performers ramp up in price and then you might still wish to improve ergonomics on top such as a big screen for big projects.
Allybye is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 09:07 AM   #4
ukpdb111
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 28
Default

For me the choice between the two boils down to practical reasons.

If you don't have to take the computer anywhere and you have the space for a desk and chair with power nearby then a tower.

If you need a portable computer or do not have the space for a dedicated desk and chair then a laptop.

If you're thinking in performance and lifespan terms a tower will win over.
ukpdb111 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 06:42 PM   #5
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default

I am looking at two options below. which would be best?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spec...?skuId=6406695

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...?skuId=6369421
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 06:43 PM   #6
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default

open to towers..please provide links of your recommendations *NO CUSTOM please*
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 07:27 PM   #7
stillshaded
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 202
Default

Don’t get a laptop. Every laptop ever is gonna end up with some jank... a wonky trackpad, loud fan, won’t charge, worn out hinge.. something will end up sucking. Plus if you’re anything like me, you’ll just end up using it in your studio space anyway.

I don’t know any premade options.. I too would say just build your own, because it will be cheaper and higher quality, but I understand why you wouldn’t want to.
stillshaded is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 08:38 PM   #8
peter5992
Human being with feelings
 
peter5992's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 10,478
Default

I'd check with PC Audiolabs as well --- they custom build desktops and laptops specifically for pro audio. Back in 2009 they custom built me a laptop and it's still running today, after several repairs and upgrades, though nearing the end of its life (battery has been dead for years, CMOS battery dead as well, LCD screen dead and graphic card issues, only 24 GB RAM).

I'm thinking of getting a new laptop from them, all tricked out to today's standards. Not cheap that'll get me going for another 5 or 10 years or so. Their top of the line model has a 17" screen (4K) with option to hook up multiple external monitors, i9 10-core processor, 128 GB of RAM, 4 internal SSD drives with 2TB space each. But you can specify it exactly the way you want it, if that's too much for you.

https://pcaudiolabs.com/
peter5992 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 08:57 PM   #9
panicaftermath
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 538
Default

I've got a 17" Toshiba laptop with and it's a joy to work on.

This one let me get inside to change its single drive and upgrade the memory. Not sure how common that is these days. This one is about 5 years old, and even back then it was sold as not upgradeable.
panicaftermath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-23-2020, 10:20 PM   #10
peter5992
Human being with feelings
 
peter5992's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by panicaftermath View Post
I've got a 17" Toshiba laptop with and it's a joy to work on.

This one let me get inside to change its single drive and upgrade the memory. Not sure how common that is these days. This one is about 5 years old, and even back then it was sold as not upgradeable.
'Non upgradeable' is kind of a myth ... I upgraded my 2009 laptop's memory first from 8 to 12 GB and then to 24 GB. The mobo officially didn't support 24 GB, but it works.

And then I went on and replaced the internal drives (3) by SSD drives for much snappier performance.
peter5992 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 12:17 AM   #11
Softsynth
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,699
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by peter5992 View Post
'Non upgradeable' is kind of a myth ... I upgraded my 2009 laptop's memory first from 8 to 12 GB and then to 24 GB. The mobo officially didn't support 24 GB, but it works.

And then I went on and replaced the internal drives (3) by SSD drives for much snappier performance.
Peter,
You've just described the classic laptop limitations, where all you can change is the drives and the memory and that's all -sure those are upgrades of a kind but that's certainly not what I would call an upgradable PC.
Of course these things are certainly worth doing within the useful lifetime of a decent laptop, especially as SSD is transformative.

You are stuck with unreplaceable CPU, motherboard, graphics GPU, screen, keyboard, mouse control, heat sink, number of internal drives and so on.
You are also stuck with a weaker processor than you get on an equivalent desktop PC.
They are fundamentally designed for portability not upgradability or performance, where the equivalent desktop version of a given processor is usually a lot more powerful.

Sure you can attach an external screen, external keyboard, external mouse but you're still hampered by the failing components attached permanently to your laptop, and the resolution limitations of the GPU, which has limited your choice of monitor in many cases. This latter point may no longer be an issue if the GPUs are all designed to properly handle 4K these days?
Consider however that 4K requires a powerful GPU for modern 3d games and other 3d software, so even those that handle 4K on paper won't give you the best experience with anything other than our 2d GUI work.

Last edited by Softsynth; 11-24-2020 at 04:02 AM. Reason: Smartphone speech to text typos.
Softsynth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 01:55 AM   #12
ivansc
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Default

So, Vejichan, whereabouts do you live? Once we know this, we can come up with more suggestions as to where to shop for a desktop/tower.
__________________
Ici on parles Franglais
ivansc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 06:32 AM   #13
Cosmic
Human being with feelings
 
Cosmic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Online
Posts: 4,896
Default

Tower! ALL DAY LONG!

You can get a big monitor and a super quick processor pc for stupid money these days. A refurbished Dell with an i7 7700 or something . Will last 20 years if cared for.

I'm still using my i7 2700k that I bought in 2011. In fact, since Windows 10 came out this pc got even better! I was able to switch back on the intel speed boost crap and enable c states to absolutely no detriment.

It flies along and when bits go kaput I can just swap em out...ie the psu. Its super quiet almost silent I would say.

I use a 48 sample buffer with my Scarlett interface for guitar sims. Bingo bongo!

I have been gassing for an upgrade lately(the aforementioned dell) but my brother talked me out of it. No point in fixing what isnt broken.
You can talk yourself into needing anything though.
__________________
it aint worth a bop,if it dont got that pop
Cosmic is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 07:11 AM   #14
airon
Human being with feelings
 
airon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Berlin
Posts: 11,817
Default

Building your own is not that hard. Getting an equivalent from a system builder, premade, is less easy to find. It greatly depends on your location.

Recently there was a decent recommendation from the Youtube channel JayZTwoCents for a well built laptop, Lenovo Legion 7.

You can choose a more low key graphics chip option, the display you need and the onboard NVMe storage, at reasonable prices too. Worth a look, and it's probably available in a fair number of locations.

__________________
Using Latch Preview (Video) - Faderport 16 setup for CSI 1.1 , CSI 3.10
Website
"My ego comes pre-shrunk" - Randy Thom
airon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 12:44 PM   #15
panicaftermath
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 538
Default

Does Lenovo still swap the positions of the Ctrl and Fn keys on its devices? That has always been a nonnegotiable deal breaker for me.
panicaftermath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 05:09 PM   #16
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by airon View Post
Building your own is not that hard. Getting an equivalent from a system builder, premade, is less easy to find. It greatly depends on your location.

Recently there was a decent recommendation from the Youtube channel JayZTwoCents for a well built laptop, Lenovo Legion 7.

You can choose a more low key graphics chip option, the display you need and the onboard NVMe storage, at reasonable prices too. Worth a look, and it's probably available in a fair number of locations.

What do you recommend for a tower. this looks good
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 05:10 PM   #17
peter5992
Human being with feelings
 
peter5992's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Softsynth View Post
Peter,
You've just described the classic laptop limitations, where all you can change is the drives and the memory and that's all -sure those are upgrades of a kind but that's certainly not what I would call an upgradable PC.
Of course these things are certainly worth doing within the useful lifetime of a decent laptop, especially as SSD is transformative.

You are stuck with unreplaceable CPU, motherboard, graphics GPU, screen, keyboard, mouse control, heat sink, number of internal drives and so on.
You are also stuck with a weaker processor than you get on an equivalent desktop PC.
They are fundamentally designed for portability not upgradability or performance, where the equivalent desktop version of a given processor is usually a lot more powerful.

Sure you can attach an external screen, external keyboard, external mouse but you're still hampered by the failing components attached permanently to your laptop, and the resolution limitations of the GPU, which has limited your choice of monitor in many cases. This latter point may no longer be an issue if the GPUs are all designed to properly handle 4K these days?
Consider however that 4K requires a powerful GPU for modern 3d games and other 3d software, so even those that handle 4K on paper won't give you the best experience with anything other than our 2d GUI work.
All that is very true. You really compromise on many levels by going for a laptop rather than a desktop. I also have a desktop, also custom built.

The choice for laptop was really to be able to be 'on the road' and still have plenty of oompf to do the job; for example when I a (assistant) orchestrator at a studio, I can bring my own laptop, printer, paper, etc. and I know I will be able to crank out scores and parts and adjust them as necessary in a high pressure environment.
peter5992 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-24-2020, 08:51 PM   #18
thevisi0nary
Human being with feelings
 
thevisi0nary's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 531
Default

Simple as this. If you need to or like to work in more than one setting, get a laptop. If you mainly or always make music at home, get a desktop.

Desktop will always be more powerful and modular for less money, but if you need to be portable then it obviously isn’t an option.
thevisi0nary is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2020, 02:35 AM   #19
Softsynth
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,699
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by peter5992 View Post
All that is very true. You really compromise on many levels by going for a laptop rather than a desktop. I also have a desktop, also custom built.

The choice for laptop was really to be able to be 'on the road' and still have plenty of oompf to do the job; for example when I a (assistant) orchestrator at a studio, I can bring my own laptop, printer, paper, etc. and I know I will be able to crank out scores and parts and adjust them as necessary in a high pressure environment.
Good post clarifying your position on Laptops. To be fair you have probably shown us your system in your music room a few times.
The thing that annoys me is the sheer volume of people that choose to only have a laptop at home, in large part because they were not educated in these differences. They don't have a proper main system.
If this didn't affect the cost and availability of parts it wouldn't bother me, but it is clear that the masses moving to portable devices (laptops, pads and smart devices) has changed the prices and availability of computer parts. A decade ago I could go to multiple places in the local area to pick up computer parts at sensible prices (even a big market where you could haggle). Today there are no places to go at all, sensible prices or no.
Sure the internet has driven out suppliers but the big concerns that had started selling computer components just sell the smart devices laptops TVs etc, so it's more about supply and demand.

Now I'm hoping that they will at least stick to their laptops, and enough users will stick to their desktops/tower systems to justify development of vsts and VSTis rather than say shifting development to iOS versions, or limit distribution to cloud subscription. And it has been made abundantly clear recently that's cloud computing is anything but green, and the more that we do on the local machine the better it is for the environment, and I strongly believe ultimately for our wallets too.

Last edited by Softsynth; 11-25-2020 at 03:23 AM.
Softsynth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2020, 05:07 AM   #20
wildschwein
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Alkimos, Western Australia
Posts: 159
Default

I like HP Z Workstations. Avid recommend them for Pro Tools. They totally smoke with Reaper. These are some of the newer models:
https://zworkstations.com/apps/avid-...-workstations/

I personally only have the HP Z220 CMT which I have upgraded to 32 GB of ram and I have also added a couple of extra SSDs. It's never missed a beat and I got it S/H just off warranty for a steal. The result is I don't think about my computer much and focus on music.

Last edited by wildschwein; 11-27-2020 at 05:53 AM.
wildschwein is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2020, 04:02 PM   #21
panicaftermath
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 538
Default

I'm wondering how audio interface considerations figure into the laptop or tower question.

What are the practical differences in terms of performance, audio quality, flexibility, etc, in the interfaces you'd get for a laptop vs something that would slot into a motherboard?

My old 32bit Windows 7 desktop has a Delta card. I've been working on a W8.1 64bit laptop and working around the limitations of its native Direct Sound and horrendous latency. I've been thinking of getting something like one of the 3rd gen Scarletts or something comparable. But is there a reason I would not want to use that in a new tower system, which I'll eventually have to get?
panicaftermath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2020, 06:30 PM   #22
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

I like to keep a tower and a laptop. Tower is my "work" machine. Laptop is for every day, lite portable gigs, and ultimate backup for the studio. (Computers, you know. They have two modes: "Computer" & "paperweight".) So I want kind of a bangin' laptop too.

Right now with things plateaued and Apple not really being very Apple-like anymore if my 2011 Macbook Pro died, I'd replace it with the same used. (Actually I'd fix it myself but if I didn't know how to do that I'd replace it with the same.) Tower is a 2009/2010 Mac Pro. I was also taking that to bigger live sound gigs when I was doing that more often and running Reaper live. I'd replace that with the same right now too if it came up. (Again, I'd actually fix it.) Lots of bang for the buck in these machines with street prices nowadays. OSX runs out of the box and everything is easy. No Hackintosh. No having to start learning Linux yet.

Whatever brands of electronic gadgets you like and use, it's a good time to be a scavenger right now if you don't want to spend a lot of money.
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2020, 07:01 PM   #23
panicaftermath
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 538
Default

Quote:
Whatever brands of electronic gadgets you like and use, it's a good time to be a scavenger right now if you don't want to spend a lot of money.
I like this idea a lot and the idea of updating an old dying device with the same thing in better condition, and have done that with phones. I've also bought a couple of last-gen Surface Pros, which I haven't used for music (at least not yet.)

But for a tower, how do you determine the level of out-of-dateness to settle on in the used and scavenger market?

Laptops and towers have different end of life trajectories, no question about that.
panicaftermath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-25-2020, 08:21 PM   #24
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

Towers are usually more straightforward actually. The components are all separate. You take inventory and shop for the bits you need.

A high end high end machine is $2k - $4k no matter what brand. (I could rip on new gen Apple more here but someone else will.)
But yesterday's high end machines aren't much different unless you're really getting into the serious top end ones today. And even then.

You can get powerpoint-like take apart guides for a lot of stuff online now. Or videos.

You can get screwed easy enough with used stuff but when it gets to where you can buy 5 to 10 of something for the price of it new it might not matter.

You have to be just a little tech minded. But you get that with new stuff too unless you go to someone to configure your system for you. You have to pay for that too.
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2020, 05:24 AM   #25
ivansc
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by serr View Post
I like to keep a tower and a laptop. Tower is my "work" machine. Laptop is for every day, lite portable gigs, and ultimate backup for the studio. (Computers, you know. They have two modes: "Computer" & "paperweight".) So I want kind of a bangin' laptop too.

Right now with things plateaued and Apple not really being very Apple-like anymore if my 2011 Macbook Pro died, I'd replace it with the same used. (Actually I'd fix it myself but if I didn't know how to do that I'd replace it with the same.) Tower is a 2009/2010 Mac Pro. I was also taking that to bigger live sound gigs when I was doing that more often and running Reaper live. I'd replace that with the same right now too if it came up. (Again, I'd actually fix it.) Lots of bang for the buck in these machines with street prices nowadays. OSX runs out of the box and everything is easy. No Hackintosh. No having to start learning Linux yet.

Whatever brands of electronic gadgets you like and use, it's a good time to be a scavenger right now if you don't want to spend a lot of money.
So true! I have been thinking seriously about selling my 2011 Mac Mini Server for a couple of years, but having seen what the Macs are turning into now, I plan on keeping it just in case I end up having to drop Windoze in the future. Cheap insurance even at the price I paid for it a few years back. One thing O will be doing is updating it from Mavericks - the only reason I have stayed on it is so my Logic Pro 9 and Focusrite Liquidmix 32 would still work OK. I doubt if I will ever use Pro 9 again and for what I paid for the Liquid mix, I wont be losing much.
__________________
Ici on parles Franglais
ivansc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2020, 12:35 PM   #26
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default

can anybody offer links to options i can buy now? towers is fine/ thanks
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2020, 01:22 PM   #27
nait
Human being with feelings
 
nait's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posts: 1,391
Default

My advice, if looking for a tower (which is always my preference), is to go to a smaller PC shop rather than the big box places like Best Buy. Give them your shopping list of components you need, and then also have them put it together. I know you mentioned you don't want custom built PCs, but I absolutely hate brand name PCs. Although there are of course exceptions, they tend to be geared towards the "average" PC user (grandma), slower, more problematic, cheaper overall components etc. I think the only reason to avoid custom PCs is because you don't know how to put together a custom PC (which is very understandable), but I'll try to help with that anyways:


In bold are the main components needed:

Motherboard - let the store suggest something for you that has at least 1 m.2 slot (more on that below). Brands here that I like: Asus, MSI, Gigabyte

CPU - good options depending on budget would be Intel i5-9600K or i7-9700K (or the newer 10xxxK, or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Ryzen 7 3800X. I was doing quite well with a much older i7 (I've since upgraded). The new i7s are way faster and even the new i5s (typically a large step down) are a lot faster than what I had. I upgraded my PC unrelated to audio stuff (sadly I can't dedicate my PC to just audio production).

Video Card - You can cheap out here. You can even just not buy one and use whatever is built-in to the motherboard.

RAM - Get them to pick good speed of ram. Quantity... 16GB minimum. I personally use 32GB. I do more than just audio production though with my PC.

Drives - Get an SSD. Since you're buying brand new, you can even look at something called "m.2", which I highly recommend. There's a super cheap 1TB Crucial m.2 drive that I have that is quite good for most stuff. I like a drive for OS stuff, typically, and a drive for my DAW, but it's not necessary. Samsung makes fantastic SSDs (their EVO series), but they can be quite pricey.

Operating System - lots of people hate Windows 10, but I am quite happy with it. You can do Windows 7 or something else, if you like.

Audio Interface - these can be quite pricey, so hopefully you have one already.

Case - just get a computer store to pick out something that will work. Shouldn't have to spend much too much here.

Power supply - again, get computer store to pick something suitable out.

I always do custom PC route, so I usually can reuse my old case and power supply (unless I want to upgrade those too).

I think that covers everything (assuming you already have mouse, keyboard, computer monitor(s))

I think sometimes we go overkill on all this stuff in our world. Unless you're super professional about what you're doing, most modern system components are going to get the job done as long as you put the value in your CPU and your drives, for the most part.

Now where to go with your shopping list is a whole other animal. If you were in Canada, I could definitely tell you my #1 choice. But I don't know much outside of that. Maybe someone local to you can suggest a place. If you have any computer nerd friends, that's always a good option too, as maybe you can order stuff online and they can put it together for you.
__________________
My Rig (also serves as my gaming PC): MSI Mag X570 Tomahawk Mobo, Ryzen R9 3900X, 32GB RAM, Samsung 960 Evo 500gb NVMe, Crucial 1TB NVMe, NVidia RTX 2080 Super, Arturia Minifuse 2, Nektar Impact LX25+ MIDI Controller Keyboard.

Last edited by nait; 11-27-2020 at 01:36 PM.
nait is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-28-2020, 08:44 AM   #28
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default

Where is this tower at best buy
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-28-2020, 09:50 AM   #29
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

I buy used stuff or separate components. B&H Photo Video and NewEgg seem like honest dealers for those kind of places. Data Memory Systems for ram. I'm a scavenger on Ebay. I'm not familiar enough with some of the custom builders or suppliers to recommend anything further at present.

But I can tell you two places to stay very far away from: Best Buy (Worst Purchase) and Amazon. You get the unique "black Friday every day" mishmash products made just for Best Buy there. Amazon is just rife with bootleg fare and somehow got magnitudes worse than Ebay with that. Not down with the profiteering during a pandemic either.

Dell, Lenovo, & HP are the stereotype cheap brands. They get mentioned in the same breath with Seagate for hard drives. Hearsay...

You very often get what you pay for.
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-28-2020, 07:32 PM   #30
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default

need some direction
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-29-2020, 01:07 AM   #31
gvdv
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 293
Default

A while ago I started to educate myself and solicit advice about a new PC build for audio and video production, and found the following sites and forums very useful:

1. The Reaper reddit (r/reaper)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Reaper/

2. Two computer building Reddits
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/

3. The PCPartpicker 'System Builder' webpage, on which you can assemble a system virtually.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CkghD2

I had very clear ideas on what I wanted my PC to do, and people on the above sites were very helpful in potential trouble-shooting, and in even suggesting system builds (they went to PCPartpicker, 'assembled' a system, and posted the link so that I could look at it and others could, too).

One of the most helpful things to me - which I would never have thought about, was that the motherboard initially suggested would not have left enough clearance when various components had been added to be able to put the In/Out ports in the right position to make them accessible.

I learned other very useful pointers, too.

So, I would just post on those sites, saying what you want your PC to be capable of, what your budget is, and so on, and ask if people could make suggestions.

Good luck.
__________________
"If The Beatles or the 60's had a message, it was 'Learn to swim'. And once you've
learned - swim!"
John Lennon
gvdv is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2020, 12:29 AM   #32
panicaftermath
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 538
Default

This would be a laptop to have, if a laptop is what you wanted.

3XS Scan Performance 17" - Studio Laptop (No Thunderbolt)
https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configura...op-no-firewire

That's an informative site. Info well laid out. But so may captcha challenges!
panicaftermath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2020, 04:43 PM   #33
gvdv
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 293
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by panicaftermath View Post
This would be a laptop to have, if a laptop is what you wanted.

3XS Scan Performance 17" - Studio Laptop (No Thunderbolt)
https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configura...op-no-firewire

That's an informative site. Info well laid out. But so may captcha challenges!
That does look interesting.

Thanks.

I will be going for a desktop, though.
__________________
"If The Beatles or the 60's had a message, it was 'Learn to swim'. And once you've
learned - swim!"
John Lennon
gvdv is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2020, 06:23 PM   #34
peter5992
Human being with feelings
 
peter5992's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Softsynth View Post
Good post clarifying your position on Laptops. To be fair you have probably shown us your system in your music room a few times.
The thing that annoys me is the sheer volume of people that choose to only have a laptop at home, in large part because they were not educated in these differences. They don't have a proper main system.
My 2009 custom laptop is on its lag legs, so I'm about to spring for a new high end laptop with these specs:

Screen type: 17.3” 4K

Processor: 9-10900k 10 core processor

Graphic processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super

Memory: 128 GB

1. Slot 1 (OS): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
2. Slot 2 (Audio): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
3. Slot 3 (samples): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
4. Slot 4 (samples): 2TB M.2

Raid 0 with drives 3 and 4 for samples (I have well over 2 TB of samples, and it's only going to grow)

Price estimate is a little north of $7,500 (good thing financially 2020 was good to me). Another custom build by PC Audiolabs.

Still the same consideration for going with a laptop versus a desktop -- I need something that I can take on the road occasionally.
peter5992 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2020, 06:41 PM   #35
panicaftermath
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 538
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by peter5992 View Post
My 2009 custom laptop is on its lag legs, so I'm about to spring for a new high end laptop with these specs:

Screen type: 17.3” 4K

Processor: 9-10900k 10 core processor

Graphic processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super

Memory: 128 GB

1. Slot 1 (OS): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
2. Slot 2 (Audio): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
3. Slot 3 (samples): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
4. Slot 4 (samples): 2TB M.2

Raid 0 with drives 3 and 4 for samples (I have well over 2 TB of samples, and it's only going to grow)

Price estimate is a little north of $7,500 (good thing financially 2020 was good to me). Another custom build by PC Audiolabs.

Still the same consideration for going with a laptop versus a desktop -- I need something that I can take on the road occasionally.
And all of that can fit into a laptop form factor, even at 17"? With quiet fans keeping it all cool?

I want one too!
panicaftermath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2020, 08:17 PM   #36
peter5992
Human being with feelings
 
peter5992's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by panicaftermath View Post
And all of that can fit into a laptop form factor, even at 17"? With quiet fans keeping it all cool?

I want one too!

Call Brian at PC Audiolabs!
peter5992 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2020, 09:55 PM   #37
nait
Human being with feelings
 
nait's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posts: 1,391
Default

That's some serious overkill on the video card, unless you're doing gaming or some sort of serious video rendering on that thing.. just sayin'! It's quite a high end video card though. As you can see in my siggy, I have one as well, in a desktop though. But the video card in mine is definitely for gaming. I can't imagine anything in audio production where you'd need remotely close to that high end of a video card, but hey, if you've got the money to burn! (And just because I can't imagine it doesn't mean it isn't necessary for you.. but if so, that has me curious!)

Very high end laptop specs. I refer those Samsung Evo drives to people all the time. Great choice of CPU too, obviously. That thing will be pretty amazing.
__________________
My Rig (also serves as my gaming PC): MSI Mag X570 Tomahawk Mobo, Ryzen R9 3900X, 32GB RAM, Samsung 960 Evo 500gb NVMe, Crucial 1TB NVMe, NVidia RTX 2080 Super, Arturia Minifuse 2, Nektar Impact LX25+ MIDI Controller Keyboard.

Last edited by nait; 12-23-2020 at 10:13 PM.
nait is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2020, 11:22 PM   #38
siniarch
Human being with feelings
 
siniarch's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 705
Default

Just a word of caution if you do decide to go with a Laptop. Actually with a custom desktop as well, but with the Desktop, you have more choices.

I bought a top of the line laptop about 2 years ago when I was going on the road for about 9 months. I wanted a desktop replacement. So I got something with the best graphics at the time Full Nvidia GTX1080 (not a mobile chip), 64 gigs of Ram, i7 8850h, the only faster one needed 2 power supplies which was a deal killer for me. this thing is a beast. I got it because I do video editing and CAD and 3D rendering and wasn't doing much audio at the time.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/X7-DT-v8#kf
was around $3k standard and $4k with all the bells and whistles.

Even today it is a very powerful machine and can compete with many desktops. The graphics card has certainly fallen behind the new cards coming out, and there's no way to fix that.

But more importantly, now that I'm doing audio, I can't for the life of me bring down the DCP Latency and every minute or two it crackles the audio. I haven't been using it for tracking much and I can't remember it failing while tracking, but while mixing, it's an issue. Luckily if it happens at a crucial place, I just rewind and re-listen, but certainly would be an issue if I had clients with me.

So, if you go the laptop way, Just MAKE SURE your pay attention to the latency issue of the exact model you are purchasing. If you get the right laptop, it shouldn't be an issue. I was watching a video and they were talking about a reviewer of laptops that as of last year started adding Latency numbers to his review. For audio, this is crucial.(mandatory).

Best of luck.
siniarch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-24-2020, 11:53 AM   #39
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,562
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by peter5992 View Post
My 2009 custom laptop is on its lag legs, so I'm about to spring for a new high end laptop with these specs:

Screen type: 17.3” 4K

Processor: 9-10900k 10 core processor

Graphic processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super

Memory: 128 GB

1. Slot 1 (OS): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
2. Slot 2 (Audio): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
3. Slot 3 (samples): 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe
4. Slot 4 (samples): 2TB M.2

Raid 0 with drives 3 and 4 for samples (I have well over 2 TB of samples, and it's only going to grow)

Price estimate is a little north of $7,500 (good thing financially 2020 was good to me). Another custom build by PC Audiolabs.

Still the same consideration for going with a laptop versus a desktop -- I need something that I can take on the road occasionally.
Sounds like a cool machine!

I remember a few years ago thinking I'd see something like that from Apple soon. I was maybe going to consider upgrading as soon as they had one with at least 2 M.2 slots.

Haha...

Sounds like something that you'd have to pay $7500 for alright! You'll be editing and producing video on the go though. I'd be worried the poor thing will get bored if you're only using it for audio.

You could produce full mixes while producing and switching multiple video inputs for a live broadcast while recording all the raw video feeds and raw multitrack audio on something like that.

What does the cooling system look like?
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-24-2020, 11:57 AM   #40
peter5992
Human being with feelings
 
peter5992's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by siniarch View Post
Just a word of caution if you do decide to go with a Laptop. Actually with a custom desktop as well, but with the Desktop, you have more choices.

I bought a top of the line laptop about 2 years ago when I was going on the road for about 9 months. I wanted a desktop replacement. So I got something with the best graphics at the time Full Nvidia GTX1080 (not a mobile chip), 64 gigs of Ram, i7 8850h, the only faster one needed 2 power supplies which was a deal killer for me. this thing is a beast. I got it because I do video editing and CAD and 3D rendering and wasn't doing much audio at the time.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/X7-DT-v8#kf
was around $3k standard and $4k with all the bells and whistles.

Even today it is a very powerful machine and can compete with many desktops. The graphics card has certainly fallen behind the new cards coming out, and there's no way to fix that.

But more importantly, now that I'm doing audio, I can't for the life of me bring down the DCP Latency and every minute or two it crackles the audio. I haven't been using it for tracking much and I can't remember it failing while tracking, but while mixing, it's an issue. Luckily if it happens at a crucial place, I just rewind and re-listen, but certainly would be an issue if I had clients with me.

So, if you go the laptop way, Just MAKE SURE your pay attention to the latency issue of the exact model you are purchasing. If you get the right laptop, it shouldn't be an issue. I was watching a video and they were talking about a reviewer of laptops that as of last year started adding Latency numbers to his review. For audio, this is crucial.(mandatory).

Best of luck.

These guys build pro desktops and laptops for audio (and video), so they do benchmark testing (including installing software) to make sure it all works and delivers optimal performance, remove all clutter software etc. I've bought one from them before in 2009, still working (but the hardware is so old now, it's slowly falling apart after 11 years of continued use).
peter5992 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:33 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.