Unless you go to one of the dedicated DAW laptop builders, you are liable to be disappointed in anything off the shelf.
What I would buy is a ‘work station,’ a type of laptop designed for industrial/ scientific use. They will have higher grade and more powerful components and more connectivity options. Dell has a line of Precision work station. I have one and have been very happy with it. It came with 3 USB ports, a combination HDMI/ usb port, an e-sata port, vca port, firewire port, regular card bus and express card ports, a micro sd port and an optical drive.
Being able to connect to every thing is a very, very useful feature.
Were I to buy one now, I would want to make sure it had a Thunderbolt port … future of connectivity.
I have been looking for a laptop and did some extensive research.
My results showed that if you want to go for PC go for a specialist PC by all means. Even with expensive off the self PC’s you are likely to encounter problems.
The other option is to get a MacBook Pro which I did and I am really happy with it. You cannot go wrong with a MBP and the latest models.
So, for your price tag, audio specialist Pc all the way.
Thank you for the reply bud! Are you talking about the XPS dell laptops made for performance?
I haven’t seen many PC laptops with a firewire port at all but they have the express slot to add firewire…
I have an exterior audio card using firewire so that is a must on my laptop!
Do you think you can send me a few links to these PC laptops you’re talking about? The Rain Livebook I linked is made for audio as it states… and the HP Envy and a few others.
Thank you again for the replies!
For the best possible performance with a laptop, you need to get a laptop from a DAW builder. Some of them even have a custom BIOS commissioned for them from the source/original manufacturer to help reduce latency. I bought mine from http://www.adkproaudio.com/ and overall I’ve been pleased with it. My only issue is with the laptop body… it’s boring as hell. Mine is a nondescript boring business gray with ZERO personality. Not that it really matters, but there is ZERO wow factor when you look at the physical body. I actually dislike the body to the point that it bothers me every time I pull it out… HOWEVER, that all goes away when I fire up my DAW software.
It’s understandable… ADK and all other pro DAW builders who know what they’re doing with laptops don’t have much choice with the manufacturers that will build a custom BIOS for them, so you’re not getting the most gorgeous laptop in terms of physical beauty. I believe ADK still uses Clevo as their source company for the RAW laptop. The build quality is fine… it’s just the aesthetics compared to a gorgeous Macbook Air, for example. HOWEVER, you can’t beat the performance. Simple as that. I’ve been through so many laptops, I finally gave in and bought a real DAW laptop, and the truth is, the difference is noticeable. The DPC latency on it easily trumped every other laptop I’ve ever owned and tested, from Dell (including all the lines, from XPS to Precision to Alienware, etc.) to Apple to HP, etc. ADK is no beauty on the outside, but its lack of elegance can easily be forgiven once I fire up my DAW apps.
There are several others out there besides ADK – by all means, shop around. Several have good reputations, and I might try another place next time, even though my experience with ADK has been good. I just want to see if there’s a more beautiful DAW laptop out there. Call it vanity. ADK guys are good guys, but I’ve heard good things about some others (but can’t recall names offhand). I bought mine about a year ago, so maybe they’ve changed things by now and they might have more attractive cases… (actually, probably have already switched to Sandy Bridge at least). Just do some googling, check various forums for DAW builders… continue asking around, search for ADK Pro Audio in forums, and those searches will sometimes turn up the names of their competitors for comparison.
Anyway, if you want to get top-class DAW performance on a laptop, it’s worth the effort to find a DAW specialist. They’ll even install everything for you (at least they did when I bought mine) and pre-configure the drivers, etc. Very cool. Good luck!
No … XPS are consumer units. I’m talking about the Precision line.
Mine has a 4 pin FW port plus the Express Card …
First link below is for the new ones … configurable as you wish. The larger 6000 series can have dual hard drives … at least 7200 RPM I believe and possibly 10000 RPM.
Second link is for the Dell Outlet store … ‘refurbished, b-stock and demos.’ I 've bought from the outlet 8 times over the year … only had one lemon and Dell immediately replaced the MOBO. The outlet has exact same customer support and warranty as the new units. The Precisions get you priority tech support with people who speak English.
The only differences between new and outlet are: 1) you have to take the unit as it was originally configured and with the original software … you can’t modify it as you buy it, but can later; 2) your unconditional, ‘no questions asked but you pay shipping’ return is only 14 days … as opposed to 30 days on new unit; and, 3) you have 15 minutes to pull the trigger on your deal if you find one in the outlet warehouse that looks like what you want. Look at the specs on any of the custom built audio units, and you’ll find the components in the Precision meet or beat them at a much better price point.
Thanks for sharing the paragraph bud!
I have heard of ADK and they have a very good reputation. Although their systems don’t have Windows already installed so I would have to buy that myself! =/ Still if the laptop itself is worth it I definitely will consider it!
The DAW laptop I have had my eyes on so far is from Rain computers! The Rain livebook… check that out for something you might want to try in the near future good reviews and I have done some research on Rain myself!
Again thanks for taking the time to reply!
