Hi, I should soon buy a new notebook on which to install Cubase 13 for small jobs. For more complex work I already have a desktop PC that performs well.
For the notebook, before choosing the brand and model, I would like advice on choosing the processor to obtain good performance. For example, focusing on an i7, there are various models i7-1365U, i7-1370P, i7-13700H. I know that the best performing and most expensive is the 13700H, but what are the other two like? Is anyone using them to produce audio? How do they perform?
If you you going to use a notebook I would buy from an audio specialist reseller. So many models have bottle necks that can’t be fixed like they can on a desktop, In the UK I use scan who test them with latencyMon and the major DAWs
Steinberg does not recommend low-power and power efficient processors to run Cubase/Nuendo (https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/206929270-DAW-Components). Better to specify immediately: this does not mean CPUs with power efficient cores.
They can be used, of course, but they will run much sooner into bottlenecks and heat (and thus throttling).
The “H” in the i7-13700H stands for high performance, sooo
I’d personally avoid all U-series CPUs for audio.
What @mkok said. I bought an i7 4790 system from them around 11 years ago and only replaced because it was old and could no longer keep up, not because it broke. I also bought the replacement from them.
Also, unless you’re thinking of getting rid of it within a year or two, always get the most powerful you can afford. Cutting edge today will be meh in 3 years time.
An invaluable site:
BTW, SCAN and the guys working there are great and would absolutely recommend them. In Italy you have Project Lead which is also an extremely good DAW builder.
I’m on my 3rd PC from Scan. That is over a period of at least 15 years. Always running Cubase. Always solid.
Short answer: 1370P is far better than 13xxU.
The H series is much more power hungry and makes much noisier laptops for minor performance gains not tangible / not worth the extra noise for CB apps.
So would you recommend the P series?
Not any P series, but yes definitely for the 1370P.
That’s also the exact model I use on my personal CB laptop!
(and I happen to have selected it (the 1370PRE to be exact) for a project in my day job for a few 100s machines.)
Do be more complete, top-tier H-series SKUs will perform a bit more than 1370p but the gain is unlikely to be tangible and not worth the extra fan noise.
If you want to pay for extras, better invest in 32GB ram and a good SSD.
Hi everyone, I am resuming this topic to ask what you think about Intel Core Ultra processors, which are dedicated especially for AI, instead. For example, there are many notebooks with Core Ultra 7 155H.
Are they good for audio or is it an unnecessary extra expense?