Best Laptops for Pro Tools LE

[pschwa]

I have a Vaio desktop that I plan using for most of my home work.
But, I am getting a laptop for mobility. I am looking at the
Dell 300M. It has the 1.2 GHz processor with Centrino. It is the
smaller 12" screen. I notice that that Digidesign only recommends
the Dell 600M. Would there be any problems using the smaller laptop?
I just think packing around something that is 3 pounds would be
very convenient. But I don't know what technical considerations
there would be including performance. I was thinking of having
a larger hard drive and more memory - 512 MB or 1 GB hoping this
would help on the performance.

[Allen Hallada]

Anyone tested the new Toshiba 17" yet?

Allen

[xlr26]

Anyone tested the new Toshiba 17" yet?

Allen

Toshiba w/an MBox (5.3.3).....25 tracks b/f getting the "running out of cpu" message.

Being completely new to all this fun stuff, I'm not positive that I was doing everything right, but I think I did. ANy suggestions for getting bettter results? I'm thinking a faster HD would probably do the trick.

[Datus]

I really do think you were doing something wrong....compared to the results on the other laptops we have seen, i would expect at least 32, if not 32+4 or even +6.

Make sure you read the DaveC correctly.

What settings are you at under the hardware config menu? if thats at like 65% CPU, and 128 and Level 2, well then ok, kick those up and try again.

Were you recording to the 4200 rpm system drive?

Did you have Hyper-Threading enabled or disabled, try the opposite. From what I understand this is set in the bios.

I really want to see this thing kick some butt, I know it can.

[xlr26]

I really do think you were doing something wrong....compared to the results on the other laptops we have seen, i would expect at least 32, if not 32+4 or even +6.

Make sure you read the DaveC correctly.

What settings are you at under the hardware config menu? if thats at like 65% CPU, and 128 and Level 2, well then ok, kick those up and try again.

Were you recording to the 4200 rpm system drive?

Did you have Hyper-Threading enabled or disabled, try the opposite. From what I understand this is set in the bios.

I really want to see this thing kick some butt, I know it can.

Hey Stephen,
Yeah, I very well could've screwed something up....I was originally @ 65% and 128, but I maxed it out for the test. And yes, I was recording straight to the sys drive (4200rpm). I didn't have anything else running in the background, or at least I don't think I did. Didn't tweak anything else like hyper-threading etc. Not sure how to enable/disable hyper-threading, come to think of it though, I have xp home and I thought the hyper-threading only worked w/pro?? Again, I'm a rank amateur when it come to this stuff so any and all advice would be appreciated.

FYI, I'm actually not that concerned about getting killer davec results b/c I doubt that I'll be doing any huge projects in the near future, but I'd be happy to see what the Toshiba can do for all you guys interested in it.

[Allen Hallada]

Hey Stephen,
Yeah, I very well could've screwed something up....I was originally @ 65% and 128, but I maxed it out for the test. And yes, I was recording straight to the sys drive (4200rpm). I didn't have anything else running in the background, or at least I don't think I did. Didn't tweak anything else like hyper-threading etc. Not sure how to enable/disable hyper-threading, come to think of it though, I have xp home and I thought the hyper-threading only worked w/pro?? Again, I'm a rank amateur when it come to this stuff so any and all advice would be appreciated.

FYI, I'm actually not that concerned about getting killer davec results b/c I doubt that I'll be doing any huge projects in the near future, but I'd be happy to see what the Toshiba can do for all you guys interested in it.

Thanks for the testing. I appreciate it as I know many here do also.

I'm not surprised at all. P4s are inconsistent here. No one has figured it out yet. We'll have to see what the Centrinos can do here. I wish that HP were putting an Athlon in that 17".

Allen

[xlr26]

Allen,
Glad to be of help. Any suggestions for improving my davec results?

[Meterbridge1]

I would try turning off Hyper-Threading anyway. I think you hit F10 on boot up to get into the BIOS.

[Datus]

How about the specs on the sager notebook with the 17" widescreen?
http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/n...SubType=V#4760

No dvd burner, but oh well.

Allen, as far as chipset and all that compatibility stuff, you have any thoughts?

[Allen Hallada]

Well first off it is another P4 on that Sager notebook. I was thinking that they used XP processors on their laptops. I am interested to see how the Centrinos perform here.

That Toshiba has one of the best screens I've seen. I like the lay out of the laptop and the size doesn't bother me for recording use. You are still going to have alot of fun with that one.

As far as the P4, I think that turning Hyperthreading off may get you better results as it has in the past. We had one guy getting 10 tracks with it on, then turned it off and got much better results. That may not be the case here with PTLE 6.1 though. I'd say those results are as good as we are going to see and with XP there is very limited tweeking.

Allen