Laptop specs for Pro-Tools LE 8.0.3

[glenpinn]

CAN THIS BE MOVED TO THE WINDOWS SECTION PLEASE

hi there, i just got my son a laptop and need to ask if its suitable for protools LE 8.0.3 using windows 7 32bit.

laptops is Dell Latitude D620
2.1ghz core 2 duo
4gb 667 ram
intel 950 graphics
14" screen @ 1440x900

his friends all have pretty high end laptops and they have problems with their protools using vista 32bit, mostly having issues with buffering when recording.

i have a dell studio 1735, 2.66ghz cpu, 4gb ram and he wants to use that, but its far too big and heavy to cart around to his bands recordings and to college.

any advice be appreciated.

cheers

[CME]

FWIW I've been doing some research into Windows Laptops and the issue you're gonna have is Windows 7. Right now it takes some heavy tweaking just to get it to run. By all accounts when you get it working it has potential to be the best Windows OS for PTLE but right now XP is a better choice. So I would plan on either going back to XP or at least dual booting it. However yes they guys in the Windows side could explain this much better.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by glenpinn

[B]
his friends all have pretty high end laptops and they have problems with their protools using vista 32bit, mostly having issues with buffering when recording.

The often overlooked requirement with notebooks is the need for a physical second hard drive. Since most notebooks only have one hard drive, people forget that Protools requires a second hard drive for the session files. Do not use a USB drive as the sustained throughput is not sufficient. You'll need a compatible firewire port and a 7200 rpm drive in a firewire enclosure with an Oxford chipset.

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

You'll need a compatible firewire port and a 7200 rpm drive in a firewire enclosure with an Oxford chipset.

well the dell latitude D620 i just got for my son with the 2.1ghz core2 duo and 4gb of ram doesnt take another hdd, and the 80gb one thats in it is only 5400rpm, but i was planning on getting a bigger 7200rpm hdd anyway.

i have a 500gb 2.5" laptop portable drive for him (my old one) but it runs off usb, but your saying i should get him a firewire powered portable hdd to use as a 2nd hdd.

im happy to do that as the laptop has a mini firewire port.

cheers

btw im not sure what this oxford chipset is all about ???

[albee1952]

Apologies to the Mac folks as this is their thread, but the Oxford chipset is the chip inside the firewire case. Here's some good choices(scroll down to the 7200 rpm versions) http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Apologies to the Mac folks as this is their thread, but the Oxford chipset is the chip inside the firewire case. Here's some good choices(scroll down to the 7200 rpm versions) http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

hi, yeah i just googled oxford chipset and found its the chip used for a firewire enclosure.

I thought we were looking at 3.5" ext hdd using firewire, which need a power adaptor, but it appears you are referring to a 2.5" portable hdd powered by firewire from the laptop.

im in australia so ill research some drives.

does it matter that protools is installed on the original 80gb 5400rpm hdd in the laptop, or best to get a 7200rpm for that as well.

EDIT: i just located this OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro External Hard Drive Enclosure (3.5") which will require mains power, but i will look into the 2.5" firewire option as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/OWC-Mercury-E...item3a57d1bcbe

or i can buy a 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable FW400+USB2 7200RPM Bus Powered Solution from usa for $180 inc post to aust

http://eshop.macsales.com/basketHand...o=updateBasket

[Obsidian Dragon]

Whether it is powered by a power adapter or gets power from the firewire port is not critical for Protools purposes. If you notebook as the mini firewire port however, you must use an enclosuer that has a separate power source (A/C adapter) as the mini port does not supply power to the device.

It does not matter if the drive is 3.5" or 2.5" but it does matter that is spins at 7200RPM (or faster).

The Oxford chipset is referring to the firmware used to communicate between the firewire port of the drive enclosure and the installed hard drive (most likely SATA or in some older models PATA or IDE). This seems to be pretty common on most enclosures now but it is necessary according to Digidesign's requirements. Some users venturing to use other chipsets have experienced problems, hence the recommendation by Digidesign.

Again:
1) You MUST get a second drive to use with your notebook for Protools.
2) You should NOT use a USB drive.
3) If you get a firewire drive for your notebook with a mini firewire port (4 conductor) you MUST get one with a power adapter as the mini port does not provide power to the drive.
4) The Firewire enclosure MUST have the Oxford shipset.
5) The external drive used for session files MUST spin at 7200RPM or faster (no 5400RPM). The internal drive with the OS and Protools application can be either speed.

I know these sound like strigent rules but it will save you much headache while trying to get you Protools setup working.

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

I know these sound like strigent rules but it will save you much headache while trying to get you Protools setup working.

hi m8, you have given me all the stuff i need to know right now, so ill go to that australian ebay link and buy the 3.5" one i found in there as i have several large capacity 3.5" sata drives i can use in it.

my son says his friends who use laptops dont have 2 drives, and all have problems with recording with protools.

OK im still keen for him to use win 7 32bit with protools (at least try it) and if it gives any problem then we install XP again.

one last question, some people seem intent on saying that pro-tools needs a dual core cpu and at least 2 to 3gb of ram to work properly, so can you clarify that for me as his new laptop will arrive with a 2.0ghz core2 duo and 4gb of 667mhz ram.

cheers and thx again for your help.

[huzzam]

the specs of the laptop are just fine, as long as you get the external firewire drive. i do all my tracking & mixing on a 2.0 gHz core2duo Macbook with 3gb ram (and an external firewire drive from OWC in fact). sometimes it chokes when i get complicated with the mixing (too many reverbs, multiple compressors on each track) but it's generally fine. (& of course when that happens i just start bouncing tracks down to save cpu power.)

~peter in oakland

[glenpinn]

hi m8, yeah the latitude D620 laptop is on the way from the previous owner, so spec wise it seemd good, and i am just about to seal the deal on this OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro External Hard Drive Enclosure in ebay here in australia (i have a bid of $30 and a high bid of $40 and so far im the only bidder and it ends in 20 minutes, seems like a very good enclosure given its quad interface, although i heard some say that its best to get a single interface enclosure, less things to break and go wrong.

we dont get this brand in australia, and the guy selling this one got it from this eshop.macsales.com website

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other.../MEAQ7H20TB32/

the 500gb 7200 sata ill install just needs to be formatted in NTFS i take it, as a single partition drive.

cheers and thanks again for the help.

Originally Posted by huzzam

the specs of the laptop are just fine, as long as you get the external firewire drive. i do all my tracking & mixing on a 2.0 gHz core2duo Macbook with 3gb ram (and an external firewire drive from OWC in fact). sometimes it chokes when i get complicated with the mixing (too many reverbs, multiple compressors on each track) but it's generally fine. (& of course when that happens i just start bouncing tracks down to save cpu power.)

~peter in oakland