Best Laptops for Pro Tools LE

[Dava027]

I am about to but a Laptop to work with PT LE and i would like to know if this model of HP is compatible.

Número de parte: GB125LA#ABM
Marca: Hewlett Packard
Modelo: Presario C518LA
Arquitectura: Portátil
Procesador: Intel Pentium dual core T2060 (1.60 GHz).
Velocidad de bus del sistema: 533 MHz.
Pantalla: TFT/WXGA de 15.4 pulgadas con tecnología Brightview y resolución de 1280 x 800 píxeles.
Disco duro: 80 GB (5400 revoluciones por minuto).
Memoria RAM: 512 MB (1 x 512); expandible a 1 GB (1 x 1024 MB).
Velocidad de memoria: DDR II 533 MHz.
DVD Rom CD Read Write: Super Multi DVD+/-R/RW y CD-RW Combo Drive con soporte para doble capa.
Drive para diskette: No disponible en este modelo.
Fax Modem: 56K de alta velocidad.
Red: 10/100 y módulo wireless 802.11b/g
Gráficos de video: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, hasta 64 MB de memoria del sistema compartida para video.
Audio: AC Link audio Altec Lansing.
Teclado: Integrado de tamaño completo Windows con Touchpad.
Descripción del mouse: Touch Pad con botón para Activar/desactivar y área Scroll vertical/horizontal.
Total de ranuras para tarjeta PCMCIA: Información no proporcionada por el fabricante.
Batería: Lithium-ion de 6 células.
Duración de la batería: La duración de la batería varía en función del tipo de uso y de los accesorios.
Total de puertos externos: 2 USB 2.0, VGA, RJ-45, RJ-11, y puertos para micrófono y audífonos, TV-Out (S-video).
Sistema Operativo: Windows Vista Home Basic.
Software incluido: Software de Productividad: Symantec Norton Antivirus 2006 (60 días); Microsoft Encarta Standard 2006, Adobe Acrobat Reader; Notebook Ayuda y Soporte. Software pre-instalado: HP Games; muvee autoProducer; HP PhotoSmart Premier; HP QuickPlay DVD for Windows; Microsoft Works.
Dimensiones: Ancho: 35.7 cm, fondo: 25.4 cm, alto: 3.4 cm.
Peso: 2.9 Kg.

Thanks.

[StavrosSound]

The HP should work just fine. I was wary of the performance of PT on my HP Pavilion (bought off-the-shelf at Best Buy a year ago), and as far as I can tell, even with inserts, 30 some channels, sends, including DVerb and video source, the machine is taking it like a champ without a slowdown . I've recorded nearly a straight hour of audio in 96/24 in one take and performance was perfect as well. The only minor thing I had to do was up the H/W Buffer to 1024 samples (might be due to the fact I had to daisychain my 003 through a Maxtor drive). On that note, you will need an external Firewire Drive for storage/recording, and you'll have to daisychain your rig through it. My personal choice is Maxtor Firewire drives... built like a rock, top performance, and fully compatible for Record/Playback on ProTools whether in NTFS or HFS+ (depending upon OS). My suggestion would be at least 300GB, and if you go through www.newegg.com, you can get it for about $110.

Here's what my specs are:

- HP Pavilion zv6000
- AMD Athlon 64 2.0GHz
- 768MB RAM
- WinXP Pro
- ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (although Digi doesn't recommend this card, it's had zero issues)

Just make sure to update all drivers to the very latest, especially video.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: Just noticed the 5400RPM internal drive... that could be an issue, and most likely won't allow you top performance in PT unless its at least 7200RPM. It's just an upfront warning.

[protein]

got to say that my macbook is running really well now. got thirty odd tracks running with plenty of heavy plug ins like ozone, IR1, guitar rig, mcdsp eqs comps and analog channel, autotune etc and it's not even spluttering. and all running off the internal drive. it feels like protools is running how it always should have run. very nice! this is coming on tour with me!

i'd recommend anyone thinking of getting a laptop to get a macbook running bootcamp. it's bloody cheap and bloody good.

[fixationdarknes]

I'm looking to buy a new PC laptop that I will use mainly for Pro Tools. What would be the best choice as far as bang for buck with around $1000 - $1500 to spend?

[protein]

macbook or macbook pro. once you install bootcamp (ten minutes work) it's a pc laptop. it's fully qualified with protools and it's powerful and cheap.

[Obsidian Dragon]

macbook or macbook pro. once you install bootcamp (ten minutes work) it's a pc laptop. it's fully qualified with protools and it's powerful and cheap.

I haven't read through the 220 pages of posts on this thread so please forgive me if this has already been answered a throusand times. With the macbook or macbook pro, does it work better on bootcamp & Windows XP SP2 or Mac OSX 10.4.9?

[Allen Hallada]

I haven't read through the 220 pages of posts on this thread so please forgive me if this has already been answered a throusand times. With the macbook or macbook pro, does it work better on bootcamp & Windows XP SP2 or Mac OSX 10.4.9?

I'm surprised that people are choosing to use Bootcamp over Parallels. In the past OSX has outperformed Bootcamp XP but I haven't seen any results using the newer Bootcamp software.

Good to see you guys continuing to push the envelope here. Buy Mac and never look Back. LOL

Allen

[Obsidian Dragon]

Good point. Okay, of the three, which works best for Protools LE?

1. Bootcamp with Windows XP SP2
2. Parallel Desktop with Windows XP SP2
3. Mac OSX

Anyone actually take the time to compare?

[smlamb]

I wouldnt think Parrallels would be a good option as you would then essentially be running 2 OS's chewing up valuable resources that PTLE will need. PTLE is problematic enough to get running on one OS, I wouldnt want to add another!!

Well here's my experience with my new Macbook Pro 15" 2.4ghz (2 gig ram) 002R:

1. Installed 7.1.1 on OS X 10.4.9 - worked on first install - no problems.
2. Installed Windows XP on separate partition using Bootcamp. Installed XP drivers off the drivers disc Bootcamp creates for you.
3. Installed 7.1.1 on the XP partition - plagued by 6086, 9083, buffer issues at 512 buffer sizes and less with only a few tracks.
4. Spent many days trying to diagnose problem (including XP dual core patch, disabling virtually everything except the mouse and keyboard) - all to no avail.
5. Fresh reinstall of XP, but only installed the xp dual core fix, audio, wireless and video drivers off the BootCamp disk.
6. Installed 7.1.1 on this fresh XP installation - worked like a charm - no buffer errors. (note: wireless must be disabled when running PTLE in XP).

The jury's still out on how stable my stripped down XP install is going to run on the Bootcamp partition as I literally only installed the very bare minimum of drivers... didnt even install the chipset driver included on the Bootcamp drivers disk.

Initial Performance analysis:
1. Only small performance differences between the XP and 10.4.9 OS's. On XP I can playback and record on a session with 20+ tracks and multiple effects down at a buffer size of 64 with almost no errors. On 10.4.9 the same session I'll have to disable some of the effects to get it to perform reliably at 64. However, I am now able to use OSX for other tasks other than just PTLE - on my old eMachines M6811 I had to create a separate audio-only installation of XP running under Standard PC.
(note: I use a buffer size of 64 as my benchmark as the m6811 running Standard PC XP was rock solid down at 64 even in very heavy sessions.)
2. In comparison to the M6811 - the Macbook Pro provides more overall processing horsepower, but from what I can see is a bit less reliable down at a buffer size of 64. A bit dissappointing that the MBP doesnt outperform against the M6811 across the board....

anyone want to buy a used "like-new" eMachines laptop?

[fixationdarknes]

What's the best PC laptop I can get to run Pro Tools? I wanna spend probably around $1000. Definitely not over $1500. And I don't want a Mac. I know most people here like them, but I'd rather go PC.

Oh, and does Pro Tools work on Dell laptops? If so, I'll probably go Dell.