New Windows laptop for PT 10

[EGS]

Originally Posted by WKG

...Using a laptop for FW is getting to be a bit of a challenge as FW ports are becoming very scarce and even express card ports seem to be dropping off.

Is it possible to convert the Firewire output of a 002R (or similar) to USB2 or 3? I see adapters availiable, but will it work? Seems to be asking a lot here - especially since PTools is picky as to a TI chipset for firewire...

[WKG]

Originally Posted by EGS

Is it possible to convert the Firewire output of a 002R (or similar) to USB2 or 3? I see adapters availiable, but will it work? Seems to be asking a lot here - especially since PTools is picky as to a TI chipset for firewire...

I've not seen a FW to USB adapter. I would think it would be a problem but I don't have any experience to base that on. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has tried it. In the absence of a dedicated FW port an express card port with an SIIG FW card or similar would be the way to go.

[EGS]

How do you think this will work:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...428&CatId=4938

in conjunction with a SIIG FW card and an ext eSata record drive, of course. Is that processor fast enough? A little light on memory though...

[dstryrwiz]

This one should fit your requests:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...466&CatId=4939

This is what I'm currently using, although I bought an additional set of 8 GB of RAM off newegg to bring it up to 16 GB of RAM.

[WKG]

Originally Posted by EGS

How do you think this will work:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...428&CatId=4938

in conjunction with a SIIG FW card and an ext eSata record drive, of course. Is that processor fast enough? A little light on memory though...

I don't know about the Sony but I would lean towards the Lenovo with the sandybridge CPU in dstryrwiz's post. The 740QM is just slightly faster than the 720QM that came in my ASUS.

Have you looked in the Best Laptop thread in the PTLE Windows section? It's a long thread but there's some recent success info towards the end.

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=76139

[dstryrwiz]

Originally Posted by WKG

I don't know about the Sony but I would lean towards the Lenovo with the sandybridge CPU in dstryrwiz's post. The 740QM is just slightly faster than the 720QM that came in my ASUS.

Have you looked in the Best Laptop thread in the PTLE Windows section? It's a long thread but there's some recent success info towards the end.

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=76139

This laptop really works very well, and it has some really nice features in the BIOS that make it a very dynamic laptop. For Pro Tools configurations you will want to shut off a lot of the energy saving features that it has (which when enabled make for a laptop with about 8-9 hours of battery life), as well as you will want to switch it from using Nvidia Optimus to using discrete graphics, then just install the driver from Nvidia directly (that feature alone is incredible for a laptop with Nvidia Optimus, as many people are unable to shut it off, but Lenovo actually put it in the BIOS). I did a ton of research and this is probably one of the only laptops that has an express card slot along with a Sandy Bridge processor, and on top of that it even has a workstation graphics card and an e-SATA port, which all of this together was incredibly hard to find, and especially for its price. Another nice thing is that you can remove the disk drive and swap it for a caddy with another drive mounted, so you can avoid needing to deal with an external drive and still being able to have both a boot drive and an audio drive separate. See what you think.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by dstryrwiz

This one should fit your requests:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...466&CatId=4939

This is what I'm currently using, although I bought an additional set of 8 GB of RAM off newegg to bring it up to 16 GB of RAM.

Originally Posted by dstryrwiz

This laptop really works very well, and it has some really nice features in the BIOS that make it a very dynamic laptop. For Pro Tools configurations you will want to shut off a lot of the energy saving features that it has (which when enabled make for a laptop with about 8-9 hours of battery life), as well as you will want to switch it from using Nvidia Optimus to using discrete graphics, then just install the driver from Nvidia directly (that feature alone is incredible for a laptop with Nvidia Optimus, as many people are unable to shut it off, but Lenovo actually put it in the BIOS). I did a ton of research and this is probably one of the only laptops that has an express card slot along with a Sandy Bridge processor, and on top of that it even has a workstation graphics card and an e-SATA port, which all of this together was incredibly hard to find, and especially for its price. Another nice thing is that you can remove the disk drive and swap it for a caddy with another drive mounted, so you can avoid needing to deal with an external drive and still being able to have both a boot drive and an audio drive separate. See what you think.

Cool - looks good. Thanks !!!

[dstryrwiz]

Originally Posted by EGS

Cool - looks good. Thanks !!!

Not a problem! It took me forever to find a laptop with almost the same specs you requested, only I also wanted the Sandy Bridge processor, and it was incredibly hard to find any that fit those requirements (except a few that were over $2,000, and I didn't want to spend that much). The 2 things you'll need to do to make it work better for audio production is probably getting that second hard drive, and getting one of the certified express cards with the TI chipset. I think the express card slot had to be the hardest thing to find out of all the requirements I had for it, and none of the companies I spoke to were helpful at all with locating laptops with those slots, so I figured I'd chime in and save you potentially days of research.

[AxeDye]

powernotebooks.com/Sager-NP7282-gaming-laptops-notebooks.php-sys-4087.html

this sager notebook features a desktop processor and is based on a lot of custom build you see people using. it also has triple channel ddr3 memory. for $2k you get a FireWire 800 port USB and a express card slot. you need to add the OS to the cart seperatly or if you have an OS don't worry about it. if you have the budget.

[dstryrwiz]

Originally Posted by AxeDye

powernotebooks.com/Sager-NP7282-gaming-laptops-notebooks.php-sys-4087.html

this sager notebook features a desktop processor and is based on a lot of custom build you see people using. it also has triple channel ddr3 memory. for $2k you get a FireWire 800 port USB and a express card slot. you need to add the OS to the cart seperatly or if you have an OS don't worry about it. if you have the budget.

That was the exact problem that I had, the lack of a $2k+ budget for a laptop. If you can afford it, have fun, but it just seemed to get way too expensive for me. I have the belief that if I want a laptop, it should be a laptop and not cost me a fortune, and if I want a desktop I should get a desktop. No matter how much of a desktop replacement that may be, I just can't believe it's anywhere near as stable as the same exact build on a desktop (which would cost way less too). In regards to this specific laptop, there is also the issue of portability, as this is a HUGE laptop, which when you say you wish to mix on the go, that can start to become an issue. Honestly, if you intend to more or less always be attached to an outlet, and would be using a screen that large anyway, I'd be tempted to tell you just to build a desktop, mount it in a rack case, and use that. Here's a rack case that I use (although in combo with a laptop) that you can use for keeping the computer mounted and safe, then have the screen in the top section. There's also a 2U version as well that you can find here which one of the covers can convert into a mouse pad. It all really just depends on what you want in terms of portability, as that very well would be almost as portable as a 17.3" laptop, would cost less, and be much more stable, just require an outlet, which the 17.3" would as well most of the time, especially with that processor.