Best Laptops for Pro Tools LE

[mstucker]

I have found a deal on an eMachines M5310, specs listed below. I am not looking for the most incredible PT performance out there, but I would like to have it run PT. Any advice would be appreciated.

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Mobile AMD Athlon™ XP-M 2400+ Processor with QuantiSpeed™ architecture
1.36"h x 14.0"w x 10.0"d
15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
40 GB HDD
AOL 3 month membership included, click here for details
512 MB DDR (PC 2100)
56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
Integrated 802.11g Wireless LAN, 10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
DVD/CD-RW Combo (CD-read 24x; CD-write 24x; CD-rewrite 10x; DVD-read 8x)
Touchpad with vertical Scroll Zone
PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
ATI® RADEON™ IGP 320M
64 MB (shared) Video Memory
6.5 lbs. with battery
Pre-Installed Software: Microsoft Works 7.0, Microsoft Money 2003, Encarta Online, Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™, Power DVD, Microsoft Media Player, Real Player, Internet Explorer, Netscape® Navigator, MSN®, CompuServe®, AOL, Norton AntiVirus 2003 (90 day complimentary subscription)
3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 IEEE 1394, 1 VGA external connector, 1 S-Video Out, Microphone In, Line Out, PCMCIA Slot (Card Bus type I and type II)

[sventvkg]

Well The MBox will be here Monday but it will be another Week Before I have the eMachines laptop due to a client having to pay me a week late....I'll post results as soon as I get PTLe installed on that baby though!!!

[Glenn Martin]

Are there any special settings or tweaks for Dell 8600 with PTLE other than standard XP settings listed in the Answer Base?

Thanks,

Glenn

[Sam DeFranco]

Glenn,

The 8600 worked really well out of the box for me except for the HW buffer issue as mentioned elsewhere in this thread. I did shut off all startup programs.

Are you having specific problems w/ PT?

Regards,

[besmusic]

How about using anti-virus/firewall software on my new 8600? Is it okay or will it mess with PTLE? I'm hoping that I'll be able to disable it completely before opening up my PTLE sessions, but don't know if this is possible or will work well for PTLE...any advice? I really need this machine for internet as well...

[besmusic]

One more question...if I'm going to do basic tracking and mixing on the Dell 8600, will it be okay to do a separate partition on the internal 7200rpm HD dedicated to media, or must I get an external firewire drive? On my studio machine I have a separate, dedicated internal second serial ATA drive, so if I can just get away with a partition that would be great. But I don't want to blow any remote recording gigs just because I didn't get the external drive...what do you think?

[Sam DeFranco]

Hi Pete,

OK, for starters, I use the 8600 only for PT since we have a Dimension 4100 connected to the net. I disabled the virus check (and all startups for that matter) by running msconfig.exe in Start/Run. I do not have firewall software running on the 8600.

I use only external Maxtor 3000 DV drive for all recording. I did use the internal HD (also a 7200 rpm) w/o partioning on a small session and it worked seemed to work fine. However, if I was doing a live session, I would not take a chance by using the internal drive.

So, overall, this post is absolutely no help at all. Sorry!

[besmusic]

Thanks Sam. You're right, and I assume I'll end up getting an external HD. My primary concern is figuring out how to use this new laptop safely on the internet as well as with PTLE. I don't have the luxury of another machine, and it would be so nice with wireless these days...

Any other suggestions out there?

[DNZ Productions]

Phew, I just spent close to an entire work day reading all of this thread, looking for which laptop is right for me. After looking up a number of suggested notebooks mentioned in this thread, I've noticed that many of them are no longer being made. However, I noticed that Allen speaks very highly of the Acer TravelMate 662 and many other people have spoken highly of the Dell i8600.

I'd like to set my future notebook up to run both ProTools LE (undecided on MBox or 002r yet) as well as Avid Xpress DV. I did notice in the Avid forums that people were having problems with the i8600's and there was no real solution just yet. That being said, I decided to dedicate some more time researching the Acer 662.

Shortly after begining my search for an Acer 662, I realized that they are no longer be sold in the US (although there are still a few units left overseas) and that they cost upwards of $2000. As an alternative, I did come across a few Acer TravelMate 291LMi units at a very reasonable price. The specs for this model are as follows:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M processor 1.40GHz
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Memory: 512MB
Hard drive: 40GB
Optical drive: DVD-RW
TFT Display: 15.0" XGA Graphics Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
(you can find the full specs here)

This system looks almost identical to the 662, but I was wondering if Allen or any other 662 users could make any comparisons? I do plan on adding an external HD as well, as 40GB won't do much good when working with audio AND video.

I appreciate any help and praise everyone who has posted in this thread thus-far. You guys have provided me with an abundance of useful info and now I'm just trying to put the final pieces of the puzzle together before dropping a load of cash for a new system!

Derek

(forgive me if this post was plagued with retardation, my brain is barely functioning after trying to take in all this info in such a short time)

[Allen Hallada]

Phew, I just spent close to an entire work day reading all of this thread, looking for which laptop is right for me. After looking up a number of suggested notebooks mentioned in this thread, I've noticed that many of them are no longer being made. However, I noticed that Allen speaks very highly of the Acer TravelMate 662 and many other people have spoken highly of the Dell i8600.

I'd like to set my future notebook up to run both ProTools LE (undecided on MBox or 002r yet) as well as Avid Xpress DV. I did notice in the Avid forums that people were having problems with the i8600's and there was no real solution just yet. That being said, I decided to dedicate some more time researching the Acer 662.

Shortly after begining my search for an Acer 662, I realized that they are no longer be sold in the US (although there are still a few units left overseas) and that they cost upwards of $2000. As an alternative, I did come across a few Acer TravelMate 291LMi units at a very reasonable price. The specs for this model are as follows:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M processor 1.40GHz
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Memory: 512MB
Hard drive: 40GB
Optical drive: DVD-RW
TFT Display: 15.0" XGA Graphics Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
(you can find the full specs here)

This system looks almost identical to the 662, but I was wondering if Allen or any other 662 users could make any comparisons? I do plan on adding an external HD as well, as 40GB won't do much good when working with audio AND video.

I appreciate any help and praise everyone who has posted in this thread thus-far. You guys have provided me with an abundance of useful info and now I'm just trying to put the final pieces of the puzzle together before dropping a load of cash for a new system!

Derek

(forgive me if this post was plagued with retardation, my brain is barely functioning after trying to take in all this info in such a short time)

Derek,
If you hold off for a while we will have some results on the new Athlon 64 3000 laptops. Should be out in the next week or two.

Allen