Protools2go on a windows based laptop??

[wjbailey]

Degidesign seems to be pretty careful about what they will and will not recommend. Considering the way that magma pci expansion box works, I don't see why a system built around a windows-based-pentium-three-type laptop wouldn't work. Are there high enough speed drives available for PC laptops? I don't really see how a laptop computer would differ much with a desktop if they are based on the same processor.

I am very interested in putting together a "mobile protools unit" but I do not want to spend the money on an apple titanium notebook and the ibook doesn't have a PCMCIA slot to accept the magma box.

I'm a second engineer in the market for a laptop right now for documentation purposes and stumbled across the protools2go system. Most of the producers and engineers I work with already have their own protools TDM systems, and I feel that giving them the ability to do field recordings would get me more gigs.

I guess another possibility would be if there is some sort of PCMCIA to firewire or USB adapter available and if that would cause any other compatibility issues. God, I want to put this system together but I simply haven't the budget for an expensive computer considering the other necessary equipment. Little help please??

bill

[garuda_x]

get yourself an older g3 powerbook. a 400 or 500. these will work fine. its what bjork uses on the road as per the article on the digi website. a 500 g3pb with firewire should only run you $1700 or so. probably even less. and then you drop a gig of ram into that puppy and get a firewire drive with that 911 oxford chipset (give you 30MB/s of sustained read write) and you no longer have any reason to complain. the powerbook even had video out so you can hook up another monitor and svideo out to hook to a tv. and the mac vers or pt has quicktime support, so you can edit video for audio. check ebay. you can probably find last years powerbook there. i have a 500'book and i love it. its a trooper.

_x

[martin-28]

I'm with garuda. If you want a mac the older g3 500mhz powerbook is the way to go. You can find them on e-bay going for about $1600. Most of them come with 256mb ram, 12gb hd. And with that magma you would have two full sized pci slots and the built in scsi for an external hd. It would be a nice setup.

[Dreamware]

Although I hate to say it the new MAC notebooks are very nice. As for PC laptops I love toshiba and sony.

[Rock_Artist]

PIIIs should work fine but I have no knowladge of such. (You can be the first to try it and maybe even return it [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] ).

Why Mac?
Most TDM are macs, it's easier to switch data between each other.
Mac support is better (from Digi).

PC Solutions:
You can try a PC and it should work as the AMD Athlons work with no true digi testing results. If you want a simple HD Recording with protable solution there is the new Metric Halo Firewire I/F and RME PCMCIA + I/F solutions. Both give great i/f and can record with no problem.
If you intend using 8channels top such a solution with PTFree 5.0.1 (afterward) will be fine. yet what can I say Digi likes Mac ...