Windows Laptop for Pro Tools M-Powered

[travgei]

I am trying to find a laptop that will run pro tools smoothly. Right now i am looking at an HP Pavilion dv6t (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...ce/dv6t_series). I would customize it to an intel i5 processor, with 6 GB or ram and a 500 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive.
Or I am looking at a similar HP (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...ce/dv7t_series).
On this one I can customize the computer to have dual hard drives ( two-500 GB 7200 HD).

I will probably get the m audio fast track for the laptop, to basically "unlock" m-powered and do some simple recording.

I should mention that I already have pro tools running on a desktop computer and I am looking for a laptop so I can take pro tools with me. I have pro tools m-powered 8.


Any help I could get trying to find a good laptop in a midrange price would be helpful.

[travgei]

Any takers that could tell me what I need in a laptop to rune smoothly?

[AliGlenUig]

They say that you should record to a separate drive, so I'd say either get the first one along with an external drive or the second and dedicate one of those drives to recording.

[travgei]

I read that pro tools doesnt officially support external usb drives. But does it still run fine with a usb drive?

[AliGlenUig]

USB isn't fast enough to record to [which is what I meant].
Firewire or eSATA connections should be fast enough to record to an external drive.

[travgei]

I will probably get the one laptop with 2 internal drives and dedicate one to audio. Is it ok to transfer pro tools files with a flash drive from my desktop(my main computer to the laptops hard drive so I can mix on the go. Would this affect the audio in any way?

[zedhed]

Originally Posted by travgei

Is it ok to transfer pro tools files with a flash drive from my desktop(my main computer to the laptops hard drive so I can mix on the go. Would this affect the audio in any way?

Copying/Transferring files from one drive to another is fine and won't affect the audio. If the files are large, obviously you'd need a sizable flash drive.

If you want to mix 'on the go' you would need PT v9 with iLok authorization, or alternatively a Mbox Micro for versions previous to v9. Otherwise 'on the go' will mean dragging your hardware interface around with you as well.

[albee1952]

Pro Tools 9 on Windows 7 will actually be better with a USB2 drive, than it will with a firewire drive. AFAIK, this is because Win7 has improved USB drivers to the point where they now are okay for audio, but Win7 screwed up firewire to the point where it is less stable(go figure). In any case, a second internal drive will net the best performance anyway. 2 details that you should consider: the i3 is a budget cpu and you want power(the i5 would be a better choice) and, integrated graphics can sometimes be a show stopper(so consider a laptop with separate graphics from ATI or nVidia).

[travgei]

I found this option (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vo...id=vostro-3750).
Around 800 dollars is were I would like to stay. I think the hp I was looking at had integrated graphics (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...ce/dv7t_series)
And I cant customize it to have a separate graphics card.

Do you know of any other options?

[travgei]

Also, do you think that an esata port would be necessary?