help me choose a new laptop
 

if any of you have any suggestions?

i want one that will last me a LONG ASS TIME.
price - em maybe £700 max, but cheaper would be better.

it will be used for music, editing music, hooking up a usb mixer, watching films, downloading music - has to be a laptop so i can transport it from house to garage rehersal place down the road.

17inch monitor preferably, don't want much less than that.

don't give a shit about looks. has to be fast enough to handle editing and videos.

also must have the BEST sound quality possible.

i figured i'd ask here in case anyone had any good suggestions.

also no sony, dont trust it.

I was dissapointed in my Asus aj8 (?)

By the numbers it was spiffy but I'm not sure that the drivers were well written. Seemed pretty darn slow. Plus the 'built-in' software--power options for example were really clunky.

Asus MB = good. Laptop? not convinced.

17" machines tend to be heavy and expensive. most don't have great sound but you can add a firewire interface for recording/editing music.

as for durability, thinkpads are best-- they have a rolling cage, titanium frame, a gutter for keyboard spills-- if you're drunk around your computer often, you might want to look into it.

an alternative to laptops could be to build yourself a SFF machine or buy a mac mini. not a laptop, but portable enough-- specially the mac mini, it's the size of an ice cream sandwich (sorta). DIY route you could have your pick of hardware which might include a case with handles. motherboards... come in all kinds.

problem with a laptop "lasting forever" is that they are hard to upgrade. a case, even a small case, can have shit replaced as time goes by and remain moderately current.

for simplicity, you could get the new macbook but it lacks firewire (which sucks for a number of reasons) and the polycarbonate case is not exactly built tough-- it demands that you remain sober at all times. not sure the 13" macbook pro would be within your price range but it's more resilient and has better everything. then again they are coming up with a new lineup of macbook pros in january/february, so you might wanna wait.

a good place to look at is the apple refurbished, it's hidden in the store, and you can get something decent and a good warranty. but "the best sound" will again require an external interface. i have a digirack 003 but it's fucken pricey.

finally, you can get a small computer and buy a larger monitor for video editing. if it has HDMI out, you could even edit in an LCD TV-- 13" is too small for video editing but that's why you have video out ports.

Yes. Like above poster, I suggest a Macbook.

i mentioned it but didn't offer a firm suggestion for it. for the money, the mac mini is the better deal though-- more power, more memory, your choice of monitor (a cheap and good samsung or a 50" plasma, up to you), and a much lesser price-- cheaper also for the apple care (warranty tax). i just bought one and it's fucking sweet. it ALSO has firewire, which for video + audio editing is a fucking standard. and it's fucking small. ok, the monitor will have to be carried separately, but the mini is mightier than the book.

dood, you're gettin' a dell

cheers for the advice symbol man.

dell studio 17inch doesn't look too bad.

altho i'm tempted for a mac mini.
i've never had a mac before and fucking hate apple cos i spent £130 on an 80gig classic for it to break and be unfixable and me to repeatedly stab myself as i tried to open the thing.

what are the disadvantages of mac? can i install ubuntu in it? are there programmes that only work for windows? anything i should know before i buy one?

there are certain things you cant do on a mac that you can on a pc and pc's are generally a bit more user friendly/familiar than macs. i do like macs but if push comes to shove i choose pc's. plus you cant play games on a mac.

that "you can't play games on a mac" idiom is definitely outdated. though even back in the late 90s, when my family only bought macs, we always had more games installed than we'd even ever want to play...
also a lot of my friends have incredibly nerdy gamer sides to them and they swear up and down by the macbook.

yeah. s'not true!

The main disadvantage will be the shunning from decent society you'll receive as a result of that shit-eating grin that Mac wankers get. Also, you'll be impotent.

Computer-wise, they're fairly similar to PCs, but you just seem more handicapped using one.

yeah i dont like apple. its like when you see someone wearing white ipod headfones - you immeadiately clock them as having shit music taste and probably paying to download mp3s because they don't want to be illegal.

give me windows - boxy, sharp, breakable and crap, over apple - smooth, sleek, breakable and crap

btw glice any progress on that nina power article?

that's exactly what i hate about mac, namely, the fucking twattery and arrogance of their advertising and the fucking poser shit that comes with owning macs.

however, i had to surrender to it given its much simpler way to run it. everything seems to work together with great ease and you spend more time working on your work rather than working on the computer. it's not a surrender-- i was seduced, and it's hard to go back.

macs can do everything windows can cuz you can run windows on it-- dualboot. you can get yourself an old copy of XP and run it and play all the shit you want. not sure about ubuntu-- ask verme again. but remember, osx is unix, just more user-friendly-- so a lot of linux programs have mac distros.

another advantage of the mac for your purposes is that it comes with imovie , idvd, garage band and some other shit preinstalled. imovie is not my thing but it's simple and intuitive for most users. i dvd is awesome, i love it, because when you get the program to erase the shitty apple logo you can customize to look any way you want and you get some really good quality DVDs. some people here swear by garage band for music but i haven't fucked with it.

if you wanna up your video editing game and get final cut express or pro (express is cheap and works with some consumer-level HD resolutions), it will work seamlessly. i work with Avid, and the compatibility issues are shit with PC-- you need this video card and that kind of firewire, etc-- too much headache-- that's one of the reasons i switched, cuz Avid works very well on the mac.

the mac mini is great, the graphics are integrated though, so it will display 2D very well (video, movies, etc) but if you wanna get 3D work or games it might get clunky. i don't do 3D or games so that's not an issue, but my dvds work awesome.

when i was ass-broke and had no money however i ran windows on DIY machines-- takes a little reading to learn to build but you can customize everything and it's fun-- requires time though, so if you have time available to fuck with your machine you could run one. shit, you could even build and run a hackintosh-- google the word, and check it out. OSX without damaging your street cred.

me however i depend on my machines to make a living so i need the simplicity of this twat computer to get things done faster. plus they are fucking flimsy, so i pay extra to have a fucking warranty. i miss my built-like-tank thinkpads, but they weren't compatible with Avid and i had to give them up.

but i have to say i love my mac mini-- i have it plugged to a stereo with bigass speakers, so i can watch movies and listen to music and use it as a general purpose thing-- photo editing, etc . i haven't yet fully exploited its potential as it's only 1 month old but i'll be installing protools on it to see. i have a 22" samsung monitor on it, i paid maybe $300 for it 3 years ago and it looks fucking great-- you could get a used one for lots less these days. at some point i'll wanna jack the machine to a bigass tv (i don't have a tv, but i like movies, and some shit on hulu)-- looking forward to editing on a beast-sized screen.

i also have a white macbook, bought this past summer, but the new models that just came out have no firewire. no fw = no thank you. both i had to pay for "apple care" to upgrade their shitty one-year warranty. i know, i know, but i need them for work.

if money is short and you can't pay for applecare consider building yourself a small form factor box that you can take to gigs like other people would carry a small amp. my own frankencomputer lasted me 10 years as parts were successively upgraded. i had to give it up when it started giving me shit at work.

if you like windows however and you want a dell laptop then don't sweat it, it's good enough for most things, plus you can get lots of warez (and the viruses that come with it), and since your life doesn't depend on it so go for the fucking kill, learn to tweak the bios and get in its guts and fuck with it with a dremel tool; if you'll ever own a frankencomputer, this is the time for it.

some of the newer ones can and if you run some microsoft software but ultimately not a gaming system.

Oh, fuck, I'd completely forgotten. I've got to do a presentation tomorrow, so I'll have a look when that's out of the way. Sorry!

I actually haven't got a problem with Macs - they do what they do for what they do incredibly well; for my purposes, I'm happy with Vista, but I tend to use this as a word-processor/ pornbox/ waste of time. If I was going to get into home recording (I'm not, I have plenty of recording geek mates) or visual art (I'm shit at art) I'd probably go with a Mac, but it's horses for courses, innit?

appreciate the info man.

some of the sffs ive looked at would be too big to lug on a bicycle down the street but the macmini would be fine. from what you've said it looks like i'll go for one of them, but i'll also have a check to see if building a frankencomp is something i've got the skills for.

Load of shit.

No more needs to be said.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

I've recently been put up for an internship with Apple for either their "Human Interface" or Marketing.


Also, at the moment, I'm using the Windows portion of my macbook.

Get one that comes pre-loaded with pictures of my dick.

I've been doing a lot of promotional deals in the fourth quarter of 2009 to get my dick out there.

cmon man, argue your case, don't recite fanboi mantras-- this is what makes people hate apple


you still have to carry a monitor with it but maybe you could buy a cheap tiny external monitor for the road and a larger one to edit & watch movies at home. SFFs are standard issue for lan parties, where power+portability is required-- i've never attended one, but i communicate with people who do. they are bigger than the mini though-- the mini fits on a large coat pocket.

remember though, your apple care is null and void if you bash the machine. id recommend a pelican case or something hardcore for transport. those applestore bitches denied me coverage for a fallen battery (17" MBP pre-unibody) because they claimed i had caused it-- bullshit-- it was a bad design, a heavy battery resting on a tiny sliver of soft metal (they changed the design). they offered to "fix" it for $650. i tired of arguing with the stupid "genius" (he wasn't one) and swore to kill his offspring. steel epoxy however solved the problem, ha ha ha, $5 total cost. but i digress. i learned my lesson. if your shit breaks, apple doesn't want to repair it, it wants you to buy a new one. so, if you get a mac, 1) get applecare, 2) treat it with fucking velvet gloves, 3) DO NOT drink around it. it will be worth it, in spite of the drawbacks (it's not built like a thinkpad) it's a sweet machine. the mini however sits safely on a shelf so the risk is minimal.

stop dragging everthing down. your just becoming a bore.

Laptop? The two best ones right now are:

1. HP EliteBook 8730w with the DREAMCOLOR 17" screen
2. 17" MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo-processor

These portable workstations are pricey, but blow all the others out there into smithereens.

!@#$%!,
I just got myself a 27" iMac 2,66-GHz Intel Core i5 Quad-Core with 8GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM.
These babies transcode R3D files > ProRes Quicktime files like a mutherfucker!
Editing HD material hasn't been easier.

Needed an inbetween machine to edit Sony PMW-EX1 footage for a client,
while I wait with anticipation for the new 16 Core Mac Pros, due in 2010.
This iMac's 27" 2560 x 1440 res screen is a dream come true.
The only two cons: a glossy screen and a single Firewire 800 port.
No big deal.

what, little man? i can't understand you. only a faint insect buzz. must be congenital in your case. check your birth certificate.


agreed, but the price totally blows the man's budget. just a few months ago he was having a fire sale on his record collection in order to raise funds. what he needs is something cheaper that does the job, being that the perfect is (often) the enemy of the good, or the good enough.

new macbook pros in january, so hold back...


oh you lucky lucky dog! congrats on the awesome purchase! and post some pics if/when you can.

im holding on until the next big paycheck comes through next year to get the i7 or the i5-- those 27" screens are fucking gorgeous LCDs, the color is amazing, ive fucked with them at the mac store. fw800 has ample bandwidth and allows daisychaining, so the need for multiple ports isn't totally there, but my latest intel sez that you can actually edit on external usb2 drives. so there's some hope for a clear pipeline. plus when you go tapeless you can go like this: [cam or card reader] -> [external drive] -> cpu . same with fw interfaces -> drive -> cpu via a single FW channel.

now if they just had an esata port! but enjoy it-- the screen alone is practicall worth the price.

congrats again. now post some imac porn.

i have monitors at each place so i'm ok in that respect. im going to PM you a link to one I found online and am close to buying just in case there's anything i should know before i pay.

he doesnt really know that much about computers. just likes to show off.

got the pm and replied.

man if you already have monitors in each place don't sweat it & get the mac mini. lovely, and a great deal all around! i got the one with the faster processor and 4GB RAM for $1,000 . go to the store and play with one and see how you like it it's sweet and quiet. and the apple care on it is like half the macbooks cuz it's assumed to be non-mobile.

you'll need to provide your own mouse and keyboard and i dig the bluetooth and remote-- it's a sweet fucking machine and with your choice of monitor you're gold.

check out the apple store for refurbished models. they sell for less but under the same warranty and you can get apple care & all.

Yes, an eSATA port would have been the icing on the cake.
My only option now is to transfer the SxS-based media via USB 2.0 using the Sony XDCAM transfer application and then opening Final Cut Pro and import the batch files with Sony's Clip Browser, which came with the camera. Fuck, I need a RAID. Bitch workflow!

Will pm you a photo or two in the coming days, once I've sorted this shit out and cleaned up the mess in my editing room.

Btw, have you seen the recent Nov 30th Scarlet announcements?
Looks killer and the Redmote Pro is out of this world!

I would never ever ever buy a HP. I've been tainted too many times. They look all flashy and gadgety but it is all a front. The plastic doodads all fall off in a week and and you realise there are 2 "Y" keys and no F5 and the guy at the helpdesk south india CAN"T HELP YOU NOW.

macbook
or
macbook pro (if you can afford it)

I am working with both machines for some years now, editing the shit out of films/music/sounds and everything that melts a machine. and they never let me down. fast, reliable and yes, pretty looking.
and the option of running multiple OS at the same time is pretty awesome too.
sorry if this was manetioned before, just wanted to throw my thoughts in

I honestly think that sadly macs are not made(physically speaking) like they used to be. They still have great concepts, but I dont know anyone irl who hasn't has big issues in the past few years with product quality. Perhaps demand has just increased far too quickly and there has been a bit of 'stick it together ship it out now who cares what happens later' attitude.

^^I know what you mean.
I think i know at least 10 people who use mac notebooks and a shitload more macs on my university. cant say anything bad about the stationary macs as a whole. but I start to believe that the macbooks are more reliable then their bigger brothers the macbooks pro. no macbook I "know" needed a repair so far, including mine. nothings broken or gone out of shape. but the macbook pros tend to destroy themselves. fortunately for my friends in no too bad way, just things like the isight broke. or the dvd drive reads the disc at third try things.

yeh, this kind of junk...

macbook pro yes & yes & yes, but it's out of his league

new macbook no, has no firewire (fuck you, apple!)

older refurbed macbook yes, one FW400 port is better than nothing, though screen is a bit fugly, but works.


agreed. that's why you pay the mac-care-tax-- so that they eat the repair charges. it's more money on top of the already high price. but, it still feels good when it all works.

the thinkpad hackintosh is my dream machine. some day... some day...

went to the apple store and looked at the mac mini, not totally convinced by it or its price tag/aint gonna pay an extra 126 for applecare. dont trust apple at all after buying an ipod classic.

if i got a mac mini itd be something near 600 cos i cant find any refurbished ones. also then id have to pay another 120 for a monitor and something for a keyboard and mouse and its simply too expensive.

prob going for a dell studio 17.

but i have to hurry up and get it SOON. so will prob have got it by tommorow night. symbol man youve been helpful cheers.

ehhh, best wishes, i hope it does what you want and you get it from a reputable seller.


hA!

prophetic

im actually going to get that one i pmed you the link of

its an absolute bargain, cant find anything close to those specs for that price. its expensive in dollas but works out at about 645 in pounds. have 200 sitting here already, plus the rest tommorow.

i know the warranty is only 90 days but for machine of that beastitude i am prepared to take the risk, it knocks the dell studio 17 out of the water.