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notebook recommendations

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Author	Topic: notebook recommendations
flo Member	posted 18 December 2003 06:24 Dear all, due to an increase of on-location projects next year the purchase of a laptop becomes inevitable for me. Kyma is definitely going to be involved in some of those projects and in order to make sure that the soft- and hardware works well with my designated notebook i would be very pleased if you could recommend me some well working configurations (only pc notebooks). Unfortunately i am pretty green in the field of mobile computing. Thanks a bunch! Best, Flor IP: Logged
mmarsh Member	posted 18 December 2003 17:17 Hi Flor - Any moderately capable laptop will do to run the software. Screen size is a consideration: I would get at least 1024x768. Also, the interface to the Capy is important. For example, if you currently have Firewire, then you will need some form of Firewire interface on the laptop. Some laptops have this built in, others require a PC Card. If you have a PCI interface, then you'll need to purchase the PCMCIA interface from SSC. Good luck! Mike IP: Logged
keph Member	posted 19 December 2003 02:59 i've been through a number, mostly for work and i like the ibm best so far. they have been rugged and reasonably balance of performance, battery life and features. my old ibm t21 had one of the best screen i've ever used, 1600x1200 which is rare to find and i don't think they carry anymore. i also have found the sony's attractive and solid machines by and large. i have not been overly fond with dells and especially displeased with toshiba and gateways. key features: fast harddrive rpm (or get an external firewire) build in wireless firewire/usb2 and room for lots of RAM (1gig min) laptops with better video cards are important in that cheaper vidcards may share your RAM and borrow CPU cycles which reduce overall performance. were i to buy a new pc laptop, i'd take a long long at the new ibm t or x series and samsung q10. currently i use a powerbook for my work and studio laptop. one thing to know is that the new centrino chips are better than intel past mobile efforts and oft perform better than higher clocked p4 mobile chips with better battery power so you can't simply compare clock speeds like in past intel chipsets. IP: Logged
flo Member	posted 19 December 2003 06:06 Hi Mike, at the moment i have a PCI interface for my stationary pc. But is it not recommendable to switch to the FireWire interface when buying a laptop (with inbuilt FW port), because of the bigger bandwidth? Thanks again. Best, Flor IP: Logged
flo Member	posted 19 December 2003 06:29 Hi Keph, thank you very much for the detailed and useful info. Especially regarding video card: i would not have considered this if you hadn't told me. Another issue i forgot to mention in my first mail is the noise produced by laptops, by their fans in first place. For example, during a recording or concert you of course want them to be as silent as possible. Probably the size of the laptop has direct effect on how much cooling internal elements such as cpu/video/hd will require. So is it just a question of size or are their other factors, maybe new/alternative cooling techniques, which have to be considered? Best, flor IP: Logged
keph Member	posted 24 December 2003 00:34 <i> So is it just a question of size or are their other factors, maybe new/alternative cooling techniques, which have to be considered? </i> i've have read of heatsync like surfaces to put your laptop on that help draw heat away. never used them myself. an external harddrive is nice for extra storage and faster disk IO but don't know if it makes less noise. most laptops i've used are quieter than desktops, particularly PC desktops which seem to be brutal in their noise (on average.) of course you can't throw the laptop in the closet like you can a desktop. it is hard to test the noise factor of laptops pre-purchase since it is hard to push them to the limit in the store and the store is likely has a lot of background noise. i can't remember the ibm or the sony being noisy but don't hold me to it. IP: Logged
mrothstn Member	posted 05 January 2004 23:23 Hi Flor, I have done well with a 15" Mac Titanium PowerBook using firewire and System 10.2.8. The only time there is a noise issue is during CD-R burning. Otherwise, very quiet. If you want absolute reliability, you may want to avoid buying a refurbished laptop, as I had to send mine back to have the logic board replaced (under warranty; Apple was very quick and good, though). For the heat issue, the laptop is perched on a Dexiarack (www.dexiadesign.com) on my desk at head level. The Dexiarack is also nice if you want to use your laptop on a couch or bench, but don't want to fry your thighs. Hope this helps IP: Logged

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