Laptop VS Desktop: The Battle Continues

Sloan

Sloan

Sounds like shit!
Oct 22, 2006
5,072
0
36
Atlanta, GA
www.sloanstewart.com
Dammit.
My computer was built to play Half-Life 2. That was back around 2004. It is definitely showing it's age. Luckily, I just sold a Marshall SL-X and plan to put some of the cash towards a new computer.

I've flirted with the idea of a laptop so I could do some mobile recording. For those that have both, what do you feel is most useful?

I use a Presonus Firewire Project, and I've got a pci firewire card for desktop, so my motherboard doesn't need firewire ports or whatnot. Seems that only the more expensive laptops come with firewire now, which I find retarded.

Budget: $300



DESKTOP:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138146
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103716
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289
Total: $269.97

This would be cool if my current IDE drives and power supply work. I'm so out of the pc loop nowadays, i don't know what the fuck is happening. I'll use the onboard video for a while, i'm pretty sure it's better than the geforce 6600le i'm using now.

Also, I chose an AM2+/AM3 board so I could upgrade my processor to a phenom II x4 later if I feel like it, but right now, I don't think 4 cores would be all that useful given all the work I get done on my current AMD 64.


LAPTOP:
I would really like to find a source for a barebones laptop so I'm not paying for an OS. Otherwise, there's not shit going on in the sub $300 price range unless I hit up ebay?
 
Desktop fer shur, given the budget.

However, it'd probably be a good idea to relinquish the IDE drives, as SATA has pretty much become the standard. Maybe get one of those USB enclosures and turn all your IDE drives into externals and keep 'em on hand for backup?
 
I can't help with your decision making. I just want to know, where the hell have you been? Your name has come up a bit recently and we miss the lulz. ;)
 
I was in Maryland's eastern shore playing in cover bands and shit. I hooked up with a friend and we made some extra cash buying old busted tube gear, fixing it and reselling it. I learned a bit about amps doing that. I didn't have a place to do any recording so I just went back to just playing music instead, which was good for me.

In late July, I moved back in my mom's house in TN to discover the room I recorded bands in is now the 'junk room'. I'm currently in a sloppy as fuck punk band and a more mainstream country/rock band. I had a short job, lost it, and now I'm back to being a lazy musician making food and gas money by fixing guitar amps for people around here. Not real sure if moving back was a good idea...sorry mom!



I didn't visit here very much because I was afraid of seeing all the pages of unread topics - I figured I would be necro-threading forever. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
But amazingly, my internet usage has tapered off a whole lot as I try to work on more 'real-world' projects, so I felt it was a good time to check back in. I'm currently trying to record a demo for my country/rock band. I forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to live with mom. I can't get anything done - EVERYTHING is too loud.
 
Sloan said:
I was in Maryland's eastern shore playing in cover bands and shit. I hooked up with a friend and we made some extra cash buying old busted tube gear, fixing it and reselling it. I learned a bit about amps doing that. I didn't have a place to do any recording so I just went back to just playing music instead, which was good for me.

In late July, I moved back in my mom's house in TN to discover the room I recorded bands in is now the 'junk room'. I'm currently in a sloppy as fuck punk band and a more mainstream country/rock band. I had a short job, lost it, and now I'm back to being a lazy musician making food and gas money by fixing guitar amps for people around here. Not real sure if moving back was a good idea...sorry mom!



I didn't visit here very much because I was afraid of seeing all the pages of unread topics - I figured I would be necro-threading forever. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
But amazingly, my internet usage has tapered off a whole lot as I try to work on more 'real-world' projects, so I felt it was a good time to check back in. I'm currently trying to record a demo for my country/rock band. I forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to live with mom. I can't get anything done - EVERYTHING is too loud.
Click to expand...

Haha, well at least you're out of the HELLHOLE dude, and in a place where you can hopefully just get a handle on what it is you want to do while living with mother dearest - but yeah, anyone who has seen a certain video I uploaded a few months ago knows I'm all too acquainted with mothers complaining about volume :D (video has since vanished into the abyss :Spin: )

And I've had 2 laptops for the past 4 years (all throughout college, as I was constantly going home and coming back, I really had no other option), and they were always more than adequate for all the AE work I did on them (some decent-sized full band mixes in Reaper and PTLE, and then my first full CD, a Civil War Brass Band that I detailed here). Really, a desktop is always gonna be more powerful, but IMO, unless you love using tons of convolution reverbs and virtual instruments and Nebulas and god knows what other insanity then maybe a desktop is necessary, but even then, a decently diesel laptop with a buttload of RAM would probably be more than able to handle it, at worst the most that might be necessary would be maybe freezing a track or two.

And if getting a laptop could let you expand into mobile recording, that seems pretty useful, as that'd be a big market (even for things like church services, you are in Tennessee after all :D)
 
honestly if you want something portable thats gonna work for light recording then go macbook, i have to say. Done it with a relatively powerful windows based laptop that maybe cost the equivalent of about 600 dollars and it just couldnt cut it. Theres the promise of performance that just isnt there when it comes to the crunch. i couldnt get it to power multiple USB devices because the power supply was so lightweight.

Alternatively if you want damn good performance, settle for a desktop running windows xp. Also buy fast ram, the fastest your mobo can handle, and at least 4 gig.
 
A laptop will, almost as a law of nature, cost twice what an equivalent desktop costs... and have a lot more headaches.

My desktop cost around $700 to build and pwns the hell out of any laptop under the $2000 mark. I really recommend going the desktop route.
 
richwn said:
honestly if you want something portable thats gonna work for light recording then go macbook, i have to say. Done it with a relatively powerful windows based laptop that maybe cost the equivalent of about 600 dollars and it just couldnt cut it. Theres the promise of performance that just isnt there when it comes to the crunch. i couldnt get it to power multiple USB devices because the power supply was so lightweight.

Alternatively if you want damn good performance, settle for a desktop running windows xp. Also buy fast ram, the fastest your mobo can handle, and at least 4 gig.
Click to expand...

Read the thread, and the budget.

Srsly.
 
Joematthews said:
Read the thread, and the budget.

Srsly.
Click to expand...

What sucks,sucks and whats good is costly.

i did read it, and it was my intention to steer him towards a desktop because i know it will outperform a 300$ laptop easily.
not trying to sound argumentative by replying :/, honest.
 
Damn , I didn't even know you could build a computer for under 300 dollars these days. My newest computers' graphics card alone is almost $300 ... the whole thing is about $1000 self built. But if you can get a rig at that price that works for you , that's awesome ! And honestly I hate having to transfer shit to a new computer so I tried to buy as much of a "future-proof" computer as I could.
 
JayB said:
Damn , I didn't even know you could build a computer for under 300 dollars these days. My newest computers' graphics card alone is almost $300 ... the whole thing is about $1000 self built. But if you can get a rig at that price that works for you , that's awesome ! And honestly I hate having to transfer shit to a new computer so I tried to buy as much of a "future-proof" computer as I could.
Click to expand...

This is true - if I were going to build an entirely new system, it would cost around $1000, but I will be using the old case, power supply, cd/dvd drive etc. also, i'll be save a bunch of money opting for the shitty onboard video. i mean, currently i'm not even running a dual core, which is basically standard now.
 
I went from a desktop to a notebook (Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, 3 GB RAM, Win 7) recently and I´m very happy with it. I use a Belkin Firewire Expresscard for my Echo Audiofire 12 interfaces cause the built in Firewire chipsets are mostly shit. Everything is fast and comfortable.

I see three advantages in notebooks:

1. It is portable and you can do stuff for which you don´t need good room acoustics and monitoring (quantizing drums, editing) at home with headphones.

2. You can buy a big nice flatscreen and get a cheap dual monitor system.

3. Less cable jungle than with a conventional computer.


I bought my notebook for non recording purposes in the first place, but I don´t regret the changeover.
 
alls im gonna say is i LOVE my Unibody MacBook Pro.
its my mobile rig and it kicks arse
 
Ok, I ordered the parts mentioned last night. Everything had FREE SHIPPING, and about $40 worth of rebates, one is mail-in, but whatever. Unfortunately, newegg has to charge tax in TN, so I had to pay an extra $25 in sales tax. fcuk. I don't really feel like ordering my computer shit from anywhere else though - newegg has always been awesome to me. Will report later if this junk works out.
 
YAY!
I got my parts in, spent like 30 minutes putting everything together and it's all running flawlessly.
Tested with some Team Fortress 2 and I can actually play at decent resolution with AA and more than 15fps. Yes!

Unfortunately, I can only hook up my two system file IDE drives and all my audio is on my third one. I'm gonna try to rig it up to some external enclosure parts here and see how good it works through usb, i can now finally use usb2. I've been so far behind the curve, it's refreshing to finally get some new shit again.
 
just as well you didn't get a laptop

they tend to scale the speed of the CPU depending on usage, temperature, moon alignment, etc. and cubase is certainly not a fan of that shit.

my "2.16ghz" core 2 duo is actually a 0.97ghz core 2 duo for most of the time, upto 2.16ghz when cubase needs it, until it gets to hot, then it's back down to 970mhz again.

didn't realise it was the source of all my strange problems until i accidentally left CPUID running whilst using cubase..!

thanks,
 
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