Processing Power (Laptop)

[iHate]

My plan was to build a nice desktop rig for audio only, but my laptop is ruined and I need to replace it for school. Most laptops in my price range only come with a Core2Duo T6600. 2.2ghz, 2mb cache, 800 fsb. This would certainly be a step up from my previous laptop of 2.13ghz pentium M, but is it going to be enough for some audio work?

Currently I only get about a 600mb kit in S2.0 and maybe 2 compressors and a couple delays before I start to have severe glitching and freezing in Cubase 5. Even when I freeze S2.0, it still overloads the cpu constantly and I just can't deal with this bullshit anymore.

I need to know, will T6600 be enough or only a moderate increase in performance? Ideally I think i'd like to have the option to run 10 compressors and 10 delays and 5 reverbs running smoothly to be satisfied. If I need a beefier C2D or a quad core, then I will sell one of my guitars as much as I don't want to.

Any advice? As of now, my max price is $800 and I am looking at these 2 laptops so far:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+...rown/9556161.p?id=1218124205643&skuId=9556161

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+...Blue/9539154.p?id=1218120538238&skuId=9539154

 

[updog]

Well, my MacBook has a Core2Duo @ 2,4GHz, and I can easily run S2.0 along with a bunch of different ampsims and even more cpu-demanding softsynths. Remember to upgrade the RAM to 4 GB (or 3 GB, not sure if it matters in Windows)

800 bucks definitely should get you a nice enough laptop for audio production.

 

[greyskull]

i got a 13" macbook pro coming... sweet.
FWIW i mixed without thoughts first album on a older white macbook; natively, and the processor was sitting there going "is that all you got?"

 

[iHate]

Wow I think I am going to buy a Core i7 HP Laptop. Might as well get something semi-future proof huh?

 

[ForefrontStudio]

from what I have heard, i7's are some of the best processors out there for audio

 

[iHate]

So W7 64-bit doesnt look like its supported completely by Presonus. People on the Presonus forum are flipping out. Fkn Firepod... SHIIIIIIIIT

 

[mick thompson]

RAM RAM RAM - the more the merrier!!!!!

dont forget when your computer runs out of RAM it starts dumping files to the hard drive (virtual memory). the hard drive is slower then RAM and in return your processor has to work more to dump files to the hard drive and retrieve them as fast as possible when your editing in your DAW... so bumping up the ram allows your processor to not use virtual memory if it has enough ram thus freeing it up to process more audio and plugins for you and this also allows the ram to deliver a faster speed then virtual memory can thus giving you an overall faster audio processing DAW - you can have a piece of shit of a processor and it can do quite a lot of work pending you have enough ram in your system.

for example one of my many computers (i use this one for playing 1 game only - BF2142) is a pentium 4 processor (3.4ghz) with 4 gigs of ram, decent graphics card and a 5000rpm hdd (IDE) and its capable of playing BF2142 full settings on a 19" screen without any lag. i know BF2142 is not a very extreme graphically intense game like crysis or far cry 2 but for a game that came out in 2007 with 64 players online mode and pretty neat graphics and lots of physics in a massive map its a dam dream that my pentium 4 which was built in the year 2000 is able to play that game. i put it solely down to RAM because prior to it having 4 gigs it had half a gig and it would take around 4 minutes to load a single map

obviously i dont use a pentium 4 in a DAW suituation, its just an example of one of my computers where a RAM increase gave an extreme overall performance boost

hope that made sense - phew

 

[iHate]

my current setup has the max RAM possible, which is 2GB, with a Pentium M 2.13ghz. it just blows, period.

 

[Full_Tilt]

Yeah I was thinking of getting something fairly basic for my laptop but I only have 2gb of ram maxed .
I guess I'll stick to with my stand alone DAW .