Small fast laptop for demos - lenovo vs sony

[TimTomTum]

Hi guys,
My old laptop is reaching its limits and is just too big. Uni has started and I've already started finding musicians, I go everywhere by bike ans will

use it mainly for uni and recording.
I want: long battery times, transportability (max. 14") and speed but no gpu. Dont have time gaming plus it would decrease battery.

My research: Custom Sony Vaio E Series 14 - 770€
Pro: i7 3612QM - powerful as hell
Con: build quality (checked them in a local store)
battery - approx. 4 hours


Lenovo X220 ~700€

Pro: 12,5" - mobility +++
exaggerated battery - 13 hours in office mode
build quality
Con: i7 dualcore not as powerful

Cpubenchmarks approx.: 3612 (6800) vs 2620 (4000)

I use reaper, Toontrack Metal Machine, TSE, Poulin,
ZomBass II and Stillwell Plugs, no huuuge projects, just demos. Though I started rendering the drum and bass tracks and processing afterwards I wonder if the Lenovo would have enough power for the future.
What do you think?

Input would be great!
Tim

 

[RiF]

I am pretty much in the same boat and I am searching for a small laptop with long battery life and quite some CPU juice. I would not mind a good gaming graphics card.
But usually small sized displays (max 14") and 4-core CPUs don't come in pairs very often :-(.
The only thing I've found is a discontinued Dell Vostro:
DELL Vostro 3460 i7
i7 4-Cores!, 14" 1366x768, 8 GB RAM, 750 GB HD, GT 630M gfx, 2.2kg, up to 6,3h battery life. € 860,-.

Except for the lack of 4-core CPUs, the Lenovos seem to be the best choice for me. That said, I am waiting for 4-core i7's getting mainstream before I buy another laptop, because 2-core CPUs do not seem to be too futureproof to me.

 

[aortizjr]

Check out Sager laptops. They have a 13" with a quad core i7. It does have a gpu, but these days they switch off when not in use. So battery life isn't that bad. Haven't used it as a Daw but it screams.

Under heavy load though you won't get more than a few hours.

I have a Lenovo u470p that slays. It has a gpu but swiches off. 14" and I do a lot of drum editing and video editing. Works great! No firewire though for tracking

 

[TimTomTum]

RiF, the Vostro is still available all around Germany with the 3612QM! Sadly it's not in the used market.
Dang, neither Sager nor the Lenovo model you are talking about are a/v in Germany. Benchmark wise the X220 would be as powerful as a Lenovo U310 which would be much thinner.
Hm. Search goes on. I found a lot of promising Lenovos you can only buy in the states.

 

[hurdy]

I have a Sony Vaio E-Series and so does the missus. They are good laptops but lack battery life (which is expected with most laptops anyway)
First thing I did was upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB. It's way more powerful than my quad-core desktop computer (which is only 32bit, 2GB RAM and much older)