Laptop advice

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
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calum666
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Laptop advice

Post by calum666 »

My MacBook pro 2011 decided to die around a month ago, I've been lost without it. I am going to try get a second hand logic board and hopefully fix it.
Right now I can't afford a new MacBook. So I am looking for recommendations for the best laptops in the price range of about £1000 for music production. Just want a load of power, ram, and terabyte of ssd or mix of ssd and hdd

The_G
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by The_G »

I pathologically hate Windows so I can't really recommend anything to you except save up for a new Mac. :P

But if you are going the PC route on a budget, why not a desktop? You get a lot more for your money and they are essentially modular. Plus it's fun to build one.

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Re: Laptop advice

Post by The_G »

Also, too bad Linux isn't a more viable platform for making music.

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by Lost to the Void »

Windows 10 is great.
I'd blow a grand on a desktop, you'll get much more power for your money, and modularity. The new AMD cpus are bad ass. I'm building a new machine at the moment.
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by The_G »

I hate Windows 10, which I use at work. I've hated every iteration of Windows since XP. But building your own hardware rig is definitely a lot of fun. And cost effective.

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by Lost to the Void »

10 is awesome. Rock solid, easy to strip back. Very fast.
Had absolutely no issues with it.
7 was really good too.
Once you strip em back a bit they are fine. Pretty easy to customise to your own taste.
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by dubdub »

Unless you need that portability, I'd also build a desktop. For 1000 pounds you can build a pretty sweet sick machine these days.

I'm stll on 7 right now. I've used 10, there's a lot more bullshit they try to shove in your face but you can deal with most of it pretty easily. Mac is way worse in that regard with all the bullshit you can't turn off etc,

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Re: Laptop advice

Post by Lost to the Void »

My immediate response to 10 was gaaaaaah
But then I turned everything off and streamlined it, and now it's basically like 7 but super super stable.
For a grand you can build a real monster, a Ryzen 7 based machine would kick ass for audio.
I'm building a new machine for the production room right now, Ryzen 5.
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by damagedGoods »

Lost to the Void wrote:My immediate response to 10 was gaaaaaah
But then I turned everything off and streamlined it
Hi - any particularly good online guides etc (possibly even production focused) that you've used that step through what can be safely turned off, etc? Thnx!

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Re: Laptop advice

Post by Alume »

Enjoy win10 as well.

Built my desktop about a year ago, cost me 800 euro and is a crazy mean machine.

I can send you the part list if you're intersted.

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calum666
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by calum666 »

Thanks guys, the reason I was wanting a laptop is because I'm in the air force and I live away from home during the week. Might just bite the bullet though and build my own desktop since I would be getting more for my money. Would just mean no producing while I'm at home. I do most of it when I'm away anyway due to all my spare time.

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Re: Laptop advice

Post by damagedGoods »

calum666 wrote:Thanks guys, the reason I was wanting a laptop is because I'm in the air force and I live away from home during the week. Might just bite the bullet though and build my own desktop since I would be getting more for my money. Would just mean no producing while I'm at home. I do most of it when I'm away anyway due to all my spare time.
Maybe consider splitting duties across your two locales - buy a cheap laptop for when you're away and do mainly arrangement/sound selection/melody creation etc then, and save heavy duty mixing tasks for the desktop?? I've written some great stuff on planes and in hotels on a ridiculous little HP Stream tablet but left heavier tasks for teh beast laptop later...

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Re: Laptop advice

Post by Prophän »

You could try looking at "gamers" laptop, asus makes some great ones that are not too expensive

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Bocaj
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Re: Laptop advice

Post by Bocaj »

Yeah I'd recommend looking at gaming laptops as well. Just picked up a beast of a machine for $750. i-7 7700k, ssd, hhd, sound card, and 8g ram. It's crazy what kind of power machine you can get going the PC route vs. Mac.. Look on Newegg.com for some deals. I don't think they charge tax, at least on my purchase.

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Re: Laptop advice

Post by P0607r0n »

Mhm if we are on gaming laptop side, then I would recommend you to look on eBay for some Clevo barebooks. They sell logic boards with housing to different companies to sell them under their own brands. Highly customisable, and a lot of bang for a buck. It depends where you live there should be their reseller where you can buy and configure your own(example Schenker for Germany) but they are usually only pushing current year models (so expensive) but check eBay for Clevo and you can find some cheaper models.


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