Music production laptop spec advice.

Craig1986

New member
Hi,

I am looking to purchase a laptop for music production and was wondering if the below specs would be sufficient for this, I mainly produce dance music so will be using a few VST's and audio clips.

Thanks in advance :)

Processor (CPU): Intel® CoreTM i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700K (3.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Memory (RAM): 32GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 OC 1480 MHz - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1

1st Storage Drive: 500GB Samsung 860 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive: 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2500MB/W)
Intel Optane Memory: 16GB INTEL® M10 OPTANE MEMORY - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD
Memory Card Reader: Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor: 1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Battery: Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Power Cable: 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste: STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card: Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options: 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS, 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS, 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
1. Do you really need 32GB of RAM for music production?

2. Do you really need an 8 core CPU for music production?

3. Optane memory is only useful if you have HDDs in your config (and even then I think it's a waste of money).

4. An SSD to hold your music files is likely a waste of money. Music plays at real-time speeds vian in-RAM buffers so reading music files off an SSD gains no performance benefit at all.

5. That's a curious choice of drives. You'll want Windows and programs on the fastest drive (the M.2) and they'll likely take up no more that 128GB of SSD space, so what's the rest for? And what will you use the 500GB SSD for? IMO you'd be better off with a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD for Windows and programs and a 1TB 7200rpm HDD for your music files.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Completely agreed with Qs 1 + 2 and point 3.

I gather that for music production it can be a huge asset to have the usual OS+ software on one SSD, as well as presumably active project files, and to have the sample library on a separate SSD. So a 2 SSD setup may be valid here in principle.

That said, I'm not convinced by a 1TB NVMe SSD and a 500gb Sata SSD. What are you planning to use these drives for? Would it really be faster to have a sample library on a Sata SSD than on an NVMe SSD with far higher speeds / IOPS?

Completed projected being archived or a general music collection for listening would be rather a waste of expensive SSD space though.
 
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Craig1986

New member
Thanks for the input, I will make some changes, I based the build on the THE DAW 2500 PC build on the website which does use an 8 core cpu & 32gb ram.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
It is entirely possible that you'll need that kind of CPU and RAM, or that you will at least benefit from it, but it's worth being 100% sure of either before pulling the trigger as otherwise much less expensive chassis are open to you. Keep us posted.
 

Craig1986

New member
I've done some more research and this setup looks like it is suitable.

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Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Looks good. If you have the budget I'd suggest a faster SSD like the 970 Evo. And personally I'd likely get the £5 warranty upgrade and dead pixel guarantee on the grounds of paranoia :)
 

Stephen M

Author Level
Agree with above comments but it is worth noting that PCS allow us to open up and work on our machines without voiding the warranty, so if you wanted to save a bit of cash to get a better SSD like the Samsung EVO you could go with 16GB RAM for now and add more if it is needed. IMO you may well need 32GB but I know music people who have been happy with 16GB, a lot depends on exactly what you are putting together.

Not sure what software you use but if it is cross platform have you considered dual-booting with a Linux Studio distro, all of these have low latency kernels and that is a big plus for music making.

My personal view for the warranty is if the machine is a grand or more then five quid is well worth it.
 

Craig1986

New member
I use FL Studio for producing, not sure if it is cross platform, never looked into it plus i wouldn't know how to set up a dual boot with linux.

I have added the warrenty & the evo SSD and i can budget for the SSD as it comes in cheaper than my first config.
 
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