Audio production laptop

[coincidental]

Old musician, new to computer audio. I'm sorted for software, but I need a laptop that will do the business for occasional sound design, recording and mixing duties.

It will also need to double as a general PC for office tasks and I may plug an external monitor in if I need to do (visual) design work. However, the main question is - will this cope without dropouts and where would any extra budget be better spent?

I've gone for the 17" display so that I can use it anywhere but still have a decent sized monitor. I'll use USB 3 drives for sample storage and audio archiving, leaving the main drive for recording. I already have an audio interface.

Where would I be best to put an extra £100 or so? Into the processor? Faster RAM? I think the graphics card will be fine, but perhaps not? Is there a big step up in CPU performance at a particular point for this sort of task?

Any advice gratefully received...

Thanks!

Chassis & Display
Optimus II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-2540M (2.60GHz) 3MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M - 1GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery - 48.85WH
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W Adaptor (GT 540M) / 120W Adaptor (GT 555M)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £826.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[pr1s0ner]

Very solid spec. If you've got a £100 or so spare, I'd grab another mic or two, I never seem to have enough

 

[coincidental]

Great, that's just what I wanted to hear. If the computer's fine, next on the list is some decent monitors.

Thanks!
Rich

 

[Flucky]

Bearing in mind I don't know anything about music production - but wouldn't a better sound card be worth investing in?

Stick the silver warranty in as well (only £5 )

 

[DanteWilhelm]

only reason i would use ATX desktop PC is that you can't fit in full height PCI cards into laptops (i'm sure)


i use delta 1010 PCi sound card, or at least I did until it broke....


depends what you're using though


in terms of power, you will have no problem

 

[coincidental]

Thanks for all the comments. USB audio interfaces have come on in leaps and years over the last few years, and that's what I shall be using. That aside, it's all down to processing power and a quick HDD. And, yes, I must remember the silver warranty...

 

[jao144]

I bought one of these laptops - but with the

i7 2630QM 2ghz quad
8gb 1333mhz RAM
500GB 32mbcache hybrid

I run audio productions on it with ease - i would upgrade to a quad processor - BUT dual should do you fine...

In terms or audio interface, i just got a Focusrite 18i6 today. - It is amazing. - its like having a 8 track virtual mixing desk. - Definatly recomend it - if you dont want to spend much focusrite do cheeper options

Definatly put the warrenty on it tho