Computer gurus...

[bassmants]

Hi, I am looking for a new laptop computer and would like to know what I should be looking for.  Ram/speed etc.  Good all around and capable of running higher channel counts.  I don't play demanding games.  My main focus is Christmas shows.  I thought I read somewhere that LSP requires faster cpu's or something.  I am not running it currently, but was very interested in exploring with LSP in the future because it seems to be going in the direction of RGB etc.  Any input from computer guys/gals would be great.  I would like to stay in the 500 to 1000 range.

Thanks.

[taybrynn]

Maybe consider a big SSD to process on?   

[Steve Gase]

Look for lots of cores...  4 is good, 8 is better.  processors have this balancing act -- faster processors/fewer cores, slower processors/more cores.


The last I heard, LSP was not yet using all of the cores effectively -- but they were working on it. 


So, you are left with a decision to get faster clock rates with fewer cores... (which optimizes for NOW)  or more cores with a slower clock... (with optimizes for LATER). 


Get faster memory.


Get SSD drives -- heck, use RAID 0 for performance to spread the load across multi SSD drives.


If you are a risk-taker, get more RAM and create a RAM disk that you run your program and your files from.  (save to SSD/hard disk often, but run from RAM disk).


Good graphics card is nice for the visualizer.

[jnealand]

SSDs will drive up your cost significantly.  Your minimun system should be an Intel core i7 with at least 8gb of RAM.  A machine like that should have at least a 750gb hard drive which should be more than adequate and should cost less than $1000.  If you are going to carry it around at all I would only get a 15.6 screen.  17's are heavy and much bigger.  You can always attach a 22 or 23" external monitor for your desktop if needed.  I prefer brands ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba.  My sources tell me that HP Pavilion systems seem to fail more than the others, but the HP Envy's seem to be good.  I'm a mostly retired tech support guy.

[drlucas]

The issue with SSD right now is they still hover in the $1/GB range(when you get over a 256GB drive) ....so a 512GB disk is going to blow his budget pretty quickly. Mind you the performance gains I've had with the SSD are simply amazing! I'll never go back to traditional disk again.

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[arw01]

Jim is right on with his recommendations.  Althought it will add to the cost, look to get the business class laptops if you plan to use this quite a lot.  My wife's consumer level dell has a less stiff screen hold mechanism and we have been through 3 charger cords (her's has that funny octogon shaped plug, vs standard round).  I think I have 5 chargers scattered around for sitting use for hours in the house, so it's nice to be consistant.

The jump to SSD is amazing, take a look at how much space you have on your current computer and how much you are using, double used space for a minimum hard drive size.  You could upgrade the SSD later as prices come down if you needed the extra space.

If I was buying I would get a laptop with a blu-ray burner, just so I could back up 25 to 50 gigs of data unless you pay for a cloud service.  Hate to loose all your stuff because of a crash!

Larger batteries in mAh rating don't usually add much money to the initial price, but can massively improve your satisfaction.  The core i7 with 512gig ssd I have on a DEll Lattitude E6530 can drive an extrermal monitor and be used for at least 4 hours straight on battery, easily get to 5 if I am not on it every second.

[zwiller]

Not a guru, but researched this issue last year.  Went to Dell's outlet and got a 17R (good specs but no SSD) for $650 or so.  I get coupon codes for 25% off but nothing active right now.

Having a nice machine to sequence on is a good thing, but I am not entirely sure LSP or other platforms will take advantage of the extra power...  The conductor relieves my concerns relating to needing a show PC. 

[bassmants]

Thank you all.

[taybrynn]

I lot of the performance problems with LSP are due to how it was written and its not all been fixed yet, including a really bloated file format and way too many timing marks, etc.  So while a new machine will help some, as mentioned, when your not even taking advantage of the multiple cores ... your slow because of how the software was written and compiled.

[keitha43]

Look for hybrid ssd drives. It has a large ram section that runs programs you use most often from it. The more you use it the faster the program gets. Windows boots really fast for me now.