#1759284 - 05/30/07 09:29 AM
HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
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alex0825
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Registered: 05/27/07
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im still shopping for a laptop for recording, im not sure of whats software i will get, but i want to make sure the processing speed is enough, seeing that its the only thing you cant upgrade ona computer. any suggestions?
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#1763986 - 06/08/07 03:30 AM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: alex0825]
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thanksforhelpethan
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Registered: 06/07/06
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Loc: los angeles
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You honestly can never have enough. I have plug ins that use up almost 1 gig of cpu power. So basically If I have 3 instances of it running at once thats a 3.0 processor right there, and thats not even including the .3-.5 gig cpu power that pro tools takes. So bottom line is the bigger the better. But if money is a huge burden, you need to get atleast 512 ram, a 2.5 speed cpu, and over 100 gig hard drive. Do not get less then that or youll be sorry.
But if you wanna be big pimpin, then get atleast a 3.3 CPU(overclock it a few megabits too), 2 gigs ram, and 500 gig HD.
I use a 2.8 overclocked to 3gig, 1 gig ram and a 160 gig HD, and it isnt enough for my tastes so I will be getting a new comp soon enough.
Hope this helps.
Peace
Edited by thanksforhelpethan (06/08/07 03:34 AM)
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#1764031 - 06/08/07 07:29 AM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: alex0825]
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Griffinator
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seeing that its the only thing you cant upgrade ona computer. any suggestions?
Says who? If you build from scratch or have a local shop build your computer, you most certainly can upgrade motherboard/ram/CPU as needed, for a lot less than replacing the whole system...
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#1764281 - 06/08/07 02:07 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: Griffinator]
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miroslav
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... a laptop is quite possibly the worst possible choice anyway, from every angle....
...The only potential advantage is mobility...
Exactly.
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miroslav - miroslavmusic.com"Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."
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#1784932 - 07/21/07 11:18 AM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: Griffinator]
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aroneous54
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Make sure you get a dual core processor. Programs like Sonar will take advantage of that processing architecture.
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#1784969 - 07/21/07 01:17 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: aroneous54]
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audiorulez
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Registered: 06/20/07
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Remote engineers worldwide use laptops for recording, there's no disadvantage, and the advantages are obvious.
A laptop and desktop with the same specs will be eachothers equal. A computer is a computer, being mobile doesn't make it less powerful, and today's laptops are more than powerful enough for the most demanding audio and video.
You can geta 7200rpm drive for your laptop, but there is a lot of heat in such, and why laptop manufacturers don't install them unless requested.
Audio should always be recorded to a separate physical drive, FW being the popular protocol here. (This is potentially the one drawback of a laptop, the interface protocol of the secondary drives.)
Ram is cheap, get as much as you can afford. A GB is plenty for tracking, but you might, depending on the computer, need more for power hungry plugins when mixing.
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#1785074 - 07/21/07 08:08 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: audiorulez]
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Griffinator
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A laptop and desktop with the same specs will be eachothers equal.
See, this is the part of the discussion last time round that you never seemed to get.
Fact: I can build a desktop machine that has no equal in laptops, for far less money than a high-powered laptop.
Case in point:
The most powerful laptop I could configure. Having the second monitor option added $300 to the price tag, but I figure, in my studio, I want to be able to work on more than one monitor.
Nova 906V Accelerator
17" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) Super Wide Angle Glass View LCD
nVIDIA GeFORCE Go 7900 GTX with 256MB DDR 3 VideoRAM (7950 512MB available)
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-60 (2.6GHz) Dual-Core
2048MB 400MHz DDR RAM (2 DIMMS)
160GB SATA 150 HDD 5400 RPM
Secondary 160GB SATA 150 HDD 5400 RPM
8X DVD±R/RW Burner with 4X Dual Layer Write Speed
802.11G 54Mbps Mini PCI Internal- Standard
Multiple Display Card - Solution Offers Up To 3 Dedicated Displays
Cost: $4008.90 plus second monitor for the studio.
So I decide to custom-build a desktop instead.
Asus M2N Socket AM2 motherboard: $103
Athlon 64 x2 6000 (3.0Ghz): $169
8GB RAM (4 2GB sticks): $433
4 Seagate 500GB 7200rpm SATA drives (total 2,000GB): $384
Dual monitor 512MB video card: $140
DVD+/-RW Dual layer burner drive: $30
The 4 half-terabyte drives have a purpose: This motherboard is fitted with a quick-configuring SATA RAID, so I use one drive to boot, the other three in a 0+1 RAID configuration, so I get even faster access PLUS better data security (from the redundant array)
Well, I've already got you trounced in power, and I'm barely over a grand.. But I gotta make it portable. So...
4u Rack Case w/600W power supply: $80
17" Rackmount LCD screen with touchpad and mouse (with sliding rails for easy access): $1224
SKB RLX6 Roll-X Rack (6u, with wheels and industrial pull handle): $150
Total cost: $2713. Even as extravagant as my system winds up being, it's $1300 less than yours, with far, far more power. Oh - and it's scalable too, for added fun. You've reached the limits on yours, so you get to throw it away in 2 years when you want to upgrade. Meanwhile, I get to just swap out motherboard/CPU/memory when it's time to ramp mine up. I'll still have the monitor, the drives, the case, the rack - I only had to spend that money once.
And if I really have a need to do accounting and word processing in-flight (about all you can get done on a plane) I still have plenty left to buy a cheap laptop for that specific purpose.
Edited by Griffinator (07/21/07 08:22 PM)
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#1785277 - 07/22/07 12:12 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: Griffinator]
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audiorulez
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1. It's massive overkill. If you need that much power doing mobile tracking, you bring in a truck.
2. Let's see you carry that on a plane. Not gonna happen, as it doesn't meet the size restrictions for carryon. Checking it as luggage equals kissing it goodbye, those nice cases just say "how far can this get tossed" to flight baggage handlers, and the cost of freighting it will quickly offset any savings.
The bottom line is professional engineers do this with laptops.We've had this discussion, so I'll stop there, no need to rehash what's already been.
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#1785306 - 07/22/07 01:17 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: audiorulez]
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Griffinator
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Checking it as luggage equals kissing it goodbye, those nice cases just say "how far can this get tossed" to flight baggage handlers, and the cost of freighting it will quickly offset any savings.
OK, so what do you plan to do with your preamps, your AD/DA, your power conditioner, and any other critical hardware devices you need on remote recording gigs?
You're going to rack them, which means you can't bring them on the plane. Makes the rest of your argument just as specious as your "appeal to authority" logical fallacy.
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#1785309 - 07/22/07 01:24 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: audiorulez]
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miroslav
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There are reasons why workstations are generally towers/desktops in more robust environments...however, there are some pretty powerful laptops that will do audio recording quite well.
That said...unless I needed serious mobility...I would always prefer to have a nice multi-bay, tower...chock full memory and processor speed...room for multiple A/D cards...and plenty of power supply juice, not to mention a high-end, multi-monitor graphics card…etc.
You really can't cram all that into a laptop...which is why most DAW studio rigs are based around a serious tower/desktop workstation.
If I was doing mobile recording...I would probably go for a laptop IF it could give me the track counts I needed...and I think 2-8 tracks would cover most stereo/surround type of live tracking and would be easy on a laptop.
But if it was going to be some prolonged multi-track session...there are a lot of full-tilt rack-mounted solutions that are going to be better than a laptop.
And heck...if you ARE doing an involved remote multitrack session...then yeah, you are probably going to bring a truck load of gear, so a nice racked DAW will not be a big deal to drag along. 
The tool should fit the requirement. No need for overkill, but at the same time, you don't want to be starved for power/capability or not be able to cover any unexpected loads.
I would think if you are building/buying a new DAW rig…you would be smarter to go for a bit more power/size than to go under or to start with “just enough”…
Seems like everyone always ends up wishing they had more power, speed, space…not matter WHAT they start off with! 
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miroslav - miroslavmusic.com"Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."
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#1785342 - 07/22/07 02:57 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: miroslav]
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audiorulez
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4 sp over the shoulder rack (that rides on my wheelable laptop bag) carries 24 i/o ADDA with pres, a UPS and all cabling.
BTW a new Macbook pro, 3x Presonus Firepods, UPS and a couple external FW drives(DIY which takes about 5 minutes and is about 1/4 the cost of a retail prebuilt drive) and cases will come in around $3500 and track 24 inputs without blinking an eye. That's $800 over your rig with ADDAs and pres, and is carry on. You can configure the FW drives for RAID as well, so there goes that argument. Pickup 4 more Firepods locally (they are quite common from rental houses) and you got 48 inputs, again no problem for a new Macbook.
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#1785409 - 07/22/07 06:46 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: audiorulez]
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Griffinator
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4 sp over the shoulder rack (that rides on my wheelable laptop bag) carries 24 i/o ADDA with pres, a UPS and all cabling.
BTW a new Macbook pro, 3x Presonus Firepods, UPS and a couple external FW drives(DIY which takes about 5 minutes and is about 1/4 the cost of a retail prebuilt drive) and cases will come in around $3500 and track 24 inputs without blinking an eye. That's $800 over your rig with ADDAs and pres, and is carry on. You can configure the FW drives for RAID as well, so there goes that argument. Pickup 4 more Firepods locally (they are quite common from rental houses) and you got 48 inputs, again no problem for a new Macbook.
If you can get 48 inputs from a MacBook, great.
MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz with 2GB RAM and a single 160GB drive from the Apple store is $2800. Not sure how you get 3 Firepods, extra external drives, and a UPD for $700, when the best price I've seen on those Firepods is about $400 apiece.
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#1785431 - 07/22/07 08:25 PM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: Griffinator]
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audiorulez
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You can get a Macbook Pro for $2000.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/We...mily=MacBookPro
Firepods are $400 each, $1200 for 3.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--PRSFIREPOD
Firewire cases and IDE drives are cheap, one can easily build a couple for under $300.
A UPS for what little this will draw can easily be had for a couple hundred.
That leaves $300.
Let us know when you'd like help getting that foot out of your mouth.
Oh, and BTW, an associate has this exact setup with a Macbook, and has no ussue recording 48 tracks.
So, if you get tired of the taste of toe cheese....
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#1785580 - 07/23/07 07:45 AM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: Griffinator]
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audiorulez
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17" monitor is overkill for mobile tracking, as is the extra video ram. You're viewing input levels.
2 HDD's external is more than adequate. If you need more space for a long run, you can pick up additional HDD's locally cheap, or even cheaper online and have them drop shipped.
Presonus gear is IMO quite good, and I know many mobile recordists who love the Firepods.
Knock off all you want, you're still not carrying that on, you're spending money airfreighting it to every gig.
Also, my name isn't Nick.
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#1788399 - 07/29/07 08:02 AM
Re: HOW MUCH PROCESSOR SPEED SHOULD I LOOK FOR
[Re: audiorulez]
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audiorulez
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Yesterday on the flight home from a live recording I edited the rough 2 mix (that I always do) and converted to MP3's for the artist, who is departing for Europe monday and wanted to hear something for performance evaluation. While on a layover I uploaded them to our server, waiting for the artist when they got home last night.
Try doing that with a racked desktop.
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