question of the week What components are important when shopping laptops?

[Roymega]

 

Hello and welcome back to Roymega's Question of the Week! @Rudi This week's question is: 

 

What components are most important when shopping laptops? (with music production in mind)

 

Now I was a bit of a computer nerd before I got  into music production so I've built most of my desktop systems since I was in middle school. I've never owned a laptop though and I have the chance to purchase one this summer. I imagine there's not much difference between desktops and laptops. Processor (# of cores) and memory are obviously important. Anything people overlook that is important for music production?

 

My budget is around $2750-$3000. I'd like to stick with a Windows-based laptop since my desktop runs Windows 10 and I'll be getting a free MacBook Pro in the fall for course work. Leaning towards Surface Book 2, but try to sway me! Everyone's 2 cents count! and one more random emoji that has nothing to do with the post. 

 

@john @Lisa Gates @Mahesh @Taking Notes

[Rudi]

I have no idea. I dont use a computer in my studio.

 

I tried researching a new pc some months back but was amazed to find that theres a lot more stuff to research now. Even my son had no idea what most of these choices were all about.

[Roymega]

I think I'm gonna go with a Surface Book 2.. 15" tablet/laptop hybrid, best of both worlds

[Mahesh]

I agree with Steve's sentiment over the screen size. Though I don't have much issues making music with my MacBook Pro, having a bigger screen never hurts.

 

Having said that, I'd choose a Mac device over Windows for my music and video work any day. Having Core Audio built into the OS, I see the difference in performance and latency over my old Windows system when the Mac is handling all sorts of video and audio tasks. Sure, some issues might make people choose Windows over a Mac but personally, the speed and power of a Mac over these tasks gave me a clear winner. (I used Windows all my life until I got my Mac a couple of years ago).

 

As to what components to look for, as much RAM as you can get on that would be great. A powerhorse would have 16GB of RAM which is great! Get an SSD hard drive instead of the HDD/SATA hard drives.  Solid State Drives are super fast compared to HDDs albeit a bit more expensive. But they make a HUGE difference to your work output. 

[Roymega]

On 5/27/2018 at 8:15 PM, Mahesh said:

I agree with Steve's sentiment over the screen size. Though I don't have much issues making music with my MacBook Pro, having a bigger screen never hurts.

 

Having said that, I'd choose a Mac device over Windows for my music and video work any day. Having Core Audio built into the OS, I see the difference in performance and latency over my old Windows system when the Mac is handling all sorts of video and audio tasks. Sure, some issues might make people choose Windows over a Mac but personally, the speed and power of a Mac over these tasks gave me a clear winner. (I used Windows all my life until I got my Mac a couple of years ago).

 

As to what components to look for, as much RAM as you can get on that would be great. A powerhorse would have 16GB of RAM which is great! Get an SSD hard drive instead of the HDD/SATA hard drives.  Solid State Drives are super fast compared to HDDs albeit a bit more expensive. But they make a HUGE difference to your work output. 

 

Since I'll be getting a MacBook Pro for free thru my school, I think I'm gonna go with the Surface Book 2, it's specs:

 

15'' detachable tablet as the laptop's screen

Intel Quad-Core i7 8th Gen Processor (4.2GHz)

16GB DDR3 RAM

512GB SSD storage

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU w/ 6GB GDDR5 memory