Laptop Recommendations ($2.5k)

Configure and optimize you computer for Audio.
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

I do a lot of work in after effects and photoshop. Would I benefit from having these crazy high end graphics cards?

I hear you man. This gaming one looks really nice. The offerings from MSI, Asus ROG, Razerblade, etc, not my thing, lookwise. Why? Because they are all mostly black and simply don't like black laptops. The G7 looks normal, so I like that one. I guess when specs are similar, it comes down to subjective stuff.

https://youtu.be/pAEVLUeYaf8
High Quality Soundsets for Lush-101 | Hive | Electra 2 | Diversion | Halion | Largo | Rapid | Dune II | Thorn | and more.

TTU Youtube

Post

Check out what graphics cards after effects and photoshop recommend. Some of the NVIDIA GeForce cards have the Studio Drivers now.
Quote from NVIDIA website:

NVIDIA Studio Drivers provide artists, creators and 3D developers the best performance and reliability when working with creative applications. To achieve the highest level of reliability, Studio Drivers undergo extensive testing against multi-app creator workflows and multiple revisions of the top creative applications from Adobe to Autodesk and beyond.
Applications
Provides the optimal experience for the latest releases of top creative apps, including Autodesk Maya 2019, 3ds Max 2020, Arnold 5.3.1.0, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve 16, and Daz 3D Daz Studio.

Post

Touch The Universe wrote: Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:51 am I do a lot of work in after effects and photoshop. Would I benefit from having these crazy high end graphics cards?
Definitely. Adobe have integrated GPU acceleration into a lot of effects and if you have any 3rd party effects, like Element 3D, you'll really notice the difference. Quadro is great for OpenGL stuff because it has drivers optimised for it, where GeForce is all about DirectX, which is great for 3D but less useful for things like After Effects. You will still get a lot from a GeForce card, though, and I don't think I could justify the extra cost of a Quadro over a GeForce card for myself and I use After Effects at work every day.

My G7 was delivered yesterday and it's very close to black. So far, though, it seems good. It took me about 20 minutes to swap the HDD for an SSD and then I spent the rest of the evening copying stuff across to it. Tonight I will deregister all my software from the old laptop and start installing it all on the new machine. Happy days. Not!
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

Post

Touch The Universe wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2019 10:12 pm I remember checking that out too. It's expensive and I'd say that it needlessly is a 2 in 1 laptop. Having that design isn't good for thermals so you it won't be as powerful as you can get, if that is important.

Configuring a spec that is similar to the dell xps is going to 4-5K plus and isn't as powerful. It's a shame because I really want those two disk spaces. Close, but no cigar.

Configuring the way I want would be 7K. 1,500 for a 2 TB SSD? Wow. Also, charging 200 for windows 10 home!?

If I'd buy this, I'd probably install my own hard drives to save money here. 1 HDD and 1 SDD to save a considerable amount.

https://store.hp.com/us/en/ConfigureVie ... quantity=1

As far as performance in general goes, the xps is top of the line, or in the top 3 and has been for awhile, for productivity machines (not gaming). It is "the" laptop I've founding between the lines as I'm researching.
Not sure how it is so expensive with your options. This configuration on Amazon is $ 2,899 USD which includes 32 gb ram and 1TB SSD. Even cheaper if you get a smaller SSD (if you have your own):
https://www.amazon.com/HP-ZBook-Studio- ... 8X6VK?th=1

Post

It's the 2 TB that pushes it up like crazy. 1 TB isn't enough. But it might be for you. Plus, I'll probablly go for the i9 processor. Total is indeed 4.7K. And that still isn't factoring in the better graphics card.
High Quality Soundsets for Lush-101 | Hive | Electra 2 | Diversion | Halion | Largo | Rapid | Dune II | Thorn | and more.

TTU Youtube

Post

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 ships with the XPS.

They seem to recommend Geforce over quadro (cheaper). Would I benefit from having an even more powerful graphics card than this, specifically, is the 4GB enough, or should I go higher than this?
High Quality Soundsets for Lush-101 | Hive | Electra 2 | Diversion | Halion | Largo | Rapid | Dune II | Thorn | and more.

TTU Youtube

Post

Touch The Universe wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 4:38 am NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 ships with the XPS.

They seem to recommend Geforce over quadro (cheaper). Would I benefit from having an even more powerful graphics card than this, specifically, is the 4GB enough, or should I go higher than this?
You make full use of the capabilities of the Quadro only if you are working in something related to 3d graphics production, in particular high end CAD. It does not add anything for gaming and/or anything related to music production. Given that the price difference is substantial, a Quadro is most likely a very expensive overkill.
Last edited by mgw38 on Wed Jul 24, 2019 5:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Follow me on Youtube for videos on spatial and immersive audio production.

Post

nvmd, double post
Follow me on Youtube for videos on spatial and immersive audio production.

Post

Thanks, agree completely. I assume how much ram is within the card is important. I've seen some with 8 or 16 GB, so I'm wondering if 4 GB isn't large enough, this the case?
High Quality Soundsets for Lush-101 | Hive | Electra 2 | Diversion | Halion | Largo | Rapid | Dune II | Thorn | and more.

TTU Youtube

Post

Oh, and congrats on your laptop, Bones. :party:

I hope you get atleast 5 years out of it :hihi:
High Quality Soundsets for Lush-101 | Hive | Electra 2 | Diversion | Halion | Largo | Rapid | Dune II | Thorn | and more.

TTU Youtube

Post

For the last 8 or 9 years I have bought a new laptop every year. The one this has replaced is only 10 months old. It's a problem and I should probably seek help. The thing is, though, that you get good money back when you sell a one year old laptop, after three or four years they aren't worth anything so it works out not costing a whole lot more to upgrade annually.

Typing this on it now, the screen is beautiful - bright, crisp and the colours are fantastic. The last week's worth of Bing Images of the Day look stunning, way better than they do on the 4k monitor I have at work, even though I am sitting much closer to this screen.

As for storage, until recently I could get by OK with only 256GB. I bought an external 2TB back-up drive about 6 years ago and even though most of my important stuff is probably on it two or three times, it is still only about 60% full. It's only in the last year or so, since getting onto the NI bandwagon, that I have needed a lot more. Still, 512GB is plenty now. 1.25TB will take me forever to come even close to filling.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

Post

BONES wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 9:28 am For the last 8 or 9 years I have bought a new laptop every year. The one this has replaced is only 10 months old. It's a problem and I should probably seek help. The thing is, though, that you get good money back when you sell a one year old laptop, after three or four years they aren't worth anything so it works out not costing a whole lot more to upgrade annually.
As long as Moore's Law was still going strong, until 2012 or so, one laptop a year was a reasonable approach if you needed good processing power. Today this is no longer the case. Renewing the hardware every 2-4 years is more than plenty if you look at it from a purely economical perspective. The added power is not worth the expense if you replace annually. Obviously, there is always also the satisfaction of getting a new toy. :)
Follow me on Youtube for videos on spatial and immersive audio production.

Post

Touch The Universe wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 4:31 am It's the 2 TB that pushes it up like crazy. 1 TB isn't enough. But it might be for you. Plus, I'll probablly go for the i9 processor. Total is indeed 4.7K. And that still isn't factoring in the better graphics card.
There is no i9 for the HP though. I would love the new i9 though, performance tests are amazing for that.

Best to get your own SSD though, better value. Like 2TB Samsung EVO. Nice thing about the HP is that you oculd leave a stock 1TB in there and add your own 2 TB SSD.

Post

mgw38 wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 2:16 pmAs long as Moore's Law was still going strong, until 2012 or so, one laptop a year was a reasonable approach if you needed good processing power. Today this is no longer the case. Renewing the hardware every 2-4 years is more than plenty if you look at it from a purely economical perspective.
Except my point is that it does make economic sense. Let me give you an example. I bought my last machine, an Acer Switch 5, for Au$950 during a sale last year. Currently they are selling for Au$1300-Au$1500 new on eBay, with identical specs to mine, so I would expect to be able to sell mine at least $750. That means it will have cost me only Au$200 over a year. OTOH, if I hung onto it for another three years, it wouldn't be worth selling at all so I'd probably end up giving it away to someone. That means it would have cost me Au$950 over four years, so I'd lose more per year on it than if I sell it while it still has value.

The biggest loss I incurred was with my Surface Book, which ended up really hurting. For all the others I've sold over the last 8 years or so - Sony Vaio, Asus Zenbook, Samsung, Surface Pro, Dell M3800, Dell Inspiron 15" - it has actually worked out better, I think, than it would have if I'd held onto them.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

Post

BONES wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 12:25 am
mgw38 wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 2:16 pmAs long as Moore's Law was still going strong, until 2012 or so, one laptop a year was a reasonable approach if you needed good processing power. Today this is no longer the case. Renewing the hardware every 2-4 years is more than plenty if you look at it from a purely economical perspective.
Except my point is that it does make economic sense. Let me give you an example. I bought my last machine, an Acer Switch 5, for Au$950 during a sale last year. Currently they are selling for Au$1300-Au$1500 new on eBay, with identical specs to mine, so I would expect to be able to sell mine at least $750. That means it will have cost me only Au$200 over a year. OTOH, if I hung onto it for another three years, it wouldn't be worth selling at all so I'd probably end up giving it away to someone. That means it would have cost me Au$950 over four years, so I'd lose more per year on it than if I sell it while it still has value.

The biggest loss I incurred was with my Surface Book, which ended up really hurting. For all the others I've sold over the last 8 years or so - Sony Vaio, Asus Zenbook, Samsung, Surface Pro, Dell M3800, Dell Inspiron 15" - it has actually worked out better, I think, than it would have if I'd held onto them.
It’s a good strategy if you can find thebsweet spot between buying at a slight discount rather than brand new, and then selling before it’s lost too much value. I used to change Mac laptops every couple years and didnt lose too much money. With PCs every year you gotta get a good deal buying it to not lose too much a year later. I’m about to sell my dell xps 2-in-1 to get something else and I’m sure I’ll lose a chunk.

Post Reply

Return to “Computer Setup and System Configuration”