Old 02-18-2017, 12:21 PM   #1
trevlyns
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Default Laptops: How Low Will You Go.....

Bit of a different 'what laptop should I get' post here fella's...

I want to experiment with recording live bands at a practice venue. So I'm looking for an 'el Cheapo laptop whose sole purpose is to capture no more than 8 mic/instrument tracks ONLY. No internet, other programs - nothing! Just an OS and Reaper.

These tracks will then be transferred to my 'beast' PC for editing and mixing.

Probably looking at something second hand or refurbished from e-bay. So what could I safely get away with processor, cores, RAM and HD wise?

Any input greatly appreciated
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Old 02-18-2017, 12:54 PM   #2
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Used top end older i5, sandybridge CPU or newer. It will only be dual core but those cores should do for light audio duties.
4-8GB.
Put in a small SSD for the operating system, say 240GB.
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Old 02-18-2017, 01:08 PM   #3
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With a few usual win10 tweaks I have a win 10 pc box ~ £60 set up for both live fx rig or remote recording with a tascam USB device or even my Babyface.

No screen of course until you plug in to a TV/monitor but have it so it all logs in and starts reaper on boot, then with a WiFi hotspot can remote desktop or use reaper web control to do the basics.

But hey any old cheap laptop will do fine too

If only recording I.e no live processing, using a high latency means any old crap will work!
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Old 02-18-2017, 03:51 PM   #4
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Just read quick through the thread so here is my recommendation for a laptop:
Get a used Thinkpad. T or X series.

At least here in Germany you get them for 250 € up to what you want depending on the equipped CPU and stuff. For not to complex stuff they are reasonable powerful enough and you have the sturdiest laptop on the world. Seriously. Mine is now over 7 years old and still running fine my live set. Though stuff, not the usual plastic bombers you get in concumer markets...
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Old 02-19-2017, 07:57 AM   #5
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You need VERY LITTLE processing power to do what you want.

I can't speak for newer gen lappies, but the older models (which is what you might be after, price wise) were notorious for drop outs due to latency issues - notably, but not limited to, wireless adapters. There were other conflicts within the machine's hardware that would cause problems as well.

If you can buy from a "bricks and mortar location", you can take a copy of DPC latency checker on a thumb drive and plug it in to the actual machine, turn off the wireless adapter, and check the machine's suitability for audio work.
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Old 02-19-2017, 08:11 AM   #6
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While I would not necessarily recommend it, I have run Reaper on a $200(new price) HP laptop with a tiny Celeron processor and 4GB of ram and a 32GB SSD drive. Works like a champ. I just don't use many effects at one time. The number of inputs is really not much of an issue.

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Old 02-19-2017, 09:50 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trevlyns View Post
Bit of a different 'what laptop should I get' post here fella's...

I want to experiment with recording live bands at a practice venue. So I'm looking for an 'el Cheapo laptop whose sole purpose is to capture no more than 8 mic/instrument tracks ONLY. No internet, other programs - nothing! Just an OS and Reaper.

These tracks will then be transferred to my 'beast' PC for editing and mixing.

Probably looking at something second hand or refurbished from e-bay. So what could I safely get away with processor, cores, RAM and HD wise?

Any input greatly appreciated
You could get an old Powerbook G4 to do that with no problem. Probably find one for under $40 somewhere. So... free basically. Might just need to dig up a replacement PATA HDD for it.

Or anything made in the last 15 years that's being sold for a good price.
Circa 2006 intel Macbook Pro for around $100.
Circa 2009 Macbook Pro for around $400.
But these last two are even FAR beyond what you'd need to just record 8 - 12 tracks at 24 bit 96k with Reaper.
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Old 02-19-2017, 11:16 AM   #8
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You could get a Dell D530 for about £40 that will do that job (or some other such laptop from that era). You really don't need much power to do that at all. I did some mixes with 30 odd tracks in Harrison Mixbus on that old thing lol.
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Old 02-19-2017, 11:45 AM   #9
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I just got an HP Stream for US$110 shipped, put Lubuntu on it and am using Linux native reaper... works just fine for 8 tracks through my focusrite scarlett 18i8.
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Old 02-19-2017, 01:06 PM   #10
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I agree with the earlier suggestion of a Thinkpad T series. They can be found super cheap and are really well-built. They come with i5's or i7's so they'll take anything you throw at them. I love my T410 but will eventually upgrade to something a bit more recent.
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Old 02-19-2017, 01:52 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bladerunner View Post
You could get a Dell D530 for about £40 that will do that job (or some other such laptop from that era). You really don't need much power to do that at all. I did some mixes with 30 odd tracks in Harrison Mixbus on that old thing lol.
Likewise with a Dell Latitude D630 - and it comes with Firewire! Cost me £35!
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Old 02-19-2017, 04:19 PM   #12
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I will say that almost every laptop I've purchased on eBay (5? 7?) has failed soon after arrival; often there are things like BGA video chips that are slowly coming off or other issues. And the batteries are almost always totally dead, which can mean further costs. So definitely look for clean/cared for laptops, and pay lots of attention to the reputation of the seller, etc.
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Old 02-19-2017, 05:07 PM   #13
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Another vote for refurbished Thinkpad T series. It also falls in line with what Softsynth said.

These units are easy to replace parts (unlike a lot of newer laptops, since they're trying to make them so thin and light) and the parts for it are common/inexpensive on eBay. They're generally built well and the processor (usually Core i5-2520M or something similar) is pretty good.

I put a SSD in it, increased RAM to 8GB, and this thing can do a lot. I've been using one as a second computer / backup computer for a year. It runs my laser engraver, does mobile recording when needed, I can use it to edit pictures, etc. The screen looks "meh" but that's the only drawback. Oh and it's not very thin/light. But I don't care.
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Old 02-19-2017, 06:02 PM   #14
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For capturing only, I think that just about any laptop made in the last decade (and plenty before) would be capable enough. But you might as well get something that isn't going to fall apart. An old thinkpad sounds like a winner.
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