need some advice about the specification of a Notebook ..
the O/s, RAM, Processor .. and info about the market leader Notebooks...to run effectively Sonar or cubase .. in a small studio environment... with Juno-G /or MotiF / or Fantom.

thanks in advance.

Rule of thumb.. a Pentium4 and a mininum 5400 hard drive...

That being said, I am using a "netbook" Lenovo IdeaPad S/10....It is doing the same job as my aforementioned laptop....

No less than 2 gigs of RAM too. Some systems are coming standard with 3 gigs now.., so the more the better. Some software apps will say it'll run on 1 gig RAM.., but that's BARE BONE'S minimal.. (they won't tell you the moment you start using the software's effects and mixing all that with audio that 1 gig of RAM will blow the back end out of you PC)

For the past 8 years I have run Sony Vaio notebook computers and will continue to buy them when I need a new one.

I have never had a problem with the Sony laptops and they run really well. Some of the Sonys had battery problems last year but that has been resolved. I currently run Vista with 4 gigs of RAM on my laptop and it runs really fast.

Whatever laptop you buy do not fall for the cheap lowball offers in all the stores. These are not bad computers but they do not have large enough hard drives, not near enough RAM to run Vista - and you will play hell getting a new laptop without Vist on it these days, and they usually will not have the best processor. By the time you increase the RAM and perhaps upgrade the hard drive you will be at a price point where all these should be included. Don't worry about 64 bit processors right now - the software to support it is in bleak supply. One other note, if you are a Microsoft Office user and you run Vista you might as well get the new Office software. The later versions will run on Vista but not well except for Office 2005 or 2003 I think. Also, if you are going to run Vista get the Vista Ultimate version not the basic home version - you won't be sorry.

A lot of laptops are being manufactured to attract the desktop user - all the goodies - blue tooth, cameras - you name it. One other note, if you buy a laptop with a very large screen you will have a very hard time finding a case that fits it without buying a backpack or something like that.

All the stores are offering very good deals right now - so you should be able to find a laptop with a good deal.

My suggestion is simple - buy a laptop in
the 15 inch range with 4 gigs of RAM and as large a hard drive as possible. As I have mentioned - I prefer the Sony Vaio laptops.

I hope this has helped.

Hammer

You can still get XP if you want...you have to usually order on-line...not in stores. I know HP still offers it. Some business's (me for one) will not go to Vista.

Lee

thanks all for your quick response.

is it a better option to go for XP PRO (than VISTA) ... or it doesn't matter ?

There is no reason to avoid Vista anymore - most if not all of the original problems have been corrected and if run on a computer with a good processor and enough RAM there will be no problems.

Business users have always avoided the latests and greatest technology but not for the reasons a lot of folks believe. For most business operations is is a matter of what is currently in use does the job so why change and spend money uselessly. For decades I supported very large networks - both at the desktop level and the router level and it use to drive me nuts working with legacy hardware and software - but that was the way it was.

As for the use of Vista - I have found most folks who condemn it have never used it or tried it - they have fallen victem to all the negative hype.

Hammer

Also, if it comes pre-installed with Vista and you have an XP Home/PRO disk already, you can easily format the hard drive (erasing Vista) and then install your XP OS onto your laptop. That's what I would do myself. Vista is a resource hog, and XP will run much faster than Vista, especially on a laptop. But if you "must" run Vista get a laptop with 'AT LEAST' 2GB of RAM - three Gigs would be better and four even better still.

Another thing you should consider is a faster Hard Drive than a 5,400 RPM drive. 7,200 RPM drives are available from Hitachi and other manufacturers. The Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 is one of the best performing 7,200 RPM 2.5" drives currently on the market.

As far as processors go you will probably want to stick with an Intel processor and chipset and try to stay with one of the faster Core 2 Duo's if you can afford to do so. Get a laptop that supports at least DDR"2" memory as well. >> The reason I am saying all of this is because you want to use your new laptop with multimedia applications like Sonar or Cubase. Also, if you will be doing any VST'i hosting on the laptop and using them in conjunction with your keyboards you should really consider having, and getting, the fastest, most efficient hardware environment and operating system you can in my opinion. If the laptop is poky on top of bloated software like Vista etc., you could find your laptop is underpowered for your multimedia needs.

Just something to consider. Merry Christmas...

Best,
Mike

The XP - Vista discussion is a kind of outdated these days.
I'm using 2 laptops using Vista Business, even old Win95
and Win98 software run without any problems.
You can chose to run exefiles in wich mode you like by right-
click / properties.
Missing drivers might be a problem if connect old hardware,
but when buy new PC, internal hardwarecompability should be
just fine as is.
Why buy a Tyros3 and downgrade OS/software to Tyros2 or 1?

Cheers
GJ

Windows 7 should be out in 2010 (Beta versions should be out in 2009) so Vista will soon be obsolete (Fortunately)

Vista was a nice idea, but even Microsoft admit it was a complete cock up, hence they moved a lot of the design teams over to Windows 7 to bring the launch date forward.

We have both at work, and so I can use both, but there is no way I would change permanently to Vista. (The workload of sorting out problems with Vista dwarfs the problems that occurred when we updated the systems to XP) (Most of the staff at work has Zero compliments for the way Vista works)

Best thing is to try both and see which you prefer. (Just remember there is still a lot of hardware that won’t work with Vista)

Regards

Bill