Bang-for-Buck Laptops

I'm thinking about getting a laptop, and going with Mac instead of PC. Any deals out there for £200 and under?

I'm about to start investing in music production software (a DAW/MIDI sequencer such as Ableton Live or Reason along with VSTs), so it'll have to have a fair amount of RAM. I might also get an external hard drive.

EDIT: Maybe not a Mac, in the light of Ambler's post.

As an example, here's the system requirements of some software I'm looking at:

Quote :

Ableton Live 8

Windows:

Windows XP or Windows Vista
1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or Celeron compatible CPU or faster (multicore CPU recommended)
1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended)
DVD-ROM drive

Mac OS:

Mac OS X 10.5 or higher
Intel Mac
1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
DVD-ROM drive

Quote :

Propellorhead Reason version 4

Windows:

Windows XP SP2, Vista or Windows 7
Processor: Intel P4 / AMD Athlon XP or better
Memory: 512 MB RAM minimum, 1 GB recommended
Screen resolution: 1024x768
2 GB free hard disk space
DVD reader
16-bit windows compatible audio card, preferably with DirectX or ASIO drivers
Recommended: MIDI keyboard with built-in MIDI interface, or MIDI keyboard and MIDI interface

Mac OS:

Mac OS X 10.4
Processor: G4 1GHz and up or Intel Mac
Memory: 512 MB RAM minimum, 1 GB recommended
Screen resolution: 1024x768
2 GB free hard disk space
DVD reader
Recommended: MIDI keyboard with built-in MIDI interface, or MIDI keyboard and MIDI interface

Largo's Shark wrote:

I'm thinking about getting a laptop, and going with Mac instead of PC. Any deals out there for £200 and under?

I'd be very surprised if you can find one for that cheap.

But I do know that over here in the US, I do know that there are substantial deals available to students. Not sure how that works out in the UK.

Might want to wait until summer to buy one. There should be a new line of MacBooks out by then.

I can't imagine finding a new one for under $1200. Maybe you'll want a refurbished or used one? I'm not sure how much power music composition software requires.

Unibody MacBooks are very robust so hold their value well. Cheapest way in is the old 2008 aluminium, which goes for about £300 these days. Maximum RAM is 4Gb; I don't recommend any less for serious music work. Main thing to look out for is time-expired battery. You can upgrade the internal HD to 500Gb for another £40. There's no FireWire though, which some users find a problem.

All this to say that even the cheapest secondhand Unibody costs as much as a new PC. Unless money is no object then you need a very good reason to move from Windows to OSX.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Unless money is no object then you need a very good reason to move from Windows to OSX.

TBH, I don't really have one.

For what it's worth, OSX is great for those starting out with media production. However, if you're already knowledgable about music production, both systems are likely identical in software variety and stability. Windows might actually be better.

I always look for battery life (for portable computing) and cooling (for powerful laptops) as my first choice. For heavy duty media work, an Intel i5 or i7 processor is a must, as well as 4-8gb of ram and a large hard drive.

Tubes wrote:

For what it's worth, OSX is great for those starting out with media production. However, if you're already knowledgable about music production, both systems are likely identical in software variety and stability. Windows might actually be better.

Apple bought Emagic so Logic Pro 9 is only available for OSX. If you want to make music it's far better than any Windows program.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Tubes wrote:

For what it's worth, OSX is great for those starting out with media production. However, if you're already knowledgable about music production, both systems are likely identical in software variety and stability. Windows might actually be better.

Apple bought Emagic so Logic Pro 9 is only available for OSX. If you want to make music it's far better than any Windows program.

You've tried them all (Ableton, Cubase, Reason etc.)?

No, but my nephew has. Little bastard is well on his way to know-all status.

FWIW, the MIDI timing on my stone-age STE (running Creator) appears to be better than my MacBook running Logic Pro 9 ...

Apparently Logic was born on the Atari ST, as Creator, Notator and Notator-SL. Weird.

Yeah, it started as C-Lab Creator. Loop-based so great for techno, but not so hot for other forms.

Cubase and MOTU tended to be the choice of the traditional muso back then.