Laptop brands

[charles kasler]

I use a laptop as my main computer, including CBB recording and editing. I've only ever used Dell and have started looking at new ones before Microsoft stops supporting windows 10. I see some better prices with other brands like hp. Does the brand really matter? I always thought it was mostly the specs like storage, ram, and speed. Thanks.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

Brand doesn't matter that much as long as it does what you want. 

Have you checked out Framework? They do laptops that are modular and upgradable which is fairly unique.

[Chaps]

Different brands may use different components; motherboards, RAM, drives, etc. Not all components are equal and cheaper computers will (generally) have cheaper components. Some may be more expandable/upgradeable than others, have different ports and things of that nature. Another important factor is the amount of software the seller puts on that they want you to need but you really don't. Also known as 'bloatware'. My own preference with desktop computers is to build my own and install Windows from scratch. Researching the brand is good, but don't forget to research what is in the case because what is not important to you now may be important to you later.

[rsinger]

I've had hp in the past, it's fine and still running, but they limit what you can access in the bios. I currently have an MSI gaming laptop, and it allows a lot of tweaking in the bios. I suspect most name brands should be fine, but I always check reviews and ratings ...

[charles kasler]

very helpful - thanks everyone!

 

[Starship Krupa]

I've used Dells for music production because they are built like tanks and available at low prices on the used (and even free) market.

The caveats with them are that they are built to be workhorse business machines, and as such, the BIOSes are pretty locked down. Also they are notorious for LatencyMon reporting a lot of action with the driver ACPI.sys. This is true for my current Dell laptop, but it manages to handle DAW work without crackles and dropouts, so who knows.

Depending on how much you have to spend, there are  companies that make laptops specifically for music production.

Lenovo has a page on their site with laptops they recommend for music production, so they're at least aware of that use of their products.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/workstation-laptop-for-music-production/

[Glenn Stanton]

one thing to do on any laptop, if you're not dependent on being live on the internet while mixing, is simply go to airplane mode. this will reduce a significant number of things contributing  to the latency mess.

i have an HP Victus gaming laptop - W11 - added some ram and ssds - almost never need to go into airplane mode unless i've decided to keep my synths unfrozen or using Waves Abbey Road Chambers (one of the biggest pigs on the planet but also really nice for some thing...) 

my buddy just got a Lenovo laptop a bit faster than mine (its newer) and added ram and connected some ssd. lightening fast running W11, CbB, and many photo and video apps.

net-net -- most modern laptops can be used for many projects - even without "optimizations" (beyond turning a few things off) and getting used to using the airplane mode can alleviate those cases where you need the latency impacting network stuff out of the way.