I’m after a good powerful laptop to enhance myself on ableton. I’m not good with processors or sound cards but I want something quality enough so I my laptop never struggles with the cpu when playing my productions. It will be only used for music production. I’m not against a table top pc but would prefer a laptop just in case I use it on the go. Can anyone help. I’d prefer not to go over a £1000 and I’m pretty anti apple and don’t use logic anyway.
I’ve just bought a zooStorm desktop pc for 400 pound 8gb ram and 3.4 ghz processor and it works like a dream I can have multiple ana pads open at the same time loads of bass patches and lead sounds and still cpu to spare! So I’d say look for something with similar power! Minimum 3ghz processor and 8 gb ram and you’ll be fine
Oh and get a sound card you can pick a decent one up for around 80 pound I got Roland mk2! Not the best but does the job. And decent headphones.
I bought a HP Envy 17-J006ea about 3 years ago . i7 processor /16GB RAM / 2TB hard drive Cost me £1000 but it has never let me down and still trumps the majority of laptops on the market today. Well worth the investment. If I were you I would look for something with similar specs. Make sure you get Windows 64-bit edition and upgrade your Ableton and Vst plugins to 64 bit (if you haven’t already). In terms of soundcard I would highly recommend a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Costs about £100 (much cheaper 2nd hand on ebay). Just those things will sort you out for years to come. My ableton projects usually contain shit loads of plugins from Waves and Uhe (which ‘notoriously’ eat up a lot of CPU) but my laptop handles it very easily.
You could definitely get more value for money going down the desktop route but there will be times when you’re travelling or just sat in the living room and you’re thinking “i wish I could be programming some supersaw leads right now haha”
Anyways I hope you get sorted, give me a shout if you have any questions on what I suggested