Re: [microsound] power of pc (was max/msp for pc)

["b. sims" <sunshine@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

i have been evaluating a number of laptops lately for work.  we got
a toshiba, screen died after two days.  we exchanged the laptop for
a new one, and that screen died later that day.  another co-workers
toshiba's screen died last month.  needless to say i would never
ever recommend a toshiba laptop.  on top of the screen problems, i
had very poor performance with the one i used at my prior job.
toshiba used to be a better brand than they are now.  they are
inexpensive but painfully so if you accually need to rely on using
the machine.

i personally like the ibm series quite a bit now.  i was not
sold on them until recently but they have come a long way in the
past few years and their X, T, and A series are tiptop.  the X is
what we call an executive machine;), lightweight and smaller with
less input/output options built into the machine and only one pc
card slot.  however, it does have a built in micro-drive slot which
is very handy if you happen to use  media devices with use the same
harddrive.  the T and A are more the performance, workhorse machines
with the A series having a slightly larger screen (with res up to
1600x1400.)  both have come with the ablity to have up to an 850hz
PIII, 32 gig HD (plus the option to install a second 30 gig HD),
512M RAM, among other options.  my only complaint about ibm is that
they do not have firewire built into them as of yet.  however,
finding intergrated firewire on intel platforms is rare as it is.
of a laptop i would even consider buying, only sony has a version of
firewire built in (a non-powered version at that.)

i also recommend ensuring that you get a PIII rather than celeron
processor.  the cheaper laptops are generally the celeron processors
which are not desirable when it comes to sound processing.

no matter which laptop you get, if you plan on recording directly in
or out of that machine, you are going to have to get USB devices to
handle high quality sound and midi.  most laptops should have two
USB ports.

another thing i look for in a laptop is compatiablity with OS other
windoze.  ibm and dell have proven the best.  i have run beOS,
freeBSD, redhat, and caldera (in fact you can order an ibm with
caldera installed) on both the t21 and several dell laptops
including the latitude series with full sound, graphic, and network
support.  sony is alright but they tend change their sound cards so
often there is always a few gaps in compatiablity.



On Tue, 9 Jan 2001, rebecca263 wrote:

`as a slightly o/t aside, i have just been informed that i must acquire
a laptop with a certain set of capabilities for a new project in the
fall. it seems that any laptop i purchase MUST be equivalent to the
600mhz toshiba laptop (or higher), which i have been seeing for about
 1700.00 us. any suggestions? is the toshiba good? i've never even
touched a toshiba before, so i have no idea. btw, it MUST be pc,
which messes up our plans to buy a mac for our next addition to the instrument collection! thanks for any input..
`                                     karbloosh! rebecca263
`