Dell laptop for music

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t_tangent
Posts: 970
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: UK

Dell laptop for music

Post by t_tangent »

I am hoping that some of you chaps could assist me in deciding what Dell laptop would be the most suitable for use as a DAW. Unfortunately it has to be a Dell at the moment for the following reason.

My present Dell XPS laptop has some serious problems with it and Dell have finally agreed that they will refund me the cost of that machine and then I have agreed to pay the difference towards a newer laptop. The XPS was mainly used for work and other general purposes such as a little gaming at times, general surfing, some graphics and basic video editing, etc, as I already have a dedicated Desktop as my main Scope DAW. This also needs to be updated sometime so will be doing that in the new year.

In the meantime I am without a laptop So I figured if I was going to get a new laptop I would try and get one that was a bit more future proof and also have the option of using it with XITE-1...once I have bought XITE-1 of course...and when SC eventually release the Expresscard connector for it.

I have been looking at all the Dell laptops and originally was considering the Dell/Alienware M17x or M15x, but apparently there are issues with using that for audio work, lots of people experiencing DPC latency spikes etc, so not sure when that will be resolved by Dell. Then I noticed the Precision M6400 & M6400 Covet which is aimed more at the CAD and design business sector, although I read that is has features for video editing, etc so figured it might be a possible choice as a DAW.

Unfortunately all the newer Dell's seem to have the Ricoh firewire & Expresscard chipset which is not really the recommended one for use with external audio interfaces although I guess no one knows if the XITE-1 Expresscard interface will be ok with that until it is tried.

But I am stuck with having to get a Dell laptop at the moment so thought I could at least then sell it on if it doesnt work effectively as a DAW, but the question is which model would be the one to get to try out. I am definately steering towards the Precision M6400 or M6400 Covet or possibly the Studio XPS 16, but could anyone recommend a specific Dell model that works well for some graphics work and a spot of gaming, and perhaps later on be used as a stable audio workstation.

If no one specific model comes to mind, would it be worth getting a laptop with i7 processor, or would the Core 2 Duo be a good enough choice. And finally is it worth getting SSD Drive at the moment or should I wait on that for a while, as I read that there were some issues with SSD drives at present.

I would appreciate any help or suggestions. Thanks.

t_t
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t_tangent
Posts: 970
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: UK

Re: Dell laptop for music

Post by t_tangent »

Just seen that Dell have released th Precision M6500 today, so that might be worth looking at. Apparently it is also the first laptop that has been certified for use with AVID gear, as well as a picture on its tech specs page with a digidesign plugin, so that sounds positive.

Will have to do some more reading :)
noreen
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Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:44 pm

Re: Dell laptop for music

Post by noreen »

These are not belongs to dell or they don't own it.
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