Which Dell Laptop to get?

[YiannisK]

Hi all,

My friend is looking to get a new laptop for music applicatoins.
hi is a drummer and wants to use it for his studio and for live.

He will be using the laptop live for loops and sample playback for his triggers along with his acoustic kit.
He has some sort of acount with dell and want to purchase only a dell laptop.

What do you recomend for my friend?

Also my friend (who is my drummer) doesn't know this but I will want this laptop to be compatible with X-ite

I think the xite will be perfect for live and studio for him (and doesn't hurt to have 2 of them in the band).

thanks

[capacitor]

It looks like the Xite will work with ExpressCard-enabled notebooks.

Be careful however - one example is the D630, which has an ExpressCard option that is implemented via USB. Whether that's a problem remains to be seen.

Something to consider when shopping for ExpressCard interfaces, anyhow.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops ... -d630.aspx

(I had the previous D620, and thought it was built well, but didn't like the screen or keyboard fwiw)

[Neutron]

dont forget to run the dell http://www.yorkspace.com/2006/04/38 DECRAPIFIER!

[YiannisK]

Thanks for your replies.

More specifically, which of the dell laptops should he go for?

Thanks

[capacitor]

I think this gets into more of a personal choice, absent any more info about his and your needs/wants. Obviously you want to use it with Xite but that's all we know.

The Dell website is great for picking out features that you/he might want, at least the last time I checked which was a few months ago. I would recommend you both hop on there & check to see what models are available & in your price range, and check for EC compatibility as mentioned earlier.

Dell's website used to be great for customizing configurations, dunno if it still is.

-cap

[lagoausente]

I would prefer a IBM Thinkpad over any other laptop. They are very reliable, and you can get any of the pieces you need on Ebay, from the mainboard, to the screen LCD. They are also very thin, light and have a high autonomy.

[Fluxpod]

I would check out adk.They build laptops for audio.And you get Kickass tech support.No idea about dell laptops tbh.I am happy with a dell desktop to host my scope cards as second pc.

[capacitor]

I would prefer a IBM Thinkpad over any other laptop. They are very reliable, and you can get any of the pieces you need on Ebay, from the mainboard, to the screen LCD. They are also very thin, light and have a high autonomy.

I'd pick a Thinkpad over a Dell any day. There are a lot of little ergonomic touches along with the reliability you mention.

This is being typed on a Thinkpad that replaced a Dell laptop

[pollux]

He has some sort of acount with dell and want to purchase only a dell laptop.

[lagoausente]

I´m writing from a Thinkpad T40. It has a minimum of 6 hours of autonomy with a 9 cell battery. It´s slim, small, light, elegant and silent. The centrino is running at "low" speed just now, and the fan near is not audible, and only starts ocasionally a low rmp (nice for recording with a mic). This laptops are at 300 euros on Ebay today, it´s a bargain for what they are. A few weeks ago, the laptop falled down from my hand (around 1.20 meter from ground), and it´s intact, no damage on the screen, no damage at all. I saw some demostrations on the web, but I didn´t care much off them, but seems there is a real care in the building of this machines.
Don´t know what account he has with Dell, but for 300-400 I wouldn´t consider getting a discount from something around 1000 or more, to get a machine what I consider not as good.
Expresscard started at T43. They cost around 360 euro or so on Ebay. Still a bargain from my point of view.

[capacitor]

Don´t know what account he has with Dell, but for 300-400 I wouldn´t consider getting a discount from something around 1000 or more, to get a machine what I consider not as good.

+1.

That happened to me personally - used what looked like a very nice online discount 'coupon". It ended up not being the deal that I thought it was

I think that's why Tpads are being brought up, even though the original post said they wanted to do the Dell thing... I would pay heed, but, hey it's their money not mine

Hard to recommend any system regardless of mfr without details on other stuff. At any rate, good to know about T43 systems & starting ExpressCard support.

[arela]

What do you recomend for my friend?

Also my friend (who is my drummer) doesn't know this but I will want this laptop to be compatible with X-ite

I have a one year old Vista Dell D520 with duo cpu.
I use it with a Audiokontroll1 for holidays, weekends and so - no trouble after i put in 4Gb RAM (1Gb RAM was no good for Vista)

The only catch i know of, is the firewire chipset.
It should be a Texas Instrument chipset (rumours last year!!)

[dehuszar]

From a purely pragmatic / flexibility standpoint, if your friend can afford it, get a MacBook Pro. You can still run XP & Vista on it, and the hardware is pretty unstoppable. You also get (with a wee bit of work) the best of all possible compatibility options that are currently available for audio.

I'm thinking of going that route, or building myself a hackintosh, depending on how much $$$ I can squirrel away.

--Sam

[Shroomz~>]

Not that I'm a fan of Sony, but their Vaio laptops were shipping with Sony Oxford plugs etc at one point, so one of those would be a worthwhile purchase for me.