Buying a laptop - need some advice

[dhp]

Hey all -

I'm looking to buy a laptop to be used for podcasting. I know all the arguments about desktops being better for the buck, but mobility is very important to me right now.
I have up to about 800 to spend (not a lot, I know, but it's what I have) and would like some recomendations about what to get. Again, this is specifically for audio processing and podcasting. Sound card recomendations?
Thanks in advance!

-dhp

[radioclash]

dunno if I posted it here but I also am looking for laptop audio recommendations - podcasting and/or DJing...

800 pounds or 800 dollars? You can get a good laptop for £800 if you budget a bit extra for a soundcard...dollars I dunno :-\

[cc_chapman]

Since I see on your MySpaces page your in the US I now know your talking about $800.

I honestly don't think your going to find a laptop in that price range that is going to meet your needs.

If that is honestly all you can spend then I would suggest checking the used market on places like eBay. I think that's really your only option.

Do you have a preference of Mac vs. PC?

[cid92]

For $800 there is little you can get in the new market for that. Even Celeron based laptops brand new are over $1000.

CC said it best, your best bet is to try Ebay or even look at Dell's Online Outlet where they sell machines that were returned, never shipped, etc, etc. They are brand new in some cases. Cheapest laptop I foud there though was $809 and that was a Celeron model.

I'm sure that you can find something new out there for $800 but when it comes to computer equipment, you truely do get what you pay for and personally, I wouldn't want a brnad new $800 laptop. Now an $800 used laptop that has all the bells and whistles, possibly - as long as the laptop wasn't more than two years old.

[shadowfax]

Yeah 800 isn't really enough for a decent laptop. Is mobility really that important at the time? If you are looking to podcast while on the go look to the iRiver or something like that to do the recording.

Even Dell's cheapest laptop right now is around $650. It only have 256 mb ram which is no way enough. Celeron is ok for general use even though I would never buy one.

I would really decide what exactly you need to accomplish and them re-evaluate your funds.

[radioclash]

Well I'm looking for a fairly cheap desktop replacement laptop (and believe me if you see my aged upto 6 year old computer I'd guess any laptop could replace it!).

So I've heard to avoid Celeron for audio - is it best to go for a desktop processor as I will rarely be truly mobile and working at clients? Like a desktop Pentium or AMD 64...

And are the new Pentium 'M' class - is it any good? I need a fairly good card/chipset too...

Unlike dhp I'm will to spend 800-900 pounds not dollars...

[cid92]

The M Series processors are really no different than the P4 processors - they just help conserve power better for mobile use. Not 100% sure of the architecture of them but we have several clients running on the M and they are good machines (all Dell's).

As for recording into a laptop, you are of course severely limited to whatever audio card was built into the machine. There are a few models that have docking stations that you can add cards too but that is not a popualr option with manufacturers.

I have a 4 year old Dell Latitude D600 that has some crappy audio card in it. During my initial recording tests this card was adding dB ranges to the recording that were clipping the hell out of even the softest recording. On a whim I decided to check for driver updates and there was one out there for it. After installing it the audio software on the machine had a +20dB check mark box that could be turned on or off. It came checked. I unchecked it and the test recordings so far have been excellent.

Just shows that you can be very limited on your recording options with a built in audio card on a laptop.

[radioclash]

Just shows that you can be very limited on your recording options with a built in audio card on a laptop.

can't you use external USB soundcards witha laptop? Or PCMIA soundcards like the nw Soundblaster one?

[cid92]

Just shows that you can be very limited on your recording options with a built in audio card on a laptop.

can't you use external USB soundcards witha laptop? Or PCMIA soundcards like the nw Soundblaster one?

Don't see why not (I haven't done it yet) but the issue with that is that is another cost that you have to incur. From the looks of this thread it was more about getting a laptop to run out of the box to do recordings.

[dhp]

Thanks for the great advice ya'll. So, my biggest problem is the space saving issue. After reading some of your replies, I may consider a desktop regardless. However, my budget is the same 800 tops, but probably lower than that. Again, I know that you get what you pay for, but money is very tight right now. Any suggestions on brands? Is a stereo in worth getting? Sound card recomendations? Mini Mac, maybe?
Thanks for the advice everyone. I really apreciate it.

-dhp

by the way - I have an iRiver h140 and I LOVE it. I'm sure the iPod is great, but as for a workhorse tool, the H140 is ****ing awesome.

[cid92]

If you already own a monitor for the desktop it will save you some cash. I just found this deal on Dell this morning while ordering some workstations for a client:

Dimension 3000 (the low end model)
P4 3GHz
XP Home SP2
2 year warranty
512 MB RAM
80GB hard drive
48x CDRW
No Monitor
No Floppy - who uses this anyways with USB sticks nowdays
Soundbalster Live soundcard
Office 2003 Basic
Norton Internet Security
Integrated Modem
Integrated NIC
Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 video card.

Total price before tax and S&H - $761

Take off $20 if you don't like the Creative audio card and move the option to the integrated audio.

Don't need Office basic? Reduce your cost another $119 by choosing Wordperfect (they won't let you choose a "nothing" option).

Don't want the Norton product? Drop the cost another $55

Dump all three of those and your cost is $576

Want more memory - add $88 to goto 1GB.

160GB hard drive will cost you $32 more.

Point here is you can get a really nice system for under $800. Sure it's the 3000 line so you don't get all the bells and whistles like the 8400 model but you can always after market install a better sound card, better video card, etc, etc. In it's base configuration though this is a decent machine at a good price.